I have to drive through Livingston Parish, LA on I-12 everyday on my journeys between Mandeville and LSU in Baton Rouge. There is a stretch of I-12 there that is a total speed trap. The speed limit drops from 70 to 60, but you are still several miles out of Baton Rouge. They have one of those camera trucks that takes your picture and mails you speeding tickets for driving 71 on the road that is exactly like the 70 mph speed limit road you were on a mile and a half ago.
To make it feel even better, you have to mail the check for said ticket to CLEVELAND, OH!!!!!!! Why am I making a payment to a local government agency through an Ohio address?
I know that there is not really anything I can do about this, but I am going to use my little internet voice to declare that this is jive. Hopefully the google salad will get my message to someone who cares. I doubt that any of my regular readers are Livingston Parish business owners, but if you are know that I am now consciously avoiding spending any money in that parish. Since your government feels the need to come out to the highway and mechanically generate revenue, I will stop providing any of the sales tax revenue that I have in the past.
One thing about traveling on Interstate Highways you might want to learn is that they do a very good job putting signs up warning of situations down the road. In this case, there are signs that say “reduce speed ahead”, in fact one is a flashing electric sign. If you travel it every day, as you say, you would know that. If you had to put up with the almost daily accidents on this section of I-12 between Holden and Baton Rouge, complete with the back-ups these accidents cause, you would welcome these speed vans. The speeding in this area is out of control and something needed to be done. There was a very good article in the Baton Rouge newspaper on how this Red Flex system works.
I know that the speed is marked, and I have absolutely no opposition to enforcing the speed limit or any other safety measures on that stretch of road. I just object to doing it by parking an unmanned truck on the side of the road and taking pictures. That doesn’t make the road safer at that time, it just raises money. The cars keep speeding, and get a ticket in the mail weeks later. I would be all in favor of law enforcement officers enforcing the law, and using their human judgement to do so. Leaving a car parked on the side of the road does not make the road safer.
Daily commuter from Hammond to Baton Rouge.Letter in mail surprised me to even though it was a warning for the 30 day temporary. No posted warning signs of any type along route other than the speed limit signs. Nice or convenient of the Parish to also drop the speed limit to 60 along the main stretch in OLE Bottle Neck Denham Springs 10% sales tax area. Bet you don’t see the camera van on the west bound lane in the AM in this area. Scary this is done by a private contractor with a profit motivation. Also want to commend the Parish on the property tax reassesments in 4 years a property I own in the Parish more than doubled. Wish I could sell it for the valuation and not to mention the rescinded property acquisition fee.
Progressive Livingston or Legalized pick pocketing?
signed: want to be a Socialist too.
The speed limits really need to be enforced, especially on I-12. We just need to learn to obey the speed limits. The motivation for this is revenue for “Ole Willie” though. Be careful hot rodders. We gonna git ya!!!!
Lately there seems to have been more actual law enforcement officers on that stretch. I’m all for that. I agree that we are all safer on that stretch of road if we all drive the speed limit. I just don’t think an umarked car on the side of the road taking pictures and mailing bills is the best way to make the road safer.
As a business traveler from Indiana I just received a special invitation to pay for a speeding ticket in Livingston Parish. It apparently happened at 8:33 in the evening. I was driving from Slidell where I had just taken my aunt out to dinner and was on my way to Baton Rouge to get to my hotel for my next day’s meetings. I always set my cruise control at two miles over the speed limit. I don’t know what Satsuma Citizen sees along this route, but there were no flashing signs or anything. I still don’t know where the speed limit was reduced from 70 to 60, but my two miles over the speed limit quickly jumped to 12 somewhere. I have no way to defend myself unless I choose to fly back to Louisianna. THAT’s not going to happen. I hope the people from Louisiana speak out against this “Private / For Hire Profit Center”. It is wrong and is very suspect as to the motivation. Safety is one thing. A profit center is another. Just raise my hotel tax some more. I’ll gladly accept a friendly pull over from an officer, but this “SURPRISE! NOW PAY US!” route is wrong.
Sorry to the locals for misspelling Louisiana. Apparently I misspelled apparently as well. Have a nice day.
Spelling apologies accepted, and corrected.
I didn’t the the photo truck today, but there were lots of state troopers out. That’s fine with me.
It amazes me that people are finding this thread on a site that predominantly deals with non-mainstream music. Gotta love google.