Advocacy & Safety - Speeding Tickets?

I rode down a steep hill near my house tonight and when I told my wife, I said that I wanted her to pace me so I could get an idea of my speed ( I WILL get a speedo this year!). She told me to watch it, I was going to get a ticket and down this hill it wouldn't surprise me but we got to thinking, how many of you have received a speeding ticket?

Excuses and rationalizations are not necessary, but acceptable ;)


Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV

I had a cop yell at me "15 miles an hour!" from a speed trap, but he was smiling and laughing about it with the other cop that was there. That's the closest I've gotten. I'd call it a trophy instead of a ticket, though, if I ever do get one.

Seriously?

I've not, but I've spoken with a gent who nearly did. Coming down the mountain near here (Big 4 lane road, but not a freeway) he topped out at 50mph. The cop stopped him and said "I'd give you a ticket, but nobody would believe me - so just slow down, please." :D

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Oh, let's see... how about going fast enough on a bike to break the speed limit isn't the safest thing you've ever done?!?

Did it once myself, hit 56mph coming out of a state park onto a highway, back in the days of the national 55 limit. Not a cop in sight.

I WOULD ABSOLUTELY FIND A WAY TO FRAME IT IF I GOT A SPEEDING TICKET ON A BIKE!

I was going 20 through a city park with a speed limit of 15... Cop stopped me and asked me to keep it down. There's kids running around. Didn't get a ticket.

I've heard of a few fellows who have tried to get a speeding ticket over 50 mph for the purposes of framing it. :lol:

-Kurt

I've not, but I've spoken with a gent who nearly did. Coming down the mountain near here (Big 4 lane road, but not a freeway) he topped out at 50mph. The cop stopped him and said "I'd give you a ticket, but nobody would believe me - so just slow down, please." :D
Oh man! I would NOT have let that cop go until he gave me that ticket.

Here in Ontario, Canada a bicyclist can not get a speeding ticket regardless of how fast we are going. They only apply to motor vehicles, of which we're not.
We can however, be charged with something like careless, or even dangerous driving as they don't have the motor requirement.

Canada ... the place just makes sense.

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If you can't make the connection between speeding and safety, I don't know what to tell you.

in my municipality, also in canada, city hall embarked on a 'crack down' on (get this) jay walking and bike speeding last summer. i suppose our police force needs to manufacture some sort of social problem that can only be solved by force to justify their ever-ballooning budget.

bike speed limits on the mups were set at 20kmh -- a snail's pace, really, since many of the most policed mups were the ones with long, straight stretches and a parallel 'fast lane' to keep bikes and peds seperated.

i, personally, never got a ticket and would never state publicly on the internet that i outran a bylaw officer who tried to serve me one.

When I living in Huntington Beach, they started enforcing the 5, 8, and 10mph speed limits along the beach paths by radar. I think they mostly cited bicycles and roller bladers. I don't recall them catching runners who go faster than 8mph (most of them?). I would ride PCH or parallel side streets. I never got a ticket, but I would tell my friends that I would exceed a posted speed limit by a factor of 4 or 5 almost every day.

I knew two cyclists in Tahoe who'd been ticketed coming down Kingsbury Grade, one for doing 42 in the 35 section and the other for doing 52 in the 40. They both had their respective tickets proudly displayed upon a wall.

I had a cop yell at me "15 miles an hour!" from a speed trap, but he was smiling and laughing about it with the other cop that was there. That's the closest I've gotten. I'd call it a trophy instead of a ticket, though, if I ever do get one.

Knock wood I've never had a cop (or anyone) yell at me to slow down. But like you if I were to get a ticket for speeding on my bike I'd consider it to be a trophy and not a ticket so much.

Hit 57 mph passing cars down the backside of Wolf Creek Pass. No cops around though.

