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Teen using GPS to fight ticket calls site speed trap

Speed limit on Lakeville Highway set artificially low, defense claims in trial that could set legal precedent

Christopher Chung / PD
Windsor High School sophomore Shaun Malone, then 16, drives around town in his 2000 Toyota Celica GTS, which is equipped with a GPS tracking device behind the dashboard, allowing his parents to track his speed and location.

By L.A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 4:41 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 8:38 a.m.

An attorney for a young man challenging his speeding ticket with his own GPS data suggested Friday that the site where he was ticketed is an illegal speed trap.

Shaun Malone, 18, and his parents, Roger Rude and Karen Kahn of Windsor, are appealing a July 4, 2007, speeding ticket he received after police said their radar clocked him driving 62 mph in a 45 mph zone on Lakeville Highway east of Frates Road in Petaluma.

Rude, a retired Sonoma County Sheriff's Department lieutenant, said if the speed limit was set artificially low -- below what most reasonable drivers are traveling -- it amounts to an illegal speed trap, which would invalidate Malone's ticket and potentially hundreds of others given in the same area.

Malone's parents installed a GPS device in his 2000 Toyota Celica GTS, over his objections, with the goal of encouraging him to drive safely. The device notes speed, time and location data every 30 seconds and records the information so his parents can monitor his driving activity.

But Rude said he told Malone if he ever got a speeding ticket and the GPS data supported him, he would support Malone in a challenge. They say their GPS data prove he was driving 45 mph at virtually the same time and place the officer said he clocked him speeding.

The nonjury trial, which began in July, continued Friday and will resume with another day of testimony in December before Commissioner Carla Bonilla.

The ticket would cost $190, but the ramifications are much greater.

The unique GPS challenge to radar in Sonoma County could change the way authorities enforce speed laws. The case has attracted national attention for its potentially precedent-setting challenge using GPS, which is becoming common in vehicles as a mapping or tracking device.

In court Friday, Officer Steve Johnson testified that he clocked Malone traveling 62 mph about 7:45 a.m. after he passed several other cars in a two-lane stretch. He said he visually estimated Malone was traveling at 55 to 60 mph before turning on the radar gun.

Johnson testified that he'd given four other speeding citations in the previous 40 minutes that morning, including one before he even officially went on duty. He averaged about four minutes between traffic stops. He said he's given an estimated 500 tickets to motorists in that area over the years.

A state traffic engineer testified that Caltrans set a limit of 45 mph on the entire stretch of Highway 116-Lakeville Highway from Highway 101 to Pine View Way based on the average speed motorists were traveling. He said the average speed of 49.7 mph was rounded down to 45 mph in a 2003 study.

Using 2004 guidelines, which won't go into effect on the stretch of roadway until the study is redone in 2010, that average would be rounded up to 50 mph, he said under questioning by prosecutor Michael Li.

Malone's attorney, Andy Martinez, argued that the study improperly averages the speeds on two very different sections of roadway, from the urban 101 to Frates and the more rural Frates to Pine View, where the limit rises to 55 mph.

Philippe Van, the state traffic engineer, said traffic typically moves at 43 mph near 101, rising to about 44 at Frates. By 1,200 feet east of Frates, 85 percent of drivers are traveling at more than 50 mph, mostly between 50 and 54 mph, he said.

Because the state set the speed limit below what its data showed most motorists were driving, Rude said, the area where his son was stopped amounts to an illegal speed trap.

The hearing was scheduled to resume Dec. 5 with the state's GPS expert.


