Radar detectors

Kwiksilver - No, they're not worth the money. I know some people swear by them, but simply paying attention when you drive, remembering where cops sit, and being smart where and when you speed can get you better results for no money. That, and what TCrazy said is the best advice you can get on this subject.

T - You're much wiser than I am. I know that what you say is right, but I have a hard time doing it.

Just gotta know your roads. In GA, you are typically safe going no more than 7 mph over the limit. For the most part, you won't see a cop painting you on the highways. Some exceptions apply like I-285 and GA-400, where the "safe" limit is higher. Try driving 5 over the limit and others will try to kill you in their hurry.

I purchased mine for in town driving where going 45 in a 35 is frowned upon. That despite the fact that many of these roads are safe at the higher speed. Purchased a BELL that works well for in town. Once on the highway, I put it away.

Your mileage may vary.

My 5-MPH theory is solid in my eyes for a couple reasons.

#1 If the traffic around you is going 15mph over the limit of COURSE you cant drive 5mph over the limit because you will be killed. But in the event you are surrounded with traffic that is going way over the limit, you wont get caught by tagging along with them because the cop has to hit you with a clear shot (impossible if you are behind another car). So 5MPH over unless you are in heavy traffic that is traveling at higher speeds!

#2 If you are alone on the highway, a radar detector wont help you.......why? well simply because all detectors now are instant-on, meaning they dont turn on until you get close enough for the gun to see and by the time your detector goes off BAM!!!!!!! YOUR TOAST!.
So if your only going 5MPH over the limit, and you trip a radar-gun off, no biggie because 5MPH wont get you pulled over because all speedometers have a 5MPH margin of error which is a factual defense in court!.

So to sum it all up, 5MPH over the limit is the magic rader-detection annecdote......simply because its perfect in all situations. If your in a big pack traveling at high speeds a detector is wortheless because you dont need to worry about bing deteced (just the people leading the pack). and if your alone on a road trying to speed by yourself......youll trip the radar instantly without ample warning from your detector since the radar is instant on, you lose! - T

good points i wonder if that 5mph defense works in every state

I'm in the business and I use laser.
A) the gun can only be at 15 degrees from the road because the laser is straight line and a greater angle affects the speed reading.(the reason cops park right off the road).

B) I can tell how fast you are going to a reasonable degree of accuracy so I will pick and choose which targets to hit.
C) Even if Yours goes off and i hit you twice more and you're decelerating. You're got.

Most cops will give you 10+2 on the freeway. That's at a 60 speed limit.
At a 70 Speed limit, you're chances of getting a break go down.

Oh, I always give tickets to the guys with the detectors. If you got it hanging up, It's assumed you speed all the time. (unless you're another cop of course.
professional courtesy after all).

Be Smart. Be safe.

Originally posted by capt_tast@Sep 6 2004, 12:05 AM
I'm in the business and I use laser.
A) the gun can only be at 15 degrees from the road because the laser is straight line and a greater angle affects the speed reading.(the reason cops park right off the road).

B) I can tell how fast you are going to a reasonable degree of accuracy so I will pick and choose which targets to hit.
C) Even if Yours goes off and i hit you twice more and you're decelerating. You're got.

Most cops will give you 10+2 on the freeway. That's at a 60 speed limit.
At a 70 Speed limit, you're chances of getting a break go down.

Oh, I always give tickets to the guys with the detectors. If you got it hanging up, It's assumed you speed all the time. (unless you're another cop of course.

professional courtesy after all).

Be Smart. Be safe.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the site Capt! Thank you for the informative and factual post, that kind of knowledge is VERY useful to those of us on the board who have a tendency to drive at a spirited pace. -T

Originally posted by capt_tast@Sep 6 2004, 12:05 AM
I'm in the business and I use laser. 
A)  the gun can only be at 15 degrees from the road because the laser is straight line and a greater angle affects the speed reading.(the reason cops park right off the road).

B)  I can tell how fast you are going to a reasonable degree of accuracy so I will pick and choose which targets to hit.
C)  Even if Yours goes off and i hit you twice more and you're decelerating.  You're got. 

Most cops will give you 10+2 on the freeway.  That's at a 60 speed limit. 
At a 70 Speed limit, you're chances of getting a break go down.

Oh,  I always give tickets to the guys with the detectors. If you got it hanging up,  It's assumed you speed all the time. (unless you're another cop of course. 

professional courtesy after all).

Be Smart. Be safe.

Click to expand...

next time you stop someone for speeding.. why not ask them the brand of their detector.. i am very sure that it wouldn't be a valentine or beltronics model.. since we heard you like 4-5 miles away..

on a happier note.. i don't agree with speeding, it's dangerous.. of course.. but there are times when you go 5-10 over.. and it's those times murphy's law kicks in and you get caught.. I would love for the crazy drivers doing 30+ over to get caught.. And I hope that the police do catch unsafe drivers like that and leave us who are 5mph over, alone..

and Kwiksilver.. get the good detector like Beltronics, Escort or Valentine.. it will pick up the infrared laser bouncing off of other people's cars.. and usually your detector will see this over the horizon and tell you.. but common sense does pay of as well, i do agree..

If you've got the money get the valentine, definitely the best. .
Yes Kwik, unsafe is more important than speed. In so cal there are enough accidents to keep the cops busy most of the time anyway, so there is less time for traffic.


