Attention Michigan Drivers. Canada has a clever fund raiser in the form of speeding tickets. Here is how it works.

They use laser and have an officer hidden off to an angle. They shoot you with the laser from behind (after they can see that you have a Michigan plate). Then they radio ahead several miles to a flotilla of waiting police cars who pull you over.

While many speeding tickets can be avoided, there is no way to defend against this situation. One possible approach is to hide in a pack (i.e. don’t be the last car in a pack).

The particular trap that nailed me was going westbound on the 401 just after the 403 splits off toward Sarnia/Port Huron. Much of the traffic on the 401 is Detroit bound so that they can get a good percentage of Michigan drivers.

I was not going particularly fast – just keeping up with the traffic – I was even in the right lane and trailing the pack minding my own business. This is often not the case, but these Canadian drivers were zipping along.

I would just suggest that folks do the speed limit on this stretch of hiway – especially Michigan drivers – even if the Canadian drivers are blowing by you.

The fine was $150 (CDN) and there is a cool website www.paytickets.ca so as to most efficiently extract the money from you. I assume that the points do not travel – Whew.

I kick myself because I ish that I had asked the officer to see where they had clocked me. I could have gotten a ride back and seen their entire setup – but my wits were not about me – all I wanted to know what how to pay the damn thing.