Speeding tickets and the cops that write them

As I was making my way into the great state of Massachusetts this weekend I had the experience of not once but twice being in the path of a speed coop trying to pull someone over.

Now, having been in the state of the *worst drivers* many times (I believe that the coined phrase masshole is really only linked to their driving etiquette), and knowing that there are speed traps all over the place, and having been pulled over myself once on the CT-Mass border, I found my heart racing. I was fairly sure they weren't coming after me and although I don't drive as fast as I did back when I got the $260 dollar ticket, in fact my sister tends to ride me for keeping in the slow lane, there is something about a speed cop that completely overwhelms me. Cops in general don't really intimidate me, but for some reason speeding cops are the exception. Seeing the flashing lights I almost get the urge to accelerate and get away from them. That or pound the breaks, even though I'm going the speed limit.

I was skimming a site -- that "looked" official, with statistics and such about speeding and such, and apparently MA isn't the worst for speeding tickets:

Top 10 States Notorious for Writing Tickets:
1. Ohio
2. Pennsylvania
3. New York
4. California
5. Texas
6. Georgia
7. Virginia
8. North Carolina
9. Massachusetts
10. Connecticut

They also note that "More men than women receive speeding tickets." Is this true? Of course the first thought I had was the old stereotype that women, clad in low cut tops and extra mascara, worm their way out of tickets more easily.

Nope. That statement seems to be wrong. I found a blog that nicely summarized a study done at Cornell which showed that while women were as likely to get pulled over, they were in some places *more* likely to get ticketed. Definitely not less likely.

In any case, you'll find me in the slow lane.