# Speeding in the Teddy



## bostoncabowner (Apr 17, 2009)

Hello.
This actually was in the HOV lane EB access to the Ted Williams. I am a Boston cab owner and driver. I have been driving a cab in Boston for almost 30 years. I've been pulled over plenty and gotten my share of warnings and citations over the years, and It has always been my practice in that situation to take it like a man and not to argue with the cop or whine, as the officer invariably has got it right and i did run the red or go at the speed he claimed etc. I may tell what was on my mind when i pulled the maneuver or whatever but that's it.
Last August Boston Police Hackney division issued new standards for hack license renewal: any combo of 5 surchargable events in 5 years results in non-renewal of hack. This is real tough on the long-term cabbies. Guys are losing their hacks. Anyway here's what happened the other day;

I was taking a lady to Logan from 1 Financial. I took the HOV "Express to Airport" ramp and was going about 40 through usually sparsely traveled tunnel when I noticed a guy was dogging me. I speeded up to 45 but no more because I thought of the speed trap I had seen in there. Of course we were both pulled over (way at the end of the tunnel). The State Police Officer was nice but insistent that I was doing 50 and told me it was a posted 35mph zone. Now I started begging -- "Pleeeese don't give me a ticket"
Probably nauseating enough for him that he decided then to issue one, I don't know. Anyway after he handed me to citation ($150) he didn't want to talk. All I wanted to tell him was about the new strictures for cabbies in Bosron and that was why I was so alarmed. I got out of the cab (and I know that was dumb) and he yelled at me and I left.

My question is this: on the ticket he noted 50 in a 35 but he also wrote SL=45 and OSS=45 on it. What do those notations mean? Could he have clocked me at 45 and figured (estimated) I was going the extra 5 and slowed way down when I saw him (it's a real long stretch of tunnel)?

I also want to add that I'm a big admirerer of all cops. Not a buff or a wantabe, but in my line of work I've been helped numerous times by the men in blue - fare evasions drunks crazies etc. I also see what goes on in this city and world good vs evil basically. But the biggest reason for my honor of the law is back in 1990 my wife was mugged in front of our house in Dorchester. She landed in the hospital with a serious head injury. Two detectives from the Fields Corner station named George Foley and Walter Fahey helped us out and caught the mutt that did it (He [the perp] got 6-9 at Walpole but worked his way to min security and eventually "escaped" from work detail, was recaptured only to be released early on "good time"). Ill never forget those two great guys though.

Anyway can someone answer the notation question and if you see the trooper who write those tickets please tell him I'm not a blithering baby, just a taximan afraid of losing his livelihood.
Thank you


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## justanotherparatrooper (Aug 27, 2006)

" Now I started begging -- "Pleeeese don't give me a ticket"
Probably nauseating enough for him that he decided then to issue one, I don't know"

*Pretty much says it all right there.*


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## Pats2009 (Aug 24, 2007)

_*"I got out of the cab (and I know that was dumb) and he yelled at me and I left."*_
Getting out of your taxi was a _bad_ move on your part. Thats just what the Trooper wants as their walking back to their cruiser, someone to spring out of their car at them, and especially when everyone has the Officer from Framingham on their minds....

*I also want to add that I'm a big admirerer of all cops.*
Right..............


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## rg1283 (Sep 14, 2005)

With the subject line, I thought this was something Cinderella posted or something to do with Ted Kennedy.


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## Sarge31 (May 1, 2004)

Should've worried about the new strictor guidelines before you decided to speed through the tunnel. "If you want to appeal the citation, all the instructions are on the back." End of story.


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## TRPDiesel (Nov 28, 2008)

Wolfman said:


> I thought it was about some chick driving fast in something from Victoria's Secret.


Me too. I was hoping for a pic too. Not so much


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## bostoncabowner (Apr 17, 2009)

Thank you for the replies. I don't want to be thought of as another weasel trying to disregard personal responsibility. It is embarrassing for me as a professional driver to get any kind of ticket but especially one for something as dumb as not knowing the SL in a tunnel I use daily (_WB_ in the Ted and the WB extension to the Pike is 45mph, _EB HOV_ _is 35_ clearly posted at the entrance so my mistake). I drive a cab 60+ hours a week in Boston so there are a thousand situations every day making a ticket a year conceivable (I've had 2 in five years, 4 in 20 years, no a/f acci's). However there seems to be a crackdown and I am always nervous about making an inadvertant mistake like this time.

