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- 08/04/2018 at 9:21 am in reply to: Ticket trials suspended over 12K ticket suit in Providence #176696711
John CarrModeratorFederal courts do not like to intervene in this sort of case. It’s a good candidate for a state court writ. When Boston, Massachusetts police were illegally mailing tickets in the 1990s the state Supreme Court authorized the overburdened traffic court to throw them all out without a hearing.
Some of Missouri’s ticket cameras had similar problems. The tickets were misleading and did not comply with state law. But car owners have to play the game the way state rules say the game is played.
11/11/2017 at 10:58 am in reply to: Editorial: WV small towns find themselves lacking the basics #176677346John CarrModeratorSounds like the county should take over law enforcement.
11/11/2017 at 10:56 am in reply to: South Dakota DOT review finds speed zones didn’t always match road signs #176677345John CarrModeratorSo they’re making the law match the road rather than the road match the law.
A few years ago an improperly posted 65 zone that should have been 75 was revealed as a favorite place for state troopers to make pretext stops.
11/11/2017 at 10:54 am in reply to: Rhode Island truck-toll launch postponed to Feb. or March #176677344John CarrModeratorLink is broken.
11/11/2017 at 10:52 am in reply to: Three state lawmakers want cities to have more control over local speed limits #176677343John CarrModeratorLocal governments in New York generally do have power to reduce speed limits. Most cities and villages have 30 mph throughout the built-up area or even inside city limits, no justification required. (Speed trap on NY 89 entering Ithaca, for example, long before the urbanized area.) They can also post “linear” speed limits, speed limits only applicable to a section of road, and are supposed to justify them with an engineering study. A perennial topic in Albany is extending the same privilege to “towns,” which are a distinct type of municipal government. Cities can post speed limits but towns can’t.
John CarrModeratorI can understand that they didn’t build a desert Interstate to handle a lot of water, but it’s basic road design to slope the road so water doesn’t pond in the travel lanes. Maybe the pavement settled and they didn’t bother to repair.
11/11/2017 at 10:43 am in reply to: Missouri city accused of extortion after driver forced to pay extra fee for speeding ticket #176677341John CarrModeratorThe mayor of Palmyra said requiring extrajudicial payment was common practice in the area.
I never bought his excuse for extortion. If you start with an offense carrying a million dollar fine and plea bargain it down to a $225 fine plus $1 extrajudicial payment to city law enforcement fund, that’s still illegal.
11/11/2017 at 10:17 am in reply to: On Cedar Rapids’ S-curve, speed is up but crashes aren’t Now six months without speed camera tickets, data diverges on safety #176677340John CarrModeratorWhen I drive through Iowa, I check ahead of time to see where the speed cameras are. I drive elsewhere.
11/11/2017 at 10:11 am in reply to: Report: Connecticut police stopping minorities at high rates #176677339John CarrModeratorI had a coworker back in the 1990s who told me about heading to northern Litchfield County for a construction job. Black skin driving a pickup truck got him stopped. In that area you have small town cops with no real crime to worry about. In Fairfield County he didn’t have trouble. Being black isn’t unusual, and police did have real crime to worry about.
I believe it happens. I don’t believe these statistical studies prove it happens.
John CarrModeratorNeeds to be quoted:
We hired our own DA and own judge,” Jackson added. “The revenues started to grow and we built out the police department.”
11/11/2017 at 10:05 am in reply to: Those new blue traffic lights in Prairie Village? They’re to help police with safety enforcement #176677337John CarrModeratorIn video and pictures, they seem to be distracting at night and invisible in the daytime.
09/11/2017 at 7:56 am in reply to: Some E-ZPASS users pay higher tolls than cash customers #176676894John CarrModeratorI don’t care about a few pennies. I don’t even remember what I paid on the Toll Road. Electronic tolling is intended to hide the cost of tolls.
John CarrModeratorThere is an older case, probably Cruz mentioned in the recent opinion, that I remember reaching the opposite conclusion. Maybe that one was on appeal from a verdict in the passing driver’s favor. When you put everything together I think the result is it’s up to the trial judge or jury to decide whether your excuse for passing is good enough.
John CarrModeratorWhen I was growing up in Connecticut much of the state was a construction zone. That was not due to an extraordinary rate of repairs. The state left up “ROAD LEGALLY CLOSED — STATE LIABILITY LIMITED” for years after construction finished.
As internet legend has it, the federal DOT suggested to the state DOT that closed roads didn’t need federal highway funds. The signs came down.
John CarrModeratorIs it a county speed limit or a town speed limit? The only 40 mph zone I find using Google street view is in the town of McCordsville. That 40 mph zone appears in town ordinances but the road is described as a county road (“CR 600”). The town may be copying the county’s speed limit instead of setting its own. First step is finding who set the speed limit. Start with the county highway department: http://www.hancockcoingov.org/hancock-county-government-departments/hancock-county-highway-department
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