I live in a hi-rise on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago and from my apartment I have noticed Chicago police using laser on LS Drive in the city at about 4200 North. The cop car sits along the right edge of LS Drive, driver side door is open and he is sighting and shooting as cars come around a slight curve at Irving Park Road. I noticed this about a month ago, he is there a few times each week at around 10:00 AM. I have been tempted to put the V1 in my car and see how far away I can pickup his signal.

There was a recent win over the laser here in Australia when a driver successfully defended the ticket by arguing that the human (policeman) eye and hand were not steady enough to hold the 14" beam on a car 300 meters away and that therefore there must be some error. I believe the police dept will challenge this.

I think I'll mount my front license plate to a speaker coil. . . .to get that cop target moving. Maybe, with the right frequency, I can generate a 200mph laser bounce-back somewhere in a 25 zone. . .while parked. :cool: muhahahaha

Welcome to Ohio. The state highway patrol and the local cities all use lazer and even my mighty V-1 only tells me when I've been hit. In a few rare occassions, the lazer beam has passed through the car in front of me and set off the V-1 providing advance notice.

To use lazer, the cruiser car has to be stopped and the gun has to have a clear view of the target. So always be on the look out for parked cars in the median along the turnpike!

Why not? I was almsot happy I finally got a real hit instead of all the flase returns from those stupid Tahoe tail lights.....:rolleyes:

Obviously I feel differently from most people about this. Guns are a private property issue and are specifically protected by the Bill of Rights. And although your car is private property, you must use it on a PUBLIC road. Driving on a PUBLIC road is a privilege, not a right. And it's not like the laws aren't obvious. By speeding, you are choosing to ignore the law. I almost got wiped out by some guy last week who was only going 80ish in a 65, but lost control and starting spinning 360's down the highway. He hit at least 4 other cars. And I'm sure that if I had asked him 10 minutes before the accident if he thought that he was driving a safe speed he would have said yes. 40,000 people died last year on the highways in this country. Personally I'm glad to see stepped-up enforcement. Our police are kind and merciful compared to those in other countries, and that's part of the reason nobody respects the speed limit. If you don't like the tickets, stop speeding.

Hang on, going 80 on a 3 lane highway does not cause a crash anymore than going 65 does. If it did, everyone on this board would be dead a thousand times over. The same dolt you witnessed doing doughnuts at 80mph on his cell phone, sipping coffee, and trying to read his newspaper is how we get up to that 40K dead each year; in fact alcohol plays a role in a majority of those anyway. So marginally speeding over a conservative limit plays only a small percentage of “why” a crash occurred, although the implications of said crash at 80 are worse than at 65 in most cases, I’m sure. My issue is with artificially low limits that are really taxes or self-funding mechanisms for justifying hundereds if not thousands of redundant local police departments. Even with that said, you’re right: “If you don't like the tickets, stop speeding.”… if we were talking about radar/laser, you pick your spots and take your chances. But it’s the hidden cameras and global positioning and on-board speed sensors that go beyond what is required and into the draconian. I don’t want anyone or anything that far up my, uhm, business that I can’t exercise some self-determination without AUTOMATICALLY tripping a flag on some database somewhere.

My issue is that artifically low limits cause a speed differential between cars on the road.. Yeah some guy's gonna reply to not speed and that the "differential" position is only a whine.. Well check out what happened on the NJ Tpke when they raised the limit 10mph.. less crashes and less death...........Ron

http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

No kidding. I just turned the stupid laser detection off. I was wearing out brakes slowing down for Tahoes and Cadillacs in front of me...

Turned of the X band too, as I can pretty much tell when there's a WalMart near by and don't need my detector going off every 23 seconds!

SmileWavy

The problem is if we raise the speed limit to 80, how many people who can barely drive 65 will go 80 and get into accidents? Half the morons I see on the road should be limited to 40mph or less.

One word: DARWINISM

:D :D :D :D :D

Darwinism only works when it's self selection. Not, self and mother of 3, or self and guy just driving to work to pay the bills, etc.

Not true ... the birds on the island didn't "choose" their beaks. Also, I never said anything about fairness - the fact that most accidents involve innocent people is a horrible part of life. It may be unfair, but it happens.

I got nailed the other day doing 88 in a 65 zone. Yes, Laser.

As I sat on the side of the road waiting for the cop to run all my papers through the compute (is there anything quite as embarassing?) I watched all the cars blasting past me doing at least 80. I know 'cause I passed many of them.

When the cop came back he told me to relax a bit and I told him 88 was relaxed. At Road Atlanta she goes much faster. Talked about that for a bit and in the end got off with 78 in a 65. Its not the detector that gets you out of trouble (maybe you avoid some).

But damn those other cars were going just as (or almost) fast as me. Why does a black turbo cabriolet have to singled out? Okay, dumb question.

I think he wanted a closer look, heck, I'd pull you over if I could.

You know what's funny, I've been pulled over for speeding three times, once in my '67 912 and once in my '92 C2, Both times I was speeding by about 20mph and both times I was let go with a warning, lol, the cops were really nice too, kept telling me how cool the cars were. The other time was in my Dad's '01 Jeep Grand Cherokee cresting a "hill" at the end of I-26 in SC where the speed limit drops from 65 to 35 just a few feet after cresting the hill. That was a nice $500 ticket...

Here in Charleston the local cops have marked and unmarked Camaros, brand new Mustangs, and even new Corvettes, that's where all of our tax dollars get wasted.

IMHO, speeding (within reason) is the least dangerous thing you can do in a car, especially on wide interstates and highways. Where I live, no one has ever even heard of turn signals, knows what red lights mean, or have ever heard that you shouldn't change lanes at intersections, but cops can't make money off of those tickets, so they only ticket speeders. Which is really frightening when you think about it.

It seems to me like being able to be ticketed by camera for speeding is almost as bad as lawmakers who want cops to be able to disable a car through it's onboard computers... never mind how dangerous that is to other cars on the road.

Being 19 it really scares me hearing you guys talk about this though. It really does sound like something out of an Ayn Rand novel, and sadly I don't doubt that that's where we're headed in the near future. Kinda takes the fun out of driving huh? Not to mention the humanity out of being human.

Andrew

I just got lasered at 87 mph in a 55. $300 ticket plus points.

What gets me is I see state cops regularly in the high speed lane tailgateing cars to get them to move over so they can go 90. The law should apply to them also. At least I wasn't tailgateing anyone.

Rondinone -
Since you say we're safer at 65 than 80, why don't we all drive at say, 30 mph and reduce fatalities even further? In fact, let's drive at 5 mph.
Or better yet - Why don't you go to the Buick BBS with your pals?

I think a lot of us don't speed and if we are over the limit it ain't by much.

Pardon me but I meant to say more before I accidently sent that last message. I own a V1 but if I want to go fast I goto the track. But on the road I don't want to be hit with a ticket for going 68 mph in a 65 mph zone. This happens all too often. Speeding tickets are a source of revenue for many cities and states, and quotas for police are not unheard of. An undeserved ticket will do wonders for your insurance premium. I use my V1 for protection from the revenue grabbers.