Culver City, California Speed Traps

The West LA College campus has a LA County Sheriff’s Substation and these officers love to play "cat and mouse" games to hand out tickets. Every work day I drive through a backroad of the campus to get from Jefferson Blvd to Overland since I work at a company adjacent to the campus.

The speed limit is 25 MPH and there are two stop signs. The low limit is ridiculous since there is a steep downward hill and also there is NO cross traffic and rarely any traffic other than your own car along the entire 1/2 mile road.

However, here are two games the Sheriff’s love to play:

1) One officer parks at the bottom of the hill (you CANNOT maintain just 25 MPH without riding your brakes and downshifting). If you successfully "pass" that trap and feel some relief, then a second officer may be waiting halfway down the road, with his car almost hidden. Probably using radar. One time there were three cars evenly space along the 1/2 mile road.

2) When dark, an officer will park on the other side of the street, lights off, near the intersection of Jefferson and the West LA Campus Road. When a car turns off Jefferson and heads up the hill toward the campus, the officer will make a U-turn and while keeping a distance so you might not see him behind you, he will catch up to you as you head down the hill…hoping to catch you going well above 25 MPH. If you "spot this game" and ride your brakes to maintain 25 MPH, then he will follow you the entire length of the 1/2 mile road (at a very close distance) to ensure you do not exceed 25 MPH and fully stop at the two stop signs.

I am sure I frustrate these officers since I drive through every work day. I have never received a ticket and never will unless I come across a dishonest officer, but I assume the radar has a photo and digital readout with your speed that can be saved for the ticket and court.

NEVER, EVER go above 25 MPH on this campus or roll through the stops!

This is more like a rolling stop sign trap…usually a motorcycle cop sits in the Jack in the Box parking lot and waits for a driver going south on Centinella to roll through the stop sign at the corner as the driver turns right onto Washington Place. The cops that sit here are busy all day long…usually they only have to wait for 4 to 5 cars before they are writing someone up.

There is a "no right turn on red "sign at the bottom of the exit ramp. Cops sit and wait for people to take that right turn on red. I see someone being pulled over at this intersection several times a day.

going southbound, turning right onto Washington blvd…there is a separate right turning lane that curves…there is a stop sign there separate from the traffic light. everyone treats it as a yield sign and does a "california stop". cop sits there and gets people, one right after another.

Ince Blvd is a long street without speed bumps. There is always a motorcycle cop waiting at the end of the block towards Lucerne. They usually park between cars that are parked on the street or they wait on Carson St. By then, you have picked up more speed.