Top 10 Speed Trap Cities 2006

[StlouisX50]

Top Ten US Speed Trap Cities
The National Motorists Association released a list of the top-ten speed trap cities in the country.

SpeedTrap exchangeThe National Motorists Association issued a warning yesterday to holiday weekend travelers urging them to avoid or use caution when driving through the ten cities most notorious for speed traps. "Nothing can ruin a vacation more quickly than an undeserved speeding ticket," explained Eric Skrum, the group's communications director.

The top-ten list of speed trap cities was created with data from the SpeedTrap Exchange, a site that identifies locations that combine arbitrarily low speed limits with heavy traffic enforcement designed to raise revenue. The top-ten cities are as follows:

1. Detroit, Michigan suburbs
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Orlando, Florida
4. Colorado Springs, Colorado
5. Houston, Texas
6. Virginia Beach, Virginia
7. Austin, Texas
8. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
9. Nashville, Tennessee
10. Fresno, California

[jimbonzzz]

1. Detroit, Michigan suburbs

News to me... maybe I need to get out more

[Cbr]

3. Orlando, Florida

News to me... maybe I need to get out more

+1

[stealthJamal]

#6 should be #2 and # 2 should be #1.

[Kimono]

Why are there no Ohio cities on that list?

[AirMoore]

I would like to add... New York State, pretty much every city. :shock: :shock:

[bunny]

10. Fresno, California

My boyfriend got a ticket in that area 3 weeks ago when we were going down in the freeway. He was marked going 90mph. I don't believe it though. We were going 70. I keep my eye out enough to make sure I know what speed both of us drive at.

[SpeedyGuy]

just glad WA is no where on there.

[ELVATO]

just glad WA is no where on there.

LOL, it just might be number 11 :wink:

[LittleOverPSL]

The top-ten list of speed trap cities was created with data from the SpeedTrap Exchange, a site that identifies locations that combine arbitrarily low speed limits with heavy traffic enforcement designed to raise revenue.

Since this is based on revenue generation (low limits + high enforcement), this doesn't mean that *your* city isn't enforcing heavily. Plus, as Elvato says, it could be #11.

Data interesting to me is speed enforcement Efficiency i.e. Effectiveness/Effort. Let me explain.
Effort: average time spent per day on spent on traffic enforcement regardless of revenue generated (hours / day). It is most likely that several, if not all, of the top 20 cities will also be on this list. This data is probably difficult to get. This is important because it gives one an idea of how careful one should be - how many LEOs are likely to be out there.
Effectiveness: kills to shots ratio i.e. # of targets ticketed : # of targets shot at. This is probably impossible to get. So the next best option is tickets / day. One could argue that this can be skewed in a target rich environment (habitually speeders with crapras/rmrs will make the PD look terribly efficient even with poor traps). This data should be easy to get. This gives one a good idea of how good they are it - highly efficient LEOs will be really good to avoid as they probably use a lot of techniques to 'own' the speeder and less likely to let off.
Efficiency: Simple. Effectiveness / Effort = tickets / hour.

Another consideration is Profitability (ticket revenue / total budget), which is what the PD mgmt will look at. This becomes the 'encouragement' for traffic enforcement in spite of other more pressing/urgent but revenue-losing activities.

What do you guys think? Are there any other factors that need to be added? Or am I totally off course here?