BEWARE! Western Way Speed Trap...

[Disneyjosh229]

They got tired of using tax dollars to scrape tourists off of the highways.

I wonder what taxes would be like without those speeding tourists....

 

[ztbz]

Disney (or Disney’s owned Reedy Creek District) gets a Cut of the ticket revenue for each ticket that’s issue, it may be only a few dollars per ticket but they get some money out of it, which is why Disney wants the Cops to come on property, in part to help pay for the extra security they provide.

By the way Western Way is not a well travel road I think the 35 mph speed limit is a little low for the amount of traffic using this road, compared to the two lane highway in front of Fort Wilderness Campground (Vista Blvd) where the speed limit is 45 mph.

For those wondering where some of the other speed traps are at Walt Disney World here is a List of where I seen Orange County Deputies running radar.

Coming into the Magic Kingdom toll plaza speed limit drops to 35 mph from 50 mph, then heading north to the MK Resorts just north the Magic Kingdom toll plaza near storeport before the Wilderness Lodge Traffic Light is another area to watch out for the Deputies.

Coming into the Animal Kingdom Toll Plaza on Osceola Parkway the Deputies like to stay just in from of the Toll plaza, they are also seen many times close to the Sherbert Road/AK Lodge Traffic light too.

Downtown Disney near Team Disney entrance going downhill after passing by the Typhoon Lagoon entrance, speed limit is 35 mph and if you get the green light or speed up to make the traffic light the Sherriff Deputies will get you.

 

[manning]

WOW!! Is this a new attraction called "Tickets"

 

[Uncleromulus]

 

[ducklite]

I wonder what taxes would be like without those speeding tourists....

I'm not knocking tourists in general, I'm knocking those who come into an area they aren't familiar with and drive like idiots. When you are in an unfamiliar area, it's prudent to slow down and pay extra attention, notsight see.

If they are speeding, they should get a ticket, no matter where they live or how old they are. Using being a tourist as an excuse is no excuse in my book.

Anne

 

[jodifla]

I'm not knocking tourists in general, I'm knocking those who come into an area they aren't familiar with and drive like idiots. When you are in an unfamiliar area, it's prudent to slow down and pay extra attention, notsight see.

If they are speeding, they should get a ticket, no matter where they live or how old they are. Using being a tourist as an excuse is no excuse in my book.

Anne

But so many of these are not for safety. It's just a speed trap racket designed to catch motorists unaware.

And if Florida treats its tourists nastily enough long enough, they'll go elsewhere.

 

[sha_lyn]

If they are speeding, they should get a ticket, no matter where they live or how old they are. Using being a tourist as an excuse is no excuse in my book.

Or using not being a tourist as an excuse as in the OP's case

 

[sha_lyn]

But so many of these are not for safety. It's just a speed trap racket designed to catch motorists unaware.

And if Florida treats its tourists nastily enough long enough, they'll go elsewhere.

Oh please. Several here have posted that they have driven that stretch often. The speed limit is clearly marked. No one is being trapped into breaking the law. Being unaware of your surroundings/speed limits/posted laws (as in no stopping except for emergencies) is no excuse.

 

[goofy4tink]

It has been my experience that the police set up 'speed-traps' in areas where motorists will normally speed....be it in central Florida where tourists abound or in the back woods of NH, where the locals think they can fly down those country roads. If a 'speed-trap' is set up in a spot where no one ever speeds, what's the point?! So, saying that they are doing it just to scam people is a stretch.

Now, I have seen those people, the tourists, who are motoring along, when much to their dismay, the exit they want is right there, beside them but 3 lanes to the right!!! So what do they do?? Skip on across those 3 lanes of course. Add a little rain to the mix and your result is going to be tragic. I have seen more buses cut off on Disney property than any place else...it's mind boggling.

So, if someone is caught speeding, then fine, they deserve a ticket. Could a police officer have been 'merciful' and just given a warning? Sure...but that's his/her call, not ours. The point is....slow down. Be more aware of what's going on around you. Unfamilier with the area?? Again, slow down, to below the posted speed limit. You have no idea what pitfalls may be down the road, or even where the road curves.

