92redragtop
11-14-2020, 11:27 PM
From yesterday's Globe and Mail:
Even when speed-trapping isn’t actively dangerous, it’s usually a charade
JEREMY SINEK
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 10, 2020
UPDATED 2 DAYS AGO
FOR SUBSCRIBERS
It was Good Friday, and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer who’d just pulled over the red convertible for speeding didn’t miss a beat when he realized the driver was a rabbit.
Leaning down to her open window, he said to the young woman in a rabbit costume, “You’ve been a baaaaad bunny.” And then he proceeded to write the ticket.
Funny? Sure. But it was also the only thing funny about that day I rode along with an OPP team running speed traps on the freeways near London. My takeaway was that the inmates are running the asylum, and that the cure is worse than the disease.
That was almost 30 years ago, but little has changed my low opinion of traffic-law enforcement in Ontario, the province where I live. Do police do a better job in other parts of Canada? I rather doubt it – but readers no doubt have their own stories to share.
And by the way, no, I don’t have an axe to grind. I’m not bitter because I just got an “unfair” ticket. My last ticket was almost 20 years ago (and it was a fair cop, both literally and figuratively).
The OPP speed trap I observed that Easter was on a stretch of the 401 with loose-gravel shoulders. The car with the radar gun lurked in the centre median, in radio contact with a group of officers a few hundred metres down the road tasked with stopping the speeding vehicles identified by the radar car.
Now imagine you’re the speeding driver. You’re in the left lane, passing other vehicles, driving fast (though probably still at a speed that would be legal almost anywhere in the world except Ontario). As you crest a blind rise, you’re confronted by a cluster of cruisers parked on the shoulder – and what the heck, there’s an OPP officer leaning out into the roadway, jabbing a finger at you and signalling you to pull over.
Out of the blue, you have to cross over the right lane in busy traffic and stop as quickly as possible on the loose-gravel shoulder. And after the officer has finished his business, you have to accelerate back up to speed on the loose-gravel shoulder and merge back into heavy, fast-moving traffic.
All this in a car that, in the early 90s, almost certainly didn’t have ABS or stability control.
Back in the GTA itself, the shoulders of the 401 are at least paved, so our “protect-and-serve” public servants found another way to promote safety even if it kills you: make speeding drivers pull over onto the left shoulder.
To quote myself from World of Wheels magazine some 18 years ago: “I have stood on an overpass and watched them. Watched as police officers stepped out into the passing lane to stop oncoming vehicles. Watched the mayhem as a car suddenly brakes hard and swerves across three lanes of traffic to stop on the left shoulder. Watched as a stopped driver, now free to go (after receiving their ticket) has to re-enter the expressway directly from a standstill, unable to use the hard shoulder as a merge lane because a police cruiser is parked directly in front of them.”
Happily, I haven’t seen that particular insanity since … well, come to think of it, since after that column was published. Dare I think?
Even when speed-trapping isn’t actively dangerous, it’s usually a charade, akin to shooting fish in a barrel. For example, the busiest speed trap in Mississauga, Ont., is on a busy four-lane suburban road flanked by a mix of shops, light industry and housing. There’s good reason to prevent speeding along this stretch of road.
But that’s not where the Peel Regional Police place their speed trap. Instead, they prefer the underpass. Along this particular half-kilometre stretch, there are no driveways, no businesses, no intersections, no pedestrian crossings, and the sidewalks are separated from the roadway by a stout steel railing. It’s unequivocally the safest stretch of this particular road.
As if that’s not egregious enough, they always point their radar guns to catch drivers coming south – at the exact point where the road slopes steeply downhill into the underpass. Guess what happens when the road suddenly dips? Your car speeds up. Gotcha!
Just over the border in Oakville, Ont., there’s another road I’ve driven on for 25 years. For most of that time it was a narrow, semi-rural two-lane with gravel shoulders, hemmed in by thick undergrowth along much of its length. The 60-kilometre-an-hour speed limit seemed completely reasonable.
Then the road was completely rebuilt. Now it is four lanes with a centre median, with left-turn lanes where needed, dedicated bike lanes and a wide sidewalk each side, and full street-lighting. Meanwhile, the nature and number of buildings and facilities that border the road has not changed. Traffic is still light.
The road is infinitely safer than it was before, yet the speed limit is still 60 km/h. So what is the response of the Oakville police? Why of course, they now speed-trap far more frequently than they ever did when the road was less safe.
Every time I set wheels on the road, I see outrageously bad driving going on all around me, but never have I seen one of the perpetrators pulled over by the police. Instead, they rely on speed traps that are at best a joke – a cynical tax grab that does nothing to improve road safety. It’s all about the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. Speed limits are enforced where it’s easiest, not where it actually matters.
And at worst, the manner in which speed limits are enforced in Ontario actually makes the roads a more dangerous place to be. No joke.
