Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, O.K. Carter Column

By O.K. Carter, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Nov. 29–Having driven all of 35 years in Arlington and managing to receive only two traffic tickets — one for allegedly slow-rolling through a stop sign and another for failing to buckle up — it’s a little difficult to see the town as a nationally cited speed trap.

Then again, a town that speed-traps its own citizenry tends to turn over politicos and police chiefs in a hurry.

That doesn’t seem to be the case here.

Nevertheless, according to a study released this month by the National Motorists Association, Arlington is on the speed-trap list, rating a “dishonorable mention.”

The NMA study actually cited Houston for being the worst speed-trap city in Texas, but then added three dishonorable mentions to the Texas list: Arlington, Austin and Estelline.

Since Estelline has a whopping population of 168 — it’s a Panhandle town on U.S. 287 near the Red River — the law enforcement there must be a sight to behold.

Wonder why Pantego and Dalworthington Gardens didn’t make the cut?

But back to that dishonorable mention for Arlington.

The NMA prepares an annual speed-trap city list every year, typically releasing it right before Thanksgiving.

“Nothing can ruin a vacation more quickly than an undeserved speeding ticket,” the NMA’s November news release on the speed-trap topic says.

How’s the list put together? Basically, it’s based on complaints from visitors to the city.

The results were drawn from a combination of two sources.

The first source was an online poll on the NMA network of Web sites ( www.motorists.org and www.speedtrap.org).

The poll asked visitors to choose the worst speed-trap city in their state.

The second source was an analysis of the postings on www.speedtrap.org over the last two years.

In short, it means that a lot of people who visited Arlington got tickets, and they were upset enough to post complaints on the Web sites.

Time for a disclaimer: Doesn’t it seem logical that cities with a lot of visitors and through traffic on interstates would be writing more traffic citations?

Arlington has two interstates and at least 7 million visitors annually driving to its attractions.

And Austin is convention central, not to mention the home of more than 100,000 college students.

This doesn’t explain Estelline, and I’ll have to drive through there sometime for a look-see. Wonder if cruise control will work at 15 mph?

Second disclaimer for Arlington: It’s difficult to find a street or highway where the posted speed limit isn’t in keeping with either the Transportation Department’s or the city’s own studies on appropriate speeds. School zones are short and well-marked. Traffic lights have well-defined yellow warnings. But that doesn’t change the fact that many visitors complain to the Web sites.

There’s no doubt that Arlington police write a lot of tickets. According to Municipal Court records, last year the department filed 155,853 assorted citations, of which 129,039 were for traffic violations.

Take the city’s nondriving young population and its over-90 crowd out of the mix, and this translates to about half the city’s driving population getting an annual traffic ticket. That seems a tad high on a per capita basis, though there are the previously mentioned extenuating circumstances. Police are at a comparable activity level this year. Plus the city has begun using red-light cameras. That system is on track for about 23,000 additional civil violations a year. That’s a lot of tickets or civil violations. Maybe too many.

In short, drive carefully. If there’s fodder for consideration in all this, it’s that given the city’s clearly growing concern over crime, perhaps some of those police resources now busily writing traffic tickets should be focused on other aspects of maintaining law and order.

O.K. Carter’s column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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