Another speed warning & rant.

[bertvorgon]

http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/lett ... story.html

This ended up getting printed in the Province, which has been edited quite heavily, but, the overall theme is there.

Just this past week, another family was left on the side of the road, after the Dad passed some slow moving traffic on this section.
I also had camped up at Manning for another few days last week, and on the trip back I notice a new section of pavement, with a weird PAVED pullout in one of the blind, twisty sections of road, a few kilometers further up from the R.C.M.P's turkey shoot spot on the Rhododendron section. I can guarantee you that this will be a new spot they will be hiding in, as they have figured out that the twisty's will be a great spot to catch people.

This is just another heads up that the police are being very aggressive in their impoundment of vehicles, using no discretion as to the situation. This is where the law fails in my opinion and is costing people HUGE dollars. Families on holidays are not street racers. They might as well pull the passing areas out, as it serves no purpose now to get by slow traffic, when it just takes a heart beat and blip to go over a stupid 80KM limit!

My original post to the Province:

As one who has witnessed the impound of a family car on the Hope/Princeton highway, on the Rhododendron Flats, this has nothing to do with safety in my opinion. The tow truck was already there, knowing this spot is a turkey shoot for the police and a cash cow for them. After miles of single lane road, this is the ONLY safe place to pass motor homes, trucks and other vehicles that have been going below the posted limit. It is a four lane, long passing area, with good visibility, but, the speed limit is artificially low at this point. It does not take much to slightly exceed the speed limit, to effect a legal pass. So what if someone slightly goes over the limit, then back to the posted speed, it is not like they are racing a breakneck speeds. Why should someone have their vehicle taken away from them on the spot...JUDGE, JURY & EXECUTIONER... right there, then the financial hit. This is draconian at best.

Think about the fact that we have a lone police officer SITTING in the middle of nowhere, plus a tow truck, so we have two assets worth a significant amount of money, KNOWING they are going to make a ton of money that day. I wonder if the police officer thinks he has served justice well at the end of his shift, rendering people to tears on the side of the road, which is what I witnessed!

This past week as I came back through that section, I see another new piece of pavement, with a small paved area done, which looks like it would fit a vehicle. I suggest this is a new place for the police to hide, around a blind corner, where they will target motorists. Then will THEY blast out into traffic, which will be very unsafe around a blind corner? In my 47 years of driving, I have seen the RCMP make some of the most dangerous moves on the road ( NO lights or sirens ) as they too are subject to human vagaries', and as of the not too distant past, have lost their lives over their poor driving decisions.

We need in this Province to make the driving test and education tougher, with some demonstrated skills both in the act of driving and, the mental skills required. Right now we just teach to pass a test.

I also am going south for my driving holidays, as I will take a speeding ticket should I lack judgment in my driving, but, at least I will NOT be left on the side of the road. This past month a group of us spent well over 200.00 for a lunch in Winthrop, WA.,, plus fuel for 10 cars, money that should have been spent in Canada. We will continue to do so, as long as this draconian law stays in place.


the original story in the Province:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/canad ... story.html

[510rob]

A few years ago, I happened to stop for lunch in Hope, on a Saturday of the long weekend. The group of people at the table next to me were four Members (1) of the BC IRSU (ref.). One of them had uniform shoulder ID from Delta, one of them had uniform shoulder ID from [I don't remember], one was from... whatever, you get the idea; the point is that none of them were actually from Hope, yet all of them were part of a "joint task force" that were sent to work in the Hope district, on the long weekend. The town of Hope, BC has a population of 5969 (ref.) so to inundate such a small area with RCMP officers from around the province & lower mainland seems absurd from the standpoint of safety. Does Hope become hopeless on the long weekend, so much so that other detachments must release any spare resources in order to send to such a seemingly lawless area, in order to maintain peace and order in an otherwise out-of-control area? No. Hope is not hopeless, but it is a hub.

Because of the peculiar geographical layout of the lower mainland area (GVRD & Abbotsford & Chilliwack, ref.), all traffic leading between the densely populated Metro Vancouver area and the rest of Canada must bottleneck through Hope!

• CLICK HERE to get a look at the 3:2 ratio into and out of Hope; all provincial traffic must travel through Hope.

So, if you want to hand out fines... (just sayin')

Back to the lunch crowd - the members sat at the table and discussed good spots to hide on each of the five branches; crests of hills they can hide behind, pullouts to camouflage within, blinds to obscure their location. Summarily, there was much discussion amongst them as to the best locations to maximize their catch. It was really no different than listening to fishermen discuss good spots to fish or good spots to drop prawn traps.

I guess what I'm saying is that I have witnessed, first-hand, that same group of police that Keith is talking about, sitting at a table discussing their money-making strategies for the day. This predates the current laws that allow confiscation of a vehicle from someone alleged to have been speeding.


Footnotes
1. The term 'Member' is terminology used within the community of police officers and support workers to refer to persons under the employment of the RCMP and/or their subsidiary services and/or municipal police forces. Any other context of that reference is purely coincidental. To give some context to this, a friend of mine who works for E-Com (9/11) might say "I had dinner with a few Members tonight" but probably wouldn't say "I am going to get shit-faced with a few Members tonight and then we are going to the Swollen Members concert tonight" because that would be too ambiguous.

A good article --> good article

[RonM]

Hey Rob and Keith,

I sympathize with you guys and commend your action in bring this kind of abuse of authority to light. Speed traps as they're called in the states have been used sense the 50's and are still in use here today. In NorCal the public has been successful in shutting down this kind of blatant revenue trapping. Writing an article in the local paper is a good way of informing others and gathering the support and momentum to force a change.

if you really what to go after this here are some things you can try:

Check the Government's Facts.

