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Wolfgang wrote:If the speed limit is posted...and you are speeding...and just because you can't see the officer...how is that a trap?
Just because he's in a driveway doesn't make it a "trap." You not seeing him does not make it a "trap."
A "trap" is when the speed limit is hidden, distorted or concealed somehow and you are tricked into speeding...not when you get caught speeding in an area that is clearly and legally marked. Whether or not you saw the officer is irrelevant.

I define a "speed trap" as one where the posted speed limit makes no sense for a stretch of roadway, such as near my neighborhood where the speed limit is 30 on residential streets with houses and driveways everywhere and is 35 on certain stretches of a 4 lane, divided road that has zero houses or yards fronting the roadway (it's all walled off backyards).

A "speed trap" would also exist if there is a rapid change in speed limits down to an unreasonably low limit, such as some freeways that go through a small town where the speed limit changes from 75 to 35 in a few miles because there is a single stoplight intersection with a gas station and a restaurant, but again, no houses fronting the freeway.

In general, it would be any situation where enforcement of the speed limit is motivated by anything other than public safety.

warnmar10 wrote:

Oldgringo wrote:

TxRVer wrote:I wish they would sit in my driveway and run radar.

Not only run radar but ticket and fine the various folk who zoom up and down this 30 mph city street.

I remember my Dad telling me that he realized he was getting old when his reaction to a speed trap changed from anger at the cop to being thankful that the young punks speeding in the neighborhood would finally get ticketed. He said it as a joke, but there is some truth to it. Kind of like the thing about young people having no heart if they aren't liberal and older people having no brain if they aren't conservative.

I have a stop sign right in front of my house. The road T's out so the sign is literally right across from my front door. I would estimate that, at most, 5% of the vehicles make a complete stop, with at least a quarter of them not even slowing down at all. The sign is not obscured at all, so I can only conclude that people just do not care to follow the law. This is very much a residential area with a neighborhood park and pond right across that same street, and kids frequently cross that street to play and/or fish.

ScottDLS wrote:As long as there's not a "circle slash (police radar pictogram)" on the property which has the legal meaning "Entry to this property is forbidden to police operating radar speed monitoring devices, and violators will be prosecuted for criminal trespass"...

I was thinking the same thing. Sure the officer might eventually beat the rap, but will he beat the ride?

Personally I see nothing wrong with the practice as long as they ask the property owners permission, or at least leave if they are asked to do so by the property owner. Maybe distribute some flyers in the neighborhood explaining the purpose of the practice and letting folks know that they can politely ask the officer to leave.