Livonia, Windsor Top List For Most Speed Traps

LIVONIA (WWJ) - Livonia and Windsor have the highest number of speed trap locations in North America, according to a just-released survey.

The National Motorists Association says of the 25 cities with the highest number of reported speed trap activity over the last two years, Livonia leads the way with 27.9 per 100,000 residents.

WWJ Newsradio 950's Sandra McNeil spoke with NMA Executive Director Gary Biller, who said motorists have been complaining about Livonia for years.

"We define a speed trap as a law enforcement action in an area where the speed limit is arbitrarily low, and actually much lower than the prevailing flow of traffic," Biller said.

Livonia Police Chief Robert Stevenson is not impressed by the survey.

"This is not a study. This is just reported ... people type in their gripe about a city. And, apparently, it sounds like people are griping about Livonia," he said, adding,"We do not do speed traps. No, we do not."

"I get no money back whether we write ten tickets or whether I write a hundred tickets," Stevenson said. "My budget does not go up, it does not go down, and we've never had a thing where we're trying to write tickets to raise revenue."

The top reported spots include I-275 from 5 Mile Road to 8 Mile and Gill Road between 7 Mile  and 8 Mile.

Windsor ranked a distant second on the list, with 17.6. Orlando, Las Vegas and Denver round out the top five. Among the states, Michigan comes in third, with 9.4 speed traps per 100 thousand residents.

The following cities had the most reported speed traps since September 1, 2009:

1. Livonia, Michigan .............................       27.9 speed traps per 100,000 residents
2. Windsor, Ontario ..............................       17.6
3. Orlando, Florida ..............................       17.2
4. Las Vegas, Nevada .............................       11.1
5. Denver, Colorado ..............................       10.9
6. Reno, Nevada ..................................       10.4
7. Tampa, Florida ................................        8.9
8. Colorado Springs, Colorado ....................        7.2
9. Austin, Texas .................................        6.1
10. Sarasota, Florida ............................        6.1
11. Portland, Oregon .............................        5.8
12. Jacksonville, Florida ........................        5.4
 13. San Antonio, Texas (Bexar County) ............        5.3
14. Fresno, California ...........................        5.0
15. Hamilton, Ontario ............................        5.0
16. New Orleans, Louisiana .......................        4.7
17. Toronto, Ontario (Greater Toronto Area) ......        4.7
18. Houston, Texas (Harris County) ...............        4.0
19. Edmonton, Alberta ............................        3.3
20. San Diego, California (San Diego County) .....        3.2
21. Indianapolis, Indiana ........................        3.2
22. San Jose, California .........................        3.1
23. Chicago, Illinois (Cook County) ..............        1.9
24. Los Angeles, California (Los Angeles County)          1.6
25. New York, New York (5 boroughs) ..............        0.9

During the same two-year period, Vermont, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wyoming, and Colorado "led" all states with 11.4, 11.3, 9.4, 9.2, and 9.1 new speed trap listings per 100,000 residents respectively.

Visit www.speedtrap.org for a full list and specific locations of speed traps in these and other communities.