If you’ve ever found yourself driving through a construction zone, you know that these zones often restrict speed. Depending on the work going on and the space taken up by workers and construction vehicles, the work zone speed limit could be 10, 15, or even 20 mph below the normal posted limit.
Work zone speed limits exist for a few reasons. It’s not wise to let cars zoom through narrow, often uneven lanes with temporary traffic patterns at full speed. New directions and barriers could arise unexpectedly, endangering the lives of drivers and construction personnel, who often work just feet from moving traffic. Sometimes, construction machinery may need to enter the roadway, and for everyone’s safety, it’s probably best that you don’t fly by them at 75 mph when that happens.
Despite these obvious concerns, people regularly speed through construction zones, ignoring the temporary restriction either because they’re not paying attention or because they don’t care about the added risks. To get people to take construction zones seriously, New York State Troopers went undercover as 15% of The Village People—no, not the Native American or Leatherman—to catch speeders and other violators in the act.
Last week, the Troop T division of the New York State Police—the squad fully dedicated to policing New York’s vast, 570-mile Thruway system—held a “targeted enforcement” event called “Operation Hard Hat.” Done in support of National Work Zone Awareness Week, the event allowed troopers to go undercover as construction workers and lie in wait with speed guns in construction zones to catch people in the act without drivers being able to spot them.
The methodology is simple but pretty genius. Basically, the officers dress up in construction worker gear, complete with hard hats and high-visibility vests, and stand on top of construction trucks with handheld or tripod-mounted speed guns, clocking motorists who are blasting through the zone too quickly. They relay the info to a trooper in a squad car further down the road, who pulls over the offending driver and issues a ticket. If the undercover officer notices other violations, like a driver using their cell phone or not wearing a seatbelt, they can get flagged, too.
The New York State Police conducts several Hard Hat Operations each year, usually throughout National Work Zone Awareness Week. This time around, its most successful events were two six-hour operations inside work zones located in Westchester and Rockland counties. In those two blocks of time alone, police issued a staggering 313 tickets, the majority of which—197 citations—were for speeding. Another 28 tickets were issued for cell phone use, and 27 were issued for New York’s “Move Over” law, which requires drivers to slow down and move over for any emergency, construction, or maintenance vehicle stopped on the shoulder.
Additional Hard Hat Operations were held by Troops C, E, and K throughout highways across the state last week, adding another 434 tickets to the enforcement period, for a total of 747 citations issued. Here’s the full breakdown of the laws people were alleged to have broken, per the Thruway Authority’s press release:
- 452 – Speeding
- 47 – Move Over Law violations
- 45 – Cell phone/electronic device use
- 203 – Other vehicle and traffic law violations
New York has been doing these sorts of undercover jobs for years, but the State only made it an official thing in 2019, when it was officially recognized statewide as Operation Hard Hat by the governor. That year, New York State Police issued a total of 1,048 tickets to motorists and even caught a couple of people allegedly driving drunk. Going by the governor’s office website, the record for yearly tickets accumulated through Operation Hard Hat was set in 2022, when state police issued a total of 3,062 citations.
The lesson here? Listen to those posted speed limit signs in construction zones, and put the phone down. Failing to do either puts yourself and others in danger. And if you happen to be driving through an enforcement zone in New York, it could land you a very pricey ticket (traffic violation fines are usually doubled in work zones) courtesy of Victor Willis cosplaying as David Hodo.
Top graphic images: New York State Police; Casablanca Records
I have always wondered how it’s legal for one officer to witness the violation, but a second officer to write the ticket. It happens all the time so I guess it’s legal, but it seems suspicious to me. I’m obviously not a lawyer.
Came here to see cops in chaps. Left disappointed.
Given the diets of most cops, I am not disappointed.
State troopers do tend to be in better shape, on average, than local cops
I am embarrassed to admit that I’ve watched enough police chases to know that some of those dudes are pretty built. lol
Quick math check – Between the guy in the back of the construction truck, and the guy next to the grey van in the picture, aren’t they dressed like 33.3% of the Village people?
Depends on which version of Victor Willis’s costume you’re talking about – Navy version or Cop version
He could double down as a master-at-arms.
