materialcontroller

And that's a perfect example of why the limits should be enforced. Not because it's a nice little earner (that's just a bonus), but rather to stop the seemingly widespread attitude among drivers that rules don't matter to them once they get behind the wheel.

TerryVA

It's been my experience that (traffic/any) laws are only enforced within sight of a police officer. Also, if there's a group of cars going faster than the limit then the police will pull over the slowest one. I hope the traffic fine goes towards the vehicle budget, so they can start to catch the faster ones.

kins

Couple of days ago we were crossing the road in Boston on a 'walk' sign. A car turning left decided that rather than wait for us to cross he'd take the corner as fast as possible in front of us.

The police car behind him waited for us to cross, put on his blue lights, and immediately pulled him over. We waved as we passed him :-)

Bob

Cops down my way just watch and do nothing. There were two parked side by side and another across the street when a slew of cars didn't bother to stop while I was at the cross walk...

RoadWarriorFromLP

The purpose of a speed limit should be to inform motorists of what is a safe speed. On a highway, a safe speed is generally determined by the flow of traffic. But most of our highway speed limits are set arbitrarily low. Drivers tend to choose a speed that they find to be comfortable, so the low limits only serve to increase the number of violators.

If you want better compliance with speed limits, then the answer usually lies in increasing the speed limit to a realistic level that accounts for how drivers use the road. (Most drivers will choose a speed that is appropriate for the highway design.) When compliance is low, then the problem is usually with the law, not with the driver.

If anything, low limits encourage scofflaws. Since the limits make no sense, some begin to presume that other controls are equally arbitrary. You shouldn't want a situation in which drivers come to believe that all of the laws, not just the limits, are arbitrary.

Pulaski

They were probably waiting for a specific person/ vehicle to show up. Pairs of cops waiting and watching are commonly on a specific assignment, not just looking for speeders and other low level infractions.

Bob

In our sleepy burbs, it just means there was a deal at the Dunkin' D's

Though seriously, it would make sense if they were across town, but not at that particular junction

joto

We're they outside of a Dunkin' Donuts, by any chance?

RICH

On my commute, I tend to stick to the limit - 65 on my bit of freeway. I frequently get overtaken/cut up by School Buses.

materialcontroller

The only part of that which I agree with is the first sentence. Speed limits are about safety.

The rest of it is just an attempt at justification for individual drivers to make their own assessments of risks and to drive accordingly. That is the problem with compliance - it's not the law, it's more the fact that every driver arrogantly thinks that "they" know what's best.

rallybug

I thought that was illegal in general in the US anyway, going by the ones that I know

scrubbedexpat099

I agree with everything except the highlighted.

If that happens it seems to be coincidental.

materialcontroller

Except that there has been a huge amount of research carried out into automobile safety down the years and the vast majority of it, unsurprisingly, has found that as speeds are reduced, so are the severity of injuries in an accident.

That's not to say that speed limits aren't potentially employed for other reasons (eg. reducing emissions and environmental impact through increasing fuel economy is one).

Pulaski

So let's eliminate vehicular deaths by reducing all speed limits to 4mph and mandating that you must have someone walking ahead of each vehicle waiving a red flag!

scrubbedexpat099

Round here money raising is the biggie.