A Summersville, West Virginia businessman fights back against a small town speed trap.

Fed up with excessive ticketing by the Summersville, West Virginia police department, local businessman Charles McCue is fighting back. He has put up a giant sign reading, “Summersville, The World’s Largest SPEED TRAP 4 MILES AHEAD” to warn motorists of the upcoming danger.

The $350,000 sign marks the portion of Route 19, a popular interstate shortcut, where the speed limit drops from 65 to 50 MPH — and police are invariably waiting with radar guns. Police write between 10,000 and 18,000 tickets a year generating millions in revenue for the town of just 3250 residents.

McCue, 60, maintains that the police are scaring away business. About ten years ago, he banned the police from using his shopping center parking lot as a staging ground for activities.

“I’ll be damned if they’re going to set up radar on my customers and take the money they were going to spend in my shopping center,” McCue told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Despite giving away 6000 bumper stickers ridiculing Summersville’s efforts, McCue is not satisfied. He is planning on installing a second billboard on the other side of town to ensure that everyone entering and leaving the city gets the message.

“We definitely consider what they’re doing a speed trap,” said Eric Skrum, spokesman for the National Motorists Association. “There’s just a few in the country that really stick out like Summersville.”

McCue said the issue was simple. “Thomas Jefferson once said that opposition to tyranny is obedience to God,” he said. “If this is not tyranny, then I don’t know what the hell is.”

Source: (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/20/2005)

Kenneth City, Florida Police issue $73 ticket to woman who attempted to slow traffic in the speed trap town.

An activist promoting slower driving in a notorious Florida speed trap town was ticketed for creating a safety hazard. Kali Gillespie, 68, hoped to slow drivers outside her 46th Avenue North home by distracting them with a flashing yellow light.

Kenneth City police issued a $200 ticket to Gillespie in November last year, but she turned the light back on after a judge dismissed the case. Police later confiscated the re-installed light and issued a $73.50 citation under state law prohibiting unauthorized traffic control devices.

Gillespie is now considering whether to fight the decision. She is known to complain about lax speed enforcement, even though the city has earned a reputation for its harsh treatment of drivers.

“Kenneth City cops will pull you over for two miles-per-hour over (the limit),” a motorist warns on the national Speed Trap Exchange website. “No mercy from these guys at all.”

Source: (St Petersburg Times (FL), 4/9/2007)

Speed traps on the interstate bring a cash bonus to Washington County, Virginia cops.

After the Washington County, Virginia Board of Supervisors voted in 2004 to allow the county sheriff’s office to keep 80 percent of revenue generated from traffic tickets, the number of speeding citations written has skyrocketed. The revenue splitting arrangement allows the sheriff to direct revenue windfall toward overtime pay for deputies as well as a “salary supplement” of $2400 for those who perform well.In 2004, just prior to the new policy, the sheriff’s office wrote 1602 traffic tickets. The following year, the sheriff’s office wrote 10,018 tickets. Most of the tickets were issued to motorists traveling on Interstate 81 with the average charge being 79 MPH — just under the threshold for reckless driving under state law, a charge requiring significant court time and effort to prosecute.

The total amount taken from motorists totaled $516,072 in the first year-and-a-half under the revenue sharing deal. This has nearly doubled the county’s cut from from around $60,000 to $135,214 while allowing the sheriff to divvy up $166,000 of the bounty among his deputies.About half of Virginia counties have adopted a similar revenue sharing arrangement encouraging local police to run speed traps on interstate highways.

Source: (Bristol Herald Courier (VA), 3/5/2007)

Yep! It happens to just about everyone at some point or another. Just when you THINK you’re paying attention, an unexpected speed limit reduction hits you! This area of Martin Luther King Blvd. in Austin, TX has a very short stretch of school zone (20 mph). Yes, a lady I work with came back from lunch and told us about getting the ticket. According to my co-worker, the sign markings are NOT obvious, like they should be. She’s gonna go back later and check to see if the flashing lights are (were) operating at 2:30 p.m.

I’m gonna go by there soon and check things out, myself. Sounds like the perfect place to set up an STA (Speed Trap Ahead) station.

View Larger Map with MORE Austin Speed Traps!

COLUMBUS, OHIO - A judge has dismissed pending traffic tickets issued by a defunct village known for being a speed trap. “Anyone whose driving privileges were suspended by the village are off the hook,” said Judge David Cain of Franklin County Common Pleas Court. The decision affects about 2,000 motorists. Cain ordered the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to remove liens New Rome police put on any driver’s licenses. Those who paid traffic tickets will not be reimbursed.

“I can only act on the present and future,” Cain said. “It’s for the people who’ve had to live with this uncertainty for a while.”

Last month, Cain ordered the dissolution of the village west of Columbus based on a recently passed law allowing the state to seek dissolution of villages of fewer than 150 people if the state auditor finds a pattern of wrongdoing or incompetence in the village’s operation. New Rome’s police department disbanded last summer. Attorney General Jim Petro, who brought the case against the village, said the traffic cases ought to be dismissed because the government was not functioning properly. Cain agreed and said he could not be certain the citations were justified.Source: (Ocala Star-Banner (FL), 8/31/2006)