Foster City, California Speed Traps

In truth, all of Foster City is a trap. During the last week of a given month city police park themselves on side street a few feet back from the main arterial streets and wait. My husband was pulled over for wearing his seat belt too low on his shoulder. 2″ too low! No kidding! $160 fine.

The city needs revenue. If you don’t come to a complete stop for 20 seconds at an intersection, fail to use your blinker or go more than 2 miles an hour over the speed limit, you’ll get pulled over. There’s a school on the corner of Edgewater and Shell that starts at 7:50 am and lets out at 2:50 pm and you better take it down to 20mph (From 40mph) or they’ll get you.

The city is crawling with city police and they’ll pull you over if they’ve never seen you before, if they don’t like the car you’re driving, if you’re driving a sports car or a luxury vehicle.

Stay out off Foster City. Do your business and shop somewhere else. Go to Menlo Park or Palo Alto where they welcome you.

As you travel westbound on the 92 (San Mateo Bridge) into Foster City, there is a speed trap immediately to your right (north), on the embankment where the first patch of open land (deserted field) appears after the bridge ends. You will be traveling on a downhill grade from the bridge, and can easily drive 70+mph, and there are highway patrol officers sitting in their cars with radar guns ready to go. I’ve seen drivers panic in the sudden realization of being caught and slam on their brakes on more than one occasion, which has directly caused massive accidents right at the foot of the westbound end of the bridge. Not very smart for CHP to setup speed traps as people are exiting a major highway/bridge.

Police car was sitting at the corner with a radar gun.

Actually, all of Foster City, CA is a Speed Trap (overall they just reduced the 40mph general city speed on major arteries to 35mph hoping to justify more tickets), but this is one special intersection that routinely has police parked in out of the way places while they try to nab people. They will park in the adjacent driveways and neighboring streets hoping people do not see them, and the police will stop anyone for even the tiniest infraction of a stop sign. At times the attention to this intersection is oppressive.

Be certain to stop ANYTIME a school bus stops with it’s red lights flashing! It’s mainly during the morning rush and around 3:30 on Beach Park and Hillsdale Blvd. (San Mateo Union High School busses)