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  1. subdjoe says...
    October 4, 2008 6:26:26 am

    RE: Link

    Lets see...most drivers are going around 50 or so, and the kid was clocked at 62. Even if the speed limit was 55, that is still speeding. Now, his GPS takes a "snapshot" if you will, every 30 seconds. While it is impossible to be able to time it exactly, it is possible to go from 45 to 62, then back down to 45 in that amount of time. Kind of like contour line on a map, you can hide a lot of terrain between two 40 ft. contour lines. I have a feeling the kid gunned it to get past some cars, then slowed down again. "Officer Steve Johnson testified that he clocked Malone traveling 62 mph about 7:45 a.m. after he passed several other cars in a two-lane stretch. He said he visually estimated Malone was traveling at 55 to 60 mph before turning on the radar gun. Personally, I think a warning would have been more appropriate than a ticket. I wonder exactly what happened at that traffic stop. Did the kid talk himself into a ticket by being mouthy? On the other hand, "Johnson testified that he'd given four other speeding citations in the previous 40 minutes that morning, including one before he even officially went on duty. He averaged about four minutes between traffic stops. He said he's given an estimated 500 tickets to motorists in that area over the years"

    So I can go with the theory that the area is a speed trap.

  2. gmgbr says...
    October 4, 2008 6:45:54 am

    years ago i drove most of these roads and never did i see a hwy patrolman or sheriff or city police?and speed wow!i drove to slow for the roads but if these people say that the gps is for what it was meant to do i hope they win!!some young boy's do have a lead foot most don't so have your day i court and i hope you win..a million mile award winner from the post office retired..

  3. dahaas says...
    October 4, 2008 7:43:39 am

    They've been crying for months about how the kid was not speeding and NOW they are crying that its a speed trap? Rude, dude... why does it matter if it's a speed trap if the kid was not speeding? Huh?

  4. Tan1662 says...
    October 4, 2008 8:01:31 am

    It was a Speed trap, and the police are using them for revenue mostly. I have noticed that a lot more lately to fill the buget gap. I think the police should be used for safety and car pool violations or excessive speed. The GPS tracking in NOT a way to get off tickets.

  5. lovesthelaw says...
    October 4, 2008 8:03:09 am

    I'm confused now. Is it a speed trap, and he was speeding, or was his GPS correct at 45, and if so wouldn't that mean he was traveling at the speed limit and slower than the average driver on that stretch?

    I believe he did gun it and pass the cars and got back down to 45 when he was stopped.

    A warning would have been appropriate, but 62 is quite a bit over 50, even if that was the speed limit.

    Maybe he told the cop he has GPS and that annoyed the cop, rather than resulted in a warning.Time to pay the piper, but I admire the parents' attempt at standing up for their son, and for the actions they took to curtail a lead foot.

  6. cint says...
    October 4, 2008 8:14:28 am

    This stretch of highway is a speed trap but also where drivers like to speed and pass on the right before it drops to a single lane. Heading north on Lakeville Hwy from Hwy 37 can be just as dangerous where lately many have seen what looks to be a local Audi race driving school with 5 or 6 of their drivers in new Audi's driving like it was Indianapolis Speedway weaving through traffic west on Hwy37 then turning north or Lakeville passing anyone in the way. The last time we saw this we were behind a 16-wheeler westbound on Hwy 37 turning right on Lakeville. The truck had to make a wide turn onto Lakeville using both northbound lanes when a group of Audi's came screaming around on the right passing everyone trying to beat the truck to the point where the 2 lanes merge into 1. One after another they pass on the shoulder spraying dirt and gravel on the group of cars following the truck. The last Audi passing on the right nearly hits the truck at the merge point and almost spins out of control but corrects and was off looking for the next passing victim blocking their progress. You rarely see the CHP at that end of the road.

  7. dbarco says...
    October 4, 2008 8:36:41 am

    Roger Rude is a Prima Donna and this just part of his "investment" in the GPS device company for whom he has done at least one commercial already. It is entirely possible that in the period in between the GPS pings, during which he was supposedly clocked, he was speeding. Furthermore, any smart kid today knows how to "tweak" the technology and might even know when the GPS pings his car.

  8. steeleandwink says...
    October 4, 2008 8:52:07 am

    MR. Rude should have to pay all of the court costs when he looses. The argument is senseless and the technology is for mapping not speed assessment, it is simply not accurate enough. He is wasting our tax dollars to continue his compensation for some other deficiency.He is an unfortunate example of the mentality called the thin blue line.

  9. altec9177 says...
    October 4, 2008 8:54:43 am

    Mr. Rude should teach the boy a little something about integrity instead of teaching him how to work the system.