A Maryland woman received a $90 traffic citation Friday. Her alleged violation? She wasn’t driving too fast. She was driving too slow.
The woman, whose name was withheld, was driving 63 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone on Interstate 95, according to a citation, which also indicated that she failed to keep right in accordance with state laws.
She told NBC4 that she was driving her 2002 Volkswagen Passat slowly because of windy conditions. She said she has never received a ticket before the incident, which occurred Friday morning while she was on her way to work. She intends to fight the citation.
John Townsend, an official with AAA Mid-Atlantic, says the speeding ticket is silly.
“It’s sending the wrong message,” he tells NBC4. “And that is, ‘we’ll tolerate you at more than the speed limit, but if you drive below the speed limit, then you’re penalized for that.”
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The vast majority of Americans — approximately 250 million — live in or around a city. That means most of you know how frustrating it can be to putter along traffic-choked roads and sit in endless delays.
And traffic doesn’t only cost time. Drivers lose money idling away their gasoline.
There are a number of studies that analyze exactly how much time and gas drivers fritter away. When you combine the two factors, and add in a look at overall population density, you can get a more complete, city-by-city look at the worst overall cities to operate a car.
The folks atNerdWallet.com did just that. Using data from a study done by the Texas Transportation Institute on the annual hours commuters spend in traffic delays, gas price data from 304 different urban areas compared to the national average and census information on population density to give the 50 largest metropolitan areas a final score.
The lower the overall score, the worse for the city’s drivers. Here’s a look at their 10 worst cities, and here’s hoping you’re not on the roads of these cities today:
Image Credit:Joe Shlabotnik, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 48
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: -2.71%
Population density (people per square mile): 11,379.5
Overall score for car owners: 58.2
Image Credit:dennis, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 44
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +15.16%
Population density (people per square mile): 4,375.3
Overall score for car owners: 55.1
Image Credit:Si1very, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 45
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +17.28%
Population density (people per square mile): 5,572.6
Overall score for car owners: 51.3
Image Credit:lrargerich, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 61
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +5.38%
Population density (people per square mile): 7,004.0
Overall score for car owners: 49.4
Image Credit:Chris and/or Kevin, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 67
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: -3.07%
Population density (people per square mile): 9,856.5
Overall score for car owners: 48.9
Image Credit:dherman1145, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 53
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +3.04%
Population density (people per square mile): 12,792.7
Overall score for car owners: 48.7
Image Credit:Willem van Bergen, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 61
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +7.24%
Population density (people per square mile): 8,092.3
Overall score for car owners: 46.5
Image Credit:RodneyRamsey, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 61
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +5.75%
Population density (people per square mile): 17,179.2
Overall score for car owners: 36.1
Image Credit:moonlightbulb, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 51
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +30.30%
Population density (people per square mile): 11,841.8
Overall score for car owners: 29.1
Image Credit:grendelkhan, Flickr
Annual hours of delay per commuter: 59
% Difference between cost of a gallon of gas and national urban average: +7.67%
Population density (people per square mile): 27,012.4
Overall score for car owners: 23.2
Image Credit:danielfoster437, Flickr