I. COMMON MYTHS
Let's begin with some common myths related to speeding and traffic tickets:
1.
If you follow the law, you won't have a problem.
I hear this from a lot of apologists who have an issue with me posting
this section, with my rants about abusive cops, ad nauseam. There are a
lot of problems with the assumption about following the law. First of
all, many people are stopped and cited for technicalities, not because
of their actual driving habits. You can be a completely safe motorist
yet be stopped for something minutely trivial based on the wording of a
vehicle code section. Second, a number of motorists (including myself)
are wrongfully stopped and cited for something the officer accused them
of doing. An officer may accuse a motorist of running a stop sign when
they actually didn't, or may make up a bogus charge for the sake of
probable cause. Other officers may wrongfully cite a vehicle for having
legal modifications. Many apologists fail to grasp just what exactly
they can be stopped for, as they never looked at the vehicle code cover
to cover. The fact is that there are enough laws on the books to be
stopped anytime, anywhere for just about any reason. You can even be
cited for a burnt out bulb in your glovebox! My third and final point
focuses on the honesty of city governments. Speed limits are often set
deliberately low in order to maximize revenue. Red light cameras are
often rigged with short yellow light times in order to increase the
number of red light runners. Import owner after import owner is cited
for petty equipment offenses as a way to show how "tough" the city is
on citizen complaints about street racers, cruisers, etc. How can we
trust the government to follow their own laws? The obvious way to avoid
a ticket is to simply not drive at all.
2.
Giving out tickets leads to safer roads.
Anytime a police officer is interviewed about traffic safety, this myth
is surely to come up. Traffic tickets have absolutely NOTHING to do
with traffic safety. There is scant evidence that supports this. In
fact, many traffic court systems and police departments rely on traffic
fines for funding. Therefore, it is NOT in their interests to find you
innocent. They need YOUR money to stay afloat. If only 1 in 5 contest
their tickets, this system of legalized extortion would collapse.
3.
Speed kills.
Bzzzt. Think about it: if this phrase were true, then the Interstate
system would have the worst record with the highest speed limits and
operational speeds. That is not quite the case. The truth is, speed is
NOT the primary factor. Yet, the phrase itself is quite catchy to the
sheeple who will say yes to anything the government tells them.
Newton's First Law of Motion, people. Let me quote it for you:
"A force is required to set an object in motion. It will
continue to move in a straight line in a constant velocity unless
another force act on it."
What does that mean? An object traveling at 60 MPH will continue to do
so until a second object acts upon it. Now let's think in terms of
cars. A car traveling at 60 MPH will continue to travel at that speed
until a second car darts out in its path. The resulting collision will
cause the first car's speed to drop from 60 MPH to 0 MPH. However, the
occupants will continue to travel at 60 MPH until something causes them
to stop moving at that speed (eg the windshield, the steering
wheel...). A vehicle traveling at 60 MPH can stop on its own in under 5
seconds. On the other hand, if two vehicles were traveling at
relatively the same speed and sideswipe each other (watch NASCAR on TV
if you don't believe me), the impact will not be as great. The point is
that the actual speed of the vehicle does not kill.
4.
Speed limits are absolute.
Wrong, yet when you're pulled over for allegedly speeding, most
officers will tell you, "You were doing 58 in a 50. Sign at the
bottom." What they DON'T tell you is where the 50 came from. All roads
must be surveyed. The speed limit is a
recommendation based on
the 85th percentile, rounded down to the nearest 5 MPH. Hence, if the
85th percentile for a particular road was 54 MPH, then the speed limit
would be set at 50. However, most cities infrequently conduct surveys,
or choose to post artificially low speed limits. What is the 85th
percentile? It is the speed that 85 out of 100 drivers surveyed travel
at or below. For example, if a particular stretch of road revealed that
the 85th percentile was 54 MPH, (ideally) the speed limit would be set
at 50. The 85th percentile is NOT 85% of the average speed.
(Thanks to Jonathan for clearing up the definition)
Many speeding tickets are dismissed due to illegal speed limits
(outdated or improperly set against the traffic engineering survey).
Sometimes the surveys themselves are outdated. Always get the survey.
