CHP, Front License, & LIDAR
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From: San Francisco Bay Area
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CHP, Front License, & LIDAR
A couple of weeks ago I made my grand entrance on to 280 heading south from Palo Alto, CA and almost instantly saw the CHP car on the shoulder. I immediately slammed the brakes on (creating a ton of brake dust that I washed off that weekend) slowing from about 100 to 60, and then keep that speed until he had a chance to chase me down, which he did.
He asked me how fast I thought I was going, and I said I didn’t know (and wanted to say, “and neither do you.”) I was pretty convinced that he wasn’t using Lidar since he had been inside his car, but still, you never know, and I was anxious as he told me to wait in the car.
Aside: the definition of reckless driving is the observation by the officer of 3 different infractions during a single driving incident. So I figured my 3 were: excessive speed, illegal lane change (since I swept across 4 lanes on my entry), and possibly following the car in front of me too closely.
So when I saw him preparing a citation in my review mirror, I let my fantasy run of being handcuffed and taken downtown.
When he returned, he leaned down and said, “I’ve got some bad news. . .” I didn’t hear what he had to say after that – which was, “and some good news” – since I thought he had just confirmed my worse fear.
In any case, as suspected, he couldn’t gauge my speed, and told me that it was my “lucky day” because he wasn’t giving me a speeding ticket, but was giving me a fixit ticket to put the front license plate on.
After that, I decided to try the license plate holder from http://www.moweraxle.com/, which screws into the tow hook of the 997TT. I got it in a week, installed it in 10 minutes, and today took the turbo down to the CHP’s Redwood City</ST1
lace office for inspection.
I walked in and this huge CHP officer – at least 6-5, 250, was sitting behind the desk (aside: I was very happy to see this kind of physical capability in operation against the Bay Area’s bad guys).
As we’re walking to the parking lot, he glances at the ticket and says, “that’s too bad about the car,” meaning, it’s too bad that I had to drill the holes in the bumper of a turbo. I said, yes, it must be hard to deface such a beautiful car, but in this case, it didn’t happen, and I showed him the moweraxle license plate.
He had never seen one before, and kneeled down and tugged at it. He said it was “very sturdy” and “nifty.” What a nice officer. I asked him how many times we could play this game, where I take my front license plate off and then get a fixit ticket and then get it signed off, etc., and he said he thought it was 3 times, before I get a point on my license.
He further volunteered that all the CHP officers in the Bay Area had now been trained in the use of lidar, and that it was in operation on the major freeways. Further that, as many of you know, the front license plate it the primary reflective target, which is why the CHP it being more aggressive about these front license plate fixit tickets. He also said that lidar is less effective on dark colored cars, including my Atlas Grey.
I thanked him for this information, and then after pulling into a Sear’s parking lot, removed the entire mower axle assembly and put it in the trunk, replace the tow hook cap. I figure, if I’m stopped again for the absence of the plate, and can literally screw it back in while the officer is writing the citation so I can simultaneously have him inspect the vehicle and sign off on the fixit ticket.
It’s getting oppressive out here.
Sammy
He asked me how fast I thought I was going, and I said I didn’t know (and wanted to say, “and neither do you.”) I was pretty convinced that he wasn’t using Lidar since he had been inside his car, but still, you never know, and I was anxious as he told me to wait in the car.
Aside: the definition of reckless driving is the observation by the officer of 3 different infractions during a single driving incident. So I figured my 3 were: excessive speed, illegal lane change (since I swept across 4 lanes on my entry), and possibly following the car in front of me too closely.
So when I saw him preparing a citation in my review mirror, I let my fantasy run of being handcuffed and taken downtown.
When he returned, he leaned down and said, “I’ve got some bad news. . .” I didn’t hear what he had to say after that – which was, “and some good news” – since I thought he had just confirmed my worse fear.
In any case, as suspected, he couldn’t gauge my speed, and told me that it was my “lucky day” because he wasn’t giving me a speeding ticket, but was giving me a fixit ticket to put the front license plate on.
After that, I decided to try the license plate holder from http://www.moweraxle.com/, which screws into the tow hook of the 997TT. I got it in a week, installed it in 10 minutes, and today took the turbo down to the CHP’s Redwood City</ST1
lace office for inspection.I walked in and this huge CHP officer – at least 6-5, 250, was sitting behind the desk (aside: I was very happy to see this kind of physical capability in operation against the Bay Area’s bad guys).
As we’re walking to the parking lot, he glances at the ticket and says, “that’s too bad about the car,” meaning, it’s too bad that I had to drill the holes in the bumper of a turbo. I said, yes, it must be hard to deface such a beautiful car, but in this case, it didn’t happen, and I showed him the moweraxle license plate.
He had never seen one before, and kneeled down and tugged at it. He said it was “very sturdy” and “nifty.” What a nice officer. I asked him how many times we could play this game, where I take my front license plate off and then get a fixit ticket and then get it signed off, etc., and he said he thought it was 3 times, before I get a point on my license.
He further volunteered that all the CHP officers in the Bay Area had now been trained in the use of lidar, and that it was in operation on the major freeways. Further that, as many of you know, the front license plate it the primary reflective target, which is why the CHP it being more aggressive about these front license plate fixit tickets. He also said that lidar is less effective on dark colored cars, including my Atlas Grey.
I thanked him for this information, and then after pulling into a Sear’s parking lot, removed the entire mower axle assembly and put it in the trunk, replace the tow hook cap. I figure, if I’m stopped again for the absence of the plate, and can literally screw it back in while the officer is writing the citation so I can simultaneously have him inspect the vehicle and sign off on the fixit ticket.
It’s getting oppressive out here.
Sammy
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 148
From: Dallas, Rochester, sometimes Pfaffenhausen
Rep Power: 26
man CHP is gonna hate me, im in berkeley for the summer, and I'm not running a front plate....but the vehicle is registered in texas w/ texas plates so they cant do much.
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