Almost Got Nailed Doing 90 in a 70 MPH Speed Trap. What Radar Lazer Detector Do You Have?

[Starfighterpilot]

When I go on my road trips in the Old Broad I always let a speeding rabbit get in front of me and then I pace him a 1/4 to 1/2 of a mile back at whatever speed he's doing (usually between 80- 90 MPH). That way he trips the radar/lazer cop speeding detectors and gets a ticket and I don't. When I'm doing this, my you know what, is always slightly puckered. If I don't have a speeding rabbit, I usually do between 75 - 77 MPH unless traffic is holding me up.

 

On 1/4/12 my youngest daughter and I were driving back to Atlanta from Tulsa. We were heading South on US 78/I-22 in Northern Alabama running between Memphis TN and Birmingham AL. This interstate has gently graded high hills, wide gradual turns and has hardly any traffic on it. I have NEVER seen a highway patrol car just patroling on this interstate in the 20 some odd times I have driven it at all hours of a day/night over the past 5 years - unless someone broke down and they were assisting 'em (hood up, flat tire... etc).

 

About 3 PM we were passed by a fairly new Porsche about 10 miles North of the Mississippi/Alabama state line. I started pacing the Porsche about 3/8 of a mile back, doing 90 in a 70 MPH zone on cruise control. The Old Broad was happily humming along, we had our tunes on, while we were sipping on a Coke, munching on ham sandwiches and life was really good.

 

About 20 miles south of the border, the Porsche was going up one of the gradual hills and as he almost got to the crest, all of a sudden the brake lights came on and it started decellerating hard as it went over the top of the hill. HHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!

 

I did the same thing - crammed on the brakes and took her down to about 73 MPH and went back onto cruise.

 

Just before we got to the crest of the hill we saw 2 Highway Patrol cars sitting in the medium at the crest - a speed trap!!!! and another one of the HP cars had just taken off after the Porsche and pulled him over down the road. We sailed on through without a ticket - altho my you know what was REALLY puckered for a couple of miles down the road.

 

Thank God for rabbits.

 

I do not have any idea what the speeding ticket cost the driver of the Porsche - but it had to be at least a car payment or almost 2.

 

Anyway, because of this incident I am seriously considering spending between $200 to $300 on a damn good radar/laser detector just to reduce the chances of getting a ticket which would break the bank. I look at it as relatively cheap insurance against a potentially VERY expensive speeding ticket and my auto insurance going sky high for a couple of years.

 

I'm not so sure about a laser detector's ability to detect a laser speed trap at a sufficient slow down distance tho - anyone got any info on that?

 

If you have a radar or radar/laser detector care to share any info about it and/or how it saved you BUTT or didn't?

 

Other than the above "Incident" we had a great round trip drive between Atlanta & Tulsa for the Holidays. The Old Broad, which was heavily loaded both ways, did not have any problems, used 1 quart of oil and averaged 22.5 MPG (including driving around Tulsa's streets for a week) during the 1826 mile round trip.

 

For What It's Worth.

 

KEN

[vbrad511]

As always, cool story. I'm no lead foot, but about 15 years or so back I bought a couple radar/laser detectors. Lower level units, less than $100 each. They've each paid for themselves many times over, generally with traditional radar. They've got a different signal for laser and it doesn't go off until I'm right there being hit. May be an instant-on thing with their guns. I'd like to think the technology has improved since I bought them, and that the newer units pick things up quicker.

[dmyers151]

I just got an Escort Passport 8500 for Christmas, couldn't be happier with it. It's not saved my butt yet, as I'm just using it in my little pickup to try and get a feel for its abilities. So far it's been nothing short of fantastic.

[Fanta]

It's iffy, especially with the technology state patrols use nowadays, by the time your detector goes off, they already have your speed registered

[Coke]

I have the ever famous ValentineOne Radar/Laser Detector. I feel it's an outstanding piece of electronic hardware. It tells you which direction the signal is coming from (Forward, Behind, Sides) and it also tells you how many of them to expect. The sensitivity is outstanding, it picks up things a great distance away. I don't travel ANYWHERE without my V1 in my windshield. It did cost me some pennies, but it's saved me a few times, and to have that assurance sitting in my window, I feel safer. It's easy to use, with a traditional volume knob, with an adjustable "mute" volume as well. This unit cost me $425 a few years ago.

