I nominate the following:

a.) Panhandle
b.) Estelline
c.) Chillicothe

Every time we drive up to visit the parentals, I notice the Estelline cops out and about. Chilicothe is right up there as well.

On Hwy. 84 between Justicberg and Post, there are always troopers out pulling people over. Since the road is so flat and straight though, they are usually only going after the real speeders. I was radared going 80 last time I drove through there, and they didn't pull me over.

I don't think Estelline should be categorized as a speed trap.

What they really want is for people to slow down when driving through town.

In contrast, a speed trap has the primary purpose of raising money for the town by catching speeders.

My opinion is that if you're speeding through small towns when driving somewhere, you should get two tickets -- one for speeding and one for being stupid.

How about Fritch?

They'll even pull ambulances over and ticket them.

I've been told that they don't want you to take defensive driving at all -- they want the money.

Now that's a real "speed trap".

Yep, Fritch is about as bad as they get. Multiple "school zones" on a main highway...small speed limit signs that are easily missed.....

Tulia used to be bad (remember Officer Ochoa?), but it is better now according to the folks.

Estelline was always the worst and I firmly believe it was a source of local revenue.

[This message has been edited by LyonAg (edited 8/30/2005 8:47p).]

Estelline is always the one that comes to mind for me. Also got pulled over in Claude once, but he saw my EMT sticker on the back of my car and let me go without even a warning.

Post is a pretty hardcore speed trap. There has been construction in the city for like 5 years and they enforce that whole DOUBLE fines thing. I am still a little bitter

Estelline used to be the worst, but TxDOT did a speed study in the mid '90's and made them increase the speed limit on US287 through town.

I once made the "honor role" on US 84 near Justiceburg (between Post and Snyder). Guess who I had to mail my fine to?

A justice of the peace named Justice. I swear.


One of the biggest speed traps around is at Ropesville, between Brownfield and Lubbock on US 62/82.

A high school classmate is a Highway Patrolman. He said that one Thanksgiving, the same Tech student got stopped 5 times between Lubbock and Abilene.

Explain that one to daddy!

Morse is hardly a speed trap. In fact, I've never heard of anyone getting a speeding ticket in Morse.

But if 287 ran through Morse, they would have to hand out citations left and right just to keep the speed down enough to make it safe for the local population to cross the road.

Having a major highway run thorough a really small town is a recipe for disaster. The people driving through just don't take it seriously and drive much faster than through a larger town.

For example, if you didn't enforce the speed limits in Estelline and Childress, the traffic speeds in Childress would probably not change much, but the speeds in Estelline would significantly.

Estelline has got to enforce the speed limits. The only other option would be to move 287 over to bypass the town completely.

I drive US 287 a bunch from Amarillo to FW and then to ET and to CS. On 287, #1 is Memphis (cop moved there from Estelline a few years ago; they have a wide city limits and dramatic speed limit down to 35 mph); #2 Chillicothe (same problem as Memphis; wide city limits; low speed limits -- 35 mph); #3 Estelline (not a major problem if you're alert; speed limit only drops to 50 mph, state law limited ticket revenues cities could retain and Estelline raised speed limits and reduced officer force; but they still have one Dog in a Mustang).

On Hwy 6, watch Riesel, & Calvert!

I haven't resorted to a radar detector yet, but I'm thinking they are handy reminders even if you aren't trying to speed. On the "open road", I try to keep CC on about 74 mph.

Best advice is get you a Colorado front door (they haven't a clue and TxDPS love out of staters).

If you're on I-40 west of Amarillo, watch it! There's must be half the TxDPS force working between Amarillo and Bushland. Drug runners are really stupid, I guess!

On US 84 on the Lubbock escape route, TxDPS work Post, Justiceburg, and Snyder pretty hard (get you a ttech front door -- a red one, but one that didn't stop on the "strip" before leaving Lubbock).

Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!
Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!



[This message has been edited by Spider69 (edited 9/1/2005 10:31p).]

I got pulled over by the DPS doing 72 in a 70 outside of Hereford on 385.

He let me off because I told him my wife & I were in Colorado on vacation when I got the news that my sister died and we were on our way to Waco to help with funeral arraingments.

Stinnett coming in from Borger. Maybe it's my own personal speed trap.

I would have to put Chillicothe at the top of the list for historical significance - since the last few times I have been thru, there hasn't been a cop.

I have seen the Stinnett cops in force too . . .

(also agree with post about Calvert . . .)

[This message has been edited by schick98 (edited 9/6/2005 5:23p).]

not in the panhandle, but this is a funny cop story...

I was driving just north of Comanche going back to aggieland and got pulled over by a state trooper. I think I was using a radar detector at the time and got my speed down before he got a read on my speed, but he stopped me anyway.

He comes up and starts asking me about my missing front license plate. I'm real nice and respectful and he let's me off with a warning.

I had driven the truck for probably 2 or 3 years with no front plate and had never been stopped before.

So, anyway, I start heading back to B/CS and as I am driving through Comanche, 5 minutes later, a city cop pulls me over, again, I was speeding but got my speed down.

I don't know what was wrong with this guy, but he was pissed by the time he got up to the door.

He started chewing on me about my damn license plate and asked me where it was. I said that I didn't know. Then he asked if I knew it was missing, and I told him that I did. So he goes off on this speech about "state law in Texas requires a front license plate, blah, blah, blah", I said, yeah, I know; then he goes off on me again, about not having it... and asks me how long I have known that it was missing...I told him "about 5-10 minutes" which seemed to confuse him and he asked what I was talking about.

so I told him that a trooper just pulled me over and told me that it was missing

I could tell that he didn't believe me, and when I told him that the guy had just given me a warning 5 miles up the road, it seemed like the guy's head was about to explode

so, I told him that I had the warning paper and he could look at it if he didn't believe me...he wanted to see it

so I dig through my crap and found it and handed it to him, he just looked at it and handed it back to me and walked off

[This message has been edited by powerbiscuit (edited 9/7/2005 1:21a).]

btw, Post is the worst speed trap close to the panhandle that I have found, calvert was the worst on the entire trip

Didn't the state Congress pass a law this year removing the requirement for a front plate?

dunno about that

my warning was more years ago than I'd like to admit