One of my acquaintences is a deputy sheriff, when on work-zone duty he prefers to sit upstream of the workers in a marked cruiser with the blue lights on. 99.9% of the time that works and people slow down. He has little patience for the .1%.
Doing God’s work.
When the objective is to actually make people slow down, this is the right approach. When the objective is revenue generation, you clearly have to allow all the dangerous speeding to occur, and in this case be extra sneaky about it too. Protect and Serve whom, exactly?
The state and the Epstein class.
If you are speeding in a work zone, you are speeding in a work zone. Everything else is just mental mumbo-jumbo.
if only 100% of laws on the books were morally, ethically, and logically sound…
The rules of the road only work if we ALL follow them. You are trying to justify your willingness to not follow the rules. Because you ‘know better’
8 months ago, someone who was driving too fast and not paying attention KILLED 2 workers in a construction zone in Central Maine. Less than 2 weeks later, state police were handing out tickets at works zones all over the state. Drivers just kept ignoring the zones. I am sure they, like you, were extremely smart and could judge what was correct on their own.
Don’t like the rules? Get them changed.
This is what I was going to comment. THIS is how one prevents speeding in work zones, a clearly visible deterrent.
Going undercover and catching them AFTER they’ve done it doesn’t keep anyone safe; it just generates revenue.
Same with the blacked out cruisers hidden under overpasses or in the woods, pure revenue generation.
No one is forcing you to speed. You CHOOSE to break the rules. How you get caught is not relevant.
“Revenue generation” is just silly word play in this case.
The cruisers designed to blend in always baffled me. I want emergency services highly visible so you can spot them when help is needed and have the general feeling of ease and knowing help is around. Also I don’t want to play the guessing game of is that a regular charger or a cop charger, because they both drive like jackwagons.
Or: Instead of paying a sheriff to flash lights, have the construction zone activate a flashing-lights sign specific to when there are workers present.
All states should do this when workers are present.
Also more tickets for hand-held phone usage, please.
Handheld phone rules couldn’t be dumber.
Sometimes I use my phone for weather or directions.
I’m not safer when I meander about trying to figure out where my turn is.
…and some people claim they drive better after a few drinks, right?
Naval research proved that some people do.
This seemed to be steady drinkers that relearned driving under the influence, so they essentially retrained themselves.
An implication of this is that it’s possible to train people that are slightly impaired to be safer.
Police admit to targeting drivers as potential stops for being “especially careful” while driving. Groups like MADD are so uncomfortable with this information that they actively oppose using it to save lives.
I don’t answer my phone while driving, hands free or not.
Research says distraction is the issue, NOT whether a phone is in hand or not.
State law here ignores that.
Every case is different.
In a track car, I find I can’t even change the volume of the radio in city traffic.
Steering is too knife edge responsive for that.
There’s a lot of criticism of tech and feature bloat in cars but I’m actually a big fan of AA and ACP. If I don’t know where I’m going I got the map cuing me. If it’s a drive I’ve done a thousand times like work commute I know when the traffic jam is coming up and can approach it with an anticipated gentle slow down instead of reacting.
I’ve moved to a smaller town with traffic outpacing the roads severely, and nothing resembling a road grid outside the town center.
I am only just getting to where I can navigate major roads without getting lost.
Signage is terrible as well.
It’s not Arkansas terrible, but useless in heavy traffic.
Googly maps is awful!
I commute on a portion of the Thruway. Signage could definitely be improved for when the construction zone is ended. The number of jabronis zipping through at speeds way over the limit is nuts. There’s a mobile camera car I pass daily. I’m doing the 55 mph speed limit through the entire zone because of it being my commute. I get passed at that car every day. Enjoy the ticket!
GOOD!
I think there should be speed cameras in every construction zone, with huge signs proclaiming such, and a widespread advertising campaign to get the word out. And school zones, as my county here in God’s Waiting Room, FL just did. Stiff fines too. I think they should start at a grand for a first offense. Or better yet – go Finland and make it a percentage of income so the wankers who see it as a “speed tax” take it seriously too. The cops can be off doing more productive things than sitting around handing out tickets.
