Pointless exercise

[taranaki]

So I'm driving home at 2.30 on a Sunday afternoon down the coast road on a glorious day.The road is deserted,I've just hit a long smooth stretch,completely re-aligned and recambered 6 months ago,and I'm in a [relatively]late model car in top condition.If I chose to floor it,I could push this pony up to 200km/h and then some, but no. I'll drive conservatively despite having near-perfect conditions....I'm rolling quite happily thinking 'life is good', and the cop crests the hill coming towards me.I look down to check my speed...a little over the mark,but given the conditions,perfectly safe.before I can lift my foot off sufficiently to make the neccesary adjustment,he's got his lights on.

I pull over before he's level with me,and he u-turns behind me...he's polite and efficient,and less than four minutes later,I'm on my way,$80 out of pocket and pissed off.For the heinous crime of driving to the conditions,I have received the first points against my license since the points system was introduced.The pen-pusher doesn't even bother to try and preach to me as he fills out the form,it's quite obvious that this ticket is for his benefit,not mine.

At this rate,I will have to be careful....I will have accumulated enough offences to warrant suspension in about 50 years' time.A piddling little fine,for a pointless offence, not even worth trying to argue with the plod because he has his quota to fill and easy targets like me are too good to pass up.Where was plod when my wife was driving cautiously through the gorge,and some clown passed her on a blind bend? Where was P.C.Taxman when the Hilux with a broken headlight and four hoons on the flatbed failed to pull up at the giveway line,forcing me to drive a chicane into oncoming traffic?Nah...he's too busy.The current obsession with speed cameras and patrol quotas means that if he's having a hard time finding the idiots on the road,then he has to tax the motorists who drive to the defacto speed limit,rather than the official one.

15 km/h over the limit.3 hours overtime out of pocket.and like 90% of New Zealand motorists,I 'broke the law' several times in the course of my 400km journey.Works out to about the same as my fuel bill for the weekend.Or to put it another way, about 1 cent for every occasion that I 'broke the law' since I last got pulled up.I don't see it as a fine,it's good old fashioned quota beaurocracy.

The lack of intelligence in applying the rules will remain with me far longer than the inconvenience of the feeble punishment.The stupidity of spending millions on alignment improvements only to punish those who drive to the conditions will remain in my mind far longer than any smug suggestion that I should drive to the letter of the law.And you can bet your ass that at some stage tomorrow,I'll be driving within the capabilities of my car,but beyond the limit that some clown set twenty years ago.

Have a nice day mr policeman.Or better still,catch some of the worst drivers on the road,so that I can.

[tazdev]

agreed


it is getting beyond a joke. And they have the consistancy of lumpy custard when it comes to who gets ticketed and who gets a warning

[taranaki]

People still get warnings up your way?

[Oz]

Highway Patrol - I'd rather be a parking officer.

[blindside.AMG]

Maybe you should just follow the posted speed limits next time. That's what I always do.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by blindside.AMG

Maybe you should just follow the posted speed limits next time. That's what I always do.

I'd have every SUVfrom here to Auckland backed up behind me if I stuck to the posted limit on the open road.Defacto limit is far safer.

[Ssom]

Drive a Civic on 14's with Granny hubcaps, I drove past a cop while being 20Km/h (Though at the rate I was slowing down, I would have been about 12 km/h over by the time I got in range of any radar equipment) over the limit yesterday, I thought I was toast, but the cop didn't even attempt to flag me down, must have filled his quota and I was late. I got lucky, I suppose.

I say it's time Cops started getting tough on bus drivers- they are the biggest danger on any road- Cutting off little cars like mine without an indicator when leaving a stop. Either that or people who blow the give way rule and red light runners.


15 Km/h seems unworthy of the cops time...

[carnut]

You're a "quota victim" as you have posted. My son had a same situation many months ago. He leaves for work at 5 a.m., no one on the street but him, 50 mph stretch up a long hill. A patrol car with two officers in it pull him over for speeding. My son said he didn't know how fast he was going, and the officer said she didn't know either, but that she had to speed up to catch up to him from her parked spot on a side street.....Duh, basic common sense, if she drove the speed limit she wouldn't have caught up to him.

[91300zxtt]

dude you were going 15 over. you really shouldnt go anything over 7 over in perfect conditions or it could be your ass. that was not a cop meeting his quota, sorry, you were at fault.

[93rollaracer]

15 kph=something like 7-10 mph and cops around here let you get away with 15mph over if they're not meeting their quota. you definitely got screwed over on that one.

[91300zxtt]

haha, this is hilarious. cops dont pull people over to meet their quota.

also if the posted speed limit was say 60km/h and he was going 75km/h you knew the limit, but you still decided to go 15 over regaurdless of what the conversion is from mph to kph.

and most cops anywhere unless they arent clocking you will pull anyone over going 15 over

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by 91300zxtt

haha, this is hilarious. cops dont pull people over to meet their quota.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive....13727940.html

http://xtramsn.co.nz/motoring/0,,6304-2612440,00.html

and from a [i]police forum..[i]


http://pub44.bravenet.com/forum/3743151790/show/34022

[91300zxtt]

Originally Posted by taranaki

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive....13727940.html

http://xtramsn.co.nz/motoring/0,,6304-2612440,00.html

and from a [i]police forum..[i]


http://pub44.bravenet.com/forum/3743151790/show/34022

i like the police forum one. do you know why he did this? not only to show his officers, but to enforce the law. by his actions he is saying if you speed you will be caught and there will be consequences. this is known as deterrence.

also the other 2 sites were made just because the ppl who got caught were pissed because they got caught. they thought they could get away with everything by saying why dont you go catch the real bad guys and let me speed so i can slam into a family of four tonight. i deal with this crap everynight where i work. i am an usher and ppl decide they can stand in the aisles while other people payed for decent seats, not to be obstructed because some jerk decides hes smarter than everyone else. HEY come on man, leave me alone why dont you go bust someone else sim not hurting anyone by standing hear. you just got a powertrip man. i deal with this crap everynight, so sites like those make me laugh.

So let me reinforce this, the police are not out to get you unless you break the law. had you been going the speed limit none of this would have happened, but since you decided you were much smarter than everyone else on the road that you wouldnt get caught next time be ready to be caught and the punishment.

and im sorry taranaki, i am not meaning this to be a personal attack, but rather your experience as an example for everyone in general. sorr if it comes off as a personal attack at you

[Oz]

15 over is difficult as a hard and fast rule. If I was going, say 123km/h in a 110km/h zone, it is far more acceptable to be going nearly 15k over compared to 55 in a 40 (usually school) zone.

[2strokebloke]

cops dont pull people over to meet their quota.

That's one of the funniest things I have ever read. Anyway, the fact remains that Taranaki was speeding on public roads... hmmmm, like a street racer?