Yesterday night I went down to Lawrence to meet up with my TradeWind Energy guys to eat dinner and talk. It was pretty fun. Anyway, I was leaving around 11 and got pulled over twice in 30 minutes.
The first time was for backing up over a yellow center line. I was pulling out of a parking space and I backed over the center line. The Lawrence police officer ran a red light to pull me over on the bridge over the Kansas River. I had no idea what I did wrong. He gave me a ticket for improper backing. $133. I told him that was ridiculous, that some people had to work half a week to make that much money. He told me it was the least expensive ticket in the City of Lawrence. Shit.
Then 20 miles later, I was driving on the turnpike, 3 lanes, and I got pulled over for driving in the left lane for too long a period and going 79 in a 70. In Kansas, it isn’t a moving violation unless you’re going 10mph over the speed limit, so I wasn’t so concerned. But, I thought I was going to get another $250 worth of tickets. This guy was nice and just gave me a written warning.
Anyway, I’ve gotten pulled over and ticketed 3 times in the past year. Granted, I drive a ton. But, the tickets that I’ve been given are for stupid things. I don’t speed in the city. Off the highway, when I’m driving on interstates, I usually just drive 9 over the speed limit.
I think that it’s just a way for the cities to generate revenue. And it is a bullshit way for this to occur. Police have enough issues to deal with than to have to go out and do this stupid stuff. I guarantee that they hate it more than I do.
This kind of relates to the reason a couple months ago that I called the USAC to “complain” about the $250 surcharge that they are charging to score domestic elite teams in the NRC. It’s just another way to race some revenue from the guys that are already spending a ton of money with them. Most elite riders pay $150 for an International license. Then they are paying god know what every week to race. Now their teams have to pay $250 to be scored at a NRC race. The entry for a men’s team in Redlands was $1100. That is pretty high already. And the results are computerized. What is the USAC doing extra to post the results? Hardly anything.
Now there are surcharges for fuel prices for planes, surcharges for insurance at sporting events, surcharges for backing up over yellow lines? Not to mention the bullshit baggage surcharges that are keeping airlines in the black. I’m so sick of it. But, I think that that this is all here to stay, so I’d just as well better get used to it.
