San Diego, California Speed Traps

Intersection of Arey Dr. and Piccard Ave. in South San Diego area, police sit on the side street waiting for drivers to not make a complete stop at the stop sign and will immediately cite violators for "rolling stop" violations. Beware and look both directions and make sure your car comes to a complete stop here!

SDPD Motorcycle Cop used LIDAR on vehicles going westbound on 6th Avenue (Towards Downtown) in front of the building, near the I-5 Northbound Exit/6th Avenue Exit near downtown. The SDPD Motorcycle Cop can see as far as Juniper Street to clock people using LIDAR.

Two motorcycle cops are waiting in the parking lot next to Starbucks. I have seen them at this location many times on weekday mornings. They are mostly stopping drivers who are east bound on Balboa Ave.

This segment of Clairemont Mesa Blvd. (CMB) runs from I-805 to HWY 163. It’s a 6-lane ‘major’ roadway witha 30,000 ADT through an industrial/commercial area and is posted for 35 MPH, but there are NO speed limit signs in the 7400-7700 block of the eastbound lanes, which is about 1/3 of a mile long.

Note that neither San Diego nor California have a requirement for the spacing requirements in between speed limit signs on a city street. So the lack of any signs along the part of CMB will not bring you any sympathy from the police or judge.

SDPD motorcycle officers use laser radar on this roadway. Ironically, the Traffic Court is on CMB just east of HWY 163 where the speed limit is still 40 MPH.

The last traffic survey for this portion of eastbound CMB (taken of only 115 vehicles for 14 min. around 1:30 PM in 2010 from I-805 to HWY 163) reports the 85th percentile was 41 MPH, which should make the speed limit 40 MPH. However, city traffic engineers cite an alleged high accident rate for justification in lowering speed limit to 35 MPH.

The previous traffic survey, conducted in 2005, had the 85th percentile at 45 MPH with a posted speed limit of 40. Interestingly, the CA state traffic accident record datafile (SWITRS) shows the numbers of accidents has declined 50% from 2005 to 2010. There were only 18 accidents reported by police in 2005 for this road segment, which later declined to 9 for each year 2008-10, yet the speed limit was lowered to 35 MPH in 2010.

There is a SDPD car that sits next to the sign that is on ground level with the gas prices on it. They face West towards the 805 N off ramp to Balboa.
I went past at 4:10 AM going East doing around 53 MPH (posted 45 East of the 805). Turns on his lights and siren and chases me down and I pull over a block down. Asked if I knew the posted speed limit, I said 45. He said radar showed me at 54. I was given a warning. Now that I know they are there, I see them almost every morning in the same spot. Don’t run that 805 to Balboa off ramp signal light either, seen folks pulled over for that too.