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.