Northglenn executes a classic speed trap move

Last month I mentioned the story of an acquaintance of mine regarding her experience with Northglenn overcharging for a ticket received on Community Center Drive. I checked that stretch of city street out. She is right to be unhappy. It is a speed trap.

Her summary is quite accurate. The road design, and the speed limit reduction at the intersection with Malley Drive, seem to be explicitly designed to funnel people into the trap, and revenue into the City of Northglenn coffers.

Moreover, given the nature of the roadway on that particular section of Community Center Drive, I would posit that the City may be in violation of the Colorado Law, which explicitly stipulates that “speed limits are not to be higher or lower than the basic prima facie speed limits” and that speed limits ought to be “30 mph in any residential district” (unless “unless a Traffic Investigation has justified the change”).

Community Center Drive north of Malley Drive is very clearly a residential area. Not only is it residential, it has a wide street, wide grass before the sidewalk on each side, more grass and then apartment complexes behind fences after that. In other words, this is nowhere near a particularly dangerous residential area, for which the speed limits are generally 30 mph in many areas of Denver I drive in every day.

It appears to me that it may be the case that the City can’t get the revenue it wants by treating its denizens fairly, so it goes with a classic speed trap move, drop the speed limit significantly, in an area which does not “invite” lower speed to the driver by any real change in the nature of the roadway, and then enforce aggressively in the area immediately after the drop in the legal limit to maximize the number of “marks” you can hit on.

I would highly doubt that Northglenn could produce a bonafide Traffic Investigation, as required by State law, if challenged in court.

I would encourage any with tickets on Community Center Drive to consider a challenge to your speeding ticket on this basis.

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