Riesel, Texas Speed Traps

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Hwy 6

Riesel, TexasSep 02, 20140 Comments

I drive this way every week and on Friday afternoon there is almost always an officer just inside the city limit shooting radar. The speed drops from 75 to 55 so you should be at or under the limit.

Be careful or you’ll get caught.

city of riesel

Riesel, TexasJul 07, 20140 Comments

goes from 55mph to 35mph in nothing – on the north side of the town. does not allow defensive driving if you have a CDL – unless you want to pay $299.00 and take a special class which is more than the tkt.

"300 Feet South of Exxon Turnaround" (per ticket)

Riesel, TexasApr 03, 20141 Comments

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Can you say …. KA-CHING ???? (For the town of Riesel?)

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

OUTRAGEOUS SPEED TRAP in RIESEL, TEXAS … still active in APRIL 2014 !!!!!

Same trap described countless times on this blog. I wish I had read it before I traveled. I had my cruise control set at 72 in 75mph zone northbound on Highway 6 from Marlin – Hearne – Byran – College Station. I made the same trip the day before and in hindsight, remembered the cop was sitting at the very same place. I didn’t make a note of it because I was driving the speed limit and had no plans to try to avoid the law. This is clearly a devious and intentional speed trap and a major income source for Riesel. The speed limit abruptly drops from 75mph to 55 mph. If you miss the sign or don’t slow down quickly enough, the cop is right there to cite you. He sits off the highway on the east side just south of town at the rise of a hill. I had my cruise control set at 72 mph. It was dusk and there was some conversation going on in my car to pass the long empty miles. Same officer noted in other entries.

The cost of my citation? For going 17 mph over the 55 mph limit, the fine was $227. (Fine starts at $117 for up to 6 mph and goes up $10 per additional mph over the limit up to $299 for 25 mph over the limit.) Besides the steep fines for speeding, some of the other fines make it clear this is all about the revenue and nothing more. (Cut across Median – $202) (Littering – $511) (Excessive Acceleration – whatever the officer decides that is! – $297) (Ran Red Light – $297) (Illegal Turn – whatever the officer decides that is! – $297) (Failure to Yield Right-of-Way – $297) (Following too closely – $297) (Equipment violation – anyone ever had a bulb burn out and not know it? – $297) (Expired Registration – $152) (Expired vehicle inspection – $297) (No insurance – 1st offense $397; 2nd offense $1,062) (Expired Drivers’ license – $262) They really get you if you don’t make an appearance in time – $299 additional fine for failure to appear.

As has also been noted, they do **NOT** take personal checks – only money orders or certified checks. And an “appearance” is only by “certified mail, in person or by your attorney.”

Oh — and I live in Texas, so I know *MOST* Texas cities allow a moving violation to not be placed on the driving record by “Deferred Adjudication”. (Where no additional violations are received in a probationary period.) Or, we can use a “Defensive Driving” safety course. In Reisel, there is *****NO***** DEFERRED ADJUDICATION !!!!!! However … they have a note on their court form that says if you do not qualify for Defensive Driving dismissal (took it in the previous year elsewhere) or you have a CDL, contact the court for information on deferred disposition. Hmmmm … so I called. Turns out you can INCREASE your fine up to $299 and take the Defensive Driving course anyway (even if you’ve had it in the past year) and they will dismiss your ticket. So – I have to pay another $72 to the court (plus the minimum $25 fee for the course) to keep this ticket off my driving record!!

Unlike what some other motorists said, I checked my map and there is NOT a “by-pass” to Riesel (unless you count winding around on some circuitous country roads as a by-pass. The only option is to just avoid Highway 6 at all costs. US-77 and Texas 36 also goes in the same direction out of Waco. Well worth the extra miles to avoid this place.

Hwy 6 300 ft of Exxon Turn around

Riesel, TexasJan 18, 20132 Comments

Going cruise control speed limit 70 mph until suddenly 55mph, tried to slow but officer located top of hill at 55 mph sign. Looks like it’s the local sheriff from previous complaints. What a devious racket. Also stated Colorado insurance card wasn’t technically correct, works fine in CO. Officer seemed confused because of driving rental car. Just visiting our college grandkids at A&M. from Colorado. Practice probably needs to be investigated. Haven’t had a ticket in 30 yrs, also obey traffic signs.

Riesel, Texas

Riesel, TexasMar 13, 20120 Comments

Everything stated here about Riesel being a notorious speed trap is all too true. In 30 years of safe driving both in the US and abroad, I have yet to see a scam so blatant.

My spouse (ticketless for many years—-until now) and I were headed northbound to Waco on Highway 6. My spouse was driving. It was late evening and moonless. We were the last car in a pretty evenly-spaced line of several vehicles all going 70 (we were on cruise control).

I looked up and saw the sign approaching what we now know as the fine burg of Riesel (you have to see the signage and the town to believe it) transitioning to 55 mph and had literally just opened my mouth to comment on the extreme abruptness when, to our right, I saw a patrol car turn on its lights. I thought–naively!–it was for the 18-wheeler at the head of the line, which was gradually pulling away from the rest of us. Oh—wrong, wrong, wrong.

The car got six inches off our bumper, and we stopped just over the rise he’d been sitting by. The officer came to our window; I seriously don’t think he was 20. He had a baby face, a voice that still cracks, a car that was approximately as old as he was, and he greeted us with a squeaky but stern "Going a little fast this afternoon?" Remember–it was closer to midnight, which tells you how long he’d been out there doing that very thing, and probably over and over and over on that shift alone.

It went downhill from there; the few subsequent things he said to us were straight out of CHiPS, circa 1979.

He asked for a license, which we gave him. He never bothered with our registration, our insurance, or our stickers (which told us all we needed to know about his intent). He went to his claptrap car and was back in 4 minutes flat with a $185.00 citation and no further preambles.

I think our sole mistake was being unlucky enough to be the last duck in the line…nothing more. He was ready and waiting to pick us off. I think on our handful of trips to Waco prior to this, we probably just got lucky by being in the middle of the pack instead. As others have correctly observed, there is little to no opportunity to slow down in time here, so even trying to toe the line doesn’t help drivers a bit. Meanwhile, the two of us driven literally hundreds of thousands of miles over the years without so much as a scrape, let alone a ticket. Go figure.

This really was just such an incredibly bogus charge…zero recourse, and, hello, 8 hours of defensive driving classes!–and it is such an OBVIOUS trap.

Reading the comments here has made me even crosser, but at least it’s confirmed what we felt at the time, especially since on the way back home we passed the same cop with some poor sucker pulled over in the exact same spot. Speed trap, speed trap, speed trap, of the worst kind, and so corn-pone! I kept expecting Borat to pop up.

I can promise you this, as one of the posters below noted, we’ll be taking the bypass around this place each and every time we need to go to or from Waco in the future.

Bottom line: it does not matter if you were observing the posted speed limits, or honestly trying to transition. If you have the misfortune of driving through Riesel, you’re definitely getting a ticket sooner or later.

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