Top 10 Cities With the Most Speed Traps

Ever get the sneaking suspicion that the posted speed limits in your area are there less for safety and more to generate revenue for your local government?

It isn’t just your paranoia. Speeding tickets are a $4.5 billion to $6 billion industry, according to the National Motorist Association. With so many municipal budgets in the red, artificially low speed limits or strict enforcement may be a common practice in some regions.

What parts of the country are the worst offenders? It was a question that CNBC.com posed and answered recently by compiling the total number of speed traps in a given city based on driver reports. Two Texas cities, Houston and Austin, fare the worst because of their wildly fluctuating speed limits. In these areas, it’s not unheard of for a single cop to issue hundreds of tickets a day, or for everyone you know to have a couple of infractions under their belts. Cities like Chicago and Orlando, Fla., which rely heavily on red-light cameras, don’t fare well, either.

Check out the full list below:

10.  Los Angeles: 151 speed traps 
9.    Chicago: 153 speed traps 
8.    Dallas: 156 speed traps 
7.    Orlando, Fla.: 165 speed traps 
6.    Denver: 165 speed traps 
5.    Jacksonville, Fla.: 175 speed traps 
4.    Colorado Springs, Colo.: 186 speed traps 
3.    Las Vegas: 187 speed traps 
2.    Austin, Texas: 189 speed traps 
1.    Houston: 373 speed traps 

America’s Worst Speed Traps (Yahoo.com)