Speed limit on Lakeville Highway set artificially low, defense claims in trial that could set legal precedent

An attorney for a young man challenging his speeding ticket with his own GPS data suggested Friday that the site where he was ticketed is an illegal speed trap.

Shaun Malone, 18, and his parents, Roger Rude and Karen Kahn of Windsor, are appealing a July 4, 2007, speeding ticket he received after police said their radar clocked him driving 62 mph in a 45 mph zone on Lakeville Highway east of Frates Road in Petaluma.

Rude, a retired Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant, said if the speed limit was set artificially low — below what most reasonable drivers are traveling — it amounts to an illegal speed trap, which would invalidate Malone’s ticket and potentially hundreds of others given in the same area.

Malone’s parents installed a GPS device in his 2000 Toyota Celica GTS, over his objections, with the goal of encouraging him to drive safely. The device notes speed, time and location data every 30 seconds and records the information so his parents can monitor his driving activity.

But Rude said he told Malone if he ever got a speeding ticket and the GPS data supported him, he would support Malone in a challenge. They say their GPS data prove he was driving 45 mph at virtually the same time and place the officer said he clocked him speeding.

The nonjury trial, which began in July, continued Friday and will resume with another day of testimony in December before Commissioner Carla Bonilla.

The ticket would cost $190, but the ramifications are much greater.

The unique GPS challenge to radar in Sonoma County could change the way authorities enforce speed laws. The case has attracted national attention for its potentially precedent-setting challenge using GPS, which is becoming common in vehicles as a mapping or tracking device.

In court Friday, Officer Steve Johnson testified that he clocked Malone traveling 62 mph about 7:45 a.m. after he passed several other cars in a two-lane stretch. He said he visually estimated Malone was traveling at 55 to 60 mph before turning on the radar gun.

Johnson testified that he’d given four other speeding citations in the previous 40 minutes that morning, including one before he even officially went on duty. He averaged about four minutes between traffic stops. He said he’s given an estimated 500 tickets to motorists in that area over the years.

A state traffic engineer testified that Caltrans set a limit of 45 mph on the entire stretch of Highway 116-Lakeville Highway from Highway 101 to Pine View Way based on the average speed motorists were traveling. He said the average speed of 49.7 mph was rounded down to 45 mph in a 2003 study.

Using 2004 guidelines, which won’t go into effect on the stretch of roadway until the study is redone in 2010, that average would be rounded up to 50 mph, he said under questioning by prosecutor Michael Li.

Malone’s attorney, Andy Martinez, argued that the study improperly averages the speeds on two very different sections of roadway, from the urban 101 to Frates and the more rural Frates to Pine View, where the limit rises to 55 mph.

Philippe Van, the state traffic engineer, said traffic typically moves at 43 mph near 101, rising to about 44 at Frates. By 1,200 feet east of Frates, 85 percent of drivers are traveling at more than 50 mph, mostly between 50 and 54 mph, he said.

Because the state set the speed limit below what its data showed most motorists were driving, Rude said, the area where his son was stopped amounts to an illegal speed trap.

The hearing was scheduled to resume Dec. 5 with the state’s GPS expert.

Source: L.A. CARTER – The Press Democrat