Ticket Arithmetic

What does not paying attention + a state budget deficit + a steep hill + officers with nothing better to do equal? Exactly a speed trap. As a 20 year old driver I have been driving now for close to 5 years. In that time I have prided myself on being a safe driver, keeping my insurance down, and avoiding any tickets. Enter the Officer... I was recently driving back from my girlfriend's house on they way back to the car audio place where they were repairing my car stereo. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon on a clear and warm Tuesday. The store was closing at 4 so I knew I had to not necessarily hurry but be conscious of the time. I was driving on Exposition approaching University from the East in Denver. On this hill there is a semi-steep hill probably about a 15% grade or so maybe a little more. The road goes down into a 3-way intersection with the country club on the right and a residential street on the left.

I was cruising right along doing I would say 31 in a 25 which I will admit is not the smartest/safest thing to do. My mind was going crazy about how I needed to get my deck back and a hope that they fixed it in the 3 weeks that they had it. At this point I hit the top of the hill. I don't realize this and continue to press the accelerator at the same pressure I was pushing it to maintain a speed of about 30. By the time I hit the bottom of the hill I am doing 38. I know this because the officer shows me the radar gun after he walks out into the street and waves me over.

The officer is positioned so that his car is hidden behind a house as you come down the hill so you have no clue that he is there. He is also on foot standing in the shade of 2 smaller trees pointing his radar gun at you. He then walks out into the street when he gets you and waves you over onto the side street where he gives you a ticket. Yes, directly gives you a ticket. There was no talking with this machine, he wasn't even human. You would think that if he would look at his records and run my plates, he would see that I have had no other driving violations on my record (which I think is impressive for a teenage driver) and it would suffice to issue me a warning perhaps, but no I was automatically issued a ticket a 4 point 130 dollar ticket. So thank you officer, for protecting society and doing what was right.Thank you for being completely in human and not even willing to talk to me about my offense. Let's just say I won't be writing a positive recommendation to your supervisor, good luck getting promoted and moved off the beat...

But what are you protecting? Yes there is Knight Academy above the hill about 6 blocks back. That is where he should be stationed because that is where the biggest danger is to the students at that school as they are released after school. But there are no kids playing near the current intersection at the bottom of the hill because there is a big wall there to prevent access to the country club. Isn't the purpose of having those 25 mph speed limits to "keep kids alive?"

I am planning on fighting this ticket just for the account of it being 4 points as my first offense. I am also asking to see the traffic engineering reports for that stretch of road to see why the speed limit there is only 25 when it could easily be 30 and then slow to 25 once you approach the school. I am also going to photograph the whole area and perhaps spend a few of my summer days sitting out there with him standing on public property and having the people he pulls over sign a petition to remove such a blatant source of funding for the state's budget. Photo radar vans are required to post those blue signs stating that photo radar is in use but this guy is able to hide his police car, and stay in the shade and nail people from there? I am also planning on asking where the money collected from these tickets go to and actually see how much of that money winds up back in this officer's pocket. He must be doing well for it's the same officer at that spot not for at least 2 years, my girlfriend got her first ticket from this guy and she even lives in that neighborhood.

I am not saying that I did not break the law. I will freely admit to speeding where I shouldn't have. But according to www.speedtrap.org, 11 states in the US have banned the use of speed traps; I believe Colorado should as well. There are way too many drivers out there weaving through traffic, blasting their radio, driving aggressively and being a menace to all the other drivers on the road. Those should be the people who receive these tickets, not college students who forget to break on a hill in a residential area. I mean seriously what are you trying to prove? I am sure I am not alone and I urge you to assist me in this manner to push our state representatives to put these officers on a location where they will be doing a lot more good to society to help prevent deadly crashes and not just nailing drivers to pad the state's budget.