If you aren't speeding then you won't be contributing to anyone's 'quota' now will you?!

 

[jodifla]

It has been my experience that the police set up 'speed-traps' in areas where motorists will normally speed....be it in central Florida where tourists abound or in the back woods of NH, where the locals think they can fly down those country roads. If a 'speed-trap' is set up in a spot where no one ever speeds, what's the point?! So, saying that they are doing it just to scam people is a stretch.

Now, I have seen those people, the tourists, who are motoring along, when much to their dismay, the exit they want is right there, beside them but 3 lanes to the right!!! So what do they do?? Skip on across those 3 lanes of course. Add a little rain to the mix and your result is going to be tragic. I have seen more buses cut off on Disney property than any place else...it's mind boggling.

So, if someone is caught speeding, then fine, they deserve a ticket. Could a police officer have been 'merciful' and just given a warning? Sure...but that's his/her call, not ours. The point is....slow down. Be more aware of what's going on around you. Unfamilier with the area?? Again, slow down, to below the posted speed limit. You have no idea what pitfalls may be down the road, or even where the road curves.

If you aren't speeding then you won't be contributing to anyone's 'quota' now will you?!

You are being overly generous to the police. Lots of traps are set up to ensnare people on the roads to increase revenues.

I've gotten one speeding ticket in 30 years, and it was dropped. It was in a speedning trap area. I encourage OP's mom to hire a lawyer and fight the ticket.

 

[sha_lyn]

I am certain there are many people who believe the area in often of my house is a "speed trap". Posted limit is 35. Cars probably average 50. Our driveway is a "blind" driveway. If someone is going 35, they are going slow enough that I can exit my driveway safely if they top the hill as I'm exiting the driveway, or stopped to make a left hand turn into the driveway. About 2/10 a mile from us is another little hill. If headed south, there is a sharp curve right after the hill. The mail box for the house in the curve use to be hit 10-15 times a yr by people who lost control. I know their porch has been hit at least once. The police sit right outside my house a few times a month. I've seen them pull over 5-6 cars at a time in the evening.

 

[sha_lyn]

You are being overly generous to the police. Lots of traps are set up to ensnare people on the roads to increase revenues

If no one is breaking the posted speed limit, then there isn't any revenue generated.

 

[goofy4tink]

You are being overly generous to the police. Lots of traps are set up to ensnare people on the roads to increase revenues.

I've gotten one speeding ticket in 30 years, and it was dropped. It was in a speedning trap area. I encourage OP's mom to hire a lawyer and fight the ticket.

Guess I'm glad I live in Mass then. However, if you're speeding, you're speeding. The OP stated that her mother was, in fact, speeding. As to the police doing this to increase revenues...guess it might stop if everyone that does get stopped, and ticketed, in error, does fight the ticket. Each town will be paying so much in time/effort in going to court they may just have to drop the trap areas.

 

[ducklite]

So, if someone is caught speeding, then fine, they deserve a ticket. Could a police officer have been 'merciful' and just given a warning? Sure...but that's his/her call, not ours. The point is....slow down. Be more aware of what's going on around you. Unfamilier with the area?? Again, slow down, to below the posted speed limit. You have no idea what pitfalls may be down the road, or even where the road curves.

If you aren't speeding then you won't be contributing to anyone's 'quota' now will you?!

It sounds like the OP's mother was going 20 mph over the speed limit. Getting a $90 ticket was merciful. They could have gotten cited for far worse.

And I couldn't agree more. If you aren't speeding, then a speedtrap really doesn't matter. I drive that road a lot and have never gotten pulled over, despite having seen FHP with radar almost every single time. I don't think they aren't pulling me over because I'm a local. I think it's maybe because I'm not speeding.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

But so many of these are not for safety. It's just a speed trap racket designed to catch motorists unaware.

And if Florida treats its tourists nastily enough long enough, they'll go elsewhere.

Do you really think that no one but tourists uses that road? I'd say that 90% of the cars I see on it have Florida tags. And if it's catchign SPEEDING motorists unaware, it's doing it's job.