Even when speed-trapping isn’t actively dangerous, it’s usually a charade
JEREMY SINEK
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 10, 2020
UPDATED 2 DAYS AGO
FOR SUBSCRIBERS
It was Good Friday, and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer who’d just pulled over the red convertible for speeding didn’t miss a beat when he realized the driver was a rabbit.
Leaning down to her open window, he said to the young woman in a rabbit costume, “You’ve been a baaaaad bunny.” And then he proceeded to write the ticket.
Funny? Sure. But it was also the only thing funny about that day I rode along with an OPP team running speed traps on the freeways near London. My takeaway was that the inmates are running the asylum, and that the cure is worse than the disease.
That was almost 30 years ago, but little has changed my low opinion of traffic-law enforcement in Ontario, the province where I live. Do police do a better job in other parts of Canada? I rather doubt it – but readers no doubt have their own stories to share.
And by the way, no, I don’t have an axe to grind. I’m not bitter because I just got an “unfair” ticket. My last ticket was almost 20 years ago (and it was a fair cop, both literally and figuratively).
The OPP speed trap I observed that Easter was on a stretch of the 401 with loose-gravel shoulders. The car with the radar gun lurked in the centre median, in radio contact with a group of officers a few hundred metres down the road tasked with stopping the speeding vehicles identified by the radar car.
Now imagine you’re the speeding driver. You’re in the left lane, passing other vehicles, driving fast (though probably still at a speed that would be legal almost anywhere in the world except Ontario). As you crest a blind rise, you’re confronted by a cluster of cruisers parked on the shoulder – and what the heck, there’s an OPP officer leaning out into the roadway, jabbing a finger at you and signalling you to pull over.
Out of the blue, you have to cross over the right lane in busy traffic and stop as quickly as possible on the loose-gravel shoulder. And after the officer has finished his business, you have to accelerate back up to speed on the loose-gravel shoulder and merge back into heavy, fast-moving traffic.
All this in a car that, in the early 90s, almost certainly didn’t have ABS or stability control.
Back in the GTA itself, the shoulders of the 401 are at least paved, so our “protect-and-serve” public servants found another way to promote safety even if it kills you: make speeding drivers pull over onto the left shoulder.
To quote myself from World of Wheels magazine some 18 years ago: “I have stood on an overpass and watched them. Watched as police officers stepped out into the passing lane to stop oncoming vehicles. Watched the mayhem as a car suddenly brakes hard and swerves across three lanes of traffic to stop on the left shoulder. Watched as a stopped driver, now free to go (after receiving their ticket) has to re-enter the expressway directly from a standstill, unable to use the hard shoulder as a merge lane because a police cruiser is parked directly in front of them.”
Happily, I haven’t seen that particular insanity since … well, come to think of it, since after that column was published. Dare I think?
Even when speed-trapping isn’t actively dangerous, it’s usually a charade, akin to shooting fish in a barrel. For example, the busiest speed trap in Mississauga, Ont., is on a busy four-lane suburban road flanked by a mix of shops, light industry and housing. There’s good reason to prevent speeding along this stretch of road.
But that’s not where the Peel Regional Police place their speed trap. Instead, they prefer the underpass. Along this particular half-kilometre stretch, there are no driveways, no businesses, no intersections, no pedestrian crossings, and the sidewalks are separated from the roadway by a stout steel railing. It’s unequivocally the safest stretch of this particular road.
As if that’s not egregious enough, they always point their radar guns to catch drivers coming south – at the exact point where the road slopes steeply downhill into the underpass. Guess what happens when the road suddenly dips? Your car speeds up. Gotcha!
Just over the border in Oakville, Ont., there’s another road I’ve driven on for 25 years. For most of that time it was a narrow, semi-rural two-lane with gravel shoulders, hemmed in by thick undergrowth along much of its length. The 60-kilometre-an-hour speed limit seemed completely reasonable.
Then the road was completely rebuilt. Now it is four lanes with a centre median, with left-turn lanes where needed, dedicated bike lanes and a wide sidewalk each side, and full street-lighting. Meanwhile, the nature and number of buildings and facilities that border the road has not changed. Traffic is still light.
The road is infinitely safer than it was before, yet the speed limit is still 60 km/h. So what is the response of the Oakville police? Why of course, they now speed-trap far more frequently than they ever did when the road was less safe.
Every time I set wheels on the road, I see outrageously bad driving going on all around me, but never have I seen one of the perpetrators pulled over by the police. Instead, they rely on speed traps that are at best a joke – a cynical tax grab that does nothing to improve road safety. It’s all about the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. Speed limits are enforced where it’s easiest, not where it actually matters.
And at worst, the manner in which speed limits are enforced in Ontario actually makes the roads a more dangerous place to be. No joke.