Local

Georgia Ranks Fifth For Number Of Speed Traps In Nation

November 30th, 2015

A new report from the National Motorists Association (NMA), a driver’s advocacy group, says Georgia is the fifth “Worst Speed Trap State” in the nation, with 603 speed traps reported in the last five years.

“Anybody who drives through Georgia, either visiting or who lives there, really needs to be careful of keeping track of speed traps, looking at what’s ahead of you,” says John Bowmen, vice-president of the NMA.

Bowmen says, according to the NMA, a speed trap comes from a combination of an artificially low speed limit, high traffic volume and aggressive traffic enforcement.

Data in the NMA’s report is crowd-sourced, and Bowmen says the association does not have the resources to check every speed trap flagged by drivers.

An NMA press release about the speed trap report says: “Police departments and municipalities resist disclosing the number of tickets they issue for fear of branding their communities as speed traps. And local courts routinely reduce speeding charges to non-moving violations to avoid sharing ticket revenue with the state.”

Speed limits are determined by state, city and county authorities, depending on who oversees the road.

“People tend to drive at a pace that they believe is both safe and reasonable, and as it turns out, that speed that people drive really is the safest speed to set the speed limits,” Bowmen says. “The posted speed really has little to do with the actual speed that people travel.”

The NMA estimates annual speeding ticket revenue nationwide is between $5-7 billion. Bowmen suggests authorities select speed limits closer to what cars tend to travel and improve signage around areas where speed limits change.

WABE contacted the Georgia Department of Transportation about the NMA report, but received no response.