Radar Detectors (1 Viewer)

[Greg_R]

Huh? I don't think a police car's radar gun is on while they are responding to a call...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

If "speeding" were truly a serious and routinely deadly crime the police would not have a system of fines for it. It would be mandatory liscence-lose and imprisonment.

Radar guns have always been, and always will be 100% revenue generation.

Something to think about!

Ever hear about a fleet of, or even a single Police Car that had been governed to 55m.p.h. for safety reasons?

Ever see a police car behind you, slow down to the speed limit, and have the same police car pass you and continue to drive well above the posted limit without using their emergency lights/sirens?

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Who would that benefit? Those who wish to get away from the police.

What a ridiculous argument.

 

[David McGough]

Daughter's boyfriend has one in his Taho.
He has it mounted on the left of dash at bottom corner and
and has it wired through his dash to the engine.
No wires showing. Pretty neat looking set up.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Oh dear, if only more people would learn probability and statistics.

It tells you that speeding is a contributory factor in accidents. The fact that a lot of people speed does not invalidate this.

I've read through the arguments made in this thread, and nothing that has been said refutes the basic argument that breaking the speed limit is breaking the law. Yes, I agree that some radar traps are nothing more than revenue generators that have zilch effect on road safety (at least in the UK a recent official report confirmed this, and a lot of the purely 'revenue generating' cameras are likely to be removed). However, this does not remove the fact that speeding is illegal. The need for a radar detector might just at a pinch indicate that someone needs to be reminded to slow down, but frankly, if you need this, you're not safe to drive.

An exact analogy would be someone asking for a good detector to detect CCTVs in stores so that they would know where to steal without being detected. People when they are cocooned in cars somehow think that it's a different world. It isn't.

Speed is not the only cause of accidents, but it is one that can be controlled. I have no problems with some dumbass killing themselves with bad driving (especially if they do this before they breed). However, I do have problems when the innocent get killed with them.

So I repeat my question, and want to know if any of you guys in love with your radar detectors have the guts to answer - how do you explain to grieving parents of a kid killed by a speeding driver that exceeding the speed limit is a good thing?

 

[Shane Martin]

Curious,
Does your threadcrap really offer anything to this thread at all? Did LewB ask for you blatant crap on his thread?

 

[LewB]

Andrew:
I understand your point. My only response is to reiterate what I said before, that I don't drive 'like a nut'. I believe that going 15-20 MPH higher than the posted speed limit on an open highway is not necessarily a recipie for disaster. Now if you combine that with alcohol/drugs, tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic, not paying attention (cell phone, radio, etc.) then you ARE looking for trouble and should not be on the road period !
I agree with you when it comes to the idiots who are a menace to society and deserve to be "Darwin'ed" out of the gene pool. I don't believe I fall into that category, but who does ?

 

[Carl Johnson]

I'd tell these grieving parents that if don't agree with my right to own a radar detector they should take it up with the legislature. I'm not going to put restrictions on how I live my life because I just might offend somebody who's lost a loved one.

 

[Drew Bethel]

>>So I repeat my question, and want to know if any of you guys in love with your radar detectors have the guts to answer - how do you explain to grieving parents of a kid killed by a speeding driver that exceeding the speed limit is a good thing?

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i'm pretty sure you dont wire radar detectors to the engine (unless ive been out of the loop for too long), i think only the power wires are run under the dash and hidden. ive done that for people a bunch of times, it does look good, less wires all over the place.

CJ

 

[LewB]

Aren't there versions that have the detector as a separate piece ? You mount that piece behind the grille and wire it to the head unit ? Perhaps that's the deal.

 

[Don Black]

The grill mounted detectors were never rated as effective as the V1 or 8500. The V1 offers a "concealed display" option that allows you to conceal the actual detector a bit. Another point for the V1...

 

[John Miles]

Actually, that's a pretty terrible analogy. Speeding is a victimless crime. If somebody dies, it's because at least one other law was broken, such as "inappropriate speed for conditions." Stealing from stores is not a victimless crime, and it's not something that most people do on a daily basis without hurting anyone.