 

As far as laser goes, it does not matter if you've got a nuclear reactor powered detector. Laser means once it hits you, it's too late. It's an instant catch for police. That's the science of laser.

[Turborusty]

A ticket (or even two) on my record has not made any real appreciable increase on my insurance rates.

 

They're all off my record now, but speeding tickets are what I had and even with 2 on there, it wasn't any noticable rate increase.

 

 

Turborusty

[Chad]

most cops on the highway use the "instant on" technique, so if you are a ways off, you won't pick up much but a blip and then nothing. It's easy to disregard this blip as a false alarm. They let you get in real close and light you up for a second. that's all it takes, so they read your speed and shut it back off so the area isn't flooded with radar to set off detectors. You have to drive paranoid all the time to make them really work I have an old Cobra detector from when I was in college, never got a ticket when using it, and I dodged quite a few, but many times if I hadn't have already been paranoid, it wouldn't have done much good. They false alarm on automatic door openers on the radar setting, so if you are in an area wtih shopping malls or stores, it goes off all the time. Laser isn't like that, but they have to carefuly aim those as the beam width is only a few feet wide, so they aim at a car, take a reading, and shut it off till the next car comes by.

 

If you are in a busy highway, they often have it on full time reading each car. In a deserted stretch, count on the instant on technique to be used. In that case, the detector does you very little good. I've had several saved tickets cause my detector was very sensitive, it would pick up echos from cars being blasted a mile ahead, but the paranoia setting has to be fully engaged.

 

On one deserted area that I'd drive daily at night, there was one trap that was set atleast a few times a week. I knew the trap was there so I usualy slowed down. On this one when I'd came up on it, no warning, then wham, I'd get blasted , then it went off again every time. The instat on technique works very well for them, and unless your detector is very sensitive, you won't be protected. Problem with very sensitive is lots of false alarms. If the car next to you has a cheap detector, it will set yours off (it's local osscilator will bleed over and becomes a transmitter).

 

You may be saved a few tickets, but the rabbit technique has served me better over the years. I haven't even used my detector in years. I once came up on that sme overpass where the cops parked the top on the overpass and blasted cars as they crested a hill a 1/2 mile away. That night I was comming up on that trap and knew it was likely set (often was that time of night). A car next to me was trying to egg me into a race and I was already going 10+ over. when we crested the hill and into the trap, the radar detector went full scale for under 2 seconds and back off, I knew we were both busted, so I sped up a little and got the other guy to pull even harder till he passed me at about 20 over. As we neared the overpass, the cop was already merging on to the on ramp to catch us, and the other guy was now a few hundered yards ahead of me, still going 20 over and I was now only 3-5 over. I had kept my speed up to keep the other driver engaged at his higher speed up all the way till the overpass. the cop merged in right beside me and paced me a few hundered yards, staring in my window trying to get me to filnch. I never even looked over. he then pulled ahead and nailed the other driver. My witts and technique saved me, not the detector. after that I never really trusted it on semi-deserted roads.

 

I've not used a laser detector, but their limited beam width also means it's harder to detect them. Radar fills the area arround it, laser is much more focused. they do work, but I'be leery of how much warning you get from the laser detector from cars ahead of you. Most cops still use radar cause you don't need to dilligently aim it, and they are just too lazy to do that.

[Chad]

A ticket (or even two) on my record has not made any real appreciable increase on my insurance rates. They're all off my record now, but speeding tickets are what I had and even with 2 on there, it wasn't any noticable rate increase. Turborusty

 

Yah, it depends on how old you are. If you are young, a few tickes doubles your insurance, after 30, they probably aren't even polling the DMV to find out the tickets are there. My wife got one and it never even changed our insurance. The insurance companies have to look, the DMV doesn't proactivly tell them. they won't look if you are old or are married and have kids. the ticket still costs the same though

[Jody1]

Any thoughts on jammers?

[IntercooledFlatty]

when you are blazing down the road, what good will a detector do ya if they turn their units off and on? ( LOL...he said units )

[Chad]

Any thoughts on jammers?

 

$50,000 fine from the FCC, and up to a year in jail. It's a procected frequency, reserved for "official" uses only.

[Jody1]

 

$50,000 fine from the FCC, and up to a year in jail. It's a procected frequency, reserved for "official" uses only.

