The State of Florida in the rush to lift the budget numbers has once again hit on the lottery. This time it is the Citizen’s Lottery---We roll the dice and they win. How does this work?Simply put: The citizens and tourists in the Florida Keys come over the environmental menace called the Jew Creek Bridge and its attached “18 mile Stretch” right into the arms of the Florida Highway Patrol. Using their new laser toy, they are snagging tourist and resident alike speeding along the roadway.
What a shame they did not enforce the speed limits before widening the road. Maybe they would have made the road safer and eliminated the need for the destruction of mangroves and the removal of natural habit to satisfy the safety freaks.
That being said, the Florida Highway Patrol Unit is now using the bridge pillars as the state’s newest revenue source. Hiding behind the concrete base of the bridge on a regular basis, the Troopers and their technology are picking 10 cars at time on which to write speeding tickets. Let’s see, 30-35 cars per hour x 110.00 a piece… that’s nice chunk of change for the state coffers. Do not think you are worming out of the laser stops. They are accurate and can pick one car out of a pack. No more sneaking by just under 10 miles over the speed limit.
While the Troopers officially do not have quotas, they do have stats to keep for their supervisors and their monthly personnel reviews. (Those reviews have minimum stop requirements, but those are NOT quotas.) Do not blame the officers; they are truly doing their job and assignments.
Blame the system. Blame the system that designs roadways that invite people to be lead footed. Blame the system that creates environmentally detrimental transportation planning in the name of hurricane safety. Blame Florida citizen’s love of gambling. Blame the state legislators who tempt citizens to roll the dice on getting speeding tickets on state required fancy new roadways that cause already overworked underpaid State Troopers to become Bridge Trolls.
What a great way to send our beloved tourists home in our sagging economy! Give them a ticket on the way out of our famous Conch Republic. Hurry Back. Not.
6 comments:
Ah the Keys. Go on vacation leave on probation.
I drove down to the Keys over the weekend, Friday evening around 7:30 p.m. and was amazed not to see a single cop heading in or out. Normally I've ran into 10 cops giving out tickets on Memorial Day weekend. But hey, I'm not complaining.
How about blaming the driver who breaks the law. There is a reason for the law- your safety. If you break it you deserve a ticket. Of course if you do not exceed five miles over the limit, they do not give out a ticket.
I'm British, so I'm used to speed cameras on pretty much every street. I really hope Florida isn't taking the same 'surveillance society' route we did in the UK.
Save the resource on speed checks and pass a law banning cell phone use without handsfree...
The number one cause of accidents is speed. Maybe we would all be safer if roads were 2-lanes instead of the 4 + lanes that encourage speeding. But then how could developers ever meet traffic concurency to build more? Gotta expand those roads, build more houses, catch more speeders, have more accidents and the hell with agriculture and the environment.
The cops all were directing traffic at Jimmy Johnson's new bar up where the Italian fisherman used to be, about mile marker 104...
Well, I think the police certainly do have things to do other than sit with a radar gun. And to be honest, driving slower is a good thing, but the time to have made the folks drive slower was back when the stretch was a mess. Now they have made it a modern road and it invites a faster pace.
The laser gun doesn't give you any leeway with speed. It zaps you once it locks on to you.
I have seen 3 different police agencies paroling on US1 in Key Largo. There are plenty of opportunities for tickets down there.
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