When I living in Huntington Beach, they started enforcing the 5, 8, and 10mph speed limits along the beach paths by radar. I think they mostly cited bicycles and roller bladers. I don't recall them catching runners who go faster than 8mph (most of them?). I would ride PCH or parallel side streets. I never got a ticket, but I would tell my friends that I would exceed a posted speed limit by a factor of 4 or 5 almost every day.

Same situation exists jsut a bit North, at the South end of the beach path that goes Through Santa Monica. One section has a speed limit when the lights are blinking. I tend to refer to that section as the red light district.

I was going 20 through a city park with a speed limit of 15... Cop stopped me and asked me to keep it down. There's kids running around. Didn't get a ticket.

Must have been Wash park...They periodically run Radar speed traps there...Have not seen em for a while , however, they make my wireless speedo go bonkers when they are doing it...
Bud

My goal in life is to get a speeding ticket on my bike.

Must have been Wash park...They periodically run Radar speed traps there...Have not seen em for a while , however, they make my wireless speedo go bonkers when they are doing it...
Bud
Cheesman actually. The cop was sitting in his car on a side street with his radar. He flashed his lights at me as I went by, so I stopped.

Must have been Wash park...They periodically run Radar speed traps there...Have not seen em for a while , however, they make my wireless speedo go bonkers when they are doing it...
Bud

you could use that as an argument in court to get out of a ticket if you ever get dinged for one.

hm.

I've heard in some states that a bicycle speeding ticket can affect your motor vehicle driving record (and thus your insurance rates). I want to say Texas is one, but don't quote me.

Pulled over doing 30Mph in a 10 zone once (ca 1986)... Talked my way out of the ticket.

I knew two cyclists in Tahoe who'd been ticketed coming down Kingsbury Grade, one for doing 42 in the 35 section and the other for doing 52 in the 40. They both had their respective tickets proudly displayed upon a wall.

Oh yeah. Those are definitely doable speeds down that pass. Depending on the time of year, I'd be worrying about dirt and gravel in the roadways....

Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV

Pulled over doing 30Mph in a 10 zone once (ca 1986)... Talked my way out of the ticket.

What was your story?


Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV

i, personally, never got a ticket and would never state publicly on the internet that i outran a bylaw officer who tried to serve me one.

Headphones - plausible deniability.

When I living in Huntington Beach, they started enforcing the 5, 8, and 10mph speed limits along the beach paths by radar. I think they mostly cited bicycles and roller bladers. I don't recall them catching runners who go faster than 8mph (most of them?). I would ride PCH or parallel side streets. I never got a ticket, but I would tell my friends that I would exceed a posted speed limit by a factor of 4 or 5 almost every day.

Wow, good thing I've only been on that path a few times by bike. HB cops... so useless.

On the Lachine bike path back in Montreal, I have heard of people getting tickets from police on scooters.

What was your story?

Simple, it wasn't posted... (of course I was 16, on a sidewalk (yeah, yeah, I know), and my Step Father was a rather well recognized local lawyer).

..... ( I WILL get a speedo this year!).




Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV

Boy, don't know about that. Although they were popular in the 70's, I understand most women hate it when guys wear speedos today. And on the Boston area beaches, you might get beat up for wearing one... Oh, you meant... Oh, never mind. :roflmao2:

There is a legendarily steep and straight descent that is known to all the cyclists within 50 miles. Easy to hit 45+ just coasting, in a 35 zone. Ironically, there is a ranger station within view of the fast straight, and I have never heard of anyone getting a ticket on it. I hit 59.6 on it, and a local weekly hammerfest does near that every Saturday.

Boy, don't know about that. Although they were popular in the 70's, I understand most women hate it when guys wear speedos today. And on the Boston area beaches, you might get beat up for wearing one... Oh, you meant... Oh, never mind. :roflmao2:OOOPS. And me being a tightie whitie kind o' guy. TMI.

Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV[/COLOR]

Simple, it wasn't posted... (of course I was 16, on a sidewalk (yeah, yeah, I know), and my Step Father was a rather well recognized local lawyer).


