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Relevant context: > That enforcement is particularly active on the north side of town, where U.S. Route 165 shifts from a divided highway to a five-lane road.

Relevant context: > That enforcement is particularly active on the north side of town, where U.S. Route 165 shifts from a divided highway to a five-lane road. Just before drivers reach a welcome sign, the speed limit drops from 65 mph to 50. Police cruisers often wait nearby, in a stand of trees across from a small roadside cemetery.

danielfoster 3y ago
I considered this as well before writing my comment and it's a very good point. Keep in mind that half the tickets cited in the article were over 65 mph, so they also would have been above the speed limit even without the change. The disappearance of the divider and merging of the traffic lanes, which drivers should be able to see well ahead of time, are also very clear indicators that they are entering a town and should slow down. Louisiana has many small highways like Route 165 where the speed limit changes in towns. Having grown up in the state, I know of many speed traps like Fenton. Most people would know to reduce their speed. However, Louisiana has little traffic enforcement in general and speeding on rural roads is very common. The state should definitely put up more signs outside the town warning them to slow down. More warnings should be issued rather than tickets as well. But Louisiana also needs to improve its driving.
- WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
  From your description, it sounds much like 90% of Poland except your roads are way too wide (and thus welcome drivers to go at a higher speed). Gosh, how we even survive here, every town is a speed trap town!
  - dizhn 3y ago
    They are scary too with their HUGE man size binoculars waiting for you. By the way. Poland. The only place on earth I ever got ticketed for jaywalking.
- Brybry 3y ago
  The best fix would probably be to change the roads to prevent the speed limit drop in the first place. RS 32:61 [1] mandates a speed limit drop there (though only to 55) because it goes from multilane divided highway to multilane highway. A frontage road, and merge/exit lanes as needed, and keep it divided highway the whole way and then it's no longer an issue. We use highways and interstates as main streets way too much in Louisiana. [1] https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?p=y&d=88480 https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?p=y&d=88480
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    65mph traffic through a village is noisy, and makes it more difficult to cross the road as a pedestrian. There's also a railroad, cemetery and several buildings in the way of expanding the road.
    - Luc 3y ago
      That's more than 100 km/h. Without traffic lights that's not safe to cross as a pedestrian.
      - alwayslikethis 3y ago
        It's also rather unsafe to have traffic lights at all at such speeds. It's really hard to stop at 100 km/h.
    - tremon 3y ago
      and makes it more difficult to cross the road as a pedestrian A five-lane road is already hard to cross, regardless of the traffic speed. I understand that this design is common in the US, but it boggles my mind that people would even consider crossing a road of that size as a pedestrian unless the traffic speed was 15 mph or less. Something like that would be solved by a bridge or tunnel in developed countries.
      - verve_rat 3y ago
        Not in a town of 200 people it wouldn't.
- starkparker 3y ago
  The other part with Louisiana cops, especially small-towners, is that they have little to no desire to be accurate. They'll radar-clock an 18-wheeler going 70 in a 55 and pull over the car with Texas plates and a LSU Alexandria student parking sticker that the truck was passing, because it's easier to catch and the kid or their parents won't dream of contesting the ticket. Likewise, locals who do speed through on the regular have a Fraternal Order sticker or a relative of the DA on speed-dial knowing the cop who issues that ticket will conveniently fail to show up to court and the fine will get dismissed.
pulse7 3y ago
Is this here https://www.google.com/maps/@30.375952,-92.9118031,3a,48.6y,220.95h,78.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPsVhT3bovDJ_jbKmFDbtmA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@30.375952,-92.9118031,3a,48.6y,... ?
- danielfoster 3y ago
  Yes, good find!
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    There's also a "Speed limit 50 ahead" warning sign further back up the road. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3778051,-92.9108282,3a,75y,211.68h,80.76t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sF0vGZzdCgJbYbxX9wb0SSQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3778051,-92.9108282,3a,75y,2...
    - danielfoster 3y ago
      Then it is very clear. I am a major fan of ProPublica, but I feel like they were too biased here and were trying too hard to write a good story.
      - pas 3y ago
        straight road, no reason to go suddenly slower, the sign is completely irrelevant. drivers are not robots, if they get a good reason to slow down, they will. (eg. Waze telling them a speedtrap or patrol car is there ... or some actual traffic reason.)
        Symbiote 3y ago
        There is a village ahead, that's plenty of reason to slow down. The two pairs of signs are another reason. The end of the divided highway is further reason.
genewitch 3y ago
I don't even need to look this up to know where it is*. All of the "highway" style roads throughout louisiana (and TX as far as i've seen) do this, ~65MPH with constant braking to get down to 30-50MPH through little towns. I'm sure i there are such things in CA, as well, on US-101 or 1; i just don't remember them being a major part of any commute between cities. *i was wrong! It wasn't Woodworth (on US-165 near Alexandria), it is Fenton, on US-165 near Lake Charles. 165 is fairly well known for being a ticket magnet highway around these parts, so an easy mistake to make. Also, US-165 through alexandria has a speed limit of 50-60 MPH and is multiple lanes. This feels different than having to go ~30MPH on a 3 lane with a huge median, like in Woodworth, Glenmora, etc.

