Foiling Speed Traps

If you've ever been driving on most any major highway in the United States this has probably happened to you. You're happily cruising along above the speed limit when all of a sudden you hit upon a rash of cars braking hard as if something has just jumped into the middle of the road. If it's a deer or some other stray animal it's okay, but most of the time it ends up being a cop sitting on the side of the road with his speed gun out. They usually sit in spots where they will be hidden from view until the last possible second and by then it's usually too late. What many of these brake happy drivers who slow down at the sight of cops often fail to realize is that if you've been scanned, even if your speed at that moment is below the speed limit, the gun can uses several readings to determine your average speed. That being the case, if you were cruising along at 90 miles per hour and suddenly slow to 45 in view of the cop on the roadside, don't think you're being smart, you're likely being a greater danger by suddenly disrupting traffic by an abrupt slow down.

I have been pulled over for speeding after being scanned by a speed gun once and when confronted with electronic evidence you can't always argue. Thankfully I didn't have to go to court and I got off with a warning, but had it been a more extreme case, I could have gone to court and protested on the grounds that perhaps the speed gun wasn't calibrated properly on that day. There's always the off chance that the officer in question may not be in court or may not have the calibration report for that day. That being the case you'll likely be able to get out of the charges unless of course you have a horrid driving record or the judge is in a foul mood which is also a possibility.

So what do you do to avoid such bad luck scenarios? I could state the obvious and say that we should all obey the speed limits but if I choose to say that I may as well also tell everyone to exercise more, eat healthier, stop greenhouse gas emissions and many other little tidbits of obvious advice that very few people actually follow or adhere to. So then what? Well, some of the techniques I use allow me to continue along above the speed limit but not to the point where I'm driving dangerously. Stay with traffic, that's the key. If you find you are moving significantly faster than the rest of the traffic around you, slow it down. When you blend into the crowd you draw less attention to yourself. We're not racing for the checkered flag at Monaco so no need to push the peddle to the metal.

Next, don't hog the left lane. The left lane is typically the passing lane and if you're not passing the slower car in front of you then stay out of it. Occasionally you have drivers who don't follow the first rule and speed past everyone and that allows you to have the attention drawn away from you. But when you have a driver who is driving at the speed limit in the left lane, you create an impediment to the flow of traffic. I know there are drivers out there who argue that while we feel we have the right to speed, they have the right to drive at the speed limit and while I agree that that is there right, it doesn't mean drive the speed limit in the left lane. If you find you're not passing the car on your right, move to the right and be happy. Don't force your driving style on us. If you're driving slow and someone passes you, he's respecting your space. If you wish to have mutual respect then stay out of the passing lane unless you deem it necessary to exceed the limit and pass someone.

What about when you see a cop on the side of the road? This is one of my pet peeves because the results of these cases are almost always the same. If the cop has not pulled someone over or is not dealing with an emergency, he's probably on the lookout for someone who is clearly breaking the law. Now one thing to remember is that you may not like cops but don't ever consider them idiots because they aren't. If they see traffic building up and slowing down near their vicinity they'll know that you were speeding because if you weren't, traffic would be flowing by normally and not as if it is going through a bottleneck. Because many times, once they see that, they let the cop farther down the road know to be on the lookout for cars suddenly picking up the pace and speeding off.

When you see someone who has already been pulled over, move one lane over so that you don't crowd them on the shoulder and so that the officer doesn't run the risk of getting hit. While doing that though, don't slow down to a crawl again just to see what it is. Northern Virginia is notorious for that. Half the time there is back up on Route 66 it's usually because a cop has pulled off on the shoulder to help a stranded motorist or keep an eye on the HOV lanes, as a result, everyone freaks out and drives past the cop with trepidation. Again, all you're doing is slowing down traffic and not helping allay the delays that are already in place. You're just making it worse.