Radar detectors. Still viable?

Kinja'd!!! "Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
12/09/2018 at 00:47 • Filed to: None

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We have Waze and other apps working over real-time mass- population participation. Is a radar/ladar/laser detector even useful today? I hear their equipment doesn’t signal anything until it’s already sampled you. Discuss...


DISCUSSION (15)


Kinja'd!!! facw > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 00:56

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My understanding is that there’s not much value in places that use laser detectors, but that it may work better in various radar bands. My experience is limited though, I have a super cheap Cobra radar detector that I’ve never actually used because they were dumb enough to design a device with a coaxial power adapter requiring it s own DC adapter, instead of just using some USB cable I could plug into my existing adapter.


Kinja'd!!! TheDutchTexan > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 01:01

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You know where they (the cops) loiter during your commute to work. That in combination with WAZE is nearly foolproof.

Radar detectors usually give people a false sense of security.


Kinja'd!!! SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 01:01

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Not in Oz. They are illegal for starters. And anyway mobile speed cameras have their locations and timing pre-broadcast.

Plus virtually every police car has a speed detection tool built in...easier, simpler and  cheaper not to chance it.


Kinja'd!!! Junkrat aka Rick Sanchez: Fury Road Edition > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 01:12

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These days you have to get the really high end models if you don’t want false alarms. There are too many new cars that use some band of radar and the cheap ones don’t know how to differentiate.


Kinja'd!!! GLiddy > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 01:16

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Waze has the radar detector beat all to heck. Now, its been 20 years since I’ve used a detector, but when I did I was plagued with false warnings. New detector technology has eliminated much of this, but even still, I will say that in several instances where the warning was real , it only told me that I was caught.


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 03:04

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Follow the speed limit. 


Kinja'd!!! Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 03:50

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Waze only helps if someone else with Waze has already seen a cop sitting there. It does nothing for cops that are driving around. I have detectors in 2 of my cars, a Valentine 1 and an Escort Max 360. I wouldn’t drive without them. Cops are lazy and drive around with their radars on constantly, I know they are coming a mile in advance. They have saved me countless times when Waze (I run both) had no idea there was a cop out there. Neither gives me much in the way of false alerts, that’s what high end equipment will do for you.

Laser is different, but rarely encountered where I am. In order to alert ahead of time you have to catch some scatter from when he lights up someone else. I’ll occasionally get a warning before it is me being checked so it’s not every time. It takes vigilance and not driving like a moron, no detector or anything else is foolproof. My V1 did save me from a laser ticket last summer just north of Boston when it alerted a good distance out before I got scanned and I was able to drop my speed 10-15mph.

Like anything else, it’s a tool that is useful if you know how to use it. Anyone running both Waze and a detector can tell you that relying on Waze is nowhere near effective. It only shows about 10-15% of the cops out there. 


Kinja'd!!! someassemblyrequired > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 09:25

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They’re illegal in some places, and apparently there’s a radar detector detector? Anyways, my friend got busted, and it was only his capacity to file and win ridiculous legal motions in traffic court that extended the process beyond the time period where the points would come off his license. He still ended up paying the fine.


Kinja'd!!! Goggles Pizzano > someassemblyrequired
12/09/2018 at 10:35

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In some places 3 0 years ago police would put it in front of your tire, then tell you to be on your way .


Kinja'd!!! MM54 > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 11:20

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I use Waze because I like the navigation and various hazards, the police alerts are handy but certainly not foolproof (unless you solely drive in heavily populated areas, maybe).

I have coworkers who swear by their radar/laser detectors. I don’t have one for two reasons - one is that I just don’t blast around as fast as I can everywhere I go, and the second is that I see having that detector sitting on your dash as a serious gamble. You are betting on it keeping you from getting pulled over and best hop e it does, because if you do get stopped with a detector sitting o n your dash, it screams “I speed all the time” and there is no way in hell you’r e getting out of a ticket.


Kinja'd!!! Grindintosecond > Spanfeller is a twat
12/09/2018 at 12:05

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You say that an d yet we wet ourselves over hypercars on this site.


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 12:16

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I’ve come to the conclusion that every time I break the speed limit I feel shitty about myself. So, even with the ridiculously low speed limits here, I started following them a week or so ago; I’m a less stressed-happier driver.

Perhaps it’s an urban thing, cus even if I broke the speed limit twice over, I’d only arrive five minutes earlier to whichever place I was going. But I’m trying to follow highway speed limits as well, even if I’m a big proponent of raising extra-urban speed limits.


Kinja'd!!! Grindintosecond > Spanfeller is a twat
12/09/2018 at 14:37

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There is something to being comfortable and not working so hard. going faster means working signals, changing lanes, altering speed for slows in front, etc. I found a comfy truck and cruising one speed letting everyone else pass = no work! enjoying coffee. I’m old or something.


Kinja'd!!! Spanfeller is a twat > Grindintosecond
12/09/2018 at 15:14

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You’re wise....

I started enjoying watching people angrily overtake me even if I’m doing the speed limit (not lane hogging just that they overtake me doing 10-20mph more than me) 


Kinja'd!!! functionoverfashion > Grindintosecond
12/10/2018 at 13:02

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I’ve had a valentine in every car I’ve owned since college, and like Waze or anything else, it’s another tool to help keep you out of trouble. My wife goes 40-ish miles on the highway every day to work (each way) and she definitely appreciates the extra bit of information, so long as you treat it as such, and not as some kind of firewall against tickets.

Now, here’s where I feel old: when traveling cross-country in college I used to make constant use of a CB radio to converse with truckers going the opposite direction. Weather, traffic, and location of cops, always reported accurately; you just had to know how to ask. I suppose that’s probably still effective, but I just don’t travel on those western highways anymore. And I haven’t had a CB in my last couple cars - for the first time since high school.