How to Avoid a Speedtrap: Njection.com and Other Web Sites Enable Motorists to Avoid Being Burned

The speedtrap is one of those parts of Americana like political corruption, bloviating Senators, and income taxes that always are with us. Even before the advent of the automobile, there must have been a constable on some broken-down nag, hiding behind a covered bridge like a mythical troll, ready to pull over a one-horse-power buggy breaking 25 miles per hour. Since the rulers of England sent out their first knights to patrol the king's highways and extort money from passers-by going about their business, the speedtrap has been one of the principal sources of government income, aside from property, income, and sales taxes.

Several months ago, I got nailed after coming through the old Baltimore Tunnel on 895, to the East of the city, proper. After leaving the tunnel, I found myself on a stretch of highway that lacked speed limit signs, and I hadn't noticed that the limit had dropped from 65 to 55. I apparently was doing 70 when I got nailed, though I'm admitting nothing. (The officer who nailed me was very Very VERY polite and professional. I was driving my late father's car, which was registered in the state of Connecticut, and I did not have the registration. It didn't matter. He was able to check me out, and write me up.)

I got fined one-hundred-sixty bucks.

I had taken care of my father in the last months of his life, and am generally homeless now, having lost my job due to my relocation to Connecticut (my place of work also relocated shortly thereafter, turning a 45-minute one-way commute into a 5-hour round-trip commute that I couldn't make). I've been bouncing between New Hampshire, the New York Metro Area, Washington, D.C. and California ever since.