The ever more present police and troopers on Atlanta's highways... (felony, university)

[masonbarge]

It's just laziness and finances. Ticketing speeders is much easier (and therefore more profitable) than ticketing people weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating, cutting across multiple lanes, etc.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by masonbarge

It's just laziness and finances. Ticketing speeders is much easier (and therefore more profitable) than ticketing people weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating, cutting across multiple lanes, etc.

One thing that handicaps the troopers here is the lack of unmarked enforcement. Most states allow unmarked cars to patrol and you get a much more realistic view of what's going on in an unmarked car. In GA, the law requires the vehicles to be marked and even requires the GSP cruisers to have lights on top of the vehicle....they can't even use slick tops. I get the history of speed traps in GA but IMHO it's time to change that requirement in 2009.

[PKCorey]

Alot of the GSP's chargers don't have light bars on the roof but the blue and white gives 'em away...

[Shagbark Hickory]

Originally Posted by neil0311

One thing that handicaps the troopers here is the lack of unmarked enforcement. Most states allow unmarked cars to patrol and you get a much more realistic view of what's going on in an unmarked car. In GA, the law requires the vehicles to be marked and even requires the GSP cruisers to have lights on top of the vehicle....they can't even use slick tops. I get the history of speed traps in GA but IMHO it's time to change that requirement in 2009.

You mean you can't get pulled over by an unmarked car, I think.
You can shoot radar from any car. Heck you don't even need to be in a car. They can stand there on an overpass. They can use VASCAR from an aircraft.

The concern with unmarked cars pulling people over is indeed a very valid safety concern. Any joe shmo can put a blue light on their dash and pull people over in the middle of the night, rob them and get away with it. They were doing this here in metro atlanta. It's very common in Florida too. This needs to remain policy for this reason.

[noah]

I guess I am the only one who thinks they don't pull over a lot of drivers on the interstates here. In many states you can go 80mph but if your caught its a ticket here I've gone by and they don't even pull you over.

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by noah

I guess I am the only one who thinks they don't pull over a lot of drivers on the interstates here. In many states you can go 80mph but if your caught its a ticket here I've gone by and they don't even pull you over.

LOL, you aren't the only one..lol....

I've driven past them at 75 in the morning on the shoulder doing 75ish and I swear, I"m get the lights..Nope...

I guess, its only if you are 80 and oveR???

Then again, the other issue here. Most of the highways don't have cutouts for the cops to sit so they have to wait until they find a wide enough shoulder to run radar...so that cuts down on speeding tickets too

[cityrover]

Originally Posted by neil0311

One thing that handicaps the troopers here is the lack of unmarked enforcement. Most states allow unmarked cars to patrol and you get a much more realistic view of what's going on in an unmarked car. In GA, the law requires the vehicles to be marked and even requires the GSP cruisers to have lights on top of the vehicle....they can't even use slick tops. I get the history of speed traps in GA but IMHO it's time to change that requirement in 2009.

they can use slicktops. there is nothing in the law about that.

the law only regulates the color of the lights.

and unmarked enforcement doesn't work for many reasons. we already have enough psycho impersonators as it is.

[cityrover]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

LOL, you aren't the only one..lol....

I've driven past them at 75 in the morning on the shoulder doing 75ish and I swear, I"m get the lights..Nope...

I guess, its only if you are 80 and oveR???

Then again, the other issue here. Most of the highways don't have cutouts for the cops to sit so they have to wait until they find a wide enough shoulder to run radar...so that cuts down on speeding tickets too

20 over. so 85ish to get them to notice you.

[Shagbark Hickory]

Originally Posted by noah

I guess I am the only one who thinks they don't pull over a lot of drivers on the interstates here. In many states you can go 80mph but if your caught its a ticket here I've gone by and they don't even pull you over.

I agree (knock on wood) but it depends on where you are.
I used to live in florida and got tickets constantly.

After I moved here to georgia, I had trouble wiht hte cops in alpharetta but since moving to gwinnett... Let's put it this way, I have not been pulled over in nearly 6 years. Some things have changed though. I do a bit less driving and I no longer own a mustang but instead a very slow pickup truck.

As a policy I don't go more than 10 mph over the limit unless I am in some kind of big hurry like being late for an appointment but that hasn't changed. It's hard to speed when you're sitting in traffic so the bulk of my stops were things like turning right on right where it says not to, looking suspicious, window tint, etc. The cops in alpharetta set up a trap where they put a car on a two lane road with double yellow line and put the blinkers on to make it look broken down. In order to pass it you had to cross the double yellow line. Once you did that, boom, they'd instantly stop you and give you a ticket. NASTY one too. On your record it shows up as "driving on the wrong side of the road" which does not help with insurance rates.

So that's one of things I really like about this area I haven't been hassled here by the cops yet. Now just down the street in Hall county, it's a different story. They have a lot of cops.

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by cityrover

20 over. so 85ish to get them to notice you.

Right...The speed on that side of town is 65 sounds about right..

I've been up near 80 and I've made it home without the blue lights..