Is it illegal to accelerate fast?

[brantley847]

Originally Posted by UT-Enginner

Im sure the "violations" officers make are essential to their job as you poitned out, possibly responding to a call near by etc. but it just looks suspicious as I see unsafe driving by officers all too often.

I completely understand that aspect....before I was in law enforcement, I thought the exact same thing.

"that cop turned his lights on just to get home faster" "he is on his cell" "what an ass"...trust me, I hated it more than the next guy.

Once I joined, I realize why it was being done. I was told a residential alarm is a medium priority (an unconfirmed possible act of violence)..subsequently, I was told to clear lights but down grade on open roadways..I always saw cops speeding without their lights. Now I have to sit in a car for 12 hours in a row and have learned I am no rush to get anywhere if I am just driving when you realize more happens when you drive slow and "blend" in to the crowd...the light bulb went off after that

Again, I know there are cops that abuse it...just as in any job. That is the one thing I hate about this job, I wish (and believe it or not most cops agree) there was a better understanding between civilians and cops. I have had people drive up next to me at medians and tell me "you missed that reckless driver...you are sitting here doing nothing in the grass, but if I drive in the grass you give me a ticket". So I move, then another guy says I was hiding because I was off the roadway instead of in the median....you can see where cops quickly become hardened and stop caring what good, honest people think about them because that small 1% of the population relates all cops to the 1 a-hole cop they dealt with once in their life....

....I am just glad I have a 4-leg machine that has sharp teeth. People don't usually approach those police cars when a mental patient animal is in the back.

Originally Posted by mhood

<SARCASM>Yea, I bought my SS because of how slow and smooth it accelerated.</SARCASM>

Should have gotten an automatic...would make it easier to drive like my Grandmother.

Ahh, missed you hood. Was wondering when you would join in...

[mhood]

Originally Posted by brantley847

Ahh, missed you hood. Was wondering when you would join in...

I posted earlier...you must have missed it...head in your computer while driving or something.

I just wanted to get in before this team of forum LEOs gets tired of their lecture and locks the thread.

[brantley847]

Originally Posted by mhood

I posted earlier...you must have missed it...head in your computer while driving or something.

I just wanted to get in before this team of forum LEOs gets tired of their lecture and locks the thread.

Tricky wicky, you are flying below the radar now.

This one has remained relatively calm...I am shocked as well. They must be waiting for you to light a spark? Lead...lead like they NEED you too.

[mhood]

Originally Posted by brantley847

Tricky wicky, you are flying below the radar now.

This one has remained relatively calm...I am shocked as well. They must be waiting for you to light a spark? Lead...lead like they NEED you too.

Yea, I'm a real outlaw for sure. I'm afraid it's just a fact that lots of drivers (particularly drivers of muscle cars I would suspect) despise traffic cops. I don't know where you off duty (you ARE off duty aren't you) LEOs muster the motivation to keep defending yourselves on this forum. Doesn't it get old?

[WildBill]

Originally Posted by badgebunny

By texas law, from what i heard you can't get in trouble for accelerating too fast unless you suprass the speed limit or break traction. Some cops will be butts and write you a ticket but you can usually fight it. Other than that... Gun it and run it.

