Top Ten US Speed Trap Cities

Last May 2007, the National Motorists Association released its ranking of cities that has the most number of speed traps in the U.S. The National Motorists Association of NMA is organization whose aim is to protect the rights and common interests of motorists. Founded in 1982, the aim of NMA is to influence national policy and provide resources for motorists to challenge existing unjust traffic laws and ticket policies.

The speedtrap ranking is based on consolidated reports submitted to their website, SpeedTrap Exchange (www.speedtrap.org). The NMA ranks the number of speed traps posted on the website by the public. For this year the following cities ranked as the top ten:

1. Detroit, Michigan suburbs
2. Colorado Springs, Colorado
3. Houston, Texas
4. Orlando, Florida
5. Nashville, Tennessee
6. Ann Arbor, Michigan
7. Albuquerque, New Mexico
8. Washington, D.C.
9. Denver, Colorado
10. Virginia Beach, Virginia

This year’s top ten saw the addition of three cities, namely Ann Arbor in Michigan, Albuquerque in New Mexico, and Denver in Colorado. Last year’s Austin in Texas (7^th place), Baton Rouge in Louisiana (8^th place), and Fresno in California (10^th place) was not included in the 2007 top ten cities with the most speedtraps.

Detroit, Michigan suburbs still continue to be the number one city in the U.S. that has the most number of speedtraps. Washington, D.C. was last year’s second placer but fell to number eight in this year’s ranking. We can only hope that Washington traffic enforcers have come to a realization that speedtraps are not proper means of keeping motorists stick to the absurdly low speed limits.

The NMA provides a disclaimer saying they cannot attest to the validity of their listing since these were generated using public contributions. Nevertheless, given the low speed limits and the strict enforcement of traffic laws, it is most likely that speedtraps exist in these cities as well as others not yet included in the NMA list.

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