This or if you drive anything other than a big lifted truck the small town cops will swarm you.
Meanwhile where I am, if I see a cop on the highway, I just check to make sure I’m going less than 20km/h over the limit. Occasionally I wasn’t but still got ignored.
Sounds like Belgium?
Nope, Canada.
- on the lookout for any minorities.
Let’s not pretend obeying the speed limit will save you.
Once got pulled over for doing 25 in a…25. when I raised my eyebrows he said it was “foggy” out. Could see clear as day all the way down the road. I’m white too so it wasn’t even a race thing. I get it was a retirement area but ppl really got nothing better to do.
Obviously is was pretext for seeing who you are.
Thank Satan we don’t really have this problem in Quebec. What a bunch of fucking losers.
A small town near me got in deep shit for being small town assholes recently. That and embezzlement. This town is on a major highway to Myrtle Beach. They also prided themselves on the “safety” and “smallness” of their town, while also preying on vacationers.
Their municipal police police would aggressively enforce the speed limits. Every time I had to go through there you’d see someone running speed at nearly every speed zone change. As little as one to two mph over would get you an interaction with them. They also would issue tickets for far more than was normal. Up to 10 over was easily a $400 ticket, when most places would only do $150. They were also kind and polite about it. They’d offer to take payment right then and eliminate the speeding points. Which was the issue.
If you paid there they wouldn’t report the ticket. Or the cash. The town kept the money; the town was making about a million a year. You were fined under a safety ordinance and not traffic law. They were also supposed to share portions with the county and state, but didn’t. They argued that it was not a traffic violation. This town of barely 700 people had fifteen police just running speed traps.
They eventually were found out, and the municipal police department was heavily curtailed. The county manages speed through there and is nowhere as aggressive about it.
you should have probably put american small town cops as title. Cops have actual training in europe and other places and speed limits or road safety can’t be compared either. In the small town I live in cops are very down to earth and are generally fair unless you are being an asshole. Our laws are made so the fine is comparable to the % of speed over the limit and cops don’t care much unless you are 5-10% above the limit. This means they go after you if you drive with your head under the arm in cities, but you can go a little above on the highway. We also have car regulation so you don’t drive deathtraps that are a safety hazards to OTHER people. Which is why the shit cybertruck is not legal in EU and never will be.
Anyone familiar with cops in europe knows experiences vary widely. British police have gone on a campaign to arrest people for preaching on sidewalks. German and other european police physically beat people with clubs without much provocation. They were arresting people for talking walks by themselves in the woods in 2020-2022. In Switzerland, they use water cannons to spray protesters when it’s below freezing. Small towns in America are pretty laid back for the most part, because there’s not much happening to begin with. All of the murder is in the larger cities or a few regions where they have a history of high crime like northern alaska and native american reservations and the areas marijuana is farmed illegally by organized criminals. These are easily avoided.
It’s never very clear in the US if the speed limit is locally a thing, a suggestion, or completely ignored. As a visitor, it’s always problematic. I wish they got that sorted out.
The way speeds are decided are rather ridiculous too. If I recall in some places (ahem: suburbia), it’s some kind of consensus of local landowners.
So they’ll set the speed limit to 35 mph along a ridiculously long and straight road with nothing on either side but suburb entrances and sidewalks.
The limits in my city are such that going 10 over is usually no big deal. It’s weird.
Because also if you stuck exactly to that limit, everyone drives dangerously around you because they’d go faster driving a horse and buggy lol.
In the US, there is the “85th percentile rule” that says the speed limit can’t be lower than the speed 85% of the traffic travels on that road. It’s not always followed, but is a factor I’ve heard cited in speed limit discussions several places I’ve lived, mostly as an argument against traffic calming measures for pedestrian safety. But to my understanding, the law implies that if enough people decide not to follow the speed limit, it could theoretically be deemed legally too low and would need to be increased.
When I first went to the US, the unrealistically low speed limits were one of the first things I noticed when driving.
