I was under the impression that State Highways in Texas were 75mph during daytime and 65mph at night. I should have been more vigilant.

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1992 300D 2.5 Turbodiesel 96,000 miles

If you go to Court and show them you have a DL and insruance, they may dismiss it...and if you're speeding was less than 25 over the limit, you may be qualified to take defensive driving and pay court costs.

Most interstates in Texas are 65 right outside of large metropolitan areas, and 70 farther out, unless posted otherwise. State Hwy 249 is not 75.

There are no freeways anywhere near Houston that are posted 75MPH.
Even I-10 West isn't 70 until Sealy.
http://www.traveltex.com/dt_highway.asp?SN=1118472&LS=0

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91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

used plea bargaining or another term is 'deferring' a ticket.

the drill is to talk to the proscecuting attorney. if you have a good record they will let you pay a fine and hold the ticket off your record for a period of time 6 mo usually. then they check again and if you dont have any more tickets they make it a permanent erasure. now dont speed too much til the probation time is over and you are good to go with a clean record. and if you are stopped and the cop runs your record if it is clean the chances of a warning only go way up.

and if you are stopped just dont say much. if they ask what the hurry is just say 'oh nothing much'. if they say do you know how fast you were going? say 'no, not exactly'. and look them in the eye and dont act like they are trying to screw you. and if you act a little like you feel bad to have caused them to have to stop you, that will help. but it wont help to argue. that will just piss them off. oh yeah, i never use a radar detector. any cop will tell you if they see one of them there will be no warning issued. just a ticket. besides i always figure if i had one of them i would always drive way too fast.

the clean record is the only way to keep insurance when you drive 30k miles a year and drive too fast.

i havent been stopped for prob at least five years though. i usually satisfy myself to go no more than 10 over and that passes for not speeding here. in ohio i keep it to 5 over.

also i rarely tailgate, and am reasonably careful (my wife would argue that one) and have never had an accident when driving over 10 mph (unless you count that one when i was a teenager, oh yeah that one too). well not for over thirty five years or so.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Thanks for the tip about the photocopy.

In the UK, the officer will ask you your name and address and then verify against the information at their disposal according to the licence plate of the vehicle.

If the offer suspects something is amiss he/she will give you what ic commonly know as a 'producer'. A document which requires you to produce your DL and insurance documents at any police station within a specific time (3 days -I think)

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1992 300D 2.5 Turbodiesel 96,000 miles

What was wrong with your lane change?

Did you put the signal on, and move all the way over, or did you cancel the signal between each lane change?

Apparently, according to the officer I should have immediately pulled into the hard shoulder next to the fast lane which is a no-no in the UK as it is recognised as the most dangerous place to be on the motorway. So I did use my indicator and pulled across 3 lanes (carefully) and stopped in the hard shoulder next to the slowest lane. He did not like the fact that I crossed 3 lanes in order to stop.

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1992 300D 2.5 Turbodiesel 96,000 miles

I'm a shift sergeant in the adult jail for the local county sheriff. Four out of five mopes who have outstanding felony warrants against them are the same ones who speed, drive drunk, have a tail or head light out, or have expired tags. Anything, it would seem, to scream "Pick me, pick me, if you want to stop someone."
It's a bummer to get stopped, but stand in the cop's shoes for a moment and imagine what the pucker factor must be approaching a new foreign sedan with black tinted windows, rap music booming out of every pore and you maybe can make out three (?) maybe four heads moving around inside. Can't tell for sure until the driver rolls down the window and hopefully doesn't have something metallic sticking out at you in the process.
(Not suggesting this was you, but it can all make for an interesting day on the job)

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78 MB 300D, auto
76 IHC Scout II, 345/auto
66 IHC Travelall, 264, (Not pretty for nice, but Hell for stout.)
94 Ram 2500, Cummings 12v Turbo, auto
Several older 8- and 10-speed bicycles
Too many old cameras (wife sez)

i dont envy you officers of the law.

take care.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

MountainBenz, I can appreciate the pressures that officers must experience, especially when working in a community where firearms are readily available. When the officer approached my vehicle on the highway, he was way back from my window as he initially spoke to me and had his body bent over. I placed both of my hands on the steering wheel to reassure him.

The term I initially used to describe the police was a colloquial one which apparently seems to have much more of a derogatory connotation here in the US. Please accept my apologies if I offended you.

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1992 300D 2.5 Turbodiesel 96,000 miles

I had some "tough" retired cop as my driving test person back a few years ago, he began to annoy the @#$@# out of me with what he was saying while I was driving. If I went even 1-2MPH OVER the speed, or UNDER the speedlimit, he started to act condescending and said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WRONG" until I said "going too slow" or "speeding" and agreed with him. Jerk. I also "scared" him when making a left turn onto the freeway ramp where we were, I finally got a gap in the traffic, so I turned, no probs. He says "Trying to get us BOTH killed???!" Appearantly I should have simply sat there the rest of the day and never turned. Once on the freeway he kept getting on me about speed and such again. I was ready to hit him in the face. The test was in our van, which, is relatively easy to keep within 5mph of the speedlimits without much trouble/work, but its rather "disconnected" feeling when trying to keep a 1-2mph range, it just doesn't respond that way....the diesels do much better at that.

