I think I ticked off a local law enforcement officer this morning....

[SacredCow]

I decided to drive my project car to work (a 1979 Super Beetle Convertible), since it's been sitting for a week or so and needed to be run. At one point, I encountered a slowdown and ultimately realized that it was an inspection sticker checkpoint. No biggie- the Beetle is all current and legal. But I swear, as soon as the officer saw me, I think he assumed "Old car- it's got problems, and it's likely not inspected. Ka-Ching!" Amazingly, he was already pointing me to the parking lot where the tickets were being written, but when I got close enough for him to see that I was legal, he glared at me and waved me through.

[DS1]

1. What state does that?

[SacredCow]

2. Louisiana.....

IIRC, they can even take your license plate making you have to pay the $18 for the inspection sticker, PLUS whatever fines and fees to get your plate back.

And on edit: It's the 2nd one I've been through in less than a week. They must be revenue-hungry.

[jobycom]

3. Not around Lake Charles by any chance?

The cops around there are eager, to say the least. Best to be white male and have short hair.

[SacredCow]

4. No, it was in the Baton Rouge area....

but pretty much the same story.

[jobycom]

6. Hehe! I came off the basin bridge on I-10 going west once

and there was a speed trap right on the other side as you come over the hill. There were three cop cars and a news crew for some reason. I was pegging right at the speed limit (long experience on that bridge has taught me to be doing the speed limit when cresting that last bridge) and there was no one next to me. The cop with the radar gun watched me, looked at the gun, lowered the gun, showed it to the cop standing next to him, and shook his head. You could see both were disappointed. It was so obvious even my kids laughed about it.

So yeah, same story. Louisiana is so broke they'll do anything for cash.

[SacredCow]

8. It's not so much that they're broke....

they just steal most of the taxation revenue through bizarre pet projects that they HAVE to have other sources. That's why they jump on every bandwagon for funds. Red light cameras? Got 'em. Speeding Cameras? Got 'em. If they could figure out an automatic way to give out parking tickets, we'd have that, too.

[kentauros]

23. That explains some things we discovered last year in trying to get buried pipeline info.

Because I use GIS for some of the pipeline mapping here, I needed the database files (called shapefiles) for several parishes on the NW border with Texas.

In Texas, I just call or email the Railroad Commission, make an order for the counties I need and pay between $20-30 each for the shapefiles. Not so in Louisiana.

First off, the state does not maintain a database of pipelines. WTF? (I also learned the year before that if I wanted up-to-date mapping info, the government was no help, but LSU was a major boon for free information.) What the state did have was a company that kept such data for them, at $250 per parish, minimum investment of $1000! So, we had to get four parishes of files, even though I really only needed them for three at most.

Although we pass that cost on to the client and they in turn on to their clients and so on, it's a scam all the way around. Texas isn't that much larger than Louisiana and we both have huge oil industry infrastructures. You would think it would be in the best interests of the state to have their own GIS system and keep track of what's under their feet. But I guess per your explanation there, the money is more important than true public safety.

[SacredCow]

24. I would almost bet beloved bodily organs....

that the company you mentioned that keeps the data for them at $250 per parish is owned by some legislator's spouse, sibling, sibling-in-law, etc....

[sasquatch]

5. That's about 90% of the south though

[jobycom]

7. They are worse right there. I got a call from an attorney once

because I had been stopped just outside Lake Charles for "failing to indicate a turn." I had been in the same lane--the right lane--for about half an hour when the cop pulled me over. I even asked him, nicely, if he was just profile stopping (I'm white but look a bit Hispanic and had Texas tags), and he looked embarrassed but said no, that I had cut him off and almost caused a wreck when I switched lanes without signalling. That was also ridiculous, because I had watched him closing in on me for about half a mile before he put on his lights. He then questioned me about everything involving my trip, then realized I had passengers in the car--they were asleep, so he hadn't seen them--then questioned them, the let me go. As I drove away, I passed several other cars pulled over, all of them with black or Hispanic drivers, and several of them being searched.

Anyway, the attorney had gotten my name from their records, and was suing the county for civil rights violations. They later did a story on the area on 20/20 or one of those shows. It's gotten better since then, but I still see more people pulled over in that area than anywhere I else I drive, including Texas and Mississippi.

