GDT: Carolina @ Columbus: It's a Sine Edition

[tarheelhockey]

Nothing like a police initiative to deliberately charge people with petty offenses.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

i drove like 2 under the entire way home at 1 am from my hockey game in garner last night i was very afraid of the police and i felt unsafe driving so slow with nobody else on the road

 

[sheriff bart]

i have never been in an accident or gotten a ticket

And you say this out loud?

 

[Sens1Canes2]

Speaking of speeding, there have been a number reports recently on the news that North Carolina is going to really crack down in the coming weeks for even being a small amount over the limit.

This was put forth by one Raleigh television station (I believe it was ABC 11), who took a "saying" from a NC Highway Patrol tweet and ran with a story that essentially said "if you go 1mph over the speed limit, you're gonna get pulled over." The spokesman for the Highway Patrol did everything he could today to dispel that story without actually telling people it's ok to speed.

My thoughts:

1. It's called a speed LIMIT. Any number of mph over it that you drive, that's a you problem.

2. This is coming from someone who has a total of 9 speeding tickets, although none in I want to say at least 10 years.

3. The # of cop cars you're seeing on the roads this weekend isn't unlike any other big holiday weekend. Nothing to see here. Happens all the time.

 

[vorbis]

as long as civil infraction fines are counted on to account for a not-insignificant portion of annual budgets, you're going to have crap initiatives that ultimately do not have anything to do with public safety.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If it's true, it's because the state wants to make some cash.

I'll split the diff and drive 5 over.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

ive never been pulled over either

parents: send your kids to the bmw performance driving school in sc as soon as they get their permit

i was pretty much as good a driver as 80% of adults once going through that school

makes for a fun weekend, and at least your boys will like it, because they put you behind a souped up bmw all day

 

[HisIceness]

I got like 3 speeding tickets within 2 years of getting my license. Virginia is like the gestapo state. But I deserved it -- I was insane when I first got my license.

I was on a car ride from Charlotte to Cleveland a couple of years ago. I couldn't believe how much of a speed trap Virginia is/was on I-77 the entire 60 miles or however long it is, it was especially bad North of Whytheville. County Sheriff and/or State Highway Police like every 5 miles just camping out waiting for someone to go 10 over. And I thought I-85 between here and Lexington is bad.

Actually I was more shocked that the entire 180 miles of West Virginia we passed through we maybe came across 3 Highway policemen. I was expecting WV to be full of cops waiting for speeders.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

ive never been pulled over either

parents: send your kids to the bmw performance driving school in sc as soon as they get their permit

i was pretty much as good a driver as 80% of adults once going through that school

How good of a driver one is really has little to do with getting pulled over or having tickets though. If a person wants to exceed the speed limit, good driver or bad, they are at risk for getting pulled over.

 

[VAcaniac]

I was on a car ride from Charlotte to Cleveland a couple of years ago. I couldn't believe how much of a speed trap Virginia is/was on I-77 the entire 60 miles or however long it is, it was especially bad North of Whytheville. County Sheriff and/or State Highway Police like every 5 miles just camping out waiting for someone to go 10 over. And I thought I-85 between here and Lexington is bad.

Actually I was more shocked that the entire 180 miles of West Virginia we passed through we maybe came across 3 Highway policemen. I was expecting WV to be full of cops waiting for speeders.

Im not as familiar with SW Virginia but 85 between Petersburg and the NC border is notorious for police. Pretty much every North Carolinian I know has gotten a ticket in that area driving between Raleigh and DC. The speed limit is 70 but theres so little traffic and flat that it makes speeding super easy.

I've never actually gotten a ticket on the highway in VA. I feel like the local police up here is ginormous and there's so little crime that they have nothing better to do.

The easiest way to learn to be a good driver is practice. With family in Pittsburgh and South Carolina, and fridnds in North Carolina, I had a ton of experience before I was even 21.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

One of the worst spots I've seen is if you are headed out to VA Beach/Chesapeake and you go through Emporia. I think it's 58? I've been through there over a dozen times and 100% of them there's been someone pulled over.

 

[HisIceness]

Im not as familiar with SW Virginia but 85 between Petersburg and the NC border is notorious for police. Pretty much every North Carolinian I know has gotten a ticket in that area driving between Raleigh and DC. The speed limit is 70 but theres so little traffic and flat that it makes speeding super easy.

I've never actually gotten a ticket on the highway in VA. I feel like the local police up here is ginormous and there's so little crime that they have nothing better to do.

The easiest way to learn to be a good driver is practice. With family in Pittsburgh and South Carolina, and fridnds in North Carolina, I had a ton of experience before I was even 21.

God I hate that drive, I-85 in Virginia is almost like something out of the twilight zone, trees clog the median for like the entire trip. I'd hate to break down there, especially at night

I think 85 in general is a speed trap, it's maybe a little more lenient when it hooks up with 40 and the stretches in the cities but outside of that its almost like a ticket-givers dream. I've heard one of the reasons why it's so heavily patrolled is that the police know it as a well known route for transporting drugs.