If the police were only ticketing out of state vehicles, you might have a valid point. That's not the case. A lot of CM's have gotten tickets in teh WDW area speed traps--of course most of them have learned to slow down as well.

Bottom line, if you're speeding, you're going to get a ticket, tourist or not.

Anne

 

[Edd]

Let me chime in a little bit here. Disney gets no proceeds from the tickets. In fact if you want to go back into the Orlando Sentinel archives from about 4 years back you will find a story where Disney contracted to Orange County to enforce the speed on their property. They are paying Orange County to slow people down. The state and county do not split revenue with a private company, and especially when the private company has a approximate 9 billion dollar net gain every year.

The lady getting the $90.00 ticket for over 20 mph for speeding did not get a speeding ticket. Over 20 miles per hour will get you a ticket in the neighborhood of $150.00. The fine is based on the speed you are doing over the speed limit. I actually turned right on a red light, there was a sign saying no right turn, it cost me $115.00 in Seminole county.

You can pay a lawyer $200.00 to $1000.00 for defending a ticket, but isn't that kind of ridiculously spending the money when the ticket was less, you were probably breaking the law and got caught and all you have to do is go to the 4 hour class and get the points removed from the ticket.

Personally it might do some people who have not had a ticket in 30 years a lot of good to take the classes. Many of those people are the ones who expose the rest of us to possible accidents, because their driving was not up to date.

 

[jodifla]

Do you really think that no one but tourists uses that road? I'd say that 90% of the cars I see on it have Florida tags. And if it's catchign SPEEDING motorists unaware, it's doing it's job.

If the police were only ticketing out of state vehicles, you might have a valid point. That's not the case. A lot of CM's have gotten tickets in teh WDW area speed traps--of course most of them have learned to slow down as well.

Bottom line, if you're speeding, you're going to get a ticket, tourist or not.

Anne

My beef is poor signage designed to trap people, or long stretches of artificially low speed limits. There are plenty of those in Florida.

In my case, I beat a $300 ticket. I was going 30 miles an hour, and I thought the speed limit was 35. But it was actually 15, because it was a school zone. But the overhead school zone signs were taken down because of all the constructicion going on in the area, and the other ones were obstructed because of the construction signs.

When I contacted a lawyer, he told me it was a common speed trap in that small city, which was using the lack of signs and the construstion area to get as much ticket money as possible.

If the signs are positioned in a way to make as many people miss them as possible, then that to me is a speed trap.

IF you see the sign and blow by it anyway, then that's speeding.

 

[Edd]

You beat the ticket because the signs were not there to inform people of the drop in the speed limit. Not because it was a possible speed trap. Lawyers have all the arguments or they wouldn't be good lawyers. In that case you were justified. How much did the lawyer charge you to go to court, you actually could have gone yourself and come up with the same judgement. In Florida traffic courts you don't need to be accompanied by a lawyer to plead a case.

 

[manning]

Considering Disney is paying the county to patrol the area it could be set up to slow down traffic and minimize the number of tickets.

In our town, 28,000, we have at a minimum of four patrol cars assigned to radar monitoring. They issue very few tickets. The positioning of the cars is so that everyone sees them and slows down. The chief and the city council says the job is to slow down traffic and this is one way to do. The chief also believes this is safer for the officier. They don't have to get out of the car into traffic.

Sometimes they will put an unmarked car on a side street just off the main roads and turn on the radar detector. Drives everyone with radar detectors crazy. They can't find the patrol car.

It is working.

Another way to handle it is with speeding cameras. That is what they are doing here in Illinois. These cameras are put up in contruction zones. Workers have commented how effective they are. Set them up around Disney with large warning signs.

 

[jodifla]

You beat the ticket because the signs were not there to inform people of the drop in the speed limit. Not because it was a possible speed trap. Lawyers have all the arguments or they wouldn't be good lawyers. In that case you were justified. How much did the lawyer charge you to go to court, you actually could have gone yourself and come up with the same judgement. In Florida traffic courts you don't need to be accompanied by a lawyer to plead a case.

The lawyer was $75.

I haven't been on the Western yet, but I was responding to the fact that OP's mom didn't see the signs, she said. But you certainly know that area better as you drive it all the time.