"The money will go directly to fund police services in Prince George."

How about that, the cops are out there taking money out of your pockets because you are speeding and using it to pay their wages.

Kind of like a perpetual motion machine.

And they say there is no benifit from all of the speeding tickets. Man, if they just spent more time on the Hart highway, the city could be a lot better off, maybe 2 million next year. More cops, more tickets,less fuel burned, less demand, lower pump prices. Hmmm I know this just makes sense. I'm sorry...L

If your bitching about the money going towards police services there's an easy way to stop it - lighten up on the gas pedal..make them focus their efforts elsewhere.

Who's bitching?

This money has nothing to do with excessive speed but trapping people in 60 km zones in places like Hixon - I challenge every time I get stopped and half the time I get a warning - remember the law is they need intent to pull you over. If they are using the radar on everyone they are assuming that everyone is speeding....not very lawful....and yet on the highways where people speed and die it is a free for all...

Yeah to the Hart, any speed goes on that stretch. Only rarely do they set up a speed (revenue) trap on the Hart.
metalman.

It's obvious they don't WANT to monitor the Hart for whatever reasons and it has been like that for years!
Trying to empty out the downtown core?
From the bridge up it is nuts if you hit it at the wrong time in the late afternoon!
So where are they?
Having dinner or what?

"How about that, the cops are out there taking money out of your pockets because you are speeding and using it to pay their wages."

Makes sense to me. If people don't approve of their money being spent this way, well, I guess they can stop speeding, eh? Nah. More fun to whine about getting caught driving dangerously.

"How about that, the cops are out there taking money out of your pockets because you are speeding and using it to pay their wages"

I can confirm that none of this money has come out of my pocket. I'll also add that I have no problem with it coming out of the pockets of others :)

Raparee

Who says driving faster than the posted speed limit is dangerous driving?
Thats the message the cops and ICBC try to pound into everyones head. Thats the argument they use so they can continue using "speeders" as a source of income.
I am a fast driver and have not had any tickets for years. I have never been in an MVA where I have been the driver. I have had many close calls where because of my exceptional driving ability was able to avoid others that shouldn't have a license. LOL

So there you have it , folks. Bragging rights about money taken from honest taxpayers. How much money did the RCMP make busting crack shacks? None. Zilch. Nada. Zero. Focus on the money Dudley Doright from errant motorists. Obviously crime pays for the Mounties in the form of traffic fines and crime pays for the drug dealers with the justice system. Just don't speed. Just sell it. More profitable. Be it ever so.

Won't more money coming in from traffic violations (which incidently could be thought of as being similar to liquor taxes and gambling revenues) actually help fund our police to focus more on serious criminal activities? Besides, I would hazard a guess that there are LOADS of drugs and other things uncovered during the regular ole traffic stop . . .

This seems like a reasonable time to respond to Raparee, as I wasn't able to in the Friday Free For All. He wrote:

"Rambleon, if you are exceeding the posted max, you ARE driving dangerously."

I have, can, and will exceed the posted speed limit while not endangering anyone's life anymore than I could driving at, or below, the maximum posted speed allowed. People are given a false sense of safety in being told that the posted speed is the safest one. Often, given conditions, the safest speed to travel is actually LOWER than the posted limit. Sometimes, on roads that are designed to take the load, traveling more quickly than the law allows is perfectly safe, and in some instances- the Hart Highway included, it's actually safer to drive FASTER than the law permits. Believe it or not, if you're one of the ones climbing the Hart Hill at 60 km/h when everyone else is going 90, everyone else might be breaking the law, but you're the one causing all the problems.

I recall some years ago being involved in an accident on a 10 lane highway with 5 lanes in each direction. I was in the second lane from the left when someone entered the 5 lanes from an on ramp and jumped from lane to lane, evetnually hitting someone who hit the vehicle to my right who then sideswiped me even though I had managed to check my rearview mirror and was able to move into the left-most lane to mitigate the damage.

When the bunch of us pulled into the next off ramp and called the police we were all questioned individually about the sequencing of the accident. When the officer questioned me he asked waht lane I was in and how fast I was travelling. The speed limit was 70mph and I was travelling around 75mph.

His reply? how come I was in the second to outside lane travelling that slowly. At that speed, I should have been in the middle or second to inside lane so that those people who wanted to travel faster could use the left lanes for passing.

On the multilane freeways back east speed limits are in the 110kmh range and no one is pulled over if going less than 130, it would cause more accidents ...

----------------------

I wonder if the money coming back to the community pays for the operation of the traffic division ....

One thing is for sure .... there seems to be no incentive to obtain 100% compliance ... in fact, one could say the opposite is true .... there is an incentive to ensure a steady flow of money which requires a balance between non-compliance and compliance.

Traffic fines are far too high. I think there's a difference between getting "pinched" for speeding and getting "bludgeoned" with fines that are far too high. It think it is immoral to hit young families trying to budget with huge fines.
I believe fines in the area of $50 would be a wake-up to a someone speeding .
The high fines are just another of the many sneaky ways the liberals stick it to us. Before you know it the carbon tax will have to be increased.

"I am a fast driver and have not had any tickets for years. I have never been in an MVA where I have been the driver."

... yet. And when you do get into an MVA, it's more likely to involve a fatality... despite your 'exceptional' driving skills.
Filthy, evil police. Leading us to believe that higher speeds result in more fatalities. Nasty ICBC, manipulating statistics in order to prove that very thing.

