Website warns drivers of speed traps

When a friend directed Vancouver Police Sgt. Patrick Johns to a website warning drivers to slow down near so-called speed traps, he thought of a mantra not often associated with police work: All PR is good PR.

“I actually like it,” said Johns, adding that his goal, like the website’s, is for drivers to slow down.

Check group’s website.

The head of the VPD traffic unit said he looks at the website every now and then. It correctly, Johns said, points out some areas where traffic enforcement is emphasized, particularly posts from earlier this year that identify intersections along 112th Street, a designated safety corridor.

“Speed trap,” though, is not a phrase used by law enforcement. Johns said to him, at least, that terminology evokes an image of a small-town sheriff hiding behind brush near a sharp drop in speed. A better term, he said, is “speed enforcement.”

“I’m not going to work enforcement unless Joe Citizen has a reasonable chance to slow down,” Johns said.

Asked if he takes exception to areas being characterized as speed traps, Steve Schatzel of the Washington State Patrol said simply, “We just go to work.”

Speedtrap.org is run by the National Motorists Association — a Wisconsin-based group that characterizes itself as a “drivers’ rights organization.”

Dozens of Clark County locations are featured. For example, here’s a description of Andresen Road and Idaho Street, which was added in April: “Cops park on Idaho St. and point a speed gun down Andresen Rd. All you see is a guy standing there at the corner until it’s too late. They write a Lot of tickets. The speed limit is 35 mph.”

At the bottom of each post visitors have two options: “Yes! This is a speed trap,” “No, this is definitely NOT a speed trap.”

The Andresen location received 29 votes in favor, 10 opposed.

“The purpose was simply, and hopefully effectively, to allow motorists to warn one another about targeted areas or speed traps,” said Gary Biller, the executive director of the National Motorists Association, which operates the 10-year-old site. “The more drivers can anticipate what’s coming up in front of them the safer they can be.”

Biller said he’s heard from drivers all over in recent years that cops are less tolerant because of a need to offset revenue shortfalls. They’re giving tickets and not thinking twice, he said. The current speed zone system is slanted against drivers, Biller said, which gets to another of the association’s goals: Lobbying city and state governments to commission fresh traffic engineering studies.

“Speed limits are, in many cases, 5, 10, 15 mph too low,” Biller said.

He cites a rule of road engineering called the “85th percentile.”

“Through a study period you determine at what speed 85 percent (of drivers) were traveling at or below,” Biller explained. “About 15 percent of motorists will go probably a little faster than they should. The 85 percent basically rules what is the safest speed and what traffic flows most smoothly at, not only on freeways and multilane highways, but also on free-standing roads.”

State and local police do patrol some areas more heavily than others. But they say those areas have a high number of speed-related crashes, or have generated citizen complaints about dangerous drivers.

Schatzel said sites like Speedtrap.org provide a solution to a conundrum that shouldn’t exist. There’s an easy way to avoid tickets, he said: “People should drive the speed limit.”

“Years ago, when I was young, I did not always obey the speed limit,” Schatzel said. “I got to a point in my life and the conclusion came to me that I should just drive the speed limit and you don’t have to look over your shoulder, and life is so much simpler.”

A comment on the site complains that on McGillivray Boulevard, between Interstate 205 and Southeast 164th Avenue, “(The) road is marked 25 mph but traffic moves much faster. (I) have seen tons of tickets issued here. Police are here all the time!”

Johns acknowledges the flow of the road trends faster than 25 mph. But police aren’t out to trap drivers; rather, he said, extra signs flank the road to make sure drivers know the speed they should be traveling.

To lower a speed limit, a citizen or law enforcement official would need to request a study by city engineers. Through the study, the 85th percentile is determined and a recommendation is sent to the Vancouver City Council for approval.

“Ultimately, our goal would be voluntary compliance by the public,” Johns said of drivers’ speeding. “A couple miles off here and there … not a big deal.”

Law enforcement officials dispute Biller’s claim the decision between citation and warning is motivated by revenue.

Vancouver police, in fact, break from the trigger-happy ticket-writers Biller has been hearing about. Over the past year, about 2,600 citations have been doled out, compared to about 2,500 warnings.

“That’s a pretty good ratio,” Johns said.