Did I make a good decision?

Discussions about our lives, families, jobs... things may get a little personal
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Aglifter
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by Aglifter »

Netpackrat wrote: Forget insurance; better to pay $100 in lawyers bills than $1 in speed tax.
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308Mike
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by 308Mike »

PawPaw wrote:
I think I'm going to take a trip into the courthouse and see if I can't find out the models of the radar guns that the traffic cops use and perhaps, invest in a radar detector. :twisted:
We used to love guys who had radar detectors, and routinely wrote them tickets. Here's the way that works. If I'm running radar, it's not on all the time, emitting the sweet beacon that guys with detectors love to see. No, it's on standby, and I only turn it on when I have a target. So, I see a guy driving too fast, and hit him with the radar gun. By the time his detector light up, I've already got my reading. It confirms my original suspicions, so I pull him over.

I don't like writing tickets, so I talk to the guy. Glance at his dashboard. Look at his license, registration, and proof of insurance. If he's a reasonable guy, no problem, a friendly warning, and we all go about our day with only a minor inconvenience.

If I see a radar detector on the dashboard, he gets the ticket, straight up.

Edit to add. Some of the newer speed devices now are laser, rather than radar. There are advantages and disadvantages to using laser rather than radar, but one of the advantages is that it renders the radar detectors useless.
The nice thing (depending on your point of view) about laser radar (lidar for speed detection) is that you can pick out a single target among a batch of vehicles without the mess of the wide signal returns and locking onto the strongest return (in order: nearest, fastest, then largest vehicle return - the strongest signal wins). Most officers using lidar around here have a buttstock frame attached to make accurate targeting much easier. I used standby mode on my units all the time too. It was always fun to take out the speed-survey car (a POS unmarked non-emergency car - once it was a Ford Pinto) to work specific areas by recording the speeds of all the vehicles on certain streets. The cars with the detectors were real obvious since they almost always locked up the brakes as soon as I released the beam, even though there was no marked cars anywhere on the streets, and I always tried to park a few blocks down around curves so I got their true speed before they hit the brakes.

When I worked at Traffic, we always had a few handheld radar guns that needed to go in for servicing/calibration. Sometimes, before they went in for service, off-duty cops would take the malfunctioning units out on the road with them and light up speeders on the freeway when they'd pass by the guys going to play in their RV's or trucks hauling boat trailers or off-road toys. Sometimes they'd either put the unit on the dash while plugged into the cigarette lighter and put a rubber-band around the trigger while they're driving. Other times, the front seat passenger used it to target vehicles on both sides of the roadway (I remember guys who routinely did this heading up I-15 to Vegas, the 395 towards Tahoe, and on regular trips out I-8 to the desert dunes). They said it was always pretty obvious who was using a radar detector while hauling ass.

Even towns with old-fashioned speed traps know to use stand-by mode. Radar detectors are of dubious value at best.
POLITICIANS & DIAPERS NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON

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Aesop
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by Aesop »

Au contraire.

Big 5 Sporting Goods sells a low-cost baseball radar gun that'll set off every Fuzzbuster on the planet.
When someone goes flying by a 100MPH, it can be used to, um, alter the conditions of travel for those nimrods, whether it's their detector, or the guy's in front of them.

I've heard. 8-)

For that matter, a slow Sunday on the base at Pendleton used to consist of donning service C dress, with a piece of aluminum foil over the left shirt pocket in the rough shape of an MP badge, and pointing a black hair dryer at cars flying by well in excess of the posted limits.
It was far easier and more effective than lecturing knuckleheads on not doing 60 through the barracks area.
"There are four types of homicide: felonious, accidental, justifiable, and praiseworthy." -Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
rightisright
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by rightisright »

308Mike wrote:
Even towns with old-fashioned speed traps know to use stand-by mode. Radar detectors are of dubious value at best.
Not if you know how to use other speeders to your advantage. They key is to never be a lone wolf speeder. Always have someone else in front of you (not a problem in NJ. 80 MPH is the default left lane speed). He gets the radar, your detector goes off and you slow down.

LIDAR, that's another story. But you are still better off in a pack or with at least one person in front of you.
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Steamforger
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by Steamforger »

I was let off the hook last week (80 in a 70. Think what you will of that) by providing proof of insursnce on 11x17. It was the only paper we had in the printer that day and the deputy who saw it nearly pissed himself laughing. Once you get them laughing, you're usually good.
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randy
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by randy »

Back in the late 70's early 80's the Iowa Highway Patrol took radar units that could not be economically calibrated, put them in boxes with battery packs, and would drop them at random in the weeds near major highways. Their attitude was that if it slowed folks down and made them drive safer, it worked and they could concentrate their attention to particularly bad stretches of road, construction zones and other special projects*.

*The had a program (after several near misses and one particularly nasty accident) of one trooper with a portable radio riding in a school bus and his partner's vehicle staying a couple of miles ahead of the bus out of sight. When a car ignored the flashing stop lights he'd call his partner and when the bus got up the road where the traffic stop took place, would confirm the ID of the car and driver. Repeat as necessary.
...even before I read MHI, my response to seeing a poster for the stars of the latest Twilight movies was "I see 2 targets and a collaborator".
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HTRN
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by HTRN »

PawPaw wrote:I don't like writing tickets,.
You maybe. The cop who pulled me over twice in the same month, in tbe same area, for non egregious violations(10 over the first time, I stopped farther into the intersection in a right on red the second), not so much.
HTRN, I would tell you that you are an evil fucker, but you probably get that a lot ~ Netpackrat

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Termite
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by Termite »

rightisright wrote:
308Mike wrote:
Even towns with old-fashioned speed traps know to use stand-by mode. Radar detectors are of dubious value at best.
Not if you know how to use other speeders to your advantage. They key is to never be a lone wolf speeder. Always have someone else in front of you (not a problem in NJ. 80 MPH is the default left lane speed). He gets the radar, your detector goes off and you slow down.
This.
"Life is a bitch. Shit happens. Adapt, improvise, and overcome. Acknowledge it, and move on."
Greg
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Re: Did I make a good decision?

Post by Greg »

Termite wrote:
rightisright wrote:
308Mike wrote:
Even towns with old-fashioned speed traps know to use stand-by mode. Radar detectors are of dubious value at best.
Not if you know how to use other speeders to your advantage. They key is to never be a lone wolf speeder. Always have someone else in front of you (not a problem in NJ. 80 MPH is the default left lane speed). He gets the radar, your detector goes off and you slow down.
This.
At that point, you don't need the detector.

If you make proper use of what I like to call 'radar bait' there isn't really much point in having a radar detector at all. (Among other things, it can give you a false sense of security and it makes you look guilty.)
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby

If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
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