The ever more present police and troopers on Atlanta's highways... (Moreland: insurance, inspection)

[ATL Golfer]

...doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that budget shortfalls are being made up in other areas. I have been traveling these freeways for a long time and starting last year noticed an increase in their presence.

Is there a way to easily access a municipality's, county's, state's revenue breakdown? I would be extremely interested in seeing Q1 2008 vs Q1 2009 in terms of revenue generated from speeding and other violations.

What is really irritating, during rush hour they pick the only sections of the highway that do not get congested and pick people off. I recently saw a State Trooper cause an accident by pulling someone over. What little relief we get on these highways is being taken away...

[Java378]

I stopped taking a certain stretch of 285 where I am forced to merge from the left side since September 2008. I take backroads.

I had good reaosn to be clocked at 85, since everyone else was going faster. Shoot, when I had ot pull off fomr the ticket, I noticed I had to go over 60 just to get back on my way.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

What is really irritating, during rush hour they pick the only sections of the highway that do not get congested and pick people off. I recently saw a State Trooper cause an accident by pulling someone over. What little relief we get on these highways is being taken away...

Well, where else would you find speeders, other than the areas that aren't congested? It's kinda tough to speed when you're moving along at 25mph in the fast lane.......

[lilmusket]

I think more emphasis should be placed on catching dangerous drivers... those weaving in and of traffic erratically, following too closely, not using signals, and generally aggressive drivers. Just because someone may be driving faster than the artifically low posted speed limit does not mean they are driving dangerously. This difference is understood in Europe, especially Germany.. where their are heavy penalties for driving dangerously but the distiction is understood that higher speeds does not always equate to dangerous driving.

[Shagbark Hickory]

I'm actually surprised that I have not noticed more speed traps.
I think what you are seeing is just the seasonal increase that seems to come with better ticket writing weather. For a while I was convinced there were layoff or something. Then they took down the red light cameras.

[PKCorey]

In the summer time, the H.E.A.T for the Governors Higway Safety are usually out in full force.

I know on I-20 in Dekalb from 285 until Moreland, Dekalb have their 2 cars and motorcycles in full effect on the weekends.


I haven't seen any increased enforcement lately. Actually, for a time, I stopped seeing the GSP for awhile.

Then again, I drive in the evening and early morning for work, so my view will probably be different.

I do know that the ummm...what's the white cars with the ugh blue lights...ummm..Department of Public Safety...They stay on the Downtown Connector...yeesh!

[cityrover]

Money money money... somebody has to pay for those new cars. I watched the GSP "assign" 5 brand new chargers or whatever those things are called (its a chrysler pos anyway) to creep at 2mph (seriously) as road escort to oversized vehicles.

Im sorry but throwing your shiny new cars on such a duty while the people working the perimeter are driving 10 year old 160k mile vics is a little perverse.... its nothing but a look at me tactic.

you need to go and request the finances from the appropriate county/city seat. In GA there is a law that you cannot receive over x % (exact number escapes me right now) of your budget from traffic based revenue, however cities like arcade and pendergrass to name a few, have found creative ways to laugh in the face of the law and write it all off

[noah]

I have been shocked here that they don't pull people over more, I can drive right by a check point going 75-80mph and they don't even bother. Where I came from if they caught you doing that you'd get a ticket for sure.

Originally Posted by ATL Golfer

...doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that budget shortfalls are being made up in other areas. I have been traveling these freeways for a long time and starting last year noticed an increase in their presence.

Is there a way to easily access a municipality's, county's, state's revenue breakdown? I would be extremely interested in seeing Q1 2008 vs Q1 2009 in terms of revenue generated from speeding and other violations.

What is really irritating, during rush hour they pick the only sections of the highway that do not get congested and pick people off. I recently saw a State Trooper cause an accident by pulling someone over. What little relief we get on these highways is being taken away...

[billl]

Originally Posted by Shagbark Hickory

Then they took down the red light cameras.

They took down the red light cameras because the state legislature passed a law requiring a second be added to the length of a yellow light. Once the cities retimed the lights to come in to compliance with that law the number of violations from red light cameras plummeted. Now they no longer pay for themselves so cities are doing away with them.

Some Gwinnett cities scrapping red-light cameras | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2009/03/13/red_light_camera_cost.html - broken link)

But remember...... "It isn't about the money!"

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by billl

They took down the red light cameras because the state legislature passed a law requiring a second be added to the length of a yellow light. Once the cities retimed the lights to come in to compliance with that law the number of violations from red light cameras plummeted. Now they no longer pay for themselves so cities are doing away with them.

Which just shows what I've believed for years...it's not "about safety" as we've been told by the politicians....it's about the money. Red light cameras are an unconstitutional device and cannot be used in a criminal court as evidence, so they changed the offense to a civil infraction and made the fine not count against your license or insurance.

It was all about and will always be about the money. If it was about the safety, there are plenty of things that could be done to improve safety. One of those is for GA to add troopers so we don't have a situation where there is one trooper to cover vast areas, sometimes in multiple counties. They should start doing like other states and get tough on aggressive and unsafe driving....15+ over the limit, weaving, turn signals, tailgating, etc.

Another way to make the roads safer is to institute a vehicle inspection program for the entire state, so people driving unsafe clunkers with no tire tread, no brakes, or pieces falling off the car would be forced to repair them.