55 mph on Admiral Way, and other SPD tickets today

| Safety | West Seattle news | West Seattle police

After something of a lull, the Seattle Police SPD Blotter has resumed updates on the Aggressive Drivers Response Team, and the latest update published minutes ago has some stats from today – read on:

From the update:

3100 block of SW Admiral Way (map) – 30 mph zone

1 at 55 mph
1 at 50 mph
2 at 49 mph
1 at 46 mph
3 at 45 mph
2 No Proof of Insurance

West Seattle Bridge – 45 mph zone

1 at 65 mph
1 at 61 mph
1 at 59 mph
1 Cell Phone violation

Spokane Street Viaduct – 35 mph zone

1 at 58 mph

We received a few reader reports about what looked like a crosswalk patrol earlier today on California SW south of The Junction – we have an inquiry out about that.

dlc May 27, 2011 (7:17 pm)

This will always be a great way for SPD to write lots of tickets. I drive it everyday, I get it…30 mph. It is the people who don’t know that will keep on speeding. Today I was tailgated going up at 8 am and tailgated going down at 4 pm. Great way for the city to make easy money.

Angry May 27, 2011 (7:20 pm)

I live on Roxbury between 35th and 30th ave sw. There is constant speeding at all hours of the day. I have been trying to get the DOT and police to do something about it for the past two years. They won’t even post speed limit signs. What needs to occur before someone does something?

CandrewB May 27, 2011 (7:45 pm)

I get it too. Let’s knock I-5 down to 45 to also increase revenue. Helmets in cars too; if it can just save one life… Knee guards for bicyclists as well. Why should I have to pay for their possible knee injuries (that could have been prevented with the guards!) We’ve only scratched the surface here.

Mike May 27, 2011 (7:53 pm)

Go get ’em, SPD. We live just off Admiral, and shouldn’t have to live with the risks created by high speed. Admiral is not a freeway or a freeway ramp. It’s a City street. People live on it, and just off it. Drivers are not entitled to drive as fast as the roadway will bear. The 30 mph limit is just fine.

JN May 27, 2011 (8:54 pm)

Well, if knee guards would be required for bicyclists, why not helmets for motorists? I mean, there would be plenty of injuries prevented if motorists would only wear helmets!

Craig of North Admiral May 27, 2011 (9:42 pm)

All stick, no carrot.

Why not try a couple of times a week picking out every tenth driver *actually going 30* and give them a $50 gift card? Suddenly people have an incentive to slow down, rather than being beaten for going the natural speed.

This would catch on rather quickly. (At least with drivers and safety. It wouldn’t actually generate revenue for the city – just safer streets. So it wouldn’t catch on with them.)

2wheels a-go-go May 28, 2011 (12:12 am)

Biking up Admiral yesterday, some idiot flew past me driving up the hill in a Smart Car doing at LEAST 60mph. Not smart at all. I was really hoping there was a cop waiting at the top of the hill. Unfortunately, SPD arrived a day late, but that still didn’t prevent them from nabbing other bozos (maybe this guy was one of them).
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For those of you who harp about this being solely about increasing revenue for the city, I’d ask how else is the city supposed to discourage people from breaking the law? Stand at the side of the road and wag their fingers at speeders? This has less to do with lining the big bad gub-ment’s coffers than it does with hitting offenders where it counts: their pocketbooks.

dsa May 28, 2011 (1:34 am)

The 35mph limit on the Spokane Street viaduct is the one too easily ignored.

koni May 28, 2011 (2:50 am)

I love the SPD! Speed limits are there for a reason, and respecting them is a part of driving a car. Setting limits and policing aggressive drivers protects all of us.

Ricky Bobby May 28, 2011 (7:07 am)

Why doesn’t the city just hire two people, in Toyota camreys perhaps, to just drive side by side at the speed limit on all the major arterials in Seattle?

yo May 28, 2011 (8:38 am)

Way too many people on cell phones on the road, at leats they caught one!

jedifarfy May 28, 2011 (9:37 am)

@Angry – I live further east from you and Roxbury’s pretty terrible most of the time. Especially at night, I can hear the drivers going too fast. It’s on the border, no one cares enough until something happens. :(

miws May 28, 2011 (10:44 am)

I get it too.

Let’s just drop all speed limits, let drivers fly along our arterials at 90, residentials at 60, and paved alleys at 40! Pedestrians, cyclists, and safe drivers proceed at your own risk!

While we’re at it, let’s remove all sidewalks, and repave them, as well as dirt walking paths as more traffic lanes, making the above targets even easier to mow down!

Mike

Neighbor May 28, 2011 (10:57 am)

The neighborhoods off Admiral and those that live on Admiral thank SPD for trying to make our families safer! To all those who think you deserve to drive faster put your own family at risk not ours. Drive like juju on your own street with your kids trying to simply get home.

foy boy May 28, 2011 (12:21 pm)

Next we need the blinker patrol. The fact that you hardly ever see them You would think that blinkers were the most expensive option on a car. On that note you would think people would have opted for blinkers other then those blinding fog lights.

NotMe May 28, 2011 (5:01 pm)

With a headline containing anything about speeding, you know “Ricky Bobby” has to make some sort of arbitrary comment.
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The speed limits are posted. If you go over that number, you get a ticket. What is keeping people from understanding that principle? Those limits that are posted are based on a number of things – safety for everyone is the top reason. Stop trying to come up with more bullcrap reasoning that is anything contrary. You aren’t smarter than the engineers that determine the limits.

Angry May 28, 2011 (7:22 pm)

Thanks Jedi. Would you like the name and number of the person at the doc to complain too. She has basically just gives me the runaround and says funding is low. The more people that call the better though.

Angry May 29, 2011 (9:05 am)

I mean DOT!

datamuse May 29, 2011 (9:11 am)

Craig: by that logic, we should all get cookies for cleaning up our dog’s poop, refraining from littering, and keeping the noise down after 10pm. Are you serious?

J242 May 29, 2011 (10:20 am)

Keep up the good work SPD!!! Personally, I wish they’d just install a couple of photo radar stations on Admiral (both sides of the hill and on the side heading down to Alki) as well as Roxberry, West Marginal Way and more.

For Craig’s idea on the “All stick, no carrot” comment, most insurance companies will give you discounts for safe driving if you don’t get ticketed for a certain number of months/years. That’s the carrot that keeps on giving. ;)

Pv June 1, 2011 (4:20 am)

Seattle police should give tickets to people who drive expensive cars and think they are above the law by not having front license plates because they think their cars look better without one.

Sorry, comment time is over.