These are probably crappy, but they seem like very good prices:
http://www.buy.com/retail/specialty_store_7.asp?loc=16175

If I bother with one, I think it's Valentine V1 or nothing.

Or I could slow down...

If I bother with one, I think it's Valentine V1 or nothing.


Uhhh, yeah. What he said.

Cheap radar detectors will let you know you have just gotten a ticket, sometimes even before the blinking red light shows up in the rear view mirror. But they aren't that effective in preventing them.

And even a V1 is outmatched by properly-used "instant-on" radar. And lasers? Forget it. They'll latch and lock on in the same instant that your detector goes off.

tanstaafl.

I did buy one from that page just for the curiosity factor. $30 for that whistler which is supposed to be a pretty decent detector was worth it just to have a better idea of where the cops are hiding out. I realize a V1 is better, but it is more than 10 times as expensive. Anwyay, one more electronic toy is always good, right?

-Mike

Cheap radar detectors will let you know you have just gotten a ticket

My cheap radar detector has already paid for itself a few times over. I agree that the V1 is the best, but I really like my little solution, too. (Stealth mounted, etc.)

It wasn't the cheapest available, though, and I did make sure to check it at radartest.com to make sure it wasn't complete crap.

Well, my real problem with the valentine 1 is that it would be item number two that I'd have to carry back and forth to my car every time I go somewhere. I've already had a $100 radar detector stolen, and a V1 is highly recognizable...

That being said, I've lived with and without a radar detector, and don't really find that I miss it. It can give you some advance warning, but it's nothing compared to just being alert.

Matthew

It can give you some advance warning, but it's nothing compared to just being alert.

I agree that being an alert driver is the single best way to avoid tickets. Spot them before they spot you.

And if you're going to speed, I would argue that you MUST be an alert driver or you don't have any business speeding at all. Several years ago I read a book that went into great detail on the subject of speeding tickets, and this was its central thesis.

Having a radar detector is simply another additional tool that can save you from a ticket in certain situations that being alert cannot. I got my radar detector after being nailed in a situation where I was being alert, yet the cop was in a hidden "trap" location. If I'd had the detector at that time, I wouldn't have gotten the ticket, yet no amount of additional alertness on my part would have saved me from the ticket.

It's also possible for them to nail you other ways other than radar, and some of them are much more ironclad, in court, than radar. The book I read went into excruciating detail on these methods. One of the advantages of owning a detector, they said, was that you would be able to know with more certainty what method they were using to clock you, and it can help you make an informed decision on what to do at any given moment. Even (especially) after they've already pulled you over. If you know how they nailed you, you can make a better decision about how you might want to try to talk yourself out of the ticket. It can be done, and it helps to have all the facts ahead of time.

Sounds interesting. What was the name of the book? I just got a sports car and need to brush up on my double talk...

I bought two cheap one's and am on my third one now. The first one (a Uniden) would go off at any RPM level above 2500. It was totally useless to me so I took it back. I realize that it was because I have an old car with a point ignition system, but still, they could have done better.

The second one was a Bell, it was very quiet. In fact when I drove by one of those signs that tell you how fast you are going it wouldn't even go off. I drove around for a month expecting I was protected just to find out it was broken. I took it back and got another Bell. It seems to work fine and has saved me a few time (except for instant on radar, damn them).

Just make sure it works before hitting triple digit speeds.

Sounds interesting. What was the name of the book?

"How to avoid speeding tickets: The fast and safe driver's handbook".

A quick google reveals a lot of topics on the general subject, but not that particular book. Doesn't surprise me, as the book was from an independent garage-operation publisher, it wasn't a mass-market press book. I ordered it out of the back of a Car and Driver several years ago.

I'd give you the details of its publisher, except that I loaned it to a friend years ago and never saw it again. I haven't been in touch with her since then so I can't even call her up and ask for it back.

Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of books on the subject by now, so you can pick any of them.

