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It's not just the Bridge. The roadway leading to the bridge and also the entrance to 295 under the bridge is wide enough for a speedway. If I"m not mistaken, it's actually 8 lanes across. There is basically nothhng on either side of the road except a gas station or two on one side and the trestle for the Metro overhead on the other.

I got a $125 fine for doing 41 mph. There are so many problems with this that I don't know where to start. First, I find it improbable that I WAS doing 41 mph. When I saw the flash, I looked at my speed. I know I probably hit the brake reflexively, but I was at 36 or 37 mph. I might even believe I was doing 40, but I don't think I slowed that quickly to have been doing more. Now, if I was doing a tick under 41 mph, no ticket should have issued. The law doesn't provide for rounding up. Being charitable I might say the camera rounded up. I did a calculation based on my wheelbase and also the graphically-pictured 5 foot hashmarks, and I estimated i was doing about 38 mph, traveling at least a foot and half less between the two frames than ticket necessitated.

Mostly, though, the speed limit there is 10 or even 15 mph below what it ought to be set at.

For what it's worth, I have always thought the same about Porter St, even when they used to post speed trap radar cars in the days before speed cameras. IT's tolerable when police enforce the rules, because they can use sensible discretion to pull the one driver traveling faster than the others, perhaps driving a little recklessly. The cameras have no such discretion.

by Fischy (Ed F.) on May 21, 2012 10:45 pm • link • report