Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

February 20, 2008

A Public Service Announcement

I just found out about this website: http://www.njection.com/ . I've added a link on my blog roll called "Speed Traps & Red Light Cameras".

You can go to that site and find red light cameras and speed traps in your area, all over the USA. They are submitted by the general public. I find this to be VERY helpful b/c I do have a lead foot and I "piggyback" on cars that are going thru yellow/red lights (in the places where I know it takes time for the next light to change & I know I won't get hit or hit anyone). What can I say, I learned to drive in Massachusetts, and MA drivers are notorious for their speed and weaving from lane to lane.

Personally, I'm really, really sick of being watched by cameras everywhere I go. We need to change the Pledge of Allegance to read, "One Nation, Under Surveillance...". Or as the Boomtown Rats would sing, "There's someone lookin' at you.....they're always lookin' at you...."

Washington has no state income tax, so they fill the state coffers with an 8.8% sales tax, very high property taxes and aggressive traffic patrols. There are red light cameras all over the place now that take a picture of your license plate if you run a red, then you get a $121 ticket in the mail with a lovely photo of you breaking the law. My boss got me out of a speeding ticket a couple of summers ago, but I have to be a good girl and I usually am on long trips. But when I drive locally, I get in a wicked twist with the inordinately long and mis-timed lights, slowpokes, cell phone yakkers, make-up appliers, mini-vans, Volvos, Subarus, VWs and ALL semi/tractor trailer trucks. But don't get me started on my "I-hate-18-wheelers-and- they-should-be-banned-from-the-roads-between-6 am-and-8 pm" rant.

BTW, my "not flipping people off" goal lasted all of about 4 days....I just cannot help it when someone does something stoopid, or decides to pace the car next to it and not let anyone get around them. I get apoplectic and start running my mouth. My language would make a longshoreman blush. Although I have made up some interesting dirty & swear word combos that are at least amusing.

I used to have a radar detector when I lived in MA and commuted to Boston every day, and that bad boy more than paid for itself within the first month, as I cruised by the hidden State Troopers along Rte. 3, doing about 57 mph...not too slow to look guilty of anything, but not fast enough for them to justify pulling me over either. Radar detectors are illegal in Connecticut and I did get a speeding ticket in June, 1989 on the way home from my grandmother's funeral in New York. I never paid it b/c we were moving to California, but the worst part was my parents passed me and saw that I'd been pulled over. I even told the officer, "It's not the ticket that bothers me, I knew I was busted, but see that car that just went by? Those were my parents!" The cop actually felt bad about it. And yes, I sure did hear about it from my mom when I got back to the Cape too: "I knew you were speeding. You shouldn't have been speeding. See what happens when you speed? You got caught. By the cops and us." To this day she's paranoid that my license will be revoked b/c I blew off paying the ticket.

So I hope you find http://www.njection.com/ helpful for your travels too.

11 comments:

  1. i know that those cameras are just another way of "big brother" watching us...i guess, i just know where and when to speed. for the most part, people in se michigan are fairly good drivers. so, i don't have much to bitch about. i'm less pissed off with the drivers than i am with the morons at the check-out registers at meijers...but, that's for another post.

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  2. lol! i can't believe you only lasted 4 days! that's funny, and that your parents sae you get pulled over! that's even funnier! i'm sorry, i shouldn't laugh huh? but hey....anyhoo, thanks for the link, i'm gonna check o/ southbend on there.

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  3. Kris - that's OK, laugh away! ;) It was pretty bad though. When I saw my parents' Camry pass me & the cop, I saw my mom's head whip around to look thru the back window; I'm surprised she didn't pull a muscle. Cause they could only see the cruiser, till they got right up on us and then recognized my car - which was plastered w/ Dead stickers so I couldn't even use the "I swear it wasn't me, must've been a car like mine" lie either!

    Note to Bobbie: I got bagged on the Merit.

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  4. JoJo, I am SO glad you are driving on a different continent from me!

    I'm always trying to persuade children of the male persuasion that speed does NOT equal good driving, and that women are better drivers than men and get cheaper insurance because they are careful drivers. I'm not going to tell them about you!

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  5. Val - LMAO!!!! Whenever I see a student driver car, they are usually one of the people who annoy me, so I demonstrate to them how not to drive. They have got to learn. lol

    I know that speed doesn't equal good driving and I only save about a minute, but I just can't seem to make myself drive the speed limit.

    BTW, having been to London and seeing many pedestrian/car incidents, y'all don't drive that well either!

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  6. Anonymous2:35 PM

    Your next mission is to find a website with instructions on how to dig up all the damn and blasted speed humps which afflict roads in the UK. It matters not how slowly you go over them, in the end, they completely wreck your car's suspension. I work in quite a small town, and the ONE main road into it has been 'blessed' with speed cameras AND speed humps.

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  7. Have you spent much time driving in Oregon?? Holy shit, Oregon drivers make me want to scream. They all drive r-e-a-l-l-y slow, even in the so-called fast lane.

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  8. Same thing in Canada. I always know the Canadian driver on I-5 long b/f I see his plates. I want to yell "60 means MILES PER HOUR, NOT KILOMETERS!!"

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  9. My brother rarely drives in Seattle anymore, it freaks him out too much!

    I'm a very careful driver. I don't speed, I obey the 3 second rule...You'd hate me :)

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  10. I added one for Burlington, VT a couple of days ago. :D

    It's up there now. It's the one about the exit ramp's red light cameras. Haha. I feel a little evil now.

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  11. Just popping in to say hi!

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