Formal Portrait
My bright red VW GTI’s dark mascot of speed, “FAST” (shown here) somehow got me captured by a Carrollton Texas speed trap. A speed trap it certainly is. Just north of Beltline Rd. (everyone in Dallas knows Beltline) there is an access road to route 35E (going north). 35E traffic is moving at 60-70 MPH (normal over the limit speed) at 2:00 PM on a Monday. The access road is posted at 35 (the trap) and runs parallel about 40 foot from the state highway. Weather conditions are perfect, dry and sunny.
The entrance ramp is extremely short, less than 50 yards but there is a fairly long blend lane that was added on the highway. So from 35 MPH to 70 MPH is the acceleration game needed to be played when blending into highway traffic.
The GTI is certainly capable of extreme acceleration, but I don’t like drag race blending. So by the time I reached the start of the (short) ramp I had already reached 50 MPH. I was getting closer to matching the highway traffic next to me. The blend lane on the highway 35E becomes just that, a blend lane, rather than a drag strip. This is a safe tactic but unfortunately placed my GTI over the (somewhere) posted 35 MPH limit of the access road.
The honorable Carrollton police person, reduced to the lowly task of making revenue to justify his existence when not making the town safer (I don’t know how they sleep at night doing this), clocked me at 50 as I approached the ramp. I watched him pull out from hiding and turn on the lights. I had no idea I did something wrong or I was over the (safe) limit and courteously slowed and pulled over to let him pass me in the blend lane. Ha! It was me (no, my money) he wanted! In fact I safely stopped on the right shoulder within the first ¼ of the blend lane, no more than 200 yards from where he measured me.
Now get this… the access road is a one way two lane road in an industrial area. There was no other traffic on the access road. (This was not rush hour) The access road is designed for access to the north bound state route 35W. This road is at the same level as the clearly visible highway. It also serves as a back entrance area of industrial warehouses and small business.
After living (one year), working and spending my money for over 12 years in Carrollton Texas, I am one of the salmon caught in the revenue making net of the local constabulary. What a low life job for the cop. He needs to be watching school zones or persecuting bad guys, not monitoring entrance ramps to highways in the middle of the afternoon. I can’t blame him, he has a boss.
What I had done was not unsafe. In my opinion given the conditions at the time, it was a very safe way to enter the highway. The ticket is no contest but won’t make me a safer driver. Just a more alert driver looking for Carrollton speed traps. I also feel a little, no — a lot less respect for the city where I work and spend fully half my day, for making easy revenue this way.
There, now I’ll feel better paying the fine. Oh, and yes… the FAST said there will be a Bavarian curse placed on the user of my funds.