I'm not sure how it works up North, but you should have access to local highway statistical data as a matter of public record. Often the "authorities" will claim an increase in speed related injury and death as a way of justifying new measures in protecting public safety. Using these records you can see if the government is being honest in this claim. Remember that any number of incidents must be correlated with SPEED, and averaged with traffic numbers over a long period of time to get an accurate measurement.

Request a traffic engineering study
If a local village or city is using a public highway as a speed trap you may be able to provoke the appropriate governmental officials sufficiently to have them force the end of the speed trap. For example, if the speed limit is severely under-posted you can request a copy of the traffic engineering study that sanctioned such a low speed limit.

Again, not sure how it works in Canada, but you can use a “public information request” to force the release of this study, if the public agency won’t willingly release it. More often than not, no such study exists.There may be exceptions, but I would imagine the Candian Gov must require a traffic engineering study to support an unusual or abnormally low speed limit. Even if a traffic engineering study exists, it may not support the speed limit posted by the local unit of government.

Force the hand of elected officials by making your case in the media.
All elected officials give lip service to the belief that underhanded and exploitative law enforcement should not be used as a means to extort money from honest responsible citizens. Make a clear case that these speed traps are unjustified and exploitative and they will be forced to address the problem.

Realistically, you may not force the absolute closure of a trap, but you'd have a strong position to make changes in the rules of the game. Here are some approaches you can suggest:
• Require that any posted speed limit that differs from the standard speed limit for a given type of road or highway be supported by a legitimate traffic engineering study that determines the 85th percentile speed of free flowing unimpeded traffic.

• Establish a limit on the percent of local revenues that any community can generate through traffic fines. Any local unit of government that is generating more than 10% to 20% of its total revenue from fines is abusing traffic enforcement for revenue enhancement purposes.

• Require that a high percentage (75 %) of all traffic fines and related costs be transferred to an unrelated fund, e.g. public safety, education, emergency relief, or such.

• Prohibit the use of electronic speed measurement devices to enforce speed limits that have not been determined through the use of an official traffic engineering study.

• Provide that any motorist charged with a traffic violation has the automatic right for a change of venue to a court of record (from a local administrative or municipal court).

• Prohibit the use of electronic speed measurement devices to clock vehicles within 100 yards of a speed limit sign that reduces the speed limit.

See more at: http://blog.motorists.org/7-ways-to-shu ... CXt5f.dpuf

http://www.speedtrap.org

Best of luck Y'all.

[bertvorgon]

I had a friend come over last night with the Province,,,and guess what...there was another letter there from Dave H., a Specialty racer.

Low and behold, he just had his 1967 Camaro towed!! The cop was even belligerent to the fact that he thought Dave had been drinking, as that would be the only reason he was speeding..put him through also sorts of sobriety tests, and was pissed he could not get Dave on any drinking charges..he had not had ANYTHING...middle of the day with his daughter in the car.

Oh, well...on we go.......Down South........Octoberfast...here we come....

Oh, and I now have a real world cost for the towing and storage for the week in this case...1,000.00

[RMS]

we should protest like the truckers did over the price of fuel. they want to lower the non posted limit to 40k. we should get every car club together and do 30k on all the major routes causing horrific delays that cost millions to show the general public and the scared drivers how bad of an idea this is.

[bertvorgon]

We could make a one day difference, I would need 2 - 3 serious volunteers, it would potentially be a very boring day, it would run like a Black Ops mission, and I would need 2 more FRS radios.. I have scoped out the territory, I have been advised on the "legal" out.....

Nuf said

[jim.nos]

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/ministry-eyes-incr ... -1.1440792

Well it's a start.

[butters68]

i was going to work this morning on the golden eagles on rap south bound, posted speed is 70k everyone is doing round 90k , an fn scouter was doing 60k guess how is at risk . five or six trucks and cars now have to change lanes to go around. , now i'm needing to turn off at next exit so i gotta slow right down be hind fn scooter , semis behind me gotta slow down hard .


GET OF THE ROAD OR AT LEAST DO THE SPEED LIMIT.

[bertvorgon]

http://www.nsnews.com/news/court-fines- ... k-1.628217

http://www.onewheeldrive.net/2013/09/17 ... for-speed/

So, I finally see there is a double standard for the RCMP, this one really pisses me off!!!!

As you can see in the article, he BLOWS past the trap, and has to be CHASED down. If it was not for an officer with some sort of moral radar left, to point this out that charges should be laid, he would have gotten off Scott free.

As it is, he still keeps his car! If the frigg'in RCMP had any moral sense about what is right, they should still impound his car for a week. What a chicken s*#t excuse too, to say he was pulling a prank. Talk about NOT manning up over a mistake. That's the trouble with the RCMP, non of this chimps that have done things have taken ownership of their mistake. Look at Monty Robinson, he kills a kid and gets NOTHING!
So WHAT if he has done some great social work...so have I...and my car would have been taken on the spot, period.
Road safety, what a crock and bull, and he has PREVIOUS tickets for excessive speeding.

Just piss'es me off.

[JordanTr]

In other news....

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-dr ... 1454092837

[bertvorgon]

Thanks for posting that up.

I'm glad they referred back to the original Cannonball, as I was such a fan of Brock Yates. This story also took me back to the roots of our drives today, the B.C. Cannonball's that went from our out of town events, to and from Vancouver.

I loved their moving average speed, more than double ours now. But then, our days of moving REALLY FAST, over DISTANCE, are long gone now......

And, look at today's technology...the days of the FUZZBUSTER are long gone..I still have my ESCORT detector, and radar jammer plans ( we needed a Rob France to build it ). All there was then was K-Band, no laser

thanks Jordan, that took me back to the late 70's - early 80's in a heart beat.....