Fascinating story about a guy who likes telling people they’re about to encounter a speed trap.
Three years ago, when Lakeway resident Lance Mitchell launched his website, SpeedTrap-Ahead.org, he didn’t hide his intentions.
“Not a lot of people flash their lights to warn others nowadays,” he wrote. “But, I DO! And when I see a speed trap, I go back up the road a bit, and stand on the sidewalk, wearing my SpeedTrapAhead T-shirt.”
The site was soon hosting discussions on topics useful to a certain type of driver: Was crossing over a white line technically illegal or merely not recommended? Does state law require that you produce a driver’s license if detained?
Mitchell also started chronicling his own occasional acts of civil disruption, often accompanied by self-produced video.
“I saw a cop pull up in the parking lot of the old Lake Travis Elementary,” he wrote in March 2008. “About 1,000 feet up the road, there was a perfect spot for me to set up. So, there I stood, holding my 2 x 2 hand held sign, waving my other hand and pointing at the sign.”
With the determination of a superhero, he vowed to continue his crusade. “I’ll be out again soon! Any time, any place I see a cop blasting out radar, I’ll be not too far away, blasting out my message.”
Read the whole thing, it’s a great exercise in gray areas, technicalities, and overreactions. Personally, I don’t have any philosophical objections to speed traps. There are some stretches of road where I think the announced speed limit is too low, and that setting up a speed trap there is basically shooting fish in a barrel, but just because you disagree with a law doesn’t mean you get to avoid the consequences if you’re caught breaking it. As for warning people about them, it turns out to be legal, but I have mixed feelings about it. Better for people to not speed, or at least not speed too much, as a matter of habit than just to avoid getting caught for it. On the other hand, given how many red light camera tickets were dispensed in their lifetime here, it’s not clear that knowing where the speed traps are would necessarily cause a drop in the number of speeding tickets written. The location of the cameras in Houston was well-publicized, and every intersection that had a camera also had a warning sign alerting you to its presence, yet thousands of people kept running red lights. So I say to Lance Mitchell, knock yourself out. The people who really need to get ticketed will likely continue to do so, and everyone else can get a break.
“So I say to Lance Mitchell, knock yourself out. The people who really need to get ticketed will likely continue to do so, and everyone else can get a break.”
— Exactly! —