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GRAND RAPIDS -- Some of the sidestreets you drive on, and the city streets you travel, have unsafe speed limits. They may be too low.

And if you've been ticketed for speeding -- maybe a $100 fine plus higher insurance rates -- a change in state law might mean your ticket isn't valid.

The Michigan State Police pushed this little known law, a minor change in the traffic code in November 2006 that could have major consequences for both drivers and cities. The law changes the way cities are supposed to set speed limits. The goal is to make roads safer. When the speed limit is too low, motorists ignore it, and drive at a variety of speeds that can make traffic safety worse instead of better.

"Some of the speed limits, and in some cases a lot of them, need to be adjusted to meet state law," said Michigan State Police Lt. Gary Megge. "Everytime we get different speeds, we tend to create conflicts, tailgating, lane changes, passing maneuvers, and many of those can potentially lead to a crash."

Under the new law, cities are now supposed to set their limits based on what 85 percent of drivers travel under normal, free-flowing conditions. The law spells it out exactly by writing what the local spped limit should be, based on access points -- driveways and intersections -- in a half-mile stretch.

24 Hour News 8 took the new law to the streets, counting access points and clocking drivers, and didn't need to look far to find questionable limits. On two roads we tested, the posted speed limits wer 25 and 35. But according to the law, the posted speeds should have been 45 and 55, the speed most people were driving.

On Walker Avenue, nobody was driving the posted 35. Yet, "People are operating safely," Lt. Megge said. "We don't see any swerving, we don't see any bouncing off the curb, or locking up the brakes."

24 Hour News 8 did find that kind of driving behavior when we tried to drive the speed limit on certain streets. The posted speed throughout East Grand Rapids is 25. The van behind ours was fine, but the car behind him was so close it could barely be seen.

Our investigation came up empty when we looked for any evidence cities have changed their limits based on the new law. When cities set speed limits, they have to file a Traffic Control Order. 24 Hour News 8 found orders so old they were pounded out on typewriters.

Cities either don't know about the new law, or don't want to know. "Some cities now depend on traffic ticket revenue," said Jim Walkeer, who has studied speed limits for decades. "If you write the limit at the 18th percentile, then you have 82 percent of the people defined as criminal and you can ticket at random."

Walker testified in favor of the new law, and is trying to get cities to change limits by fighting his own ticket. "It will take challenges from the public," he said. "Perhaps people who get traffic tickets and taking it to a formal hearing, not one who is a magistrate, but in front of a judge who is qualified to read the fine points of the law." You might be abel to question a local speeding tickets if you received one in the past year. If you pled guilty, you'll have to ask the district judge to reopen your case.

Cities aren't flinching. Kentwood wrote 3,000 speeding tickets in 2006, one of the top communities outside the Grand Rapids city limits. There are four Kentwood police officers who do nothing but traffic enforcement. "I'm sure there are many (tickets) we didn't get to write," said Chief Richard Mattice. Asked if he ever thought the speed limit might not be high enough, he said, "I think if you polled our residents, they would disagree."

East Grand Rapids knows drivers don't pay attention to their speed limits. But instead of increasing them as the new law suggests, the city tries to slow down traffice by shrinking lanes or telling residents to park on the street. And that's perfectly legal.

"Just changing the speed limit can cause more problems than you think," said EGR Chief Mark Herald, which include angry residents who don't want higher limits on their street.

But they may no longer have a say. "Road authorities, whether it's a city, a county or MDOT, have the obligation to follow Michigan law," Megge said.