Fines doubled in construction zones

[OpenRoad]

A general question to all.

I find that no one pays attention to construction zone 55 mph limits. I often drive through CA, NV and UT and all three have PSL of 55 in active construction zones, including signs with "fines doubled in construction zones".

However, the flow of traffic, perhaps 3 or 4 lanes wide and moderate traffic, everyone is going 70. If I were to be crazy enough to go 55, I would cause an accident.

I had this recently in Salt Lake City on I-15 where there has been active construction going on for a year or more. PSL is 55, and I notice all lanes going 70ish. Then, my detector starts showing Ka as some unmarked Highway Patrol car entering the highway. No one slows down. My tactic is just to try and not be noticeable. Become a fly on the wall in center lane.

Kind of a scary scenario as he could randomly pick ANY car and issue a fat citation. I guess my question is, do you see this in your neck of the woods?

While I'm on this topic - does your state of "Faux Construction Zones"?

Nevada is famous for this. They cone off a perfectly fine lane (narrowing everyone to one lane) for 5 to 8 miles, then back to normal. No equipment seen, no personnel. Just coned off lane for miles and miles. Annoying as hell.

[snoopyc4]

I used to see people blaze 70-80 mph through the construction zones on Hwy 6 on the way to College Station but TX DPS upped their patrols in those zones and now everyone goes 55 or lower. I also notice that LEOs are EXTREMELY picky in construction zones; I was going 55 and this woman in a civic passes me very slowly around 56-58 mph. County sheriff was right behind the next hill running I/O K and pulled her over. Talk about revenue generation

The biggest problem I have with construction zones is how does the state of Texas define a "construction zone". Because most construction zones I run into are just construction pillons that run for miles and miles (no workers or construction equipment present)

[danham]

Don't get me started [g]. MA does this all the time, and NY too. Got pulled over last summer on my BMW for illegal passing on a rural road in northern NY that had the orange cones and no work underway, but the LEO was actually a nice guy and did not write me up for the triple-play construction extortion.

And to keep this slightly on-topic [g], the V1 prevented it from being a much worse encounter.

Back off-topic, enjoy your TDI (I love my new JSW TDI).

-dan

[OpenRoad]

The biggest problem I have with construction zones is how does the state of Texas define a "construction zone". Because most construction zones I run into are just construction pillons that run for miles and miles (no workers or construction equipment present)

Exactly - same in Nevada which I added a comment on. I named them "Faux Construction Zones". I was driving with my 16 year old daughter from Utah to California when we encountered those in Nevada. She kept urging me to "just drive in the closed lane". I wasn't brave enough to do that - a LEO could spot me a mile away and I'd be toast.

[OpenRoad]

In Nevada the road crews made the lanes way too narrow with their mondo pylons (Californians don't usually see those type - we have the mini cones), and it was fun watching the tractor-trailers smash the crap out of them, every 20th one was shoved out of place and damaged.

[OpenRoad]

Don't get me started [g]. MA does this all the time, and NY too. Got pulled over last summer on my BMW for illegal passing on a rural road in northern NY that had the orange cones and no work underway, but the LEO was actually a nice guy and did not write me up for the triple-play construction extortion.

And to keep this slightly on-topic [g], the V1 prevented it from being a much worse encounter.

Back off-topic, enjoy your TDI (I love my new JSW TDI).

-dan

I'm considering upgrading to a newer TDI this summer, possibly Jetta. My Beetle now has 220,000 miles on it - though runs great, consumes no oil between changes.

[lockball]

This happens in the Albuquerque, Santa Fe area all the time. They have construction zones everywhere with 45 or 55 PSL and NO ONE drives that slow. If you did it would be a disaster, thankfully LEO usually isn't present so it's rarely an issue, but I'm sure we've all been on that HWY route covered in orange cones with traffic backed up for miles and no workers or equipment in sight.

[2Bolt]

A lot of those zone the folks don't drive any different unless a LEO is sitting right there and/or workers & equipment are close to the lane(s). I generally go with the flow when I can.
On my way home from work, there is one of those construction zone signs and it's posted that the fines are doubled. It's nearly 15 miles of driving before coming up to any kind of construction. Don't make sense to me

[languy99]

just be happy you are not in england, from what I know they put up mobile speed cameras in work zones, so even if no one is working they are still ticketing.

Study: Speed Cameras Do Nothing in Freeway Construction Zones

[bart99gt]

I've casually noticed that ever since such a law was passed in Georgia, construction zones were usually established for the entire length of road (sometimes no more than barrels off the shoulder) where construction would eventually take place, ie., a 30 mile stretch of road is to be widened. For practical purposes, only about 5-10 miles is able to be worked on at any given time. They finish one section and move to the next. However, the practice seems to be that the entire 30 mile stretch is marked as a construction zone, and the speed limit dropped, even though along 15-20 miles of road there's no apparent construction occurring.

I don't have a problem with the law per se, but rather how it is implemented. Some states, such as North Carolina, make the additional stipulation that workers must be present for the doubled fines to be in effect. It gets to the heart of the problem (people speeding through active construction zones) while removing the temptation of bringing in more fine revenue by setting up phony construction zones.