 

[HisIceness]

One of the worst spots I've seen is if you are headed out to VA Beach/Chesapeake and you go through Emporia. I think it's 58? I've been through there over a dozen times and 100% of them there's been someone pulled over.

Went to Norfolk w/ my grandparents for a family get-together some 15 years ago and yeah we got pulled over in Emporia, like 10-15 over, the cop let us go though.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I'd like Ollie to way in. Years ago, when I lived in Philly and had to drive across Penn and Ohio (70) frequently, it felt like I was going through a microwave in Ohio. Never saw so many troopers. Is it still like that?

 

[Novacane]

I'd like Ollie to way in. Years ago, when I lived in Philly and had to drive across Penn and Ohio (70) frequently, it felt like I was going through a microwave in Ohio. Never saw so many troopers. Is it still like that?

When I drove up last fall, I was told it would be like that but I didn't ever really notice a shift from crossing over from West Virginia to Ohio like I was told. The only consistent cop presence I noticed was there always seemed to be a cop looking for speeders planted between Columbus and my work. It was a 30 mile stretch and he had about 5 different spots he would rotate through every day.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The worst trap I know is 1-85 just a little south of Greenville SC, where the speed limit arbitrarily drops to 55 on the interstate.

 

[tomdundo]

One of the worst spots I've seen is if you are headed out to VA Beach/Chesapeake and you go through Emporia. I think it's 58? I've been through there over a dozen times and 100% of them there's been someone pulled over.

Yeah, my dad's sister lives in Chesapeake, so I travel that route a few times per year. I can definitely attest to the very heavy police influence there. I usually pop on the cruise control there because it's so awful.

 

[DaveG]

The worst trap I know is 1-85 just a little south of Greenville SC, where the speed limit arbitrarily drops to 55 on the interstate.

Summersville, WV


Seems like the local economy is built around busting people for going 1MPH over the limit

 

[vorbis]

Summersville, WV


Seems like the local economy is built around busting people for going 1MPH over the limit

ha, I've been through Summersville probably 30 times on road trips between Toronto and Charlotte, and never had a problem.

Agreed that that stretch of 77 between Wytheville and Mount Airy, NC is brutal. I'd say the stretch of 85 from the NC border to I-95 is probably the worst I've experienced for camping cops., non-South Dakota category.

 

[DaveG]

ha, I've been through Summersville probably 30 times on road trips between Toronto and Charlotte, and never had a problem.

Agreed that that stretch of 77 between Wytheville and Mount Airy, NC is brutal. I'd say the stretch of 85 from the NC border to I-95 is probably the worst I've experienced for camping cops., non-South Dakota category.

Oh neither have I. But then again I knew about it well ahead of time so for that little stretch I usually just drive the speed limit. But man, the number of people I see that get pulled there for just going a little bit over the speed limit is simply astounding. Doesn't help that you can prettymuch do 80 through most of the rest of the state without so much as a shrug by law enforcement, if your car can handle the turns.

 

[RodTheBawd]

Interesting, I've unfortunately had to make that trip up 77 more times than I'd like to and haven't really seen much cop activity from Mount Airy through Wytheville. Pretty much that whole drive has been cop free.

 

[NotOpie]

The worst trap I know is 1-85 just a little south of Greenville SC, where the speed limit arbitrarily drops to 55 on the interstate.

Except it isn't really arbitrary.....road quality goes to **** really quickly....but with all the speeding tickets one would think they could effect a repair or two.

 

[Bub]

One of the worst spots I've seen is if you are headed out to VA Beach/Chesapeake and you go through Emporia. I think it's 58? I've been through there over a dozen times and 100% of them there's been someone pulled over.

That stretch of US 58 used to be called "Suicide Strip" because of the high number of fatal accidents there. Here's one google news article about the 4-lane highway that opened in '91: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=WosDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6893,1653622&hl=en

I worked on an archaeology crew in the 80s that did some work along 58. Our site t-shirts had the Suicide Strip logo on it. Long time ago...

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

That stretch of US 58 used to be called "Suicide Strip" because of the high number of fatal accidents there. Here's one google news article about the 4-lane highway that opened in '91: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=WosDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6893,1653622&hl=en

I worked on an archaeology crew in the 80s that did some work along 58. Our site t-shirts had the Suicide Strip logo on it. Long time ago...

Very interesting, I never knew that so thanks for sharing.

 

[Bub]

Very interesting, I never knew that so thanks for sharing.

No prob.

It was a POS strip of road with failing pavement, lots of mediocre patchwork, and nothing but 2-lane road, nearly dead straight, for miles and miles. Just an all-around disaster. There are probably a decent number of folks in southern VA in their 40s right now who wouldn't be here if they never widened that road.