Hello! Did you know that speeding tickets are the new tax? MSN has an article saying that a lot of governments are lining their budgets with money generated from speeding tickets. The article references a small town in Louisiana that got 87 percent of its revenue from speeding tickets! Yikes! I've noticed a lot more "ticket traps," lately. Speeding tickets are no fun. In Florida, it will cost you about $200. If you don't want to get any points, you have to pay for driving school or hire an attorney to try to beat the citation. The more points on your license the more you have to pay in insurance and that's no fun.
Indeed, our roads need to be safe, but I know that speeding tickets are a municipal money maker.
What do you think about governments lining their coffers with speeding tickets? Do you think people need to stop speeding? Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? Did you fight it? Did you win? Tell us how! ;)
My last speeding ticket was in 1997. I was speeding by a lot (and I was out of state) so I just paid the ticket. I don't have a problem with local governments issuing tickets for being 10+ mph over the limit. People should stop speeding.
Posted by: savvy | March 05, 2009 at 09:11 AM
I don't like the idea of "traps." Not only is it lazy law enforcement, but it fosters animosity and distrust towards police officers. The community would be better served having police officers stakeout high crime areas than staking out, 10 mile an hour over the limit, speeders.
Posted by: john | March 05, 2009 at 10:15 AM
The last time I got a speeding ticket I took a $25 defensive driving course and kept the ticket off my record.
Posted by: Tela | March 05, 2009 at 06:57 PM
I read this, but I usually don't dispute my tickets cause I have a heavy foot.
Posted by: Vanessa | March 05, 2009 at 10:17 PM
I feel rather ambivalent about this... yeah, it's ridiculous for municipalities to spend so much law enforcement time on minor speeding offenses, but it also leads to this because so many people speed! If people drove the limits, they would look for some other kind of insurance for their revenues in a hurry. I agree about "speed traps" though, they are lame and often designed to trick otherwise law-abiding people. Lame.
Jerry
Posted by: Jerry | March 06, 2009 at 03:18 PM