Friday, February 27, 2009

Police Radar

Ouch! And that was the first one. In Lelystad I was quite familiar with police radars and speeding fines. I payed up the fun-tax, and once even took a case to court. Because I was in Canada at the time, I could not be present myself. It was a 40 euro fine or something, but the speed camera showed two vehicles, one of which was my motorcycle.
The judge must have been sleeping, because in his verdict he was referring to my car. It was was my car that was going too fast. Hello.... I was on a motorcycle! However, Dutch bureaucracy sucks all the energy out of you, and I left it at that. What a joke. The judge did not even read my defense letter.
Back to Canada... this morning a police officer stopped me. He did not get a good reading on his radar, but estimated my speed. I was fortunate that his estimate was low. He gave me the lowest possible speeding fine (138 dollar).
The real venom is in the insurance though: one more offense, and I will be paying more insurance premium. ICBC is the only institution who can legally insure you in BC, and they can tack on up to 24000 dollars to your insurance bill. I think my speeding days are now finally over. I give in. I cannot beat the system. I guess I no longer have any use for a 170hp motorcycle, other than stripping out the engine, and putting it in a small aircraft.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What was your estimated speed then? And the speed limit?

Bram said...

limit: 60 kph
estimate: 75 kph
ticket: 70 kph

I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, my speedo was probably around 100. When I glanced at his radar display, it said 90, but I am not sure if that was for me. He could not get a reading he told me. It's hard to go slow when the entire bridge is empty, the weather is dry, and the lanes are so wide. He was very courteous and friendly BTW, so I did not feel too bad about it.

I should get a bicycle again.

Bram Stolk Sr said...

It is so simple..if the sign says 60, stay below 66 at all times.
If ground control tells you to stay at FL 300, would you dare to deviate?

Speeding tickets are a waste of your money, a parking ticket at least gave you a place to park

Anonymous said...

Leuk he zo een motor, ik heb hier in NL ook al 4 snelheid bekeuringen bij elkaar gespaard in een half jaar.

Lang leven de GSX-R

Groeten
Pim