I kinda assumed that this is by design so that police can pull over anyone they feel like since virtually everyone drives over the speed limit in some areas as it is so ridiculously low.
Yeah, I live in small-town US where many residents have complained about speeding in areas with heavy pedestrian use. In response, the local PD was quoted on the front page of the paper saying they don’t have time to enforce speed limits. A few years later and they were again on the front page saying that they don’t have time or equipment to enforce parking regulations. So here they’re somewhere between suggestion and completely ignored, but the next town over is filled with speed cameras and highway patrol sitting in wait to meet their quota…both towns on the same road.
don’t have time
TF are they doing, then?!
Figuring out ways to look understaffed so they can get more officers…around that time their call volume “doubled” over a year because they changed how they tracked calls. (Accounting for that, it was roughly the same.) But they used that to ask for another officer…and I assume they probably even need another one if we want them to do speed enforcement.
Figuring out ways to look understaffed so they can get more officers…around that time their call volume “doubled” over a year because they changed how they tracked calls. (Accounting for that, it was roughly the same.) But they used that to ask for another officer…and I assume they probably even need another one if we want them to do speed enforcement.
Sucking up overtime while asleep at home.
It is a thing. Now, locals might be ignoring it, but that’s because they know where it is unlikely they will get caught. If you’re not a local it is better to keep it or at most drive the same speed as everyone else.
I’ve been in Poland recently and the speed signs seem to be designed to make very hard to maintain them, like they want to have easy way to ticket anyone.
Like you’re driving, there’s 70km/h then 50 then 70, then 90, then 50 (pedestrian crossing, it is always 50) then 90 and all within short distance. I noticed that many drivers either go faster over 50 zones or if they in 90 zone go slower so they don’t have to reduce speed from 90 to 50.
In US (or at least in California) seems to be more stable. So you have 35mph on roads, 25 on residential areas (usually you don’t go through them unless you’re reaching your destination) and 65 on freeway. There might be some signs that modify the speed (make it higher or lower depending on condition of the road) but it feels justified.
I also visited Czechia and their speed limits seem to be more reasonable and easier to follow.
There are small towns in the US whose existence depends on traffic tickets. They would wheel traffic signs out after an out of state car passed.
Actually this reminded me when I was driving toward such a small town via local freeway. There was a car that visibly tried to upset drivers driving slow when they tried to pass it they sped up. After observing it for a while I noticed there was a cop car driving in front. As soon as the freeway ended and transitioned into residential area the cop car drove into first parking lot and went the opposite way back to freeway, the car that tried to upset drivers followed them and did the same maneuver. At that point it was clear they were working together.
I never understood why americans seem to feel entitled to drive illegally fast over an already heavily overestimated speed limit on their humongous death machines they call cars.
The average majority of people’s commutes are over 30 minutes, about an hour every day. Many people’s commutes are much longer. Combine it with zoning laws that make routine errands and necessities (like grocery shopping, pharmacy’s, basic services) much further from residential areas meaning the average American has to drive a lot. A substantial portion of their life is just spend driving, potentially 1-2 hours a day. If you are already up to your neck in work and chores, that time is extremely precious, so it’s understandable people want to minimize it by speeding, not considering the real risks if doing so.
I spent some time in very rural Maine, and EVERYTHING, even the most basic of necessities were at least 30 minutes away. The nearest hospital was an hour. People speed there like crazy.
I’m not on the side of speeders, or condoning their actions and behaviour, but do realize that it’s coming from a place, not necessarily of entitlement, but desperately trying to claw some of their life back
yada yada, I commute more than an hour per direction by bus to go to university in my city and you don’t see me crying (well OK maybe a bit) about it.
Speed limits, at least on state and federal roads, are often governed by a set of rules that basically look at sight distances, entrances to the roadway, and some other factors. So there are rules to them. I think the highway speed limits are generally fine.
