HOW CITIES ROB YOU

On the 20^th day of January 2004, the Powder Springs City Council along with Mayor Pat Vaughn passed a resolution to reduce the speed limit on Marietta Street going through Powder Springs from 35 mph to 25 mph. To review a copy of this resolution acquired through Georgia’s open records act, CLICK HERE.

Georgia law under OCGA40-6-183 gives legal authority for the Powder Springs city council to reduce a speed limit within its jurisdiction, BUT ONLY based on a traffic and engineering investigation.

In other documents (CLICK HERE) obtained through Georgia’s open records act, the Georgia Department of Transportation wrote in a letter to the Powder Springs governing officials that they would approve the lower speed limit to be added to the Powder Springs speed detection device permit for enforcement, BUT THIS DID NOT RELIEVE THE CITY OF ITS OBLIGATION under OCGA 40-6-183. In other words, the DOT was informing the city of Powder Springs of its legal obligation to do the required traffic and engineering investigation required by Georgia law to justify the lowered speed limit.

Georgia law and Federal law require all cities and counties to justify speed limits based on Traffic and Engineering investigations. PERIOD. This is not even debatable. This is to prevent cities and counties from doing EXACTLY what Powder Springs did in this very case. Powder Springs simply picked an arbitrary and capricious number (25) out of thin air, posted it on new speed limit signs and started milking the public.

The US Constitution and due process do not allow for laws that are arbitrary and capricious, or in other words, laws not based on FACT.

The city of Powder Springs was NEVER able to produce to me, under an open records request, the required traffic and engineering survey to justify this new reduction in a speed limit, because at the time, they never did one.

I sent numerous letters to Powder Springs' officials and the police chief in regards to this issue. I eventually got an email reply from their city attorney Ray Buday that he would look into it.

Later, look what these carnivores did. They later attempted to do the required traffic and engineering survey after the fact. One of the required elements of a traffic and engineering survey to justify a speed limit (required by federal law) is a measurement of the free flowing speed of traffic.

BOTH Georgia and Federal law require speed limits to be based on the 85^th percentile measured speed of what the average motorists are traveling on a road. A qualified traffic engineer, not just any engineer, is supposed to do this and it is known as a “speed survey.” The speed survey should then be used to determine the applicable posted speed limit. All of this is explained in detail in our CFR Defense chapter on our CD.

Later I noticed the city of Powder Springs “fudging the speed survey numbers.” They set up their speed survey equipment in a location to give an artificially lower 85^th percentile average speed. You will notice in the picture below they located their speed-measuring device on an uphill approach to a known traffic light in a construction zone NEXT TO A 25 MPH speed limit sign. All of these factors will, of course, result in an artificially lower 85^th percentile measured average speed and these carnivores get away with robbing you.

Any qualified traffic engineer will tell you that speed-measuring equipment should never be placed in the area that will give the lowest average speed.

The above photo is an excellent example of a mobile radar survey device being utilized to justify an artificially low speed limit. This photo was made on April 6, 2005, on Marietta Street inside the city limits of Powder Springs. Note the problems with this radar survey set-up.

On the UPHILL side of the road approaching a traffic light. (Obviously, the average speed of traffic going uphill approaching a traffic light will be slower than the average speed of traffic going downhill away from a traffic light.)
Placed in an ongoing construction zone. (The construction zone speaks for itself. This zone did not even exist when the city reduced the speed limit from 35 to 25 in January 2004.)
Placed next to a speed limit sign. (This in itself will artificially lower the speed limit. This speed limit sign should be covered during this survey.)

This is a “classic” example of how a city can set up the speed survey equipment to get artificially low average 85^th percentile speeds. The computer inside the mobile survey device records all the traffic speed data. Even though the survey (on paper) may look like it was done in the same area of the street, or even the same hundred block, it may be invalid for the section where the radar or laser was actually used.

Question: Guess where the Powder Springs police set up their laser/radar equipment while doing speed enforcement?

Answer: On the opposite side of the road, one block south catching alleged speeders coming DOWN the hill leaving the traffic light.

This allows the Powder Springs police officers to "duck shoot" nearly everyone who comes through this "trap." I know it sounds underhanded, but it is the truth. Many radar enforcement sites are set up this way. The police term for a place where many tickets can be easily written like this is called a "cherry patch."