This particular one was very big on the idea that the more alert you were as a driver, the more of a chance you'd see the cops before they clocked you. Maintaining a constant scan of the surrounding traffic, roadside, onramps, etc., makes you a safer driver overall. And they were also big on the idea of being a polite driver (i.e., not tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic) because if a cop did catch you, they'd be less inclined to let you slide if they observed you behaving like a jerk prior to the pull-over.

They described in detail all of the methods that can be used to clock you (not just radar is used), and how to know almost instantly which clocking method was being used once you knew the cop was there. Then they described what countermeasures you could take in each situation. Did you know that in some rare cases, full maximum lay-rubber-on-the-ground braking is the correct way to avoid a ticket? (It also can be a sure way to cinch the ticket if you're being clocked via a different method, so you better be sure.)

Did you know that in some rare cases, full maximum lay-rubber-on-the-ground braking is the correct way to avoid a ticket? (It also can be a sure way to cinch the ticket if you're being clocked via a different method, so you better be sure.)

You sound like an advertisement.

Expound, good sir!

Expound, good sir!

Heh. I said it was rare.

It's when they're using a time/distance trap to measure your speed. I don't know if these are even used at all any more, they were rare even when that old book was written.

It's a little device hooked into the odometer on the cop's cruiser. They roll the distance between two landmarks and punch the start and end points into the device. Then they watch cars going between the two landmarks and hit a start/stop button for each, and it reads out their speed. If you think you're in the middle of one of these traps (i.e., you've crossed the start but haven't crossed the finish), then the only way out of the ticket is to put flat spots on your tires.

The advantage to the above system is that it's entirely passive, and radar detectors won't do speeders any good. They were reasonably accurate, if I recall correctly, and stood up well in court.

Honestly, though, I've found that here in California at least, my only threats are from pacing (that's where the traffic scan is critical, a good pacing is ironclad in court), aircraft (easy to spot), and from KA-band radar. When I travel in Nevada, I also have to watch for K-band. I've never had an X-band warning that wasn't a door opener and I wish I could kill all X-band alerts on my detector (I can only reduce the x band sensitivity, not kill it completely).

I'm afraid of laser, since laser detectors are useless (always instant-on, and you don't get backscatter from other cars), but I'm crossing my fingers that those are still too expensive to be in widespread use by the CHP.

Around here (Indiana) they have white marks on the roads for speed timing (usually down hills). They are about two feet thick and extend 3/4 of the way out from the side of the road. My friend got nailed on one a year or so ago.

Around here (Indiana) they have white marks on the roads for speed timing (usually down hills). They are about two feet thick ...

Man, that's gotta be hell on your suspension.

(Ba-dum.)

I thought those two-foot-wide white marks were only used for aircraft timing. Where they're used here, they are always on stretches of road that have a "speed checked by aircraft" sign.

Aircraft traps are the easiest to spot, you can see them from miles away. The plane will be flying low, parallel to the highway. You'd have to be not paying any attention to the sky at all to get nailed by an airplane trap.

In reply to:

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Just make sure it works before hitting triple digit speeds.

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Yeah, thats not gonna happen. I drive a lifted jeep wrangler with a top speed of about 85. The detector is more for my own amusement than a serious concern over speeding tickets.

-Mike

with a top speed of about 85

Oh, too bad. My van loaded down with equipment does better than that.

Around here (Indiana) they have white marks on the roads for speed timing (usually down hills). They are about two feet thick ...

Man, that's gotta be hell on your suspension.
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That's why we all have those jacked up 4X4's and red necks from the seat belts jerking us back down.

No airplanes here in hick-villi, just Barney in a 1978 LTD POS. They don't even have laser, however the staties do have instant on.

It's a little device hooked into the odometer on the cop's cruiser. They roll the distance between two landmarks and punch the start and end points into the device. Then they watch cars going between the two landmarks and hit a start/stop button for each, and it reads out their speed. If you think you're in the middle of one of these traps (i.e., you've crossed the start but haven't crossed the finish), then the only way out of the ticket is to put flat spots on your tires.