Putting all that aside, entitlement is absolutely a thing, and this post does a good job of nailing it. There’s a speed limit. If you go over it, you are taking a risk. If you get pulled over for 70 in a 65 and you bitch about it, you’re an entitled idiot. I say this as someone who exceeds the speed limit, it’s just how things operate over her. But if I get tagged for doing so, I will eat it, because I was knowingly breaking the law. Now, if it were more regularly enforced, I might not do it, but it seems to be that 20% above the posted limit is acceptable, and so that’s how I operate (except I do 25 in residential areas because there is no reason to speed on streets people are walking and kids are riding bikes).
Speed limits in the U.S. aren’t set to any specific standard. 6 lane divided highways and laneless rural roads carry the same speed limit.
Speeds limits are known for being way too high in that country.
Speed limits are routinely posted 30-50% below the actual “maximum safe speed” in my neck of the woods. The US is many things, but it’s far from homogenous
It really depends on what you mean by too high. The standard speed limits we have are fine. The road design is not.
Please. There are many places in the world with no posted or higher speed limits and far more deadly traffic related accidents than Americans with their “humongous death machines.” Want to bash Americans for stupidly large, numerous, and wasteful cars? Sure. But we’re nowhere near the top of the list for deaths or speed.
just because some Places are worse, it doesn’t mean yours is bad.
I mean you could just follow the limit. Just saying.
Sometimes that won’t protect you from getting a speeding ticket.
The safest speed to go is the speed of traffic. If the limit is 55 and you are driving 52 but everyone else is driving 62, you are the most dangerous person on the road.
What? No! Driving faster is not safer. What kind of logic is that? If someone does something dangerous because I drive the speed limit they are unsafe not me.
Murrican logic.
Buing a bigger car is also safer according to them, even if then it turns 99% blindspot.
Certainly it is safer if everyone everyone drives the speed limit, lowering the speed of traffic. But that’s not realistically what happens. I’m talking about when you are around other cars that are all going over the limit. The difference in speed between vehicles is also dangerous. When you drive slower than traffic you become a hazard and bottleneck that raises the danger of everyone near you. Better to be alive than “right”.
The title is clickbait, its really about difference in speed: https://seasia.co/2025/09/05/driving-slower-is-actually-more-dangerous-than-driving-fast
Challenge your assumptions.
So the article says the problem are people that won’t follow the rules. People who overtake and go way too fast. I will not enable their behavior.
Nowhere in the article does it say that. Your ego is more important than your own life or the life of others, that tracks with both of your comments.
the core insight remains widely accepted in traffic engineering: deviation from the average traffic speed, especially on high-speed roads, is a significant risk factor.
It doesn’t say that. You are right. What it says is that the dangers come from people overtaking and assuming that someone is faster. It has nothing to do with ego and only with adhering to the law. I don’t want a speeding ticket because someone else what’s to be faster.
Everyone who overtakes me when I am at the speed limit is an idiot in my eye. People could just follow the law. Then the average speed would be the legal speed limit.
There are all kinds of things that the law says to do that isn’t optimal. Sometimes the right thing to do isn’t ideological, but realistic and practical. I agree everyone should slow down, not because its lawful but because it is safer. But until they do, I will always pick the safer option over what is lawful. Lawfulness is not a barometer of ethics, its a tool of power.
Would you rather be lawful, or improve everyone’s chances of surviving the trip?
I remember reading a story a while back. Couple lumberjacks had a serious accident, so while one guy was bleeding out in the back seat, the driver was doing 100+ and the third guy was on the phone with the cops trying to get a police escort.
They ran into a Karen like you, who decided to make sure they went the speed limit. Guy in the back seat died as a result.
The fuck you talking about? I never said I’d actively block anyone from overtaking me and the traffic won’t flow at 100mph. So what the fuck is your point? Start turning on your brain before calling me a Karen.
No, you said you believed going the speed limit was always safer than going with the flow of traffic.
Not only are you a Karen, you’re a particularly stupid one.
You know, and I know you know, that that’s never what is meant by saying it’s “safer to travel at the speed of traffic”. It’s tragic to be sure, but it’s not a counter argumement against obeying the law.
