Phoenix, Arizona Speed Traps

Motorcycle cop just south of Thomas on 48th St. waits for traffic turning off of Thomas (40MPH) onto 48th St. (25MPH) knowing that there is not enough time to slow down. Watch out near the end of the month. Got caught on the December 30.

I mark unknown only because pacing isn’t listed–Arizona’s DPS has to be the most reckless bunch of speed-trappers out there. I was driving home from ASU just the other night and saw a car coming up insanely fast on my tail. Since I was already in the far right lane, I just let him keep coming. The car rode literally rode my bumper for about 100 yards, couldn’t have been more than half a car length behind me, then swerved out into the lane next to me and gunned it. I figured it was just a drunk, then I saw the DPS logos. Sure enough, a mile later that same officer had pulled someone over. I guess the Arizona DPS has sunk to Florida Hghway Patrol methods of intimidating you to speed, then writing you up for it.

At the 3-way intersection of Ray and Chandler, an officer will sometimes hide his patrol car in the "median" of sorts at the 3-way stop. Mostly they’re looking for people running the stop sign, but if you’re going north and Chandler, turn onto Ray, and peel out, they’ll nail you for speeding, regardless of whether or not you were actually above the speed limit.

Be careful driving Pecos Rd. between Interstate 10 (where SR202 becomes Pecos) and the end of the road. The speed limit goes from 65 to 50 relatively quickly, but they don’t stop you there. The traps are usually set up in medians farther down the road, where the traffic tends to thin out, and it becomes very easy to forget that this broad, back-country road has a speed limit of 50. They’ll stop you for anything, ticket you for 6 or more over. There have been traffic fatalities in this area recently due to high-speed head-on collisions, and there are signs warning of "INTENSE SPEED ENFORCEMENT," but the speed limit of 50 on a four-lane road with a broad median is still clearly designed as a trap. Most common are officers on bikes, sometimes patrol cars, I’ve seen the photo van out there a couple of times.

Going west on Chandler just past Desert Foothills and the Safeway shopping center, there’s a big hill. If you’re doing 45 (speed limit) when you get to the top of the hill and then let off of the gas completely to coast down, you’ll still pick up 7-10 mph in high gear, 5-7 in third. Once every couple of weeks, a couple of Phoenix police will park their bikes at the bottom of the hill and hit you with radar guns as you’re leveling out, then pull you over. On the plus side, the police often put one of those unmanned radar units that shows you your speed down the hill out there for several days before trapping it, so it’s not like you weren’t warned…