Called a Police Pilot here in Sweden, but they generally use it while rolling in unmarked cars - nowadays also backed up by video. To give the speedee some leeway they measure the time on the car from before landmark 1 to after landmark 2, while they measure the distance "inside" the 2 landmarks, giving a slightly lower reading than if they measured everything exactly on the landmarks.

And laser is quite common, but it's been quite a while since I saw a radar used...

/Michael

they generally use it while rolling in unmarked cars

That book also went into detail on how to spot unmarked units. Since we do have some unmarked CHP units here in CA, my scan is basically concentrating on looking for unmarkeds. The marked units stand out, the unmarked ones don't but can be detected from pretty far off if you know what to look for.

Have you seen the new low-profile LED light bars? I saw one last week, those will make picking out cop car silhouetts in traffic a bit more difficult.

-Zeke

Have you seen the new low-profile LED light bars? I saw one last week, those will make picking out cop car silhouetts in traffic a bit more difficult.

Irrelevant. The unmarked cars I'm looking for don't have lightbars on their roof at all. But yeah, the new white camaros are something to watch out for.

I might be exagerating, but I don't thing I've seen a California Highway Patrol car with a lightbar in the last year... You just have to get good at spotting the full size american made sedans (or their headlights). Luckily enough, 80% of them on the roads here are police cruisers of some kind. There's a carmaro down south of san jose which they seem to take out on 85 and 280 which has scared the bejeebies out of me, as that's one of nicest freeways around the bay area...

Back when I used to */really/* speed I had it down to a science. You get out on the nice open road, and you go >10 over what everyone else is going. If someone starts gaining on you from behind, you pull into that slow lane as fast as possible. Then you've only got to make sure you don't fly by one...

Matthew

Man, Tony beats me to it again... Oh well..

Matthew

Mass State Troopers have got a couple of unmarked cars. The fact that they're black, have 4 antennas on the roof, and cruise exactly at the speed limit is a bit of a giveaway though

If they really wanted to blend in, they'd buy those cruisers in the same color as the rest of the typical market - ie pastel blue/gray/brown.

[iWhere they're used here, they are always on stretches of road that have a "speed checked by aircraft" sign.

I don't know if it is dependent on state law, but some states (like mine) aren't polite enough to post those signs and seem to have those white markers (like a /\ in WA) everywhere.

Aircraft traps are the easiest to spot, you can see them from miles away.

Generally true.

The plane will be flying low, parallel to the highway. You'd have to be not paying any attention to the sky at all to get nailed by an airplane trap.

But exceptions exist. My one aiplane ticket told me to watch not just the sky but the topography. Thankfully helicopters are much more expensive to operate than the little Cessnas they use for air speed traps or this problem would be worse.

the unmarked ones don't but can be detected from pretty far off if you know what to look for.

Someone help me figure out how to spot a WSP Chevy Suburban with tinted glass before I overtake it.

It's when they're using a time/distance trap to measure your speed. I don't know if these are even used at all any more, they were rare even when that old book was written.

If it's known as "VASCAR", local police in PA more or less have to use it. No radar for other than state police, and last I checked, no laser either.

Irrelevant to you perhaps, however they do make marked cars approaching from the rear at night harder to spot & differentiate from civilian cars. They also make oncoming marked car daylight approaches harder to pick out at distance (assuming their radar's off of course). Not impossible of course, but more difficult.

But as you say, being watchful is the most important bit. (/me prepares for 60 mile commute home)

-Zeke

I actually have a whole issue with unmarked patrol cars. It's tantamount to spying, and deceitful.

I'm bound by law to carry my license, and to have tags on my car that they can use to find out exactly who owns that car, address, occupation probably, ..etc... I'm not allowed to hide who I am by *not* having a license tag, or *not* carrying a license, but they're allowed to pretend their not really the police??

It's all a bit one-sided isn't it. If we're really living in a free society, then shouldn't we all have access to that license tag computer???!