Rambleon, speed limits are set based on road geometry, roadside development, crash history, and the speed at or below which 85 percent of the motorists are traveling. I'm not qualified to determine whether the speed limit on the Hart Hill is appropriate, but I'm sure that the key to a safer highway is NOT more people driving faster, but more people driving the posted limit.

Speed limits are clearly set arbitrarily low in some areas, and likely for the generation of revenue. The Hart Highway Hill is a perfect example, it has absolutely no problem carrying traffic travelling 30-40 km/h above the posted speed limit perfectly safely. To me, road geometry, roadside development, and crash history must not have been taken into account here. If they had been, we’d either see higher speed limits, or we’d be experiencing more problems on the road Monday mornings. Remember, just because someone has made it the law, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right ;)

The best way to educate speeders to obey the law - which is for the common good - is to hit them where it hurts the most: in the wallet! If that doesn't work, lock them up!

I counted the ticketable offenses made by just one vehicle while going up the Hart the other day: Speeding (somewhere between 85 and 90 km/h), tailgating (3 to 4 possible tickets), changing lanes without signaling ( 4 to 5 possible tickets) - all within a stretch of road of about a kilometer or so. After that the rusty old pickup truck disappeared out of my sight, still doing the same thing, speeding and tailgating.

Laws don't mean a thing to some people and for some reason there is never a police car within sight when it is needed the most.

All this bragging about *superior driving skills* often turns into tearful pleading for forgiveness in a court room, when someone has been killed needlessly by some
person who thought that it is alright to blatantly break the laws of our society.

$1,303,089.00 to the city.....Thanks to all who donated.

Okay, so if I choose to travel at the (ridiculously low) speed limit of 60 km/h up the Hart hill, and everyone else going the same direction is doing 90km/h then I am the problem. So if I don't want to be a problem to those who know how valuable time is, then I have to "break the law" and risk being fined $175.00 So, Rambleon, how does one avoid the fine? By explaining to the wet behind the ears taser pilot that you were actually making the highway safer by speeding? Somehow I don't think they would go for that. Lostfaith, everybody is an exceptional driver, just ask them! I myself am the best driver I know ;), but I have recently decided to try and stay nearer the speed limit for financial reasons, I do agree that in some cases, in some areas, it is safer to travel with the rest of the traffic, above or below the posted maximum. The trouble is, the fuzz, especially the rookies, see the law as black and white (nopunintended) and do not make exceptions for us average taxpaying 'non members'
metalman.

Lots of great comments... can you imagine where the 'lack of respect' the police complain about comes from? I don't think they started out dreaming about being a cop thinking - when I grow up I want to be a tax collector. Traffic infractions are commonly known as 'low hanging fruit', or an easy money maker.
Charging people hundreds of bucks for minor infractions, hiding around corners with little 'lasers' it's gotta hurt them to do it. I haven't had a ticket (touch wood) in over twenty years, just don't speed it's easy, however when you tip over that hill on the highway with the cruise control on and it creeps that 5 - 6 km over, you wonder if that cowboy is there at the bottom just a waiting for that one little mistake.
If there were no speeders, they would come up with something else to fine you for, hmmm how about tickets for vehicles that appear to be polluting?

Metalman
Not everyone are exceptional drivers, no matter what they think.
It appears only you and I are. ;)

Raparee writes..."Filthy, evil police. Leading us to believe that higher speeds result in more fatalities. Nasty ICBC, manipulating statistics in order to prove that very thing."

When the RCMP and ICBC state that speed kills, they are indeed correct.
However something they neglect to include in their stats and stories is the fact that it's not the speed that kills. What kills is, the idiot that doesn't know how to handle a motor vehicle and pay attention to what they are doing and what is going on around them while they are supposed to be in control of a motor vehicle.

What is your definition of speeding?

The police and ICBC can't target idiots that are behind the wheel of a motor vehicle just because they are idiots.
There is no money to be made trying to catch people that don't know how to pay attention.
The easiest money maker is to target people that speed.

Not paying attention IS the cause of all incidents other than mechanical failure.
People call a crash between two cars an "accident".
Sorry there is nothing accidental about the crash, it was caused because some idiot was not paying attention, a simple fact.

You took the words right out of my mouth, Lostfaith!

I've said it before on this site, unjustly low speeding limits unfairly push the guy who WANTS to follow the law into breaking it.

Speed isn't the cause of problems on our road, dangerous, unattentive driving is. Unfortunately, the RCMP doesn't have a nifty fool-proof gun that they can point and determine how dangerously you're driving.

Believe it or not, I think some of our city speed limits are too high! 50km/h + a ~10% aceepted is far to quickly to be safe in many residential areas given the surrounding conditions!

Rambleon your right 50Kmh in residential areas is way to fast. Some people think the street I live on is a race track. These same people live on my street and they fly down the rd past their neighbors homes and kids playing and think nothing of it.
You ask them to please slow down and they tell you to get lost and get a life.

The street over from mine has a playground sign on it.
Never understood why, as there is not a playground anywhere in the area.
I asked the city for one years ago and was told all playground signs on streets without playgrounds were going to be removed within the next month.
That was ten years ago and that playground sign is still there.

"$1,303,089.00 to the city.....Thanks to all who donated."

Too bad they nailed only a small fraction of those who think traffic laws are to be ignored no matter what.

Another million bucks could really assist a lot in doing some pothole maintenance.