Traffic laser questions:

speeder · speeder's Garage

Do they use this a lot out on the open road in the U.S.A.? Does anyone know which states in the west and middle use what or maybe there is a website that lists info like this state-by-state?

About to drive 2000+ miles and just want to have a fighting chance. TIA.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

trapster.com is your friend.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

trapster.com is your friend.

I checked that, it's cool but seems to require a GPS-equiped smart phone + really a working laptop in the car to see a screen map big enough to use application. Absolutely impossible when driving fast alone, I would think. OK if you have a co-pilot for a canonball run. It's pretty much a very complicated update of the good old CB radio, which I plan on aquiring. Thanks just the same, though. It's interesting in concept, I'd have to try it to know whether it is in practice.

RoninLB · 08-26-2008, 05:02 PM

I take the front license plate off as soon as I leave NY and insert tinted plastic so they start shooting laser there. The valence is not flat. They then move to my headlights after about 5 hits. Not usually laser 50+ miles outside of town except if it's outside a National Park.

never be alone and speeding.

fastest time to drive is early am during the week with local commuters. Sometimes a wild big rig will be crazy speeding just because he sees a 911. If big rigs are traveling over limit the coast is clear.

David · David's Garage

They use it alot in Houston but they're almost always just on the other side of an overpass and they're leaning out the window or standing next to the car. I've never seen laser used on the open highway in Texas.

pwd72s · 08-26-2008, 05:31 PM

Not Laser specific...but:

http://speedtrap.org/

Steve Carlton · 08-26-2008, 05:47 PM

You won't have a fighting chance unless you jam laser. Then it's recommended you slow down and turn the jammer off so they can get a read on you. Extremely narrow beam aimed at your license plate or headlight reflector that a detector will usually not see and you're pretty much toast the second they lock in on you.

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Well, they use laser here in California. I got tagged just yesterday by CHP up by Pyramid Lake/Gorman.

BGCarrera32 · 08-27-2008, 11:15 AM

Its all pointless anyway as a lot of squads have front and rear mounted radar that sit on standby; if you drive at them in the oncoming lane they can press a button and lock you up instantly and they can hit you again out the rear when you drive past. They don't have to be stationary either, the system is fully functional when the squad is in motion.

If you're out on the "open road" and see an oncoming squad you're already too late...

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noah930

Well, they use laser here in California. I got tagged just yesterday by CHP up by Pyramid Lake/Gorman.

I drive by there every day, and someone is always pulled over at the 5/138 interchange. I heard it's the one spot that generates the most revenue in Calif.

pwd72s · 08-27-2008, 11:29 AM

These days I just drive a Ford Ranger, V-1 equipped...just go with the flow. Stealth mode...a rig cops never look at.

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

craigster: I didn't get a fast-driving award, but some guy in a IS350 in front of me did. He had passed me at Fort Tejon, but wasn't doing any sort of ridiculous speed. I do wonder why I got lasered twice, when I was getting passed by an SUV to my left. I was at or below the speed limit both times.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noah930

Well, they use laser here in California. I got tagged just yesterday by CHP up by Pyramid Lake/Gorman.

Did you get a ticket, or are you just saying that your laser detector went off?

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by BGCarrera32

Its all pointless anyway as a lot of squads have front and rear mounted radar that sit on standby; if you drive at them in the oncoming lane they can press a button and lock you up instantly and they can hit you again out the rear when you drive past. They don't have to be stationary either, the system is fully functional when the squad is in motion.

If you're out on the "open road" and see an oncoming squad you're already too late...

It's all pointless if you are the only one on the road, no detector is designed or intended to help you once you are being fried w/ laser or radar and your speed is being recorded. The operating idea is that there are other cars on the road having their speed recorded and you get an early warning from that before they aim it at you. It works, I have first-hand experience w/ it on the open road. As I've stated in other threads, however, if you simply speed blithely down the road depending solely on your V-1 to prevent you from a ticket, you will be toast. I've driven x-country more times than I can count w/o a detector and I've never even been pulled-over. Even in WI.