It is safer to travel at the speed of traffic. The guy I responded to clearly said that he would rather be a rolling roadblock following speed limits like an idiot, instead of travelling with traffic.
Small town cops looking for 1% less white skinned people and even a hint of a foreign accent.
The town had 250 people and 50 police officers.
$4,000 in tickets per person??
Jfc 😅
half of the department’s 50 officers “had been suspended, demoted, terminated or dishonorably discharged from their previous law enforcement jobs,” the station said, citing personnel records obtain under a Freedom of Information request.
The shocking part is where it says that’s only 5X the cops for a town that size. Wtf? One or two should suffice in a town that small. We have a town here with just over a thousand, and they have no city cops at all.
10 cops means 1-2 on shift at a time, once you figure in days off, needing people working 24 hours a day, a leadership position or two, and people out sick/vacation, 10 people isn’t as many as it sounds.
However, even 10 is a huge amount for a town of 250. I think most towns of 1-2k people generally don’t have a department and usually rely on county police.
I lived in a town like this (USA). We had no cops and the fire department was volunteer only. I recall a house burning down to the cement foundation over a couple hours, fire dept came by to put out the ruins. No one was hurt.
Can’t imagine having 2 cops in that town, let alone 50. No money.
The post office used to be in the same building as the bank (until the bank burnt down). They moved into the lower floor of a house.
Yeah, I had a town of 15k and 5 miles up the road we had one around 300. They just contracted ours out. 300 peoples’ taxes is not a lot, why waste it on police who will what, catch that one kid every once in a while, or have to throw a drunk out of the only bar? Not worth it.
typical amount of police in countries vary between 0.1-0.7% of the population with most having around 0.2-0.4%
Read the article. It explains the scam and why it got shut down.
I read the article. How do you think I got that information that was in the article? I understand what was going on. What I don’t understand is the average town of that size even needing 10. How about some reading comprehension, smart guy?
POOP?
Username checks out.
I thought piefed people were required to be nice?
That’s it, dock their social credit score (is that still a thing on piefed?)
They still have to pay or show up in court, though.
No sympathy to drivers of objectively environmentally worse modes of transportation unwilling to follow traffic laws.
Sure… but 2 miles per hour over the limit? Even the greatest drivers sometimes or frequently go 2 miles per hour over the limit.
Traffic laws are for bad drivers. Most are stupid.
always been the opposite for me. Cops in my small towns legit let teens drive without their licences and shit lol
Those are prolly local kids they know. You only ding out of towners.
Here in Minnesota we have several “Speed Trap Towns” along country roads and highways with 50+ mph speed limits where suddenly the speed limit drops to 30 and there’s a cop hiding behind the bush.
Yep. Wisconsin too. Learned very quickly that cruise control set to 1 mph under the limit is the way. There’s quite a few towns on the way out to Taylors Falls that pretty much always have a cop sitting in the same spot just waiting for out-of-towners, and it’s remarkable how successful they are.
Wow, that is amazing to hear. While I don’t want to be pulled over, in the southern US I’ve never been pulled over doing 10% over the posted limit. My wife on the other hand, calls me a slow old man as she goes whatever she thinks feels right.
Think of it this way: those tickets are probably a very large percentage of the town’s budget. They don’t care if a few get challenged or thrown out because the vast majority would rather pay than drive hours each way to contest a ticket in city court.
I’ve been in a car that got pulled over — and ticketed for speeding — for doing 17 in a 15. Those aren’t typos. This one happened to be in Colorado, so it’s not just midwestern towns doing it. Screw you Idaho Springs!
https://maps.apple/la/IJ-YiEeo1woELi
In Minnesota and Wisconsin they’ll do stuff like sit at the bottom of a hill. Cruise control set for the speed limit will still allow the car to get 2-3 mph higher before engine braking. Boom, speeding ticket. Another one is waiting by the 55mph sign at the end of town and catching people accelerating before the sign when they’re still in the 25/35/45 zones and getting them for reckless (20+ over). It’s wild.