[SacredCow]

10. Baton Rouge isn't THAT bad....

But yeah- the stretch between Lafayette to the TX-LA border is one continuous speed trap. I can forgive the traps over the basin, because they stupidly built that without any shoulder, and wrecks on that thing tend to be gigantic pileups.

[baldguy]

11. NY

Anything to generate revenue.

[guitar man]

9. we don't have inspection stickers in OK anymore

did away with them several years ago. :)

[SacredCow]

12. Really? You don't have to have your cars checked for emissions?

They've gotten serious about it here. They hook your car up to the OBD code reader, and if anything is generating a fault code, BAM- you've failed. Thankfully, the Beetle has no OBD!

[guitar man]

13. nope, not anymore

not that I'm aware of.

[SacredCow]

14. That's hella-sweet....

It's not that the $18 per car per year is a bankbreaker, but it IS a hassle.

[guitar man]

18. well, the hassle here was

that every time we'd take our cars to the shops that were licensed inspection stations, the asshole running it would manage to find some nitpicking thing that he deemed to be wrong and try to twist you arm to get him to fix it. "Ahhh, you got some *pinholes* in your tailpipe" was probably the fake moneymaker most often heard.

My favorite part though is that I don't have to change the pipes on my Harley every year just to get a sticker :D

[SacredCow]

19. It's VERY common in the air-cooled VW set...

to have 2 engines- one that will pass inspection, and one that you have on for the rest of the year!

*pinholes* in your tailpipe? Hell, I had an old Honda Prelude with garage-engineered tailpipes fashioned out of perforated chromed steel...

[guitar man]

20. yep

those engines sure are easy to change out compared to everything else I've ever driven ;)

[SacredCow]

22. A big ol' Harley dude pulled into a parking space next to me...

a few days ago. He was the exact stereotype that most people expect- Huge, with a bushy beard, lots of ink, etc... My sister was with me, and tensed up, but I've been around these guys enough to know that most of them couldn't be nicer. He walked over and "petted" the Beetle and told me of his beloved '63 ragtop Beetle that he had years ago in Cali. And said that he would swap the motor out by unbolting it, and getting under the rear end and bench-pressing it out to some friends to set it on the dolly. He certainly appeared to be capable of it.

Some of those dudes just slay me! :)

[MajorChode]

17. Some states also check emissions only in certain counties

So you get pinged only if you live near a major metropolitan area.

Another gotcha is that if you clear your fault codes and then go try to get an inspection, they will fail you simply because you don't have enough data in the computer.

I didn't have my gas cap on tightly and it set off the check engine fault. I reset the fault myself, but when I went to get an inspection they said I was going to have to drive it around for a few days before they would inspect it. Once the database filled back up I returned and got the sticker.

[SoxFan]

21. Arkansas got rid of them about ten years ago

I went from that to new Hampshire, home of one of the most anal retentive inspection systems in the country. i just shelled out serious clams to get my air flow sensor replaced in order to meet the OBD test.

[Inchworm]

15. LoL

They do that to me around here at ANY type checkpoint. I think it's a combination of the way my car looks and the way I look.

I've been running legal beaters for years.

If they point me over just to be sure their very first question is, "have you been drinking?"

My reply is generally some slant on, "No, have you been drinking or is that your cologne? Why did you pull me? Hurry and do what you have to do. I'm in a hurry."

OK, so what there may be a beer can or two in passenger floorboard. I haul around drunks occasionally. I also toss cans in car when working in the yard because I know I'll recycle them if I do.

Give 'em hell, I always say. What are they going to do, pull you over for no reason? Too late for that :D

:hi:

[SacredCow]

16. A friend of mine used to work at a facility that produced artificial vanilla...

(aka vanillin). The employees would often take some home to use for cooking or whatever (usually dissolved in pure ethyl alcohol). Well, he brought some of the raw product home (which is a white powder), in a little ziploc baggie. At the time, he drove a mid-80's Mustang LX 5.0 and had a habit of testing its limits. Of course, he was stopped and they saw the baggie on his seat.... Let's just say it was a rough evening for him.