Accepted Speedo error
- Thread starter Monkeyballs
- Start date
well just looking at the speedomiter its accurate by every 2-10mph. just make the arguement that when you set the cruise control you set it to what you thought was as close to the speed limit as possible on your speedomitor. and you didnt think that you would get pulled over for going a couple miles over speed limit so you did not think it was necessary to try and adjust for such a small amount of speed. weither or not you had it on cruise or not 4mph variable on 65mph really is not much and that some thing as simple as going up or down a small slope could cuase that little of a variable in speed.
edit 2-10mph.. i mean 10-20-40-60-80-100-120-140 with a mini marker every 2mph medium marker every 10mph and a number every 20. atleast thats how mine is. ohh and try not to sound like a pumpus ass when you say it try to work on sounding sincere and enocent.
edit 2-10mph.. i mean 10-20-40-60-80-100-120-140 with a mini marker every 2mph medium marker every 10mph and a number every 20. atleast thats how mine is. ohh and try not to sound like a pumpus ass when you say it try to work on sounding sincere and enocent.
Last edited:
Cellerator
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda 3i Skyactiv Hatchback
yeah, no kidding. BTW, how much is the fine for 4 over? I know in Texas, they have a ticket price from 5 up. So typically, i'm about 2-4 over all the time and the cops seem to leave me alone...
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
how much did you get bagged for? if it's enough, i'd argue that 4 over can't be enough for a ticket, we all go over under a few MPH all the time and keeping it at a steady 65 is unrealistic. this is defenitley bogus (glare) and i'd be surprised if the judge or majestrate doesn't agree. are they going to ticket you for 1 over??? this sucks!!
kickniteasy
Member
keeping in mind this is coming from a male college student who often speeds (5-10 over) but why not ticket for one over? It's the speed LIMIT....the obsolute highest number that is supposed to be reached on that particular road....nobody's forcing you to go that high or even anywhere near it. Realistically, even going the speed limit in most places makes yourself a traffic hazard....but just going strictly by the book 1 over is justifiable. It might be the most bogus ticket ever.....but breaking the law is breaking the law.
Kickniteasy, I agree with you completely that the law is black and white, it states which things are acceptable and which things are not acceptable. Justice, however, is not as black and white. Breaking the law for one reason does not always merit the same punishment as breaking it for another. There is a common psychology study where a child is presented with the following scenario:
A man needs medicine for his dying wife, but cannot afford it since he stopped working in order to stay home and attend to his wife. He asks the pharmacist for the medicine, but the pharmacist demands payment. In order to save his wife, the man steals the medicine. Was he wrong?
Technically, he broke the law. But I think that anyone with any moral reasoning (the focus of the study) would agree that the man did what he had to do. A human life is more important than the lost profit from the stolen medicine. That is why the judicial system exists.
In this case, the guy was technically speeding. But do his actions merit the punishment (cost of fine and potential increase in insurance)? I don't think so. I'd be willing to bet that at least 95% of cars that go 69 in a 65 won't get pulled over due to their speed. I'm sure both the cop and the judge have gone 5mph over the speed limit on the highway.
I think that you should fight the ticket, but be honest about it. That's why you have the opportunity to present your case to the judge.
A man needs medicine for his dying wife, but cannot afford it since he stopped working in order to stay home and attend to his wife. He asks the pharmacist for the medicine, but the pharmacist demands payment. In order to save his wife, the man steals the medicine. Was he wrong?
Technically, he broke the law. But I think that anyone with any moral reasoning (the focus of the study) would agree that the man did what he had to do. A human life is more important than the lost profit from the stolen medicine. That is why the judicial system exists.
In this case, the guy was technically speeding. But do his actions merit the punishment (cost of fine and potential increase in insurance)? I don't think so. I'd be willing to bet that at least 95% of cars that go 69 in a 65 won't get pulled over due to their speed. I'm sure both the cop and the judge have gone 5mph over the speed limit on the highway.
I think that you should fight the ticket, but be honest about it. That's why you have the opportunity to present your case to the judge.
- :
- Protege5 2003
kickniteasy said:
The error bars on the measurement are too big. Translation, it would be really hard to prove that you were really speeding.
Anybody who received a ticket for 1 over the limit should challenge the ticket and demand the calibration data for the speedometer/radar gun used to determine the speed. The cops don't want to have to show up in court with a pile of paper for every ticket they write. If the cop didn't use radar and just measured distance to the other car he'd probably have to follow it for a long time to distinguish reliably between 65 MPH and 66 MPH. It wouldn't be that easy actually, he'd have to be sure that he wasn't doing 64.5 and you 65. If he did use a radar gun he'd have to convince the judge that his hand wasn't moving towards the defendant at 1 MPH.
mine is about 2% off, so going 100, I'm going 102...
I found this out after having my girlfriend's mom telling me I was speeding past her when she was supposedly going the same speed. I figure hers is a bit off in the other direction as well.
What I did was get another person with me, use the trip odometer and a stopwatch. Now, get up on the highway and set your cruise at various speeds and attempt not to change lanes or speed. Reset the trip as you hit a mile marker, and start the stopwatch. Time yourself over 1 mile, 5 miles, maybe even 10 miles. See how close the trip is to the mile markers and how close the time to your displayed speed compares with the mile markers.
If that doesn't make sense, sit down and do some basic algebra and it will come to you
I found this out after having my girlfriend's mom telling me I was speeding past her when she was supposedly going the same speed. I figure hers is a bit off in the other direction as well.
What I did was get another person with me, use the trip odometer and a stopwatch. Now, get up on the highway and set your cruise at various speeds and attempt not to change lanes or speed. Reset the trip as you hit a mile marker, and start the stopwatch. Time yourself over 1 mile, 5 miles, maybe even 10 miles. See how close the trip is to the mile markers and how close the time to your displayed speed compares with the mile markers.
