That infamous 287

[Rex B]

Halfway between Clarendon and Memphis, going West just before you hit I40 East of Amarillo.
Been through there, just didn't know it at the time!

[OldCurlyWolf]

Estelline has been notorious for that for at least 40 years. I think I remember my dad saying something about it in 63. I am pretty sure one of my uncles mentioned it in the 50's.

They literally used to have the speed limit signs so close together that you had to hit the brakes solidly to slow down quickly enough. The state made them move them, but they only moved them far enough to meet the state minimums. You still have to hit the brakes to slow down between the speed limit signs.

[TXJK]

And the town of Estelline doesn't deny it. At least not as recently as 2007:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA04 ... l3201.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sjfcontrol]

Wow. So instead of FIXING the speed-trap problem, the state just found a way to extract it's own pound of flesh. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

[Reloader]

Not on 287, but I 35, SELMA, just north and outside San Antonio.

[ELB]

I can't find it right now, but I believe in Arkansas the state took away a small town's ability to write traffic tickets because they essentially constructed a speed trap to fund the town. 47 residents, 3000+ tickets per year. It was at least the second town or city in that state to be squelched by the state government for doing stuff like this.

In Ohio, the legislature withdrew the ability of towns of less than 100 to have a municipal court because of abuses of police power, and it seems this was largely aimed at the burg of New Rome, which had a stop light with a 35 mph zone right around it. The cops nailed people as they crossed into "town," which was worth $400,000 a year in fines. The stoplight was also removed by the state, and the speed limit will be raised to the same as on both sides of the village. As soon as the municipal court was shut down, the town's two police officers resigned and nobody else hired on. Local business owners had agitated for the stoplight to be removed (and the ticket writing stopped) because they said people avoided that town due to its reputation as a speed trap.

[Crossfire]

Oldest son graduated from WTAMU in Canyon, after spending 5 years there. We have made that trip from Ft Worth to Amarillo more times than I can count.

We managed to earn 3 speeding tickets during that time. One for son, on for daughter, one for parents. Guess each of us had to learn the hard way!

[SlickTX]

Be aware of Martindale.

Martindale was a speed trap in when I was in college at SWTSU (20 YEARS AGO). Driving into town there was a plywood sign in someone's yard with hand painted letters saying "Speed Trap ahead"

WOW.

I remember that sign well. I remembered it so well that when we were coming back into San Marcos from dove shooting out by Fentress that I slowed my puny little Bronco II down to 45mph in the 55mph zone. That didn't stop the cop from lighting me and pulling me over. Seems he had me clocked at 75 mph. I told him "officer, I couldn't get this thing to do 75 if I dropped it off a cliff." He was not impress and wrote me a big ticket. He never saw the 3 shotguns, 2 rifles and 3 pistols in the back.

I called the town "judge" about the ticket a couple of days later. Told him the whole story and then suggested thay maybe the officer didn't reset his radar from stationary to mobile and actually got our closing speeds to get to the 75mph. He didn't care. I asked him what we do from here. He said "you can pay the ticket or request a trial and you can have either a trial by judge or trial by jury". I asked "isn't a trial by judge going to be me against two people who are relying on me paying a fine for their paychecks." He didn't care for that either. Long story short, I requested a trial by jury and was going to represent myself (probably a dumb idea). After a month or more I got a letter saying my ticket had been dismissed and that there would be no trial because the cop was no longer employed by the town of Martindale.

[sjfcontrol]

Be aware of Martindale.

Martindale was a speed trap in when I was in college at SWTSU (20 YEARS AGO). Driving into town there was a plywood sign in someone's yard with hand painted letters saying "Speed Trap ahead"

WOW.

I remember that sign well. I remembered it so well that when we were coming back into San Marcos from dove shooting out by Fentress that I slowed my puny little Bronco II down to 45mph in the 55mph zone. That didn't stop the cop from lighting me and pulling me over. Seems he had me clocked at 75 mph. I told him "officer, I couldn't get this thing to do 75 if I dropped it off a cliff." He was not impress and wrote me a big ticket. He never saw the 3 shotguns, 2 rifles and 3 pistols in the back.

I called the town "judge" about the ticket a couple of days later. Told him the whole story and then suggested thay maybe the officer didn't reset his radar from stationary to mobile and actually got our closing speeds to get to the 75mph. He didn't care. I asked him what we do from here. He said "you can pay the ticket or request a trial and you can have either a trial by judge or trial by jury". I asked "isn't a trial by judge going to be me against two people who are relying on me paying a fine for their paychecks." He didn't care for that either. Long story short, I requested a trial by jury and was going to represent myself (probably a dumb idea). After a month or more I got a letter saying my ticket had been dismissed and that there would be no trial because the cop was no longer employed by the town of Martindale.

WOW! You got him FIRED!

[magillapd]

How bad is Mephis, TX?

[SlickTX]

Be aware of Martindale.

Martindale was a speed trap in when I was in college at SWTSU (20 YEARS AGO). Driving into town there was a plywood sign in someone's yard with hand painted letters saying "Speed Trap ahead"

WOW.

I remember that sign well. I remembered it so well that when we were coming back into San Marcos from dove shooting out by Fentress that I slowed my puny little Bronco II down to 45mph in the 55mph zone. That didn't stop the cop from lighting me and pulling me over. Seems he had me clocked at 75 mph. I told him "officer, I couldn't get this thing to do 75 if I dropped it off a cliff." He was not impress and wrote me a big ticket. He never saw the 3 shotguns, 2 rifles and 3 pistols in the back.

I called the town "judge" about the ticket a couple of days later. Told him the whole story and then suggested thay maybe the officer didn't reset his radar from stationary to mobile and actually got our closing speeds to get to the 75mph. He didn't care. I asked him what we do from here. He said "you can pay the ticket or request a trial and you can have either a trial by judge or trial by jury". I asked "isn't a trial by judge going to be me against two people who are relying on me paying a fine for their paychecks." He didn't care for that either. Long story short, I requested a trial by jury and was going to represent myself (probably a dumb idea). After a month or more I got a letter saying my ticket had been dismissed and that there would be no trial because the cop was no longer employed by the town of Martindale.

WOW! You got him FIRED!

I honestly don't know the story behind his "leaving" the dept., but my experience has been that you only have to turn up the heat a little bit on these tin-hat dictators in small towns to get them to tuck tail and run. I imagine I was one of many to call bull on this little scam and then the town who's-its, judges, chiefs of police, etc. probably advised this fellow to seek other employment.