[svx_commuter]

I have been driving rather fast in the mornings but now that has changed, about 2 months ago very normally looking cars that are unmarked NJ State Trooper cars starting showing up. These are not the Ford Crown Vic’s with black outside mirrors with that panel for the red flashing light that I can see a mile away but for an example a Chevy Impala without any antenna and without any black box sitting on the dash. The flashing lights are well concealed and small to the point where I think, when I see a car pulled over, that I may not notice these lights behind me. The unmarked cars I have seen look very normal. Not like a cruiser at all. The colors are metallic, green, brown, gold and have all the trim. I am not sure of the other makes and models being used. I really think these new cruisers could be right next to me or behind me and I would not notice them. I have also seen a Chevy Express van unmarked, except for the side door shields that had a car pulled over. Again without any outward appearance from the front or back that it was Trooper.

So now I am finding myself driving the speed limit because in the past few weeks the number of troopers pulling over cars has increased dramatically. I used to see about one trooper in morning in a marked car, I think he was going home, driving along with the traffic at 80 mph and letting everyone be and that was it. Now I am passing 4 or 5 troopers in the morning that have pulled people over going east. Everybody has slowed down.

I am following a philosophy that as long as I am not the “fastest car” I will not be getting a ticket and that has worked for the past 8 years I have been commuting. Now I just have to drive a lot slower and it is torture in the SVX. I have to curtail irresistible urges to speed ahead at 90 mph and I am no longer seeing anyone else at that speed. I need to get back out and do some more time trials on a race track.