I am generally NOT in favor of automated speed enforcement – but I make an exception in cases where speeding is actually dangerous and there is a legitimate reason for a lower speed limit. Proper implementation too. I really like the way my county has it setup for the school zones. They actually allow 10 over the 20mph limit, and it’s only enforced for the hours of the day that school is starting or ending, so it’s about 3hrs a day, plus for the zone that includes the sports fields, game times. Flashing lights announce that the school zone speeds are in effect. And first offense is a warning (not sure I agree with that part).
Cameras are a violation of due process and don’t affect the issue, presuming there is one.
I rarely see an active school zone.
Fought a ticket for a not in use school zone.
Didn’t even see the school sign as I was focused on the marked police car parked dangerously close to the wide highway.
I was going 20-30 in a 45 mph slow area of a main road that was mostly 65 mph.
If safety mattered, they would control cars trying to pick up kids and stop putting schools in high traffic locations.
Driving is not a right, it’s a privilege. The legality of cameras is well proven.
As I said, the cameras here are only active during specific times, if you want to blow through at 60 when there aren’t kids coming and going and take your chances that there isn’t an actual cop around, you do you. I am pretty confident that a $500 ticket will get most people’s attention. It IS a problem here – they did several traffic surveys and found far too many cars were violating the speed limits. For the same reason, all of our buses now have cameras too – and several kids have been killed in the area by people passing stopped busses in the last few years. Yes, it’s a real problem.
Schools become high traffic zones twice a day regardless of where they are put. Having to go under 30mph for a whole 1/4 mile will not kill you. But if some dumb kid staring at their phone walks out into the road an extra 10mph might be the difference between a scare and a coffin.
I was not in an ‘in use’ school zone.
The officer emphasized that having zero children present was not relevant.
I am still not certain where the school is.
I consider the efficacy and legality of cameras as used in USA completely disproven. The predatory companies selling them disagree I’m sure.
Due process requirements here can never be satisfied with cameras.
More importantly we know the truly high risk drivers are completely unaffected by cameras.
It’s also well known that cameras aren’t cost effective at intersections without deliberately putting everyone at risk by shortening yellow lights.
Intersections highly publicized for cameras see increased collisions as people stop short on yellow lights in panic.
I was hit full speed after stopping for an ambulance entering the intersection years ago.
When the light turns yellow, first thing I do is check mirrors for someone too close to stop.
The car behind me was at fault, but I still could have been killed.
If you want dangerous drivers to not persist, you need law enforcement present.
That simple
I am a supporter of constraints on traffic behavior, but when I travel, most of these construction zones don’t need you to do 60mph when there is absolutely nothing going on beyond a closed shoulder or a mild traffic shift.
I came to say this. The egregious overuse of construction speed limits causes people to ignore the important ones too. There have been several of the BS ones on my commute the last year, where there doesn’t seem to be anything different than normal, not even a closed shoulder.
The same goes for the yellow speed caution signs. 95% of the time they are for some sweeping curve or tunnel with no need to slow to 35 or whatever unless you’re driving a Model T. The other 5% of the time they are for an off-camber hairpin to s combination that you pretty much have to slow down to 15 for unless you are familiar with it and in a sports car.
Also, I’ve never understood the shoulder closed ahead signs. Sure, great to know but what am I actually gonna do with that information? Usually when you need the shoulder you need it immediately, so it’s not like I can just use the shoulder early. I guess it’s for vehicles driving in the shoulder like tractors, but then what are they gonna do?
I think the Shoulder Closed signs are to warn us in case a car breaks down in the construction area. Modern cars don’t tend to break down suddenly, so I haven’t seen it. I HAVE had an issue with someone doing 40mph through a blind curve in a 65mph construction zone with no shoulder. That was harrowing!
Yeah but if you break down in the construction area and the shoulder is closed, how was knowing beforehand helpful?
“Oh no my engine is overheating but I think I can make it 5 more miles” “Shoulder closed 2 miles ahead” “Oh darn I better pull over now!” Just seems like a vanishingly rare occurrence. But I guess putting up the signage probably only costs several thousand dollars so whatever.
