Intellectual Property Law

Yosemite Valley Speed Trap

By wu

My once idealized vision of U.S. Park Rangers was sure sullied today by their operation of a speed trap in Yosemite Park.  Near Tuolumne meadows, on a straight empty stretch of road, there’s a sudden drop in the speed limit from 45 - 35 mph, and the rangers make a good business of busting everyone going 50 mph.
When the Ranger stopped me I thought he was coming over to help with directions or something, and I was actually quite pleased about that, because in fact I had a few questions.  But no, it was the whole tough guy state cop routine; and instead of a hiker suddenly you’ve become some kind of felon.  In fact, the stupid thing took so long I got out of the car for a while to go wander around (its nice in Tuolumne Meadows) - but oh no, out came an order to return to the car.

So when exactly did the Park service get into playing traffic cop and running speed traps?   I can understand wanting to have lower speed limits in the park (which they do, at 45 mph) but running speed traps strikes me as outside of the original mission of the Park Service.

I asked the Park ranger, “did you really think I was driving recklessly — at 50 mph on an empty straight road — when the limit was 45 mph just back there?”

He said something about posted limits and so on, as if when you’re driving through Yosemite nothing is more interesting than speed limit signs.
Here is a posting on copspy.com on the speed trap that I should have noticed:

Jurisdiction
Yosemite National Park, California
Speed Trap Location
Tuolumne Meadows
Nearest Reference Point
n/a
…
More unrealistic and ridiculously low speed limit. Tuolumne Meadows is about 7 miles west of the Tioga Pass entrance, elevation 9945 feet. After that, you are on state highway again but be very careful going down 120 to Lee Vining & 395, it’s a steep road that you lose 3000 feet in 11 miles.

Full post as published by What’s New With Wu on May 27, 2008 (boomark / email).