Just one of the interesting things you can find on Google’s Street-View.

Here’s the original, live link to the Google Maps webpage.

French policemen along a street in Paris. Check out the funky tricycle motorcycle, with the single wheel in the BACK!

FORSYTH, Ga. — A Moultrie man has been forced to pay a $280 speeding ticket to Monroe County despite the fact that he was rushing his son to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta for a life-saving kidney transplant.

Felton McCant Jr., 59, of Moultrie said he got a call from doctors on May 12 saying that a kidney had become available for his son. Time was of the essence because McCant was called only after the initial recipient was found to be too weak for surgery, said Dr. John Whelchel, head of transplantation at Piedmont Hospital. If the McCants could get to Atlanta quickly, the medical staff said, the kidney would be his.

McCant’s son, Felton McCant III, had been on the waiting list for a kidney after suffering a stroke, having his kidneys shut down and being partly paralyzed on his left side. So father McCant, who’s a veteran truck driver, called his local sheriff’s office in Colquitt County and asked what to do. They told him to turn on his headlights and hazard lights and if he was pulled over, to tell the officer what he was doing and he would have no problem. (That makes extraordinarily perfect sense!) With his ailing son in the back seat of their Cadillac Deville, McCant drove north from Moultrie up I-75.

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In 2007, officers issued almost 58 thousand speeding tickets around the city.

APD is able to devote thousands of hours to traffic enforcement thanks to a federal grant. A half a million dollar grant pays officers overtime to look for speeders and red light runners.

And, it seems, officers have their favorite areas for catching speeders. It’s pretty apparent that the 7300 block of Hwy 290 E is a favorite hot spot. Better watch out, too, if you’re traveling in the 1700 block of Riverside. Do you drive in the 5200 block of E. Ben White, or the 1500 block of W. Anderson Lane? Well, you’re likely to get a ticket in all of those areas if you’re a little heavy footed, or just not paying attention.

Below is a list of the top 20 speeding ticket hot spots in Austin. This list, provided by the Austin Police Department, shows the number of tickets issued in 2007 for the areas listed. As you can see, the first three on the list are really high-profile areas, and are quite likely to be enforced more so than other areas of town.

Be careful out there!

Tickets Block & Street Name

4856 7000-7600 HIGHWAY 290 EAST
2001 1500-2000 RIVERSIDE EAST
1949 5100-5400 BEN WHITE EAST

866 1200-1900 WEST ANDERSON LANE
745 1000-2200 CONGRESS AVE SOUTH
729 8200-8500 MANCHACA ROAD
677 3000 WINDSOR ROAD
674 4000-4900 FM 2222
539 10800-10900 RESEARCH BLVD
511 1400-1800 ENFIELD
477 4300-4500 SLAUGHTER LANE
459 100-400 BRAKER LANE
372 7200-7400 BEN WHITE EAST
350 100 SOUTH 1ST STREET
297 3900-4100 AIRPORT BLVD
290 3700-3900 SPICEWOOD SRPINGS ROAD
270 5300 WESTGATE
254 13000-13800 RESEARCH 183 NORTH
217 2200-2600 BARTON SPRINGS ROAD
205 3700-4000 MANCHACA ROAD

View Larger Map with MORE Austin Speed Traps!

As a result of an upcoming traffic enforcement legal case, I would like to poll readers on the following question.

Please feel free to click on the “join the forum discussion“ link at the bottom of this post to add your comment after you’ve voted. Your opinions are very valuable.

Actually, your comment is vital to this poll, so that each vote may be validated by an actual person’s comment or explanation. If you have previously voted, but not left a comment, please do so. Ultimately, any vote without a corresponding comment will be deleted.

Thanks for your input. -STA Admin

Okay, the poll has been removed, because only one person has made a comment or posted to the forum about their answer. Without an explanation for your answer, and a record of what user voted for what, the numbers are kind of useless. Go to the forum topic on this question if you’d like to voice your opinion.

The question was:

If you saw a person like this, standing beside the road, waving to people, and holding this sign, could/would you think this “sign” is an “official traffic-control device”?

Join the forum discussion on this post - (11) Posts