“Oh look shoulder closed 2 miles ahead” 2.5 miles later… “oh shit we’ve got a blowout! Well now what are we gonna do??” Seems more likely and just ad salt to the wound.
I think it’s more as an appeal to drivers to be prepared for a breakdown to block the lane.
Came here to say this, as well. Stupid things like blocking off two miles of a lane before the 5 ft of barrier in the shoulder that is actually being worked on is a nearly every day occurrence, and one that makes people ignore real construction zones.
The yellow caution speed signs are for trucks and buses and are actually quite helpful.
Was going to add that if someone else hadn’t already. This exactly. It’s not for cars, it’s for tall things that are more likely to tip over.
Revenue enhancement zones are pretty flagrant in some states (cough, Illinois). Agree these encourage drivers to ignore actual construction zones.
It is becoming more common for me to see “End Construction” signs, while I scratch my head, having never seen the beginning or middle of construction. I am relieved thatn they didn’t unnecessarily slow me down, though.
This is an issue that undermines drivers’ compliance with work zones.
There is a reduced speed work zone roughly 2 miles from my house. It has been established for roughly 19 months. There has not been active construction for at least 7 months. The work zone and all of its threatening signs remain. People ignore it now.
Yeah I was going to say there is a ton of “construction” going on in NWI this time of year and the times of day I get to work there is a not a soul out there working and even after work it just seems lanes are closed off just to be closed off.
Also why do I feel like this will just lead to police closing off lanes purpose to set up *construction zones* (when no construction is actually going on or even planned) just so they can give out more tickets.
When I drove cross country, the entire state of Kansas alternated 20 miles of on/off double fine “construction zones”. I saw one piece of construction equipment, unattended and parked in the median, the entire time. It’s all rolling hills, too, and a speed trap could be waiting on the other side of any one of them. It felt like it took forever to get through that damn state.
Yeah I think some policing needs to be done on construction zones. Too often it’s like your example, or in my county they are running fiber down practically every road and the workers just step out into the road with their hand up when they want traffic to stop. No signs, no warning, they act like the own the public highways because they are at work on the shoulders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zouxzzdRSMo
If there’s one thing I can give the province of Alberta beyond being the birthplace of my spouse, it’s their use of speed cameras and triple fines in construction zones.
Even the most douchebag jacked up peen mobiles adhere to the speed limit postings in construction zones. Damn near 100% effective.
I do not miss the days of doing service calls on the side of the road, feels like playing dodgeball with an ICBM.
“Operation Hard Hat”? Has no one out there ever seen Cheech and Chong’s Up In Smoke?
Bye-bye Lardass!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzvexS4uEdE&t=9s
I know a highway worker who was paralyzed by a speeding car.
Whoever getting tickets in work zones gets zero sympathy from me.
My dad used to work construction and would occasionally be along the shoulder of a busy highway. I also have zero sympathy for anyone getting tickets in a work zone.
Two Maryland roadway construction workers were killed in the past few weeks
No sympathy for the speeders, I would vote for a more aggressive enforcement.
The problem with this is that the speeder has already sped through the work zone before getting pulled over.
A marked car with lights on at the start of the construction zone would actually prevent the speeding.
This tactic is for revenue generation.
I know of one construction crash here, and speed wasn’t relevant.
They were drunk and seemingly incapable of driving at any speed, in or out of a construction zone.
They didn’t hit a construction worker.
Drove right into a patrol car.
Dude. 17% (by rounding 16.666666…%). Not 15%. Dude.
Pedantic stamp of approval.
The math would have been much easier if they dressed as one of the Beatles.
Yeah, in ’64 it would have been 100%!
Looks like the title has been quietly updated to 16.7%.
Not seeing Brian acknowledge or credit you.
Oh, I see that now, and I think that’s even better. If the joke is based on applying percentages to things that they’re not normally applied to (portions of unusual musical groups), it’s funnier the more technical you make it, up to a point. Tenth of a percent precision for the win.
It wasn’t his headline, it was mine. I acknowledge the math help, which is hilarious.
I see. Apologies, Brian, I’m being Mr. Cranky Pants.