danielfoster 3y ago

I considered this as well before writing my comment and it's a very good point. Keep in mind that half the tickets cited in the article were over 65 mph, so they also would have been above the speed limit even without the change. The disappearance of the divider and merging of the traffic lanes, which drivers should be able to see well ahead of time, are also very clear indicators that they are entering a town and should slow down. Louisiana has many small highways like Route 165 where the speed limit changes in towns. Having grown up in the state, I know of many speed traps like Fenton. Most people would know to reduce their speed. However, Louisiana has little traffic enforcement in general and speeding on rural roads is very common. The state should definitely put up more signs outside the town warning them to slow down. More warnings should be issued rather than tickets as well. But Louisiana also needs to improve its driving.

WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
From your description, it sounds much like 90% of Poland except your roads are way too wide (and thus welcome drivers to go at a higher speed). Gosh, how we even survive here, every town is a speed trap town!
- dizhn 3y ago
  They are scary too with their HUGE man size binoculars waiting for you. By the way. Poland. The only place on earth I ever got ticketed for jaywalking.
Brybry 3y ago
The best fix would probably be to change the roads to prevent the speed limit drop in the first place. RS 32:61 [1] mandates a speed limit drop there (though only to 55) because it goes from multilane divided highway to multilane highway. A frontage road, and merge/exit lanes as needed, and keep it divided highway the whole way and then it's no longer an issue. We use highways and interstates as main streets way too much in Louisiana. [1] https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?p=y&d=88480 https://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?p=y&d=88480
- Symbiote 3y ago
  65mph traffic through a village is noisy, and makes it more difficult to cross the road as a pedestrian. There's also a railroad, cemetery and several buildings in the way of expanding the road.
  - Luc 3y ago
    That's more than 100 km/h. Without traffic lights that's not safe to cross as a pedestrian.
    - alwayslikethis 3y ago
      It's also rather unsafe to have traffic lights at all at such speeds. It's really hard to stop at 100 km/h.
  - tremon 3y ago
    and makes it more difficult to cross the road as a pedestrian A five-lane road is already hard to cross, regardless of the traffic speed. I understand that this design is common in the US, but it boggles my mind that people would even consider crossing a road of that size as a pedestrian unless the traffic speed was 15 mph or less. Something like that would be solved by a bridge or tunnel in developed countries.
    - verve_rat 3y ago
      Not in a town of 200 people it wouldn't.
starkparker 3y ago
The other part with Louisiana cops, especially small-towners, is that they have little to no desire to be accurate. They'll radar-clock an 18-wheeler going 70 in a 55 and pull over the car with Texas plates and a LSU Alexandria student parking sticker that the truck was passing, because it's easier to catch and the kid or their parents won't dream of contesting the ticket. Likewise, locals who do speed through on the regular have a Fraternal Order sticker or a relative of the DA on speed-dial knowing the cop who issues that ticket will conveniently fail to show up to court and the fine will get dismissed.

pulse7 3y ago

Is this here https://www.google.com/maps/@30.375952,-92.9118031,3a,48.6y,220.95h,78.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPsVhT3bovDJ_jbKmFDbtmA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@30.375952,-92.9118031,3a,48.6y,... ?

danielfoster 3y ago
Yes, good find!
- Symbiote 3y ago
  There's also a "Speed limit 50 ahead" warning sign further back up the road. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3778051,-92.9108282,3a,75y,211.68h,80.76t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sF0vGZzdCgJbYbxX9wb0SSQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3778051,-92.9108282,3a,75y,2...
  - danielfoster 3y ago
    Then it is very clear. I am a major fan of ProPublica, but I feel like they were too biased here and were trying too hard to write a good story.
    - pas 3y ago
      straight road, no reason to go suddenly slower, the sign is completely irrelevant. drivers are not robots, if they get a good reason to slow down, they will. (eg. Waze telling them a speedtrap or patrol car is there ... or some actual traffic reason.)
      - Symbiote 3y ago
        There is a village ahead, that's plenty of reason to slow down. The two pairs of signs are another reason. The end of the divided highway is further reason.

genewitch 3y ago

I don't even need to look this up to know where it is*. All of the "highway" style roads throughout louisiana (and TX as far as i've seen) do this, ~65MPH with constant braking to get down to 30-50MPH through little towns. I'm sure i there are such things in CA, as well, on US-101 or 1; i just don't remember them being a major part of any commute between cities. *i was wrong! It wasn't Woodworth (on US-165 near Alexandria), it is Fenton, on US-165 near Lake Charles. 165 is fairly well known for being a ticket magnet highway around these parts, so an easy mistake to make. Also, US-165 through alexandria has a speed limit of 50-60 MPH and is multiple lanes. This feels different than having to go ~30MPH on a 3 lane with a huge median, like in Woodworth, Glenmora, etc.