I was ready to ask him "Would you rather I drive, or get in an accident?" as looking at the speedometer that often and making sure of your speed so precisely, is probably the most stupid thing I can imagine, if others follow his sayings and drive that way (I'll bet there's many), I imagine they got into accidents not long after.

Cops around here speed all the time, they sit in places there's not much if any problems, and they tailgate/try to intimidate you. I've never been pulled over, but just this evening another cop pulled the o'l 'ride your tail' technique on me, as I was coming home from school going like 27 in a 25. Its especially bad in that area, known as "East Grand Rapids" home of the richie rich people, the cops there have Ego's to match the setting.

The big thing here in GR lately is a "crackdown on crime and murder rate", they supposedly are working harder to combat it. Ironically, we've had 5 murders in GR this year so far, in the first THREE weeks. How many all last year? 19 We're off to a greeeat start.


End of Rant.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Man, when I took my driving test a couple years ago they didnt even make you go on the highway or parallel park or anything like that, except reverse in a straight line

I remember when I started to learn how to drive I'd get kinda scared and some sort of adrenaline rush when going on the highway because my 300D would be kinda loud when it would downshift and rev to speed up on an onramp. Haha those were the days.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I live in a small town 30,000 peeps. If you want to see police with no time on there hands. I have seen them going through a residential neighborhood faster than 40mph(posted speed limit 25) WITHOUT HEADLIGHTS ON. If you are getting pulled over for breaking the law I.E. speeding that is one thing. Here you have to have perfect knowledge of the law to keep your a$$ out of the preverbial ringer. BTW this is a college town and their favorite thing to do is arrest people for DWUI. I was arrested on suspision of driving drunk as I did not turn my headlights on untill the car had already been moving. I had two drinks with dinner and was still arrested even though I blew a .05( legal limit is .08) and trust me, you are dead sober at .05. I could not imagine the amount of tickets I would have received for doing that here. Feel lucky, very lucky.

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Owen

87 300TD 603 I-6
94 Jeep XJ I-6 4.0 (see the pattern)
89 750il
seventy-two hundred feet above sea level (kinda cold up here)

I've had fairly good luck with on-road cops. In 4 years of driving, I've only been given 4 tickets (All speeding in Colorado). I even got caught doing 85 in a 55 construction zone (Middle of the night and I did not see the zone change). The cop was even nice enough to bump it down to 75 so he would not have to haul me to the slammer.

Oh, and being pulled over 6 times in a week for a broken tail light does not count...

:edit: Oh, yes. I forgot. The time I was ordered to immediately park my TD for not having an instrument cluster in the dash, a broken tail light, a broken licence plate light, no exhaust muffler, no driver door window, no proof of insurance (in the car), and no proof of a drivers licence (Lost with my wallet over Labor Day weekend.) I managed to sneek home through the neighborhood streets and later had the no insurance/drivers licence dropped after I showed the DA proof.

:edit 2: ...and still have cheap insurance from State Farm by having it based in Oklahoma with my parents insted of Colorado by myself.

Sorry, but I think Houston cops are the worst too. Too many times have I driven through Houston, trying to mind the speedlimit and keep from getting squashed by ricers and 18wheelers that are easily running 15-20 over the posted. As best, the speed enforcement is selective (ie done when there's no hot do-nuts left at Krispy-Kreme).

Many moons ago, when the speedlimit was still 55, I was returning home from Galveston on New Year's Day. I was in my ancient Subaru wagon, loaded down with Thing Two and Thing One, their X-mas gifts ets & etc..I'm just inisde loop 610 (this was pre-Beltway 8 days) doing a shade over the posted (58 mph tops) to keep from becoming road pizza and I get passed by two pickups that were weaving in and out of traffic...well over the speed limit! I'll never forget that one truck had a barrel-type BBQ pit in the bed that was smoking like they had Elgin Hot-links in it!

Anyway, they zipped past me weaving and bobbing and I thought to myself: "It would be crazy if that BBQ popped out with those as*holes driving like that....where's a cop when you need one?" Well, I check my mirror and guess what? HPD is in back, pulling me over! What for? Excessive speed!!

I questioned why me and not the two REAL speeders that had just damned near run me off the road and was informed that, if I really wanted to, I could take it up at the station (I had two pre-teen kiddos in the car).

Bitter? Damned right I am; it was the wrong thing to do, particularly so when the real offenders were in sight!

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

i would be pissed too.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.