And I speed a lot, but using a lot of common sense + I'm lucky.

charleskieffner · 08-27-2008, 02:35 PM

your dead meat here in arizona................dont EVEN TRY IT for any distance. jamming is your only option. and thats a dead give away if traveling down road alone. ask me how i know. rule of thumb.........20mph over you better be damn quick dropping gears and slamming brakes. 10 over is easy to do with anybodys "dar dar" detector. over 85 mph here and they can at the discretion of the officer confiscate your car and your soul and your body and your wallet. and generally cause you more misery than any man can afford. short distance blips to 150+ you are really taking the tiger by the tail. plus it pisses off the hillbilly truckers and they will rat you off to der fuzz!

speeder · speeder's Garage

Radar-jammers are legal in AZ. (But not in Utah or CO.). Here's a map:

So who cares if you are the only one on the road? Sounds like you have some dickless reprobates writing laws in that state, another reason to avoid it. I do driver through the top of AZ. on the 15 sometimes, though, that part is beautiful. Southern AZ. you can have.

Noah930 · Noah930's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

Did you get a ticket, or are you just saying that your laser detector went off?

V1 went off. No ticket. I wasn't speeding, so no evasive measures necessary. CHP was in the center median. I was the first of about 4 cars, being passed on the left by an SUV. Neither of us got pulled over.

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

That's how they get you there. People chugging up the Grapevine and after the hill at Frazier Mtn Road they open it up and the CHP jumps on at Gorman, does a little pacing and zaps you. Like shooting fish in a barrel

charleskieffner · 08-28-2008, 04:54 AM

vizualize this juan.........yer buzzing along going mega warp speed trying to make time cuz yer late. you have your escort/valentine "dar dar" detector going and your jammer.

its the middle of the night, noone on the freeway. lets say 2am.........spooky. as your whipping westbound headed for baja and going thru the tecate border crossing at dawn, all of a sudden OUT OF NOWHERE comes a CHP out of the median. when i saw the lights i glanced down at my speedo and saw about 115MPH! i downshift and then downshift again on the trusty mega built 4L8OE. as lights continue approaching in rear view we shut off jammer.

next thing we know THE LIGHTS of OSSIFER OPIE just stay far enough behind to clock us. by now we are doing the speed limit.

this went on fer miles until finally OSSIFER OPIE came up parallel read our plates for wants and warrants and then blasted off into the night ahead of us.

so bottomline::: a jammer will help disquise whose hauling buns in traffic, which in reality is a pretty stupid place to haul buns. but being alone with no juan around, well yer preeeeetty much BAIT because OSSIFER OPIES readout is going to digitally show you either going 1(juan) BAZZILLION MPH or 0(zero) MPH and its a dead giveaway whose pulling this crap on his radar/lazer! so then all he does is get on highway and clock you the old fashioned way via his calibrated speedo and yer TOAST!

a jammer does not make you IN-WIZZ-ABLE! you aint da STEALTH nor the AURORA project wizzing by OSSIFER OPIE!

so rule of thumb about jammers. as soon as you see OSSIFER OPIE..........shut jammer off until he is no longer around you and drive like a nermal guy until you have a long stretch of highway you can verify he is not hiding behind some 18 wheeler.

speeder · speeder's Garage

I agree, the only thing a jammer would do is if used in concert with a good detector you would read them trying to record your speed while they would get no reading and you could slow down. I've had almost identical experiences to the one you describe out on the road when I was absolutely sure that I was getting a ticket, then they peeled-off and left me there. (Driving). I always assume that it was because I saw them in time and slowed before they could pace me. (This w/ no detector). All the V-1 or really a jammer does is give you eyes that see a couple thousand feet ahead of you. I don't have a jammer, but if the CHP used laser traps where I live I would get one probably.