We've all been driving through town, when we catch a glimpse of a police officer just hanging out waiting for someone to speed through their neck of the woods.

Speed limits were put into place for everyone on the road's safety and law enforcement officials are just trying to do their jobs.

BUT...

Sometimes, it seems like they are just sitting at a very convenient spot with a radar gun, just waiting for some poor driver to go JUST a bit over the speed limit.

Don't ya love a speed trap?

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Unsplash - Randy Tarampi
Unsplash - Randy Tarampi
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According to reports, approximately 41 million people receive speeding tickets in the United States every single year.

If you do the math, that means 112,000 tickets are given out a day!

What Exactly Is a Speed Trap?

According to SpeedTrap.org and research by the U.S. Department of Commerce the "safest rate of travel is a few miles per hour above the average traffic speed."

In that sense, "enforced speed limits set below that average speed are speed traps, sacrificing safety for revenue."

States With the Most Speed Traps

A website called CheapCarInsurance.net compiled some data that determined the top states for speed traps. This is based off of the number of speed traps per one hundred thousand residents.

Here are the top five:

  1. Vermont
  2. New Hampshire
  3. Michigan
  4. Delaware
  5. Oklahoma
These Five Car Brands have the Most Speeding Tickets
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Here's the official position that the National Motorists Association has on speed traps:

Speed limits should be based on sound traffic-engineering principles that consider responsible motorists’ actual travel speeds.

Typically, this should result in speed limits set at the 85th percentile speed of free-flowing traffic (the speed under which 85 percent of traffic is traveling).

These limits should be periodically adjusted to reflect changes in actual traffic speeds.

Which Iowa Towns Has the Worst Speed Traps?

The National Motorists Association collaborated with Speedtrap.org to determine some of the worst speed traps in the entire country.

According to Thrillist, the most "notorious" speed trap in the Hawkeye State is located near Dubuque, right along Asbury Road. This spot is reported to be right by a winery, so it makes sense that the cops are situated right along that area.

There are sixteen reported speed traps per one hundred thousand residents in Iowa.

Cedar Rapids is considered to be the worst city for speed traps in the entire state.

Here is the full list of the towns with the worst speed traps, according to Speedtrap.org:

  • Le Claire
  • Cedar Rapids
  • Prairie City
  • Davenport
  • Dyersville

Stay up to date with everything going on in Eastern Iowa by downloading the free station app from your app store. Also, do not forget to follow the station across all social media platforms for the latest news updates.

Hilarious Iowa DOT Signs

Anyone else share a sense of humor with a state's Department of Transportation? Just me? Well, every Monday the Iowa Department of Transportation puts up a sometimes hilarious, sometimes straightforward message on their road signs across the state. This is called "message Monday" and Iowa DOT tries to entertain and educate drivers through these signs. Here are just a few of our favorites.

Gallery Credit: Kerri Mac

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