Tangentially, the decision process about what headline can fly is interesting. When the Supreme Court shot down Trump’s tariffs, NPR’s Nina Totenberg’s article on his response was titled “Trump throws temper tantrum”. Within hours, the article title had changed to “Trump excoriates Supreme Court”, which was a linguine-spined decision to avoid the inevitable blowback. But it wasn’t nearly as accurate. Trump did throw a temper tantrum.
I wonder if the first title was Totenberg’s.
Isn’t Nina the one who sends out the tote(enberg) bags to donors? She’s also a damn fine reporter.
Yeah, I remember a fund drive some years ago where you could get the Nina Totenbag.
Nina’s awesome. She’s a caliber of reporter of which I’m not sure has a good line of succession for when they retire.
I’m always disappointed that speeding is easiest thing to target rather than the prevalence of mobile phone use out there (and resulting drifting between the lines).
No reason to not do both. And freeing up cops from enforcing workzone speed gives them more time to enforce distracted driving laws. Which is what should be enforced, not just touching a cell phone. Which IMHO is no more or less distracting than eating or putting on makeup or as I have seen multiple times – reading a book! And the first times were before driving assistance was a thing.
Mixed feelings here. Like everyone, I am frustrated with people who speed in work zones, and that includes when there isn’t a person at work in the work zone – the road is still narrowed, chopped up, redirected, etc., so slowing down makes sense.
My problem here is that it should be obvious that it works much better if a visible trooper with his blue lights on hangs out in the work zone. Isn’t it better for everyone if people see a visible police presence and slow down?
If a hidden cop pulls someone for speeding in a work zone that means they’ve already put people in danger. Sure, punishing the speeder is satisfying, but getting everyone to slow down is safe.
And don’t get me started on Maryland (and now Virginia’s) cameras. They don’t work. People either don’t notice them or see them as a “speed tax” where they can just pay the ticket and speed. Plus they funnel money into private companies looking to make a buck off of speeders.
When I see a cop with lights on in a construction zone, it’s usually there just to close a ramp or protect a crew on the shoulder. Knowing that he can’t leave that post, no one slows down.
On the other hand, if I see a line of cruisers picking people out of the crowd I know actual enforcement is going on, even though by the time I see the lights I know we’re all well past the guy who clocked us. That’s an effective warning to traffic in the oncoming lanes and hopefully they’ll slow down as well.
Potato/Potah-to – Not contending they shouldn’t be pulling people over. Just saying they should be visible. “Gotcha” enforcement isn’t necessary if you can get people to slow down. A trooper parked and obviously pointing a radar can focus on pulling over people who are brazen enough to ignore him.
One of my trailers got pulled over for “suspected human trafficking”.
What is the highway patrol smoking?
I told the driver we should avoid the expressway.
It was not a faster route.
The problem with posting a cruiser with their lights on is that, while it will slow people down while the cruiser is there, a considerable % of people will continue to speed through other construction zones when there isn’t a police cruiser. By sneakily ticketing those speeders, they *might* learn that they risk a very expensive ticket even if they don’t see a police car around, and maybe they will think twice before speeding in a construction zone again.
Until recently, the fines from the cameras in MD were limited to $40. Now they’ve actually gone up to a point where they are actually a deterrent, assuming one knows. I live near Hagerstown and from what I’ve seen, most people respect the work zones and cameras around here. It’s probably different near the cities.
Speed cameras are used to accumulate data on all vehicles.
Technically they were dressed as 33% of the Village People. In addition to the construction worker there was a motorcycle cop in the band.
Came here for this.
So, you’re saying their shirts WERE buttoned?
As someone who has spend much of my life doing roadwork (actually utility work, but in the road way) I love the idea of this. You have no idea how little respect many (most) driver have for people working in traffic until you’re standing out there.
That being said, if I was standing in the back of a truck all day in a work zone, I would make damn sure the back of the truck had a crash attenuator on it and not a loading ramp kept at the perfect level to decapitate some inattentive driver if he hits the back of the truck (bottom photo). A crash attenuator (crash box) mounted to the back of a truck limits the impact of a rear ender to crew of the truck but it makes huge difference in the survivability of a crash unfortunate inattentive driver of whatever hits the truck.
