🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1ht5hdINNedc@bigboote.WPI.EDU> satan@wpi.WPI.EDU (Matthew James Meyer) writes:

>The rule of thumb is go with the flow of traffic.  If you and everybody
>around you is doing 65, no one is going to get pulled over by a state
>cop who pulls up from behind you.  I have travelled in the flow of 
>traffic as fast as 70mph and had a state cop pass by without a second look.
>Of ocurse if this whole pack of cars rides through a radar trap, thats
>another story, but then let them try and prove that the radar signal
>they got bounced back to them was yours (conventional radar guns just 
>pick up the stongest signal, there's no way to tell if its you unless you
>are the only car driving by - of course there is talk of new laser radar
>that can pick out individual vehicles, i don't have any info there)

      As I understand it, the radar speed is "legally" regarded as
coming from the nearest car to the radar. Of course this disregards
physics, in that different vehicles have wildly variant radar
cross-sections, and the 70 mph speed the "law enforcer" picks up may
well have come from the 18-wheeler a quarter mile behind that 55 mph
red Corvette.

      In dealing with "speed enforcment" in Massachusetts, it's
inportant to remember that the law has become a prostitute, used by
the SJC, local governments, and the insurance industry as a cash cow.
Many small towns support a substantial portion of their police
department with speeding fines on out-of-towners on the local highway.

      My respect for the police and local government will increase
enormously when they start writing and enforcing traffic regulations
with public safety in mind, rather than their budget targets.

							Peter Trei
							ptrei@Mitre.org