Clifton, Virginia Speed Traps

Police off on Willowbrook, literally standing behind tree with laser detector lighting up cars/motorcycles (especially) cresting on top of hill. Speed limit drops to a ridiculous 35 mph, everyone is speeding at that point. Got pulled over on bike for doing 50 (as cars in front of me had to be doing at least 60 but I digress).

Either do the 35mph (and 25 shortly thereafter) and deal with getting severely tailgated by impatient VA drivers, or get a quota ticket. Your choice. Personally, I’m not driving this route on my bike altogether, ever again. I will not putter around at 30-35 on a bike on a road where drivers routinely do 60-65.

Police park in turnout 100 yards before the intersection of Clifton and Newman roads. The speed limit drops from 45 to 25 in a short span and you will round a curve right into the radar/laser. If the technology to check exists, Fairfax County has it.

Cops hide at the top of the neighborhood, just behind a dip in the road that creates a serious blind spot.

Cops hide in a blind spot, near a stop sign; will fine for the slightest sign of rolling through the sign, regardless of whether anyone’s there. The entire area can become a speed trap, actually–narrow roads, heavy woods, and many blind spots lend themselves to it.

Cop sits in patrol car on the right-of-way of the golf course entrance. If you are driving on Balmoral Greens Avenue coming from Compton Road (heading South), the golf course will be on your leFort Park land is on your right.

Entrance is about 1/2 mile from Compton Road.

As you are rounding a curve to your left, the road straightens out just before the golf course entrance.

The cops sit back far enough on the right-of-way (it’s unusually wide and part of that road is considered park land) to zap you as you straighten out on the road approaching them.

The speed limit is a ludicrous 25 mph on this road. Keep in mind there is NO development of any kind for 1 mile from Compton Road until you get to the first home. The golf course is it and it’s surrounded by a fence and a good distance from the road.

The story is that some people from the neighborhood that the road leads into complained once or twice to the cops about people flying down the road. Now the cops know about this great speed trap and are there at least once a month.

Most common times are evenings during the week and anytime during the day on weekends. I have seen them once on a Saturday around 7pm. Of course, there were two parties going on in the neighborhood then and I wonder how many party guests got nailed and how the neighbors now feel about their neighborhood speed trap.

I know someone who got nailed there a few weeks ago. Cop told him the median speed on the road was 44 mph. That should tell the government something.

If the median speed is 44 mph, then why is the speed limit 25 mph. That’s the median, not even the 85th percentile!