 

 

so if one way of getting caught is by having too large of a speed discrepancy, it seems the percent of speed function would negate that.

 

Other ways of getting caught?

 

Is the 50Large fine and 1year in jail the usual?

[Chad]

jamming and altering the refelcted wave are very different techniques. Jamming simply involves overwhelming the receiver with excess "noise" so it can't detect it's own reflected waves. Alterin gteh readout involves a phase shifting transmitter that "tells" the radar gun whatever speed you want it to read. Making on isn't terribly difficult with the right parts, but getting caught would really suck.

 

That $50,000 is just the FCC fine, local law enforcement consider it a felony and can send you to jail for 5 years.

[averse]

picked up an Escort 8500 on Craigslist for 130 bucks and it's been good. I did quite a bit of reading up before buying and that model seemed to be the best in the 200 or under price range. Other than that, the Valentine One is the one to get if you have the cash to spare. One of the bigger differences I believe is you now have GPS radar detectors that cost more $$$ yet add updated info on photo radar spots, of which a traditional radar detector will not detect/warn.

 

I do wonder if you are a bit over fearful of the cost of a ticket and impact on insurance. Most states allow you to take a defensive driving course once every 2 years or so to "eliminate" a ticket off of your record. The school costs about as much as the ticket, usually (which can be 200-300 bucks nowdays). The ticket won't show on your driving record or affect your insurance when you complete the course, however. Therefore, if you are not typically sweating bullets about getting caught speeding more than a few times a year you may not really need a detector.

[Starfighterpilot]

picked up an Escort 8500 on Craigslist for 130 bucks and it's been good. I did quite a bit of reading up before buying and that model seemed to be the best in the 200 or under price range. Other than that, the Valentine One is the one to get if you have the cash to spare. One of the bigger differences I believe is you now have GPS radar detectors that cost more $$$ yet add updated info on photo radar spots, of which a traditional radar detector will not detect/warn.

 

I do wonder if you are a bit over fearful of the cost of a ticket and impact on insurance. Most states allow you to take a defensive driving course once every 2 years or so to "eliminate" a ticket off of your record. The school costs about as much as the ticket, usually (which can be 200-300 bucks nowdays). The ticket won't show on your driving record or affect your insurance when you complete the course, however. Therefore, if you are not typically sweating bullets about getting caught speeding more than a few times a year you may not really need a detector.

 

 

Yeah, what you say above is true if it's a local to where you live ticket. I drive, on the average, 20 - 25K miles around the country in the Old Broad per year. Consider that I was about 380 miles away from where I lived when this "incident" occured. I'm not about to go back to Alabama to go to traffic court, take a driving course - when you consider gas, motel bills etc - to keep the ticket from showing up on my driving record. When you factor in the cost of the ticket, cost of the driving school, gas, motel bills etc etc, the overall cost of the ticket could easily top a grand for doing 90 MPH in a 70 MPH zone to keep it off of my record.

 

Also consider that we & the Porsche were doing 90 MPH when the Porsche got nailed. That fine is very significantly higher than doing 65 in a 45 MPH speed zone. For instance, a GF of mine, about 5 years ago, got nailed on I-285 on a Sunday morning in the area of the "infamous" Doraville speed trap, in the NE Atlanta area, for doing 72 MPH in a 55 MPH speed zone. That ticket cost her $475.

 

And I'm not "overly fearful of the cost of a ticket and impact on insurance." If I was, I'd be a 66 year old fart (which I am) "Pa Kettle" driving at, or below, the speed limit no matter what the surrounding traffic was running at. Read my OP to see what speeds I drive on the interstates at, depending upon the circumstances. I like to think ahead and take all of the precautions that I can to keep from getting nailed for traffic/speeding violations out of state.

 

BTW - I believe that all traffic violations on a Georgia Drivers License stay on a persons record, according to Georgia law, for 7 years. A lot of crap can possibly happen to prompt the insurance company to look up a driver's record during that time.

 

Photo radar speeding tickets? That ticks me off!! Who makes a detector and what's the model number that has that GPS photo radar spot feature?

 

For What It's Worth.

 

KEN

[IntercooledFlatty]

Ken just do what i do, don't speed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol:

[Chad]

it stays on your record for 7 years for "consideration" in the legal system (incase you become a frequent offender, they can see if it's a pattern you have lived before). The insurance company can only count it against you for 3-5 years, depending on local state laws.

