Asbury Park Press carried a particularly amusing letter-to-the-editor today — the story of one woman who was brave enough to obey the freshly lowered 55-mph speed limit on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

The Parkway speed limit is 65-mph starting from the border at New York, but proceeding farther south, the limit drops to 55-mph.  Recently, the 55-mph limit was extended farther north.  As anyone whose ever driven on the Garden State Parkway can attest, 75-mph-plus speeds are routine if not “too slow” to some of the more aggressive drivers.

NMA says a speed trap is where “the speed limit is grossly underposted and universally ignored. Traffic is moving safely and expeditiously, but not legally. … As fast as the pen can be applied to paper, driver after driver is issued a speeding ticket that results in exorbitant fines, points on their driver’s licenses and insurance surcharges.” The NMA, established 25 years ago to fight the 55-m.p.h. speed limit that was lifted in 1995, “believes in freedom and responsibility to make choices, not in ‘one size fits all’ legislation, ticket cameras, unfair driving taxes, revenue-motivated traffic courts and speed traps.”

The whole nation could be a speed trap

Two safety experts ticketed for speeding in Ann Arbor this year are urging a judge to dismiss the citations, arguing that the city’s speed limits are unsafe and illegal under state law.  They did not argue that a statute allows a city to supersede state law in setting limits. But they did assert that “the only logical method for determining a safe speed limit on an urban roadway … under the jurisdiction of a local authority like the city of Ann Arbor is to allow that local authority to make individualized determinations based on the recommendations of its traffic engineers.”

Safety experts fight tickets

Galveston police will use new speed guns to issue speeding tickets to motorists in locations where the limits are posted so low that, in at least one case, 96 percent of motorists drive in perfect safety by ignoring it. In effect, the guns give local officers a license to write an expensive citation and hand it to any motorist of their choosing.

Texas: Federal Gas Tax Money Enforces Illegal Speed Limit

Some of the sidestreets you drive on, and the city streets you travel, have unsafe speed limits. They may be too low.

Unsafe at low speed