Tsk, tsk. Manipulatin' the system for your benefit. Now we understand where all the civic behavior comes from :lol:


Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV

On the Lachine bike path back in Montreal, I have heard of people getting tickets from police on scooters.

That's cheating! They ought to have to catch people riding bikes themselves.

sounds dangerous. I wonder if any wife has ever struck her husband while he was cycling and she was driving (and claimed it was an accident)

I've heard in some states that a bicycle speeding ticket can affect your motor vehicle driving record (and thus your insurance rates). I want to say Texas is one, but don't quote me.At least in Austin, the municipal court has said that cycling tickets should NOT go on your driving record, and if by some accident they do end up there, they'll fix it.

I don't know if this is a state law or local policy or what ...

Amazingly on my bike I was clocked on radar doing 46 mph in a 35 zone.
I found this guy in So Cal who got it dismissed without going to court.

While out riding one day many years ago, I went 35 in a 25MPH zone. Fortunately, there weren't any police around at the time.

Since then, I haven't gone over the speed limit.

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Speed kills.

I don't think speeding on a MUP would count as a ticket to be framed. It's way too easy... speeding in a 25mph+ zone on the street though... what a goal :)

They can't get an accurate radar return from a carbon bike and a human body. They are just guessing and doing it about an object, a bicycle, with respect to which they have no verifiable experience, so no "police judgement" to fall back on. A wild hair guess is not admissible evidence. They know it, thus the verbal warning is all you face.

The only way they can verify your speed is to pace you in another vehicle (like a bicycle cop in your peloton).

They can't get an accurate radar return from a carbon bike and a human body.Of course they can.

Those "Are you speeding?" kiosk things work fine on bicycles, including the carbon bikes some of my friends have, and they just use standard radar guns (though I'll bet the beam is aimed differently -- perhaps wider?) And in my ample experience, they're accurate within a few percent, though I've seen one person claim that they read almost twice his actual speed (though again, that doesn't jive with my experience at all.)

And even if carbon bikes were somehow invisible -- they're still the exception rather than the rule. Fortunately, they have all sorts of metal on them and these things have no problems picking them up either.

DC commuters that go through Arlington National Cemetary on bikes used to get them. The speed limit is 15 and police routinely gave out tickets.

Of course they can.

Those "Are you speeding?" kiosk things work fine on bicycles, including the carbon bikes some of my friends have, and they just use standard radar guns (though I'll bet the beam is aimed differently -- perhaps wider?) And in my ample experience, they're accurate within a few percent, though I've seen one person claim that they read almost twice his actual speed (though again, that doesn't jive with my experience at all.)

And even if carbon bikes were somehow invisible -- they're still the exception rather than the rule. Fortunately, they have all sorts of metal on them and these things have no problems picking them up either.Actually, the speed signs appear to operate with high frequency sound, not radar. I saw techs calibrate one, using tuning forks.

PS - they are surprisingly accurate on cyclist.

They can't get an accurate radar return from a carbon bike and a human body.

1. You don't need metal to reflect radar. Most materials will reflect radar to some degree. Your frame, your components, your clothing, you...
2. While not as good as metal, carbon fibre is nevertheless a decent radar reflector.

Actually, the speed signs appear to operate with high frequency sound, not radar. I saw techs calibrate one, using tuning forks.

That's RADAR - it measures the speed of the vibrating fork. No sound involved.

BTW, I believe forks are used to verify calibration, and not to actually calibrate the RADAR.

That's RADAR - it measures the speed of the vibrating fork. No sound involved.

BTW, I believe forks are used to verify calibration, and not to actually calibrate the RADAR.More on what they're actually used for and how they're used here -- http://www.pbelectronics.com/radar_tuning_fork.htm

^^^
Cool, learned something.

the max speed on my cyclo comp reads 65.8 mph after I had a little stroll around highway 360 in austin...