Read more on speed limits on the National Motorist Association website.
WARNING: If conditions are not favorable (i.e. it's raining,
foggy, windy, or if there is traffic) you can STILL be cited for
driving "too fast for conditions," even if you're still within the
speed limit. See CVC 22350 for the Basic Speed Law. Always consider the
road conditions whenever you drive. Your ticket could be justified if
you're not careful.
Now let me debunk myths 3 and 4 together. Speed limits do not dictate
the flow of traffic. They never have and they never will. Instead, it
should be the other way around. Regardless of the posted speed, the
majority of traffic flows along at a given speed. Engineers (should)
routinely conduct surveys measuring the speed of free flowing traffic.
Studies have shown that the safest group of motorists are in the 85th
percentile. That is, the speed at which 85 out of 100 drivers surveyed
travel at or below. The 85th percentile has been widely accepted among
traffic engineers as the benchmark for setting speed limits. The
greater the motorist deviates from this speed, either above or below,
the greater the likelihood of getting into an accident as speed
variance between that motorist and the other drivers increases. Imagine
a perfect parabola illustrating this phenomenon where the apex is on
the X-axis and designating the 85th percentile. If you go left or right
from this point, the y-value - which defines your chance of being
involved in an accident - increases. It does not matter what the posted
speed limit is. In fact, you can draw an imaginary vertical line
anywhere along the graph and call it the speed limit. Here is the
figure to illustrate:
![](../media/tickets/speedgraph.jpg)
This figure was used by an officer attempting to justify how unsafe it
is to drive faster than the speed limit. This officer mistakened the
numbers on the X-axis as speeds above or below the posted limit instead
of the flow of traffic. Statistics is a dangerous game if you don't
know how to play it and time and time again we see police officers on
TV spewing their safety mantra while the evidence points to the
contrary.
If the limit is set too low, those who try to scrupulously follow it
will find themselves at risk of getting into an accident. Moreover,
those in the 85th percentile will be singled out as dangerous speeders
in (ironically) the name of "safety." If the limit is too high, now
those who try to follow the speed limit will find themselves constantly
weaving in and out of traffic.
Speed limits are supposed to delineate the point at which driving
becomes unsafe. If speed limits were properly set, then the police have
every right to target those traveling 15-20 MPH over the flow and this
page wouldn't need to exist. However, many speed limits are set around
the 50th percentile (or even below).
The preceding paragraphs debunk another myth: that increasing speed
limits will cause motorists to simply drive faster and disobey them by
10 MPH.
5.
"Going with the flow is a myth." The police will
say this in order to justify the notion that "no one is safe" when it
comes to being ticketed for speeding, even if traffic travels in packs.
Here is what the CHP had to say in their "crackdown" on Interstate 5 up
and down California:
"Realistically, if an officer sees a bunch of people speeding,
he's probably going to pick off the one going the fastest, because it
sets a good example, but there is no cushion...the cushion is a myth."
The fact that studies have shown that the 85th percentile of free-flowing traffic is the safest group of drivers on the road
regardless of the posted speed limit
makes the statement a myth in itself. Setting a speed limit well below
the 85th percentile is unsafe, not a group of vehicles (the "cushion"
or "flow") traveling above that limit.
6.
Fighting a traffic ticket is a waste of time.
I hear this from a LOT of people. That is what the courts want you to
believe. Most courtesy notices do not inform you that you have the
right to contest. In fact, they maximize the inconveniences associated
with fighting a ticket. Is this justice? Hell no. The courtesy notice
suggests that you must make two appearances: one to plead and another
to go to trial. You can bypass appearing in court by doing it all by
mail through what's called a Trial by Declaration. We'll cover that
later. Can you believe that only 1 in 100 seriously contest their
tickets? Those who do usually win or are offered attractive plea
bargains.
7.
It's not worth fighting. The court will find me guilty anyway.
Although traffic courts have no incentive to find you innocent,
fighting your ticket takes away any profit they make from you.
Remember, to hold your trial people have to be paid. In a trial by
declaration, cops don't get paid to write up their accounts. It's all
paperwork for them.
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