Ps. I got a speeding ticket for doing 40 in a 35 in Niles Canyon(right outside fremont,CA...Hwy 84)

Fenmale cop took one lok at my radar detector, ran my plates (came back to P.O.) and wrote the ticket anyway.
The speed is 40 all the way until you hit this strip of bars that knocks it down to 35. It's basically a speed trap.

Oh well, about 1992, no tickets or radar detectors since though.

Guys and girls, If you aren't recless and you are not an ass, I'd either cut you a break or knock a couple of Mp off.

paying the ticket is admitting guilt, so I would always reccomend going to court and asking for traffic school or community service.

thanks for the good suggestions guys, especially capt_tast i have only gotten a ticket once in my life. i live in nor cal and i was falsely accused of speeding in a "cone zone". capt_tast and others from ca know what a "cone zone" is. the officer must have radared or lazered someone else because he stopped me for going 52 in a 25 zone. now, i was coming over a hill and there was a red light about 100 feet away. needless to say, i was decelerating from not going fast at all. now get this, this was when i had my 03 corolla s and it was completely stock at the time. not even new wheels or anything. but it was red. also, what saved me from getting in trouble at home (i was 19 at the time) was that my mom was sitting next to me in the passenger seat and my brother was sitting behind her in the back seat. so they got to see first hand what happened. the guy obviously caught the wrong person. the judge in court didn't believe me or my mom as a witness and i had to pay the ticket and sit through 8 hours of traffic school for something that i didn't do. ever since then i am not a fan of the police (no offense capt_tast, there are good officers out there and you sound like one). i haven't had any problems since but i have never been a speeder. i just thought about getting a radar detector so that i wouldn't be falsely accused again and i can slow down a whole lot so that i am going nowhere too fast. maybe some of you won't believe that i wasn't speeding, but all i can say is i was the wrong guy and i don't want that to happen again. if i did something wrong, then that's different. i would pay it and realize that i was stupid, but in this case that was not the case.

PS. SOrry for going off-topic... That last respons could have been in first rides, bad high school experiences and biggest court screwing all at the same time.

To GA_tc, Zoltiz, and anyone else from GA:

I know there are a lot of rumors out there about what speeds the police will or won't stop you for going, how you can get out of tickets in court, etc. Here are the few ironclad truths that I came across while handling traffic cases in a solicitor's office last year:

1. Only a GSP officer can ticket you for <10 MPH over the speed limit if the officer used radar or laser to clock you. The reason I stressed that last part is because there are at least two other ways a police officer can legally judge your speed: pacing and by "visual estimate." Pacing is exactly what it sounds like, and the officer has to pace your speed for a reasonable period of time. The second method is the one most people don't know of and are surprised to hear about. Supposedly, police have special training that allows them to visually estimate the speed of moving vehicles. Whether you believe this or not, it's perfectly acceptable in court as evidence of speeding, and I've seen people who thought they were going to go into court and get their tickets thrown out because they were based on visual estimates end up paying a higher fine for wasting the court's time. In all likelihood, though, there probably aren't many cops sitting alongside I-85 and making "visual estimates" -- they're running radar or laser. That means that in GA, there's basically a 9-MPH rule -- stay less than 10 over, and you'll be in good shape. The only places this law doesn't apply are obvious ones -- school zones, residential areas (defined as speed limit of 30 or less), etc. -- so, in those places, the 9-MPH rule doesn't apply.

2. That having been said, GSP officers can ticket you for any amount over, at any place, and at any time. Good rule of thumb: stay away from GSP. If you know of particular places where they sit, slow down before you get there. You don't want a GSP ticket.

3. In Georgia, most tickets are issued by county or local law enforcement agencies (e.g., DeKalb or Gwinnett County, City of Norcross, etc.). Because of this, the state only finds out -- and that means you only get points on your license -- if the ticketing agency reports it to the state. Now, I don't know if this is just an unwritten policy, or what, but tickets for less than 15 MPH over the speed limit do NOT get reported to the state. The other reason this matters is because insurance companies generally check with the state DMVS to determine your driving record. Otherwise, they would have to check with all 157 counties in Georgia (I think that's the right number), which obviously is not going to happen. So, effectively, tickets for less than 15 over do not go on your record in Georgia. I don't know that this would apply to tickets issued by the GSP.

4. And last, but not least, please don't believe that thing that so many people say: "Don't pay the ticket -- just show up for your court date, and if the police officer doesn't show up, the ticket will get thrown out." There are numerous problems with this idea. In my experience as both a person prosecuting traffic offenses and a person who has gone to court on a traffic ticket, the court date on your ticket is just that -- a court date. It is NOT a trial date. So, if you decide to "fight" your ticket, you'll show up on the court date, enter a plea of not guilty, and then they'll give you a trial date. So, what you've accomplished is missing two days of school or work. The cop doesn't have to show up on that first court date, and he probably won't. Then you show up a couple months later for trial. Now, it may be true that if the cop doesn't show up that day, the case will be dismissed. However, that's not always true either -- the judge can decide to continue the case if the cop has a good excuse (e.g., training, illness, military service, etc.). Then you get to come back a THIRD time...on a stupid traffic ticket. If and when you actually go to trial, if you lose, and you probably will, you may very well end up with a harsher penalty. Some judges don't believe it that, but many do, at least if you don't have any kind of reasonable legal defense. "I didn't think I was going that fast," "It was another car," and "The officer is lying" are NOT good defenses.

Just thought I'd share a little knowledge. Hope this saves someone some aggravation.