Gig In your haste to jump to the defense of the DPS and PD (which I admire) you failed to note that I framed my points around driving on I10 and I45. Not very many intersections. I'm sure in a munincipal department such as yours there are differences. I don't have any stats other than the power of observation while making a couple of dozen trips a year back and forth to New Braunfels and a dozen or so to Grand Prairie. I've been making the NB trips since 1994 and GP since 2000, but made many regular trips to Dallas/Greenville for many many years prior to that in the 50 years I've been driving. Nowadays I rarely see a moving patrol car unless it's pursuing a violator. They're usually near the same places and where I got my ticket I saw 4 DPS parked a couple of weeks after I got my citation. Between Corsicana and Dallas you can always count on seeing PD parked watching for speeders in "Radar Alley"- all the little cities along that stretch. When I took DDC the instructor polled the class of 30 and all but 2 had violations for speeding. His experience of 25+ years instructing was 95% of his students were there for speeding tickets. You are in a much better position than me to gather stats on speeding violations VS others.gigag04 wrote:puma guy wrote:DPS and most PD are mainly about catching speeders. Public Safety has been relegated to giving speeding tickets.
Stats??? I work at a dept of over 130 and, exactly 5 people are traffic units. They are tasked with traffic enforcement, serious accident investigation, and other duties like ops working people passing school busses. Maybe one or two people on each patrol shift work a lot of traffic enforcement, as time allows, and there are many other stops besides speed. I haven't touched a radar in 6 months more than twice.
Or...the equipment violations which you mention in the bottom, and I'll add: window tint, stickers, LP violations, awkwardly weighted vehicles, CVE violations, and many, many others. Possibly waiting to intercept a BOLO'd vehicle.puma guy wrote:All the PD and DPS are stationary trying to catch speeders
False, parking and watching on a busy roadway, intersection, increases your ability to observe violations. You're less distracted, and have many vehicles to observe.puma guy wrote:That severely reduces their abilty to catch idiot, aggressive, unsafe drivers.
Also false - my traffic unit buddies make these stops all the time. The HID lights are tricky because it is hard to prove, only a certain color range is allowed under federal law, and state law doesn't speak to it, other than saying lighting must follow federal requirements. Color meters are not readily available...puma guy wrote:no one stops the vehicles with blinding aftermarket HID head lights and driving lights, blue head lights and running lights, the yellow and pink headlights, and smoked out tail lights and blacked out windows because they're sitting on the sideline watching for the radar and lidar to light up and ding!.
Not from me, but I'm not really making hyperbolic statements.puma guy wrote:I know this will be a cause for some consternation among some here ...
Speeding has been proven time and time again to not only increase the likelihood of a collision, but also the severity. It is also against the law. Equipment violations make for better dope and DWI arrests, which is why I favor them, but speed enforcement has its place.
To say that one can observe more parked on the shoulder of a freeway vs moving challenges my common sense. You can't observe people impeding, weaving, driving recklessly, tailgating, passing lane violations, etc. unless it occurs in the few seconds at that locale and even then it would be difficult in my opinion.
Physics tells us that the faster an object is moving when striking another involves more energy and thus more destruction but the premise that speed increases accidents is strange since speed limits set by the state have gone from 70 -75, then 55 then slowly back up to present day 75 and now 85MPH anticipated on certain roadways. In states that had no posted speed limits until forced to do so, the accident rates actually increased after setting limits. Driver courtesy virtually dissappeared. Texas would be encouraging accidents by increasing speed limits. Speed limits are arbitrarily set.
I have no delusions that vehicle code violations will be prosecuted, but blinding headlights and driving lights are a safety hazard. I really don't care what color headlights are unless they are blinding me. There are laws about glaring lights. As for color some states have a simple card with color hues on it and if the blue looks the same as white on the card under the headlight beam, Wah Lah! Like looking a red and white checker board with a red filter. I wrote my State representative regarding the headlight issue encouraging him to put it back in the vehicle inspection process, but he didn't do me the courtesy of a response so I know it's not a priority. Vehicle inspections in Texas are pretty lame for actual vehicle safety, mostly about emmissions. If you can't pass spend some money, if you spend enough and it still won't pass that's OK get a waiver. Don't have money, that's ok the state will pay for the repair. It's like carbon credits for the environment and oxygen credits for gasoline. Can't make the grade? then buy some carbon credits or oxygen credits from a source that doesn't need them.
I am not trying to denergrate the officers in the DPS and PD. The enforcement mandates come from the top. IMHO speeding violations have become a major source of income and are the most common violations. However, other violations that truly are safety issues shouldn't be ignored or given lower priority.