Amherst, Massachusetts Speed Traps

On the west side of East Leverett Road a mile past Leverett Road as you head toward Leverett, a half mile past the Amherst line as you head from Leverett toward Amherst. Cop car waits in partially concealed wooded area southwest of the longhorn cattle meadow. Pay attention to speed limit sign. As with Amherst speed traps generally, UMass students and families are easy pickings.

A patrol car will park in the entrance to the East Amherst Village apartment complex on North East Street. He’ll usually be there in the afternoons trying to tag people who use North East Street as a short cut from UMass via Strong street heading toward Main St. or Rt. 9. He’ll catch you as you’re heading toward the 4-way intersection where North East street meets Main Street. You won’t see him when you’re approaching the light, but he’ll be on the right. He waits right at the 25MPH sign. I think the speed limit drops down from 40 or 35 down to 25MPH right there, so he must catch a lot of people.

If you tend to roll through stop signs, you might get caught here. If you are coming up Snell toward Amherst College, be aware that there is sometimes a cruiser parked to your right, down the road a ways, on S. Pleasant.
The cop will watch to see if you stop properly. If not, he will pull you over.
This is mostly for people turning right, which is the predominant direction at this intersection.
This is not a speed trap per se, but a frequently monitored traffic point.

Amherst Police Dept cruiser often sits late night behind the bushes (on a church driveway, I think) and catches speeders going 35-40 miles on the northbound side of North Pleasant St through the continuation of the school zone (25 mph) past the UMass School of Ed. When you see 35 mph sign in front and think that you are out of the school zone, a cruizer hidden right before you get to the sign. Most of the caught are UMass students going to/from parties. If you aren’t college-age, you may be able to convince the officer to let you off with a warning.

The Umass cops are worse than the Mass staties here. Don’t think of going 1 MPH over the posted limit, because they’ll catch you, staple on an extra 20 mph, and send you on your way, only to lose to the corrupt Northampton courts. I’ve already been nailed twice for something I honestly didn’t do here.