My thought exactly looking at the pictures, if someone plows into the back of that truck the driver and the officer are gonna have a bad day
Looking more closely, the top truck (the one with the arrow board) has an attenuator, you can see it through the guardrail, but the lower one is a fatality (maybe multiple) waiting to happen.
I used to work on a utility survey crew and very often people would throw stuff at us (usually convenience store drink cups) as they drove by. I didn’t even need to be on the pavement, just close enough that they thought they’d get some points if they could hit the hi-vis vest.
Jerks.
You outta see I-81 going into Syracuse NY. Ever since the highway redevelopment project started, there’s been nothing but construction on Syracuse highways and even city streets for the past 3-ish years…. and 75-80mph is the standard speed 99% of drivers want to do still.
Even worse still are a good chunk of 18 wheelers doing 70+ through the zones, with lanes that’ll scare a normal driver doing 55, even with cameras, Grand Cherokee speed traps, and the police on the look out to prevent the speeding.
Upstaters here do NOT care lmao
Oh I’ve been, and totally agree that area is the wild west
Yes so much this. And these truckers have the nerve to blast their horn at me doing speed limit on the right lane, because they are too chickenshit to change lanes where marked solid.
No one is obligated to go above the PSL when he/she’s already on the right lane.
“Despite these obvious concerns, people regularly speed through construction zones, ignoring the temporary restriction either because they’re not paying attention or because they don’t care about the added risks.”
So normally I’m the first person to harshly condemn speeding.
HOWEVER
I have a big peeve at how often I pass through a jobsite with a low speed limit FOR NO REASON. It might be a Sunday, there are no workers, the road is fine, there are cones over on the shoulder only. Even so the speed limit is lowered for miles and miles even though there are multiple lanes wide open. Bonus peeve for insufficient signage letting people know they’re still in the zone or that its ended and OK to go faster.
So I understand people being jaded at construction zones speed limits when the power to lower speed limits is abused like this.
Two months after construction has ended, pylons picked up, temp barriers long since removed, and lines freshly painted – and it’s still posted at 20-under.
Or, post down the road, drop some pylons on the side of the road, and work doesn’t start until September?
I get it, there could be a surveyor showing up at random times to double-check things – but we have the technology for digital signage that we can adjust as appropriate and give people no excuses (heck, the UK has them throughout)
Agreed. Active digital signage is the answer.
Hard disagree on digital signage. They recently put in about 30 miles of it on my western US 80-mph stretch of interstate. It’d be great if it was used to increase the limit on temperate sunny days, but it’s not. It is only used to lower the speed limit, and they get pretty overzealous about it. Seemingly, if it’s snowing at all, it gets slowed to 60 MPH. Mind you, this is the American Plains. You can see miles ahead at any given time, and there are zero curves. If someone spins out, it is 100% a skill issue. Additionally, “too fast for conditions” is already an offense. In theory, digital signage could be great, especially if it said “reasonable and prudent” on a clear spring day; in practice, it operates much more like those work-zone speed limits where no lanes are closed, and no workers are present.
That’s not quite the same thing though. I’m talking about using digital signs to lower speed limits to reflect the actual real time need for the lower speed limit rather than set and forget fixed signage.
Until someone decides to enforce safety checks, mandatory winter tires, and proper driver’s training: it’s not going to get better.
This isn’t about “you” but a reflection on the state of it all.
Stop the Altima driver from driving their car held together with bailer twine, duct tape, and structural rust, on bald “all-season” tires that once took a class in highschool on how to park – it won’t (and, probably, shouldn’t) change. And, then, have some reasonably good public transit options for people who cannot afford to maintain their vehicle to a reasonably safe level.
At this point, this theory on why affordability and standards of living won’t improve may be relevant, at least in its effect on the global car industry.
https://www.intellinews.com/why-global-population-collapse-will-keep-the-wars-coming-440165
Agreed. Half of the time I see a construction zone with a lowered speed limit there are no workers present and the lanes are no different than normal. In that case I have no problem ignoring the construction speed limit.