Nope
In Texas you can be cited for it and they can make it stick, even if you didn't break tires or speed limit.
It's been like that for sure since 1978 I know for SURE.
I had a cop pull me over for this. I didn't spin nor break the speed limit. After the cop ran my plates and seen that I was the owner, he started asking me how in the hell a kid could afford a nice truck like this and what I did for a job. This was AFTER he had already given me a ticket, so I didn;'t care to be nice to the buttmunch. I told him that I worked and it was none of his damn business what I done for a living. I got him all hot and bothered! It stood up in the kangaroo court in the small town.
Justice was served two weeks later though. I was a senior in school and was at a party two weeks later. Since I was 18, I had beer at the party and was getting quite snookered. At about 11PM, I looked up and in walks the cop that pulled me over and gave me the bogus ticket. What I found even more interesting was who was hanging all over him and was drunk as hell. It was a freshman girl and I knew her Dad quite well. They came in and moved to a "secluded" area of the party and the cop began to make out with the UNDER AGE girl.
I borrowed the house phone and called him up. I advised him of the situation. Needless to say, her Dad was irate as hell and was over at the house in no time. By the time he got there, Mr. Popo had got the young lady's bra off and her pants undone. Pop had brought a friend with him though. His name was Louis..............LOUISVILLE SLUGGER! Pop caught the guy with his hands down the girl's pants. The guy caught Pop's first swing on his shoulder to get the guy's attention. When the guy turned, Pop hit the guy across the stomach, breaking several ribs. Pop threw me the bat, grabbed the SOB by the hair, picked up his head from him being doubled over and began to "tenderize" his face.
Evidently Pop has called the police, or his wife, because in the distance you could hear SEVERAL cop cars screaming to the location. I threw the bat in a closet behind a bunch of clothes and watched Pop "escort" the SOB outdoors by his hair in one hand and a handful of belt in the other to meet the arriving popo. Evidently this guy was a real scumbag, because his fellow officers just took him into custody without too much fanfare.

Sometimes retribution can be quite sweet!

[liquidsmoke]

Originally Posted by crewxp

Oh yeah, kinda on same topic. I always laugh when I see people going so slow, yet NEVER stop at stop signs. I have yet to find a slow driver that stops at signs and blinkers. It's funny Anyone else ever see the same?

And something else I've noticed too. Most of those people never seem to have upkept cars. Always is old, has dents, cave in's, broken lights, etc.

Never saw accelerating fast as meaning you're an unsafe driver.

I see the same thing. And it's always a hoopty. Or a really old person, but the old people stop.

As far as accelerating fast, even if your tires do squeal, the law is bs and put there to collect money, period. Some traffic laws really are for the greater safety of the public, but a lot of them are just ways to dig into your pockets.

Try to get the city to put a stop sign at a corner that you watch 2-3 accidents at per week and see how hard it is and how long it takes for anyone to give a shit. I had a job where my office looked out over this corner and every other day there was some one getting into an accident due to cross traffic not stopping and zero visibility to said cross traffic. We used to joke about setting up a video cam and selling the tape to people in the accedents. 3 years went by before anyone put a sign there, while countless people crashed in the mean time. I would never drive this street due to that.

[sprtplt]

I will "exhibit" speed any time I darn well feel like it. Right up to the speed limit.
You certainly may choose to ticket me for this, but it will be one you'll have to show up for in court.

[liquidsmoke]

Originally Posted by Shifty 6

I wish we could have a more subjective legal system. You know where we could rely on one persons emotions and feelings as to what they thought was acceptable and not acceptable.

Lol, I thought it was ok to drive this fast if I had a good reason officer.

It's funny but some people think this way, I wad just talking with a guy last week who starts to tell me that he regularly hits pedestrians who he thinks are to close. He clips them with his mirror or brushes them with his bumper/front fender. I could not stop laughing and this guy (Russian) thought it was perfectly ok and that everyone did it.

Originally Posted by Shifty 6

Once I can see the other light is turning yellow, I bring the revs up to about 3500 rpm, close my eyes, count to 10 and let out the clutch. I count to 5 again, and open my eyes. I am amazed at how much ground you can cover in 5 seconds. I 've only been hit 18 times, luckily none have been my fault.

What is truly amazing is that we are all saying the exact same things....I am the only smart driver ever in the history of the world.

What really amazes me is how easily I get sucked in to this crap.

No it is not illegal to accelerate quickly. Just because there is a law the officer cites when writing the ticket doesn't mean that is the law you broke. It is all SUBJECTIVE as to how fast you accelerate.

That's some funny shit. Ive read this like 5 times and laughed out loud each time. Thank you sir, that post seriously changed my mood for the day.

[thump426er]

Originally Posted by Archias

Im wondering about acceleration during a pass as well. For example when I pass semis I usually hang back and then accelerate to about speed limit +10 to 20mph to get passed them quickly. I view it as a safety thing since I dont think hanging out along side a semi is very safe since many tend to lane drift quite often on the interstate. I am a long haul trucker myself so I see it all the time. I also do that when I spot someone talking on a cell or whatever in the adjacent lane or infront of me.

