I’m a 90th percentile driver when it comes to speed. I’ll never be the fastest car in traffic at any one time, but I generally go faster than the flow. Not fast enough to attract attention from LEOs, though. I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket or any kind of moving violation in long time, and I don’t think that I’ve accumulated 12 pts on my driving record since I first got my license in the 1970s. Speeders don’t typically get tickets. Speeders who speed and attract attention get tickets.
That being said, traffic enforcement seems to be way down. On the expressways around Detroit I regularly see people doing 85-90 mph in the left lane when 80-85 used to be the flow when things were brisk. Not long ago on a Sunday afternoon I drove over to hear some music at the famed Cadieux Cafe on Detroit’s east side and I did 90 in the left lane all the way there.
I’m also seeing folks do stuff that I never used to see around here outside of the more dangerous parts of the D late at night, people treating red lights like stop signs.
Even more surprising, you can actually drive over the speed limit with Michigan plates in Ohio and not get pulled over for doing 64 in a 60 zone.
Now comes a report from a guy running for the supervisors’ board in San Francisco. Traffic tickets issued by the SFPD have dropped to almost nothing - a 97% reduction since 2014. That can be attributed to only one thing, they’ve simply stopped enforcing traffic laws.
Besides COVID there’s also what some call the Ferguson or George Floyd effect - cops don’t want to get in a situation that will get them fired or worse.
You’re not imagining a reduction in traffic enforcement. Like they used to say on an old tv cop show, “Be careful out there.”
I had noticed that in the past but Ohio State Troopers seem to be more enthusiastic lately....the one that chased me down last Friday certainly was. Today north of Columbus on 71 they were thick and active but that may be an anomaly more due to an awareness Baruth is commuting most days.
This really is a thing in Southern California, in the 1970's I'd get stopped for almost anything, these days I see so many equipment defects/violations it makes my head spin .
I miss The Hill Street Blues .
-Nate