Agreed. Too large a percentage of the times you encounter a construction reduced speed posting, it is unwarranted, which makes the valid ones less effective or ineffective.
I’ve seen construction sites where they just forgot to clean up all of the damn signs. One of my neighbors still has one on their easement after three years. (Part of that is on them for not tossing it or calling someone.)
One of our local roads had a major slow-down merge for a lane closure that was nothing more than 300 meters of signs making one move over for no apparent reason. No cones after the last sign, no patch work, no nothing. I assume that they were planning to do the work at some point, but damn it was inconvenient and annoying!
There is a 100 year old wooden bridge on a major state highway in Memphis they have been claiming is going to be replaced for decades. It’s covered in concrete, but underneath is all timber.
Try to figure out which one it is when you drive over it!
For extra credit, go underneath and watch it move with traffic!
I agree with you on this one.
Some states do post them as “when workers are present”, which is the correct way assuming the lanes aren’t infringed upon. If the lanes are narrowed or zigzgging, or merging because of the work, then fine, lower speed limit until it’s done.
This. Also, the insane divergence in the importance of the yellow speed caution signs. 95% of the time they are for some gentle sweeper or short tunnel where only something from 1910 or laden to 120% would have any concern. The other 5% of the time they are not a suggestion and are in fact preceding an off-camber hairpin that you’d only be able to go above 15mph around if you’re in a sports car and familiar with the road.
Make things count when they count and people are much less likely to ignore them.
The yellow speed signs are very helpful for trucks and buses.
Mountains in Arkansas have some 10 mph marked hairpins next to sheer cliffs.
Or where the work long since finished and everything has been removed and cleaned up, but the temporary speed limit signs were still left up on accident
I get the idea, but protect and serve becomes entrap and generate cash.
I get your idea, but this is absolutely not a case of entrapment at all.
I appreciate the theatrics, but Maryland takes a more simple approach and sets up mobile speed cameras in works zones. They warn you with signage, have a ‘your speed’ sign, and then a space where there may, may not be the speed camera (which is mounted on the back of an SUV, usually parked behind a porta-john).
Connecticut is starting to use these as well. The problem with them (at least in CT) is that they have signage warning you that it’s there, so the drivers just slow down at the camera location the once past it, speed right back up. It works in a small workzone (like bridge work) but is pretty much useless on a long workzone like a milling/repaving job or pipeline work.
Washington just started this. The first one’s free. Our fleet has already received two such warnings.
Maryland has also added flashing blue lights to the camera SUVs. Absolutely no excuse for getting one of these tickets. And they send out a lot of tickets
Does the A Troop override the B Troop and does the B Troop override the C Troop, that overrides the D Troop…..? Why not just call them all State Troopers?
Me: Yeah, passed my Trooper test and getting a job in NY
Friend: What Troop are you in?
Me: Z
Friend: so you’re at the very bottom, what was your test score? 60%?
F Troop at Fort Courage would have something to say about this.
CPL Agarn, Don’t you have some scam to be running instead of commenting here?
If NY State troopers are doing this in an active work zone, I’m completely fine with speeders getting ticketed.
If, on the other hand, they are creating fake work zones where no actual workers are working, this sucks. From the photos, this seems to be what they are doing.
Edit: I just looked it up. Enforcement actions were in active work zones. Probably a helpful piece of context to add to the main article since the photos don’t really show that.
https://troopers.ny.gov/news/numerous-tickets-issued-drivers-during-operation-hard-hat
I used to regularly drive between Michigan and North Carolina, and for literal years there was “construction” for 30-50 miles along I74 that was just cones along the shoulder. Regardless of time time of day, or the day of the week; there was never an actual truck or crew along that stretch of freeway, and after a few years of driving through it, it seems to me; it was just a reason to double ticket rates due to it being a “Construction Zone”
Thank you for this, my exact complaint with the article, too!
Do they have an F-troop?
and then there is the troop that the real badasses are sent to: FU Troop
FU Troop? You misspelled Trump
AgarrrRrRRRRN!
I think the TV reference is lost on anyone under 55 at this point. I barely remember the show as a kid.
I’m 52 and I barely remember seeing reruns of the show a few times when I was a kid.