The Tortoise and The Hare

[IMGreat101]

We know you have run radar for speeders. Have you ever set up your radar and ticketed someone going too slow?
Nearly every time I am on a freeway/interstate, there is at least one or two vehicles just crawling along.

[lewisipso]

I have not. Yet.

[Five-0]

Not many areas with a minimum posted limit in my usual beats. I have written warning for people driving so slow on a divided four lane highway that they are a traffic hazard. I use this statute:

Section 32-5A-174
Minimum speed regulation.
(a) No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.

(b) Whenever the Director of Public Safety and the Director of Transportation, with the approval of the Governor, or local authorities within their respective jurisdictions determine on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that slow speeds on any highway or part of a highway consistently impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, the said directors or such local authority may determine and declare a minimum speed limit below which no person shall drive a vehicle except when necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law, and that limit shall be effective when posted upon appropriate fixed or variable signs.

The road that I work most of my MVAs on needs a minimum speed as it is really just like an interstate. The problem you run into is that people start thinking you are writing chicken shit tickets when in actuality the following too close, equipment violations (specifically involving lights) ect actually cause wrecks. With the way we do accident reports on computer now I'm hoping that the statistics will show a need to enforce some of the smaller statutes that cause major collisions. Unseen vehicles and unexpected vehicle movement are the worst in my humble opinion.

[Rhino]

We know you have run radar for speeders. Have you ever set up your radar and ticketed someone going too slow?
Nearly every time I am on a freeway/interstate, there is at least one or two vehicles just crawling along.

Yes. In my state, you don't need speed detection devices to do this. It's called "Impeding the Flow of Traffic".

I had a State Trooper tell me once, when talking about reason to stop a vehicle, "56 is Speeding and 54 is Impeding." Gotta love the Trooper mentality.

[ChesCopPodz]

Just once, but the driver turned out to be a 89 year old man with Alzheimers who had been missing since 2 days before. He was going 18 in a 55. No ticket.

[HudsonHawk]

1181. Minimum speed regulations.
(a) No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.
(b) Whenever a minimum speed limit has been established as authorized in sections sixteen hundred twenty or sixteen hundred forty-two, no person shall drive at a speed less than such minimum speed limit except when entering upon or preparing to exit from the highway upon which such a minimum speed limit has been established, when preparing to stop, or when necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.

I've only written this section twice. Once for a road-rage incident in which a car was "brake checking" another vehicle repeatedly, and I wrote it to a drunk driver who was slowly weaving all over the road. There were numerous other tickets written, as you can probably imagine.

There were a few other occasions where I've stopped cars for going too slow a few times, but did not feel that a ticket was necessary. Generally they were 15 to 20 mph under the posted limit with fluctuating speed and other factors. Most were people who were lost, and I helped them with directions. I've also had a few erratic drivers who were very tired and just needed to switch drivers.

[Xiphos]

I've made a couple stops but didn't write any tickets. I just don't have that "Trooper Mentality."