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Re: NMA STUDY



In <3v9env$i9i@news-e1a.megaweb.com> kennystar@megaweb.com (KENNY MORSE) writes:

>Was the key word there RECENTLY???  The majority of the
>California driving public HAS gotten traffic tickets.  My students
>are absolutely, positively a cross sections of ALL OF US.

I have a hypothesis that I would like to see investigated.  My driving
experience in California is in the SF Bay Area only.  The hypothesis
is:

     Speeding tickets on highways are given for these behaviors:
     tailgating, rapid lane changing, and going much faster than the
     flow of traffic.

Note that speed of motorist relative to speed limit doesn't occur in
the list above.  As a very alert motorist, I always watch police cars
and see whom they stop -- and I have never seen anybody being stopped
for merely driving at a high speed.  I occasionally ride as a passenger
with people who complain about having received a speeding tickets when
'everybody else was going just as fast', and invariably their driving
style includes the behaviors I listed above.  (Note:  On city streets
school zone speed limits tend to be strictly enforced, so I will limit
my hypothesis to highways, i.e., either limited-access highways or
roads with reasonably high speed limits and no school zones.)

In other words, speeding tickets here in given primarily for reckless
or unsafe driving, *not* for speeding.

If this is true, then I am very happy with the unwritten rules followed
by the traffic police on the highways.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@rahul.net>
"please ignore Dhesi" -- Mark Crispin <mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU>


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