Ive always looked at is, as long as its in the rear view, its not my problem anymore if something happens. Ive always wondered if I could be busted for speeding or similar for blowing passed the speed limit to overtake a vehicle like that. I always resume normal speed afterward. Is that a discretionary thing as well? Never been pulled for it or asked.

I was ticketed for this. The vehicle in front of me was doing 10 under (km/h) on a single lane hwy, I pulled out to pass at the speed limit as nobody was coming down the straight. It was easy to pass as they were going so slow but when I got beside the vehicle I was passing I saw a vehicle coming around the corner which was about 700m to 800m ahead so I sped up to 10 over the limit. Turned out to be a cop who then lasered me at the 10 over and ticketed me and was threatening to give me an unsafe lane change as well.

It was a BC cop and I'm from Alberta so he may have had a chip on his shoulder. None-the-less a garbage ticket on his part.

[Mark Myles]

Originally Posted by 1BADLS3

I don't think anyone should be prosecuted for rowing through the gears getting up to a highway speed limit-- think like hitting 3500rpm a couple of times getting to 60mph. Should you do it next to a cop? NO. Match the acceleration of traffic around you, and only stretch your car's legs like that when it's safe to do so. But this IS America where car culture is king. For a country that prides itself on freedom, we're rather stuffy when it comes to the operation of our cars. It's not us that claims ownership of the Autobahn.

Starting and stopping are usual incidents of travel and should be reasonably anticipated and expected.

I wonder if there are as many tickets issued to people for "excessive braking" as there are for "excessive acceleration" ..

M

[cmore]

Originally Posted by mhood

I got my first ticket in 40 years of driving a few months ago for speeding while passing. I think the bottom line is collecting revenue, not Public safety.

Or maybe my gun is bigger than yours.

[DarkneSS]

They dont care about your safety at all, its all about money. If they really cared it wouldn't be so easy to get a license and you would be reevaluated every 10-15 years.

[brantley847]

Originally Posted by mhood

Yea, I'm a real outlaw for sure. I'm afraid it's just a fact that lots of drivers (particularly drivers of muscle cars I would suspect) despise traffic cops. I don't know where you off duty (you ARE off duty aren't you) LEOs muster the motivation to keep defending yourselves on this forum. Doesn't it get old?

I don't deny that. I could never be an assigned traffic unit..it does get old fast. I am sure muscle car drivers cant stand us...my stance has always been people who have something as simple as kids to live for and keep safe they respect us. People who do not, seem as if they could not care less if we exist, get shot, go home, or give them tickets. The statement is not meant to defend, but instead...that is how I felt before I had a family and before "the light bulb went off".

Ehh, I don't see it as defending. This has been an a rather "healthy" thread as I mentioned. I see it as trying to provide an additional perspective or "education"...not to belittle or lecture. It may come off that way, and many people will brush it off. That is perfectly fine with me, but if just one person sits and actually thinks about the other perspective ..maybe, just maybe someone will have a little less hostility. My goal is to actually have a better relationship with my community, it does help the job and it DOES lower crime rates when you have a community that cares and respects you.

I wish someone would have explained why things were done a certain way, such as how cops respond to calls or why they are on cell phones/computers. I personally would have been less pissed at cops when I was a kid in highschool or college.. unfortunately, cops don't have to make a proactive effort to tell anyone why they operate in a certain method..why judges take their word over the violator, or why they turn their lights off once they clear the intersection. So it is what it is...99% of people are honest, good people...it is the 1% that goes OUT of the way, interupts their day just to disrespect me or try their best to make me look like dirt when I had no intention of contacting them that just baffle me.

[RT21]

Originally Posted by sprtplt

I will "exhibit" speed any time I darn well feel like it. Right up to the speed limit.
You certainly may choose to ticket me for this, but it will be one you'll have to show up for in court.

That's pretty much what I do and how I think.