If that doesn't make sense, sit down and do some basic algebra and it will come to you
Just curious...but when you say "the other night" could that have been March 31st? Cops are known to pad their ticket quota on the last day of the month. Since he knew you were speeding, you admitted you were speeding, he figured it would be a quick ticket to add to the books.
If you are going to admit to speeding...make sure you add something along the lines of "I was watching the road but when I saw your lights turn on I looked down and saw I was going 69MPH, I'm very sorry." Can the cop really tell you that you should have been watching the speedo instead of the road? No.
If you get a chance...(especially at night in a rural area)...add "I didn't want to take my eyes off the road because I almost hit a deer the other night." If you are under 10mph over the limit the cop might be willing to forgive you for fluctuating speed a little if your eyes were truely on the road.
Of course, these excuses only work if you're pretty much the only car on the road. If you are caught weaving between cars doing 25 over the limit the cop is not going to give a s*** what you say.
If you are going to admit to speeding...make sure you add something along the lines of "I was watching the road but when I saw your lights turn on I looked down and saw I was going 69MPH, I'm very sorry." Can the cop really tell you that you should have been watching the speedo instead of the road? No.
If you get a chance...(especially at night in a rural area)...add "I didn't want to take my eyes off the road because I almost hit a deer the other night." If you are under 10mph over the limit the cop might be willing to forgive you for fluctuating speed a little if your eyes were truely on the road.
Of course, these excuses only work if you're pretty much the only car on the road. If you are caught weaving between cars doing 25 over the limit the cop is not going to give a s*** what you say.
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
kickniteasy said:
fine, i'll slow down and do the speed limit when everyone else does...you wanna start ticketing for 1 mile, 2 miles over, go ahead...but make it the standard and i'll do 65 or what ever the posted speed is. i will say this, i only speed when 5-10 miles over on the freeway...i don;t speed around town...i even get honked at for doing 35 where i live...oh well!
In New Hampshire they actually have Speed MINIMUMS on highways (usually 45 min, 65 limit)....
...but I think that's just to keep the farmers in their tractors off the highways.
In many cases it is the people going way under the speed limit that cause the accidents. It really needs to be a speed "AVERAGE". as in, you must be within 10 mph of the posted AVERAGE. For the most part in Massachusetts this is true since cops rarely pull you over unless you are more than 10 over or driving recklessly.
Oh, and rebels who dare drive under the speed limit in the passing lane without yielding need a kick in the ass...and by kick I mean rear ended by a semi! I saw lots of those in Florida...people driving 45-50 in the passing lane when the limit was 65. OMGUROLDGETOUTDAWAY!
...but I think that's just to keep the farmers in their tractors off the highways.
In many cases it is the people going way under the speed limit that cause the accidents. It really needs to be a speed "AVERAGE". as in, you must be within 10 mph of the posted AVERAGE. For the most part in Massachusetts this is true since cops rarely pull you over unless you are more than 10 over or driving recklessly.
Oh, and rebels who dare drive under the speed limit in the passing lane without yielding need a kick in the ass...and by kick I mean rear ended by a semi! I saw lots of those in Florida...people driving 45-50 in the passing lane when the limit was 65. OMGUROLDGETOUTDAWAY!
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
OMGUROLDGETOUTDAWAY! (glare) <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
so i get pulled over a few months back, cruise is set for 69-70, statie said i was doing 80!! what, said my cruise is wrong or i'm a liar...good thing it was a warning...there was no way i was doing 80...and i was passed by 3 cars where he said he clocked me (by speedo)
Monkeyballs
Member
spicyzoomzoom said:
The ticket is 50 bucks, no big deal. I'm going to court for it for 2 reasons, I'm a law school student and enjoy this kind of stuff, and 4 mph really is a miniscule amount to be ticketed for. Hell, I'll be walking into the court room faster than my violation was written for. Whatever happens I'm not opposed to paying the 50 bucks if a judge agrees with the cop. Never hurts to try and keep your driving record perfect.
Actually, in many states (mine included) speed limits are not legally absolute. The only hard speed limit in colorado is 75, everything else is a safety suggestion at the discression of the cop.
There are MANY places were it is unsafe to drive the speed limit. For example, where my parents live in texas, the average speeds on the urban interstates are usualy 10-15mph over. Going slower than that average would create a dangerous speed differential between you and other drivers.
On a semi unrelated note, I think absolute speed limits are completely bogus. A ferrari can stop faster from 90mph than a semi could stop from 50. By that token, the ferrari should be safer going 70 than the truck going 50. But, if both cars are on a road with a 50mph speed limit, it is the ferarri breaking the law. Thats not to say there should be open season for speeding. This logic works the other way. There are some mountain roads in colorado where certain cars and trucks should not be allowed to go the speed limit. Ive seen suburbans and the like come dangerously close to their cornering limits on some passes. The point is that speeding should be enforced by a reasonable and prudent standard like it was for a time in Montana (during which accidents dropped).
Well, thats my rant for today.
kickniteasy
Member
truth, and I love that idea......I didn't know that in most states there wasn't a hard speed limit.....I guess I'll keep that in mind the next time I drive to my parents in Colorado Springs (glare). In regard to your comments though, I think it's less about car capability and more about driver capability. Sure, a Ferrari can stop faster from 90, but if there's a 16 year old (assuming he's just learning/starting to drive) behind the wheel that doesn't mean he's safer on the road going 90 than the truck at 50. I'm not trying to start anything, I just think this thread is really interesting and love having some intelligent conversation in the matter. Usually threads like these turn into "F*** those pig cops" threads really fast.