To a judge, who only sees the ticket in court, it all sounds quite legitimate, but it is not. This trap was being used the night of May 28, 2004, when I came through town at 3:30 am in the morning, and I was the ONLY car on the road. At that time, the road construction had not even begun. Here, over a year later, the city finally surveys the street (obviously in response to my charges) and look how they do it.

You should become at least somewhat familiar with the street where you got your ticket, and the hundred blocks near the area where you were ticketed. This is much easier if you will get a copy of the speed survey before going to court.

Methods of obtaining these surveys are covered in detail in the public records request FILE FOLDER on our CD. Find out exactly where the survey was conducted, including the hundred block, and on which side of the street. Then compare the survey site to the enforcement site, the place the officer was using radar when you got your ticket.

The most important point is that there is usually at least one significant difference between the conditions of the survey location and the radar location (where you got your ticket regardless of the type of measuring equipment used).

The reason for the survey is to make sure the posted speed is reasonable for the actual driving conditions, and must be proven reasonable by measuring the speed of the average driver. In this case, however, the survey average is valid only for the exact survey location, which was the uphill side of Marietta Street. This survey should not apply to the southbound side of Marietta Street however, because the conditions differ from northbound, due to the hill and approach to a traffic light.

In fact, it is inherently dishonest for a survey to be placed in such a manner because the average speed of many drivers going up the hill will be significantly lower than those going down the hill. This allows the city to post the speed limit for radar enforcement at 25 mph on both sides of the road.

Then as you come down the hill, you are traveling at a safe and "normal" average speed of 35 mph. You get a laser ticket from Officer Caldwell, who tells you that you were doing 41 in a 25 mph zone. In reality, an honest and fair street survey would have forced the city to post the speed limit at 35 mph, and you never would have gotten a ticket at all since city officers cannot make a case on speeds less than 10 mph over the limit with laser or radar.

In Officer Caldwell’s defense, he is probably unaware of all the details of speed surveys. My knowledge of surveys, court and policing are based on a great deal of research. Usually the real villain is the city or county who handles these surveys, and makes sure they get the speed limits as low as possible, especially in key enforcement areas.

Remember, for the City of Powder $pring$ and most other municipalities, it is not driving $afety that they are concerned about, it i$ the collection of revenue ... period!

In most areas, a survey is rarely or never done at all. That is because there is little to no enforcement of it, and few citizens even know about it. Therefore, they get away with it. In these instances, it is critical that you get your hands on the “certified” copy of the survey in advance, dissect it for discrepancies and be ready to present it to the judge. Make it an appellate issue, an issue the appellate courts must consider on appeal. I always obtain three copies of any surveys so that I can give a copy to the prosecutor (if one is used) and a copy for the judge in addition to the copy for my own use. Make sure they are “certified” copies if you intend to use them in court.

Also, don’t let the judge try and trick you with an ON-SYSTEM, OFF-SYSTEM list of roads claiming that it “is” the traffic and engineering survey and that a road would not be approved and on that list if the required survey had not been done. As you can see, the Georgia Department of Transportation approves arbitrary and capricious speed limits for inclusion on those ON-SYSTEM, OFF-SYSTEM road lists, even when Georgia law has not been satisfied. That is inherently wrong as well.

These carnivores do not play by any rules, or even abide by Georgia law and will eat you alive. You must fight back with the same attitude or you will lose HUGE! As you can see, speed enforcement is only about money, YOUR money. To make matters worse, after posting an arbitrary and capricious speed limit, the arrogant city of Powder Springs in addition places on the same sign post, another sign.

STrictly EnforceD!

We honor the city of Powder Springs by posting a picture of that very sign on the home page of our website, and furthermore what the Georgia Supreme Court has to say about such behavior.

The City of Powder Springs should be placed under an immediate ECONOMIC BOYCOTT until they stop these practices.

I urge all Georgia citizens to STAY OUT of Powder Springs. Your wallet may depend on it.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The author of the Georgia $peedingTICKETKILLER is willing to testify under oath under the penalty of perjury that the documents presented in this report have NOT been altered in any way, and are exactly as received from the Powder Springs police department.

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