I think the universe is telling me to slow down. Or, the City of Toronto is telling me: we want your money, in exchange for your disregard of posted speed limits.
Today I received my SECOND speeding ticket in two days. I have officially doubled my speeding ticket count in a single weekend, not counting the two tickets issues to me simultaneously in Niagara Falls, NY, in 2006 which were subsequently squashed in court.
I was going over to the east side again today (are there more speed traps east of Yonge?), accelerating up a hill over the bridge where Eastern crosses over the Don Valley Parkway. It’s an industrial area (not residential), and it was pretty empty, which made me an easy target.
The hill makes it difficult to see any cars, and the police officer was parked in front of a narrow median that divides the eastbound side of the bridge where Adelaide feeds into Eastern as an on-ramp, which shortly becomes another on-ramp to the Don Valley Parkway. The officer told me it was a 50km/hr zone, and I said croaked, ‘I thought the speed limit was higher because it was feeding into the DVP’ (which is 80km/hr or more), and pointed to a posted speed limit sign that was graffiti-brushed. The officer claimed that someone had just sprayed that within the past couple of days, and while he was writing me up I tried to take a cameraphone picture. It’s an awful picture which makes the sign look more like 50 than it does in a car, but even the officer seemed to waver a bit on how clear it was (click on the pic for a larger view). He wrote me up, anyway.
If I were a speed demon I would just pay these tickets and be done with it. Thing is, compared to other drivers in this city, I’m on the slow side in residential areas, obey school zone limits, and go with the flow of the traffic outside of residential areas — which is inevitably clipping along at more than 50km/hr. I don’t think that part of Eastern deserves a 50km posted speed limit at all — even on the other side of the DVP it’s industrial. While the officer was writing me up, cars going faster than my speed whizzed by and drivers were probably breathing a sigh of relief it wasn’t them this time.
Yesterday morning’s ticket was at 9am on the bridge between Bloor and Danforth over the DVP, and there must’ve been SIX officers nabbing drivers — it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I guess three years in Toronto isn’t long enough to know where the speed traps are, and the City is on a revenue drive. Everyone’s told me to get court dates, as it is always worth it for a reduced fine, if not complete forgiveness. When it comes to speeding tickets — getting them, paying them — it seems only to be about luck, and considering all the driving I do the rest of the year, maybe I was overdue for some. We’ll see how lucky I am in traffic court.
Possibly related posts:
- David at 17: About That 55mph Speed Limit In my unpacking, I found this Polaroid of David from when he was 2 or 3 years old and tried...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Ouch, You should go back and retake that pic. Then when you get a court date, if the officer bothers to show up, you’ll have some decent evidence and the JP will likely throw it out. If nothing else, the Crown will drop the fine, but still ding you for the points.
I went to the courthouse today to request court dates. They told me I should receive them in 6-8 months! Yes, I intend to go back to the spot on the bridge with a proper camera — when it stops raining.
[...] is pretty empty. If I ever get a cold, all that happens is I lose my voice and cough. Oh, and get speeding tickets. (I went to one court date in October, the next one is next [...]