Jacksonville: One of worst cities for speed traps

[thekillingwax]

Radar detectors, folks. Got a passport 9500 and it's magic. To be completely honest though,  I actually don't speed any real amount but the detector makes me feel better if I'm doing 5 over, it's also fun- it goes off and we start trying to find the unmarked car or spotter.

That speed trap that Ralph mentioned- 95/10 slowing to 45 is insane, I've never seen anyone doing 45 there, you'd get run off the road by all the trucks if you tried.

Someone mentioned Atlanta- some of the speed limits there were pretty amusing. I think we were in a residential area of Druid Hills and the limit was 50, school zones were 40.

[Cricket]

Watch out on Airport Rd on the approach to JIA.
After that hairpin curve off 95 the limit goes down, down, down until you are almost at the terminal.
Found out the hard way.

[simms3]

^^^Oh yea...I can vouch for Airport Road being one huggggeeee speed trap.  It never fails.

Via Atlanta...you must have been on Ponce, which goes by a school but is a four lane divided semi-highway with parks on either side.  Atlanta has way slower speed limits than Jacksonville.  Interstate speed limits never get above 55.  Limits and how fast people drive are two different things though   People in Atlanta tend to drive a lot faster than in Jax because they spend enough time in traffic as it is that when there isn't any it's time to go!  That, and people are just busier/more frantic/have more things to do.

When are they going to do away with the speed traps on the way to Gainesville?  Ever?

And be forewarned, as we all probably know the exit to St. Augustine and from St. Augustine is rife with speed traps and cops sitting and waiting.  They're probably more interested in nabbing visitors/tourists, but I've seen enough FL tags pulled over to know they are in for business.

Come to think of it, having cops on Airport Rd right after the exit of the airport is probably the worst idea ever.  Talk about a welcoming party!  It's more like a F**K you and don't come back or we'll slap you with an even more eggregious ticket.  That's how Jacksonville rolls, though.

[mtraininjax]

When are they going to do away with the speed traps on the way to Gainesville?  Ever?

Well, they do hold mud boggs a few times a year, but that does not seem to bring in enough revenue, so if you an idiot, and most drivers who get tickets are, and don't notice the drop in speed, you deserve to get the ticket.

There is no way in Atlanta that any residential area allows for 40 or 50, I know Ponce De Leon, and besides the signage being stolen for scrap, and a stop light every 100 yards, with people turning left or right, without a turn lane, there is hardly the chance to get up above those higher speeds. Most residential roads are 30 or 35.

From the page of "you think you have it bad", I was in Orlando on I-4 at 3:30 yesterday and the speed limit was down to 30 MPH, as we crawled along the downtown connector, without any accidents, for 3-4 miles. I hate that town more than any for its terrible traffic. Its the evil mouse's fault and I would pay ANY and ALL toll roads to escape the free personal hell that I-4 delivers, every day.

[NotNow]

 Its the evil mouse's fault and I would pay ANY and ALL toll roads to escape the free personal hell that I-4 delivers, every day.


Orlando IS Hell!

[Cricket]

I don't have the stats to prove it but I would wager that accidents are caused less by speeding than by fatigue, distraction, DUI, or even driving too slow compared with the other traffic. Most of the accidents I come across are caused by sudden braking resulting in tail-ending and lack of awareness of the traffic ahead. All of which leads me to believe that speed traps are nothing more a means to generate revenue and not to reduce accidents.

[simms3]

There is no way in Atlanta that any residential area allows for 40 or 50, I know Ponce De Leon, and besides the signage being stolen for scrap, and a stop light every 100 yards, with people turning left or right, without a turn lane, there is hardly the chance to get up above those higher speeds. Most residential roads are 30 or 35.

From the page of "you think you have it bad", I was in Orlando on I-4 at 3:30 yesterday and the speed limit was down to 30 MPH, as we crawled along the downtown connector, without any accidents, for 3-4 miles. I hate that town more than any for its terrible traffic. Its the evil mouse's fault and I would pay ANY and ALL toll roads to escape the free personal hell that I-4 delivers, every day.

Well the poster said he was on a residential street in Druid Hills where the speed limit was 50, and that raised eyebrows to me, too, but Ponce is the only street where you can approach those speed limits (and you can, I live here...posted is 35 or 40 but people drive faster than that).  Only when no traffic and if there are no cops, which there usually are.  It has a school zone like the poster mentioned, too (separated from Ponce by a linear park).

Orlando traffic is bad, but still minor compared to the larger cities.  Jacksonville really does not have traffic except for maybe I-10 East in the morning (is that still a crawl?).  Atlanta traffic in Gwinnett County is so bad that they are now tolling the HOV lanes (it's downright bad when the HOV lanes are as slow as the 16 other lanes).  85 in Gwinnett, 75 in Cobb, 20 in Douglas, and 75 in Clayton, S Fulton, and Henry counties are bad, like 5-10 miles of 20 lanes of parking lot for 1.5 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon (and all day on Friday and on Sunday afternoons).

I-4 near 408 in Orlando is its busiest point.  It is projected to see 257,300 vehicles a day by 2016.  The Connector in Atlanta already sees 560,000 vehicles a day (busiest stretch of highway outside of SoCal and Tri-State areas).  I-285 at 400 in N Atlanta sees close to 300,000 vehicles a day, with the total loop having about 2,000,000 vehicles a day.

Somebody may have to correct me, but I believe 95 in Jacksonville has a traffic count range of 56,000 to 172,000.  In Broward County the range is 196,000 to 306,000, 95’s busiest section.  I would guess 95’s busiest stretch is either around JTB or I-295 in the South (Acosta sees only about 130,000-140,000 a day).

If there is one bright spot with traffic, it’s harder to get a speeding ticket! 

[jandar]

5MPH and under is a warning ticket, nothing more. State law says so.

The 95/10 split is a huge trap now, they sit on the ease on the 95 south ramp and pull people over almost daily.

I-295 @ the buckman almost always has a few cops in the median each day as well as State Troopers who like to park on the break down lane just over the bridge out of site until you are speeding right past them.

You also see a cop or two at the base of the matthews bridge coming westbound.

My current favorite ones are the Orange Park Police that like to park at night completely dark and pull people over.

[Dog Walker]

There is an easy answer to speed traps, even Waldo and Starke;  DON'T SPEED! 

See no problem.

[Cricket]

If you are in danger of having your license revoked and you doubt the mph you've been clocked at, ask politely to see the laser gun reading for yourself. You have nothing to lose and you have that right.  If the cop refuses, bring that evidence into court. I was once clocked at 72mph pulling out of a gas station in NJ, an unlikely feat even for a Nascar driver.

[thekillingwax]

I'm telling you, it was a small residential area around Druid Hills. We drove all over the place so I'm not sure where at exactly but there were "school zone" crossing sections and it said "school zone 40MPH" and had little plastic warning signs in the middle of the street. We didn't imagine it because we saw it repeated several times and thought it was hilarious. I can tell you it wasn't a big highway or anything because we used the GPS the entire time and had it set to totally avoid all highways because traffic is a nightmare there. The only thing I can tell you is that there were several new small subdivisions along the road with these really odd looking houses, like something you'd see out of Harry Potter that I'm sure were in the megabucks++ range. It may have been outside of druid hills, I'm not sure- we were coming in from Norcross each day. The speed limit may have been 45, but I know the school zone thing was 40 for sure because we talked about how they wanted to make sure the kids hit by cars would survive but just barely.