 

the only way to come out ahead is to continue driving the way you do with the mere addition of the detector for that random trap when you don't have a rabbit. you still have to be careful at all times.

 

 

 

Not just for you Ken, but to the site as a whole:

 

You have to calculate how much your time is worth to you. At 20,000 miles per year highway at 85 MPH, you have 235.3 hours invested in those miles, if you slowed down to 80, your chance of getting a ticket reduces 10 fold (they are usualy are looking for drivers 15 over or more) and it takes you 250 hours to travel the same distance. that is 14.7 hours of your life over a years time.

 

it's probalby costing you an extra 3% in fuel economy as wind resistance increases at a square rate, and the motor is outside it's optimum effency range. at 3.50 per gallon on a car getting 25 MPG, that's 800 gallons or $2800. take off 3% and you can save $84. These are an educated guess, but probalby close.

 

 

throw on a $300 ticket plus the added fuel cost of $84, and devide by 14.7 hours, you make $26.12 an hour during that "lost time" to slow down just 5 MPH. I did these numbers myself years ago and decided to slow down. I now only drive 10 over, or less.

 

If that 20,000 miles represents 10 long trips, that's only ~1-1/2 hours per trip saved, but each trip has risk of a ticket incerased for the whole trip by that speed, and the price of a really nice lunch in added fuel costs per trip, and 23.7+ hours of stress.

 

 

I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 20 years, and I always drive over the limit.

[Caliber308]

I have a older Uniden Stalker Radar Detector that I have had installed in my Starion for over 10 years. It covers all the bands including Laser. Saved me from getting a lot of tickets over the years.

 

Bill

[theRobot]

 

$50,000 fine from the FCC, and up to a year in jail. It's a procected frequency, reserved for "official" uses only.

 

That's why you avoid getting caught...

 

There was one system in particular I was looking at, it was $620 and it was a radar and laser jammer

It consisted of the one brain unit that mounted under the dash board and had a simple RGB LED light you would put in your view, which it would use to inform you of any detections or jams it had to do, and it had two radar/laser bars, one to mount in the front of the vehicle, and one in the back, they even recommended a way to install, which was to put it in the grill, and as close to the license plates as possible.

 

Police are trained to use the plates because of their refractive properties and give an instant report. What this unit would do, would detect the incoming laser, and then flash it's own set of IR LEDs to confuse the gun. The laser guns would not report any false reading, they would just fail to report a speed because of the mixed input.

 

The company guaranteed the unit with a "we will pay your speeding infraction." Their only limit, was nothing over 30mph, because that's was grave abuse.

 

 

Wink Wink, Nudge nudge, "Laser Elite LE-X2"

Edited January 10, 2012 by theRobot

[Indiana]

Last time I got pulled over I did a quick pass around a car and was going about that fast and an unmarked Explorer pulled me over and his dog went nuts and his radio went off and he had to go and let me off without even getting my name. Some dope smoker saved me some money that day. Brandon got pulled over in Mississippi few weeks back, the cop used mile markers to clock his speed and he argued with him and only got a warning. He said that wouldn't hold up in court. Its less trouble to just slow down I know its hard some times.

[Chad]

 

That's why you avoid getting caught...

 

 

Think that through : So if you pass a cop with a radar gun and he can't get any sort of reading off your car (but it works on all the other cars arround you), is he going to suspect something?

 

Jamming laser is legal, jamming radar is not. One is light (non protected), the other is RF (very protected/enforced).

 

 

LIDAR devices typically send out a stream of approximately 100 pulses over the span of three-tenths of a second

 

also :

 

LIDAR detectors are generally less effective than radar detectors as the emissions they monitor are more brief, more concentrated and less easily scattered than radar; a motorist may therefore not have sufficient time to respond to the burst transmission of a LIDAR device, or the narrow beam might be focused on a specific part of a vehicle where the sensor cannot "see" it.

 

Not much time for the jammer to know when to trigger, by the time the detector has gone off, the cop already has your speed. Without parabolic lenses on the jammers, built in an array, it's still got a chance to read it's own light even with your jammer on.

[theRobot]

I would agree, a worthwhile radar detector is the most you can do legally, it can't protect you from the police "Popping" the radar gun.

 

Problem is, radar is good for rural streets, one car at a time, because it's usable area is so wide, it can pick up other cars in it's detection.