_"if I read you right....__Cops should be allowed to beat the crap out of suspects since they could get fired if they were charged with such an offense_."
I grew up in Rhode Island and the Providence cops were not adverse to roughing up a guy if he deserved it. Nobody complained in the newspaper or anywhere else. (A couple of years ago a scumbag shot a Prov detective and had to appear in court with a mask:| projo.com | The Providence Journal | Digital Extras | The shooting of Detective Allen - can you blame them? Bleeding heart liberal media can.) So I don't think one should be fired if he gave a guy a lickin'. If there is a problem with an overly rough cop or say a fireman that drinks that should be handled "in the family" IMO and not always by-the-book.

Often, there is a radar set-up just after the Tobin Bridge coming into Boston. This is on the ramp which slopes down into the Charlestown tunnel. The SL there is 35mph but the average speed cars and trucks seem to go is 45 to 50. Once I was stopped for going 50 there but they let me off with a (verbal) warning. Now I know and apply the brakes on that grade. On Soldiers Field Road past the Harvard stadium there is a stretch where there is a low limit compared with the pace of normal traffic. So these are places where police can pretty much pull anyone over. Is that because it is useful to screen folks for outstanding warrents, expired stickers, faulty equipment etc.?

Anyway this is a great web-site, thanks for the answers and good luck gettin' the bad guys!

bostoncabowner


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## mpd61 (Aug 7, 2002)

bostoncabowner said:


> *Thank you* for the replies. I don't want to be thought of as another weasel trying to disregard personal responsibility. Anyway this is a great web-site, *thanks* for the answers and *good luck gettin' the bad guys!*
> 
> bostoncabowner


And good luck to you gettin' great tips! 
Seriously being a Hack in Boston is nothing glorious dealing with a diverse people much like cops do. Stay safe!


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## RCPD33 (Jul 3, 2006)

OK, I'll say it. I have no sympathy whatsoever for this self-admitted, often breaking the law cab driver!

I work the overnight shift and watch these assholes do nothing but run lights, make u-turns in the middle of traffic, change lanes with no warning and practically run people off the road, etc........

Does a Hackney license suddenly give these guys permission to do whatever they want, wherever they want? I love it when I do see them pulled over and again, have no sympathy at all for this or any other cab driver that gets a moving violation! Stay safe.......how about obey the law jerk-off and keep us ALL safer! If you lose your Hackney, you self admittedly deserve it! Obey the traffic laws and there will be no problem, now will there?


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## Maj. Dick (Dec 21, 2005)

I have one rule when dealing with cabbies. Write them all for everything, they are dangerous, drive like shit and have no regard for other drivers or the law. One more thing to remember. Cabbies appeal everything=court time. Court time = $$$$


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2009)

This guy (if he's really a guy) seems like the ultimate whiner. He's looking for advice on how to avoid the laws of the road, and he seems to think that he has more of a chance of getting pulled over at certain locations, as opposed to others.

Here's my advice to the cabbie: *SLOW THE FUCK DOWN AND STOP PUTTING INNOCENT DRIVERS AND PEDESTRIANS AT RISK, YOU GREEDY, LAW-BREAKING BASTARD!!!!* You're at risk of getting pulled over anywhere, just as you can kill anyone, anywhere, with your thoughtless driving and your sick desire to get away with as much as you can. I hope you do, in fact, lose your hack license. Same goes for all your coworkers who put the rest of us at risk.

As far as this thread's concerned, something's fishy to me. If the "guy" has really been driving a cab in Boston for 30 years, then he'd be at least -- at least -- 46 years old. The two posts seem too well-written and too gramatically correct to have been written by some middle-aged, crusty mope who drives a taxi for a living. Tbe cabbies I know can barely talk in sentences, let alone sit there and type up office-quality posts on an Internet forum.

I think, instead that they were posted by some big, fat, bored Internet geek who's sitting at home with chips and dip, breathing heavily as he sweats and stares at his computer, and enjoys just messin' with you guys.

I think the whole thing is B.S.


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