Burnaby RCMP have been having a field day catching excessive speeders in one particular part of our city.
It’s a stretch of Marine Way near Boundary Road where the speed limit is 50 km/h. The RCMP’s traffic unit has been tweeting out regularly about drivers being towed away for excessive speeding in this area. They caught a number of drivers going well over the speed limit.
I’ve written a series of blogs about this, cheering on police and recommending tougher fines and penalties for excessive speeding.
In response to these blogs, I’ve had several whiny emails from drivers complaining that this stretch of road is an unfair “speed trap.”
“The speed limit drops from 80 down to 50 with no explanation,” wrote one reader.
First, I don’t know what “explanation” drivers deserve on a road. Is there supposed to be an explainer sign about why the speed is at 50 km/h?
Second, I don’t even know what a “speed trap” really means? Lots of Burnaby roads change speeds as a way to get people to slow down. The speed limits are clearly posted. Nobody is forcing drivers to not paying attention to the signs. This doesn’t make it a “trap.”
Third, it doesn’t really matter if the speed changes from 80 km/h because these drivers are not getting nailed for driving 80 in a 50 zone. They are getting nailed for doing 100, 120, even 136 in a 50 zone. They’d be speeding even if it was still an 80 zone.
So stop your crying over this and just follow the speed limit signs.
Going twice the speed limit isn’t just speeding, it’s excessive speeding, which is why the vehicles were towed. Tickets usually run around $368 and go up depending on how far over the speed limit a driver is going.
At the end of December 2019, some maniac was caught in this same stretch driving 136 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. That driver received a $483 ticket and had their vehicle impounded for seven days.
Excessive speeding gets your vehicle impounded for a week. Fines escalate with your speed, but they all get their vehicles impounded for only a week.
There, you know the rules now. Please just follow them.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