So for interstate, they use LIDAR, the cop is stationary, with another cop along side to ticket the offenders. Laser jamming is not illegal and most laser jammers do jam quite efficiently.

 

I have a uniden Radar detector, is does give some false positives, but for the most part, I'm sure it has saved me plenty of tickets, it also detects laser. It also went off the one time I was clocked via LIDAR by two state troopers. It was simply able to inform me, time to pull over, you have been clocked. If I had the jammer at that moment, it would've saved me the ticket, they would've simply pulled over a different car, and got what they wanted.

 

I was ticketed for 13 over 70 the speed limit, in a group of 5 cars, they pulled me over. The cop was even nice enough to tell me I was the slowest person they pulled over that morning.

 

And by my comment of not getting caught, was more a of general idea. I did, as you pointed out just now, consider that Laser is not a "frequency" so it's not an FCC violation like Radar is.

[mstieg]

Not just for you Ken, but to the site as a whole:

 

You have to calculate how much your time is worth to you. At 20,000 miles per year highway at 85 MPH, you have 235.3 hours invested in those miles, if you slowed down to 80, your chance of getting a ticket reduces 10 fold (they are usualy are looking for drivers 15 over or more) and it takes you 250 hours to travel the same distance. that is 14.7 hours of your life over a years time.

 

it's probalby costing you an extra 3% in fuel economy as wind resistance increases at a square rate, and the motor is outside it's optimum effency range. at 3.50 per gallon on a car getting 25 MPG, that's 800 gallons or $2800. take off 3% and you can save $84. These are an educated guess, but probalby close.

 

 

throw on a $300 ticket plus the added fuel cost of $84, and devide by 14.7 hours, you make $26.12 an hour during that "lost time" to slow down just 5 MPH. I did these numbers myself years ago and decided to slow down. I now only drive 10 over, or less.

 

If that 20,000 miles represents 10 long trips, that's only ~1-1/2 hours per trip saved, but each trip has risk of a ticket incerased for the whole trip by that speed, and the price of a really nice lunch in added fuel costs per trip, and 23.7+ hours of stress.

 

LMAO - That's just awesome Chad. Should be a test question in Algebra class, and students would pay more attention.

 

I've got a pair of matching $30 detectors for the DD & Starion. They have 360 deg & VG2 (which does help). The rest each doesn't have is just extra $ since it's mostly on driving habits & luck really. I've been using them for years and while there are some false alarms (they detect a Walgreens from 1/2 mile away without fail - auto door opener laser beams). I've had a few tickets in my days since 16 and only recently did I EVER get a warning when the detector was visible. (The warning is a pretty funny story to me at least).

 

Most police don't have lasers, since they cost a LOT more, only a few well-funded highway patrolman tend to use them. Locally, radar is most commonly used, and these cheap suckers have helped quite a bit. I don't intentionally speed much anymore. Usually stay below 80 on our 70 mph highways.

[carguygibby]

NC's Draconian speeding laws + having a CDL means 2 speeding tickets (I have 1 :mad: )and you're through + talking/ nagging speed detector (the wife!) = no more speeding for me.

Colin

PS Used to have a radar detector when I lived in GA, was great for telling me I've just been caught!

However rabbits are very useful, usually a Honda Accord being driven by a young 'un at Warp Factor 8 for keeping the eyes of the law away from me!

Edited January 12, 2012 by carguygibby

[UlrichWolf]

I've never bothered with radar detectors, opting instead for the smooth, consistency-based manner of dropping time.

 

Plus, it saves fuel. Allow me to cite an example.

 

A while back, a friend of mine drove up to Kansas from Houston in a rented Nissan Altima. This fellow has two speeds: full-throttle, and slide-to-a-stop. He made the trip in about 9 hours, running mostly 90-100, and didn't bother to check his gas mileage, mostly because it was hideous.

 

He also stopped several times for this, that, and the other thing.

 

I made the trip last month in the new-to-me Dodge Ram. Set the cruise 5-7 MPH over the limit. I made the trip in 9 hours and 20 minutes, and acheived an average of 17 MPG, stopping in Denton, TX once to fuel up, grab a bite, and take a leak.

 

I'm a firm believer in the thought that it is all about being smooth, and consistent, as opposed to being fast and making a lot of stops.

 

Tim