Why are BMW drivers targeted for speeding by traffic police? Does the car you drive change your chances of getting a speeding ticket? Will driving a certain car brand make you stand out for highway patrols?
As a rule of thumb, sporty looking cars with brighter colors, especially convertibles are easily noticeable, regardless of brand. Obnoxious behavior does not require a flashy ride to be easily detected. As for the subject at hand, are BMW drivers unfairly targeted for speeding?
There is something about the demeanor of a BMW that attracts people. It is a compelling automobile with an easily identifiable front fascia, signature kidney grills, coupled with BMW signature round halo “angel eyes” headlight surrounds. A combination that clearly screams sportiness, with splash of class. Attributes that might be great from a driver point of view. On the other hand, not so great from the eyes of a police officer that’s hanging out on the shoulder of a freeway with a laser gun pointing towards oncoming traffic… trying to catch his next over speeding victim.
Ok, if you are being abnoxious, zooming in and out of traffic repeatedly, cutting people off, or tailgating someone, then maybe you deserve the ticket after all. However, if you are mostly a traffic-law obiding driver that occasionally makes a harmless mistake or two, you should not be deliberately targeted by some traffic officer trying to reach their monthly ticket quota.
Most car manufacturers these days produce very smooth riding vehicles. Everything from advanced sound proofing, improved aerodynamic design with decreased drag, as well as active systems keep a cushion between the driver and the surrounding elements. High speed stability with very quiet interiors puts the driver at a larger risk of going over the speed limit. In some cases endangering the public without truly noticing.
Driving a totally stock BMW (mainly powerful luxury vehicles), at freeway speeds of 65 mph is a very hard thing to do. Especially if your commute is largely around highly populated metropolitan areas, where it’s hard to maintain a constant speed. Makes it impossible to safely use cruise control. Well that’s unless your car is equipped with active laser-guided cruise control, that automatically maintains a certain distance from the vehicle up ahead. As a driver, it forces you to keep your foot on/off the accelerator pedal. While at times going well over the speed limit without noticing. Soon after, your rear view mirror gets a visit by those notorious red and blue flashing lights that we all despise.
One thing I’ve noticed over time, while driving my normal average looking daily driver sedan, my commute goes unnoticed. Driving my mostly stock BMW, utilizing the same exact driving style and commute route, seems to increase my chances of getting a ticket. Equipped with the latest and greatest radar detector and better than 20/20 vision on the lookout, still makes it too risky to exceed 69mph in a 65mph zone. Simply because I know that my car sticks out, making it an easy target. That goes for newer as well as older BMW cars.
As a rule of thumb, if you drive a car that attracts the attention of random strangers, it will most likely attract a cop’s eye. Therefore, if you are planning on spirited driving, which I totally discourage on public roads, at least drive a car with bland styling to blend in a bit.
What do we take out of this? Do drive the speed limit and obey all traffic laws. If you want to drive obnoxiously, spend a couple hundred dollars for a nice track day event once a month (plus tires and brakes). Save yourself the headache of traffic tickets, insurance rate hikes, and everything else that goes along with that. Unless you are made out of money and wouldn’t mind spending time in jail.
On empty freeway stretches in the middle of nowhere, radar detectors come in handy if you want to drive a few ticks over the speed limit. Especially if the police officer is too lazy (or tired) to make an extra effort to manipulate their radar equipment. Note: Radar detectors do not work most of the time. Cops these days are smarter, as they know that many cars are equipped with radar detectors. They are trained to either use a direct laser beam targeting vehicles dead on, or they abruptly power on their stationary radar as your car gets within range, tricking your expensive radar detector at the last moment. Hence, if you speed, you are risking a ticket regardless of how well equipped you are.
Interesting enough, after publishing this article, we came across a YouTube video of an LA County police officer being interviewed about issuing speeding tickets to BMW drivers, and other drivers as well.
at 9:27 pm
Cops should have a 135i, that’d be one positive thing about cops. If i get pulled over, i might just ask him questions about how he likes his ride.