 

[Nathan*W]

As radar detectors are illegal in Virginia, I can't comment on the quality of various models, but I just had to stop and laugh. Sorry, but a victimless crime is like a free lunch - somebody's gotta pay. If it's not an individual, it's society as a whole. Because speed contributes to so many other factors while driving, I think it's a little irresponsible to single speed out and say it's irrelevant. Just because someone might have the necessary skill to operate a vehicle safely at a high rate of speed, doesn't mean the next person does.

Unfortunately, there is no way to operate a national highway system based upon individual skill levels. Therefore limits are put into place to accomodate the skill level of the broadest spectrum of society, from 15 year olds to 90 year olds.

Adequate reaction times drop dramatically the faster you go. Remember that when the blue-haired granny cuts you off because she didn't see you, and you have to compensate for her lack of skill.

 

[MikeH1]

He's asking for advice on a radar detector. Having these are legal and yet you insist in bringing this "moral" discussion to the thread. I really don't think this is what the thread is supposed to be about.

I don't have a radar detector. Nor do I speed much. But since the police here have turned it into such a cash cow I wish I had one. They always sit at the bottom of a hill around a corner where your likely to go 10 km over the limit and nab you. And then there's Photo radar - what a joke. They take your picture of you speeding, don't add any demerits or anything to your license and just send you the bill a month later. Yeah, I'm a dangerous road hazard when I get a ticket in the mail because I was going 10 km/h over the limit At least photo radar here is taken from a van and is easy to spot. Soon though, they want to have photo radar in stationary cameras (like a red light camera) all over the city.

So which make/model should I get?

 

[Seth_L]

Speeding tickets are nothing more than another form of taxation. In this case they are a tax on people who choose to drive fast. The speed limits are set arbitrarily low in many places to aid that revenue generation.

Cars are safer now than they were in the 60s and 70s. The speed limits should be raised on the Interstates and Freeways. As someone else mentioned they're supposed to set at the speed the 85% percentile of people will drive on a road.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Don't forget Andrew, since it appears that you're from the UK, that you're giving these arguments to a bunch of people whose country was founded on the principle that there are times that the law is wrong and the people have the right to ignore them. There are plenty of things that I think are immoral, and plenty of illegal things that I have no problem with. Using the law as an arbiter of morality is faulty logic.

I obey the law the vast majority of the time. Even traffic laws I obey. I don't run red lights or stop signs, obey turn lanes, but people off. Hell, I even use my turn signals, a feature I'm convinced half the drivers don't even know exist. But speed laws to a large extent have serious flaws. Flaw one, they are not applied evenly. If you steal something, and get caught, the process that follows is pretty standardized, assuming you don't get let off on a technicality of some sort. Same for murder, same for just about any laws. The punishment is largely standardized and there's not a massive amount of room for human interference in things. But speeding is totally different. Depending on the mood of the officer, how long he's been on duty, or even if you're male or female, or good looking or not, these can all make a massive difference on if you get a ticket or a warning. In addition, there's the fact that some towns enforce speed limits as a revenue generator and have nothing to do with keeping roads safe, even going so far as to make the speed limits in an area artificially low in order to intentionally induce people to speed, just so they can be caught. Under such wildly unfair circumstances, is it any surprise that so many people have such scorn for speed limits?

 

[David McGough]

Any body says they do not ever go over the speed limit
if telling a ball face lie.


I like knowing if there is the police around the corner
lurking. Andruw were not speaking of driving like a bat out
of *&*#@@. Like being a lap down in a race.
If you going 5mph over. Chill

 

[andrew markworthy]

No, only your ability to interpret a rational argument. I was not saying that. All I was saying is that something which facilitates a behaviour that is strongly associated with fatalities and in effect encourages breaking the law is not desirable.

However, if you don't want to have your opinions altered, then fine. I just hope that your behaviour never results in anyone else getting hurt.

 

[Don Black]

Why are you even posting on this thread Andrew? You don't answer the OP's questions and instead try to hijack the thread by transforming it into a debate over the morality of speeding.

Seriously, if I asked for the best DVDs out there would you try preaching to me the morality of copyright law?

Everyone would be happier if people stayed on topic. If you want to debate speeding, start another thread. You're just trying to provoke people needlessly.