
Opinion: Speeding Tickets on the 198/33 Are Your Own Fault
Back in 2015, a little boy was killed when a speeding driver, who later admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel, jumped the median on the 198 and drove into Delaware Park. The three-year-old boy was with his mother and sister, who suffered traumatic injuries from the crash, at the time of the incident, which sounded the alarm about dangerous drivers speeding on the road. Within days, the speed limit on the 198 dropped from 55 miles per hour to 30 miles per hour.
Some drivers have been fighting to have the speed limit restored, or at least increased, ever since.
Now that construction season is upon us, traffic patterns on the 198 have been disrupted, especially at the interchange with the 33. Orange cones have been omnipresent for months and drivers have forgotten how to merge and otherwise navigate the short stretch of road where the ramps meet, before further consolidating at Parkside on the edge of Delaware Park.
As someone who drives this stretch in both directions, four days a week, it’s taken a few extra minutes of time for each afternoon commute. It’s even more frustrating when drivers conveniently forget that yield signs matter and should be respected and observed when joining the ramp from the 33 to the 198. (They’re not optional, by the way. Never have been.)
Drivers in recent weeks have been calling local media outlets, outraged and in disbelief that they’ve received speeding tickets for driving in excess of 30 miles per hour at the Parkside intersection. It’s not fair, they lament, the change happens too quickly and the speed limit is unreasonable anyway.
Boo hoo.
The speed limit has been 30 miles per hour in that stretch for the better part of a decade. This is not new.
Speed limits are always decreased in construction zones, usually with fines doubled the normal rate due to the dangerous working conditions for those road crews who are already outside in the unrelenting heat all day, trying to work as fast as they can to return traffic patterns to normal.
Every so often, starting in 2015 when the speed limit changed, Buffalo Police have conducted speed limit enforcement operations, ticketing drivers. Where was the outrage? Where were the complaints?
But now it’s an issue? Because there’s a speed camera? Were the orange cones not enough indication to slow down? Or are you drivers getting ticketed just mad now that you’re finally getting caught and being held responsible for speeding?
One driver was ticketed twice in the span of three days on the westbound 198, saying it was “the most unfair speed camera area.”
Another person hit the nail on the head about the real problem on the 198: No one wants to go the speed limit and they drive aggressively when people follow the law.
“Yes I was speeding,” he said. “If you don’t speed going down the 198 in certain situations, you will get ran down.”
The speed limit has been 30 miles per hour along the entire 198 since 2015. Drivers crying about speeding tickets have been laughing and nearly running down drivers trying to adhere to the law the whole time.
They’re getting what’s coming to them. It’d be nice if BPD enforced the speed limit more often; maybe then people wouldn’t be so stunned to be held accountable for their choices.
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