Radar Detectors?

Drive with a radar detector or drive like an old fart. The choice is yours.

 

I agree that speeding is not criminal behavior. The police never need show intent on the violators part when they issue a citation for a traffic violation. It is just a matter of becoming aware of your surroundings 99% of the time. As I drive around I always have an eye in the rear view and always scan the roads in front of me. I am always aware that the police are hiding looking to write tickets. More often than not when you see a nice spot which provides some measure of concealment, shade, whatever, you will find some cop sitting there working radar, writing a report or something. Being aware of your environment is the single biggest key to avoiding tickets. Oh, and if you stop speeding, you will see your blood pressure drop too as you will have one less thing to worry about.

 

Your friend must have a piece of junk for a detector then, chucking IT out the window is a good idea. That's why V1 owners remain V1 owners. There was a time early in my ownership of the V1 where I could detect some crappy detectors as they emitted a strong signal every time they scanned through the frequencies. When close I would get a regular pulse from them several times a minute and could identify which car the signal was coming from. That sort of false was filtered out in the second V1 I bought about 10 years ago.

I will note that selectivity has dropped down in very recent V1's to account for the new illicit POP mode use by the tax collectors. Before POP detection, falses on the V1 had become surprisingly rare. With the directional and numerical indications it is pretty easy to mentally screen out what falses you usually get.

Speed enforcement in the U.S. is primarily local tax collection rather than in any way related to safety. When you have limits that nearly the entirety of the population ignore you are sending the wrong message, especially in areas where 80+% of the drivers are exceeding the supposed "maximum." Ironically, around here there are areas where the limits are higher than the prevailing speed because we are driving according to traffic conditions rather than a sign. On the other hand, even in the Prius I will drive 10 mph over in some areas if there are vehicles behind me so as not to impede traffic.

One of the pluses of running a good radar detector is that I can often detect trouble several miles ahead (wrecks, emergency detours, sudden bottlenecks etc.) Police will often leave their radar running to give people with detectors a heads up. I would rather be informed than oblivious, but that's just me.

A few days ago the locals had set up some speed traps on the interstate at a point where the prevailing speeds pick up (congestion eases). I was in the Tundra and a bit tight on time so my speed was about 5 mph above what I normally drive there when I caught an obvious gun blip and backed off. A vehicle coming up from behind me went on accelerating obliviously as I spotted the gun car half a mile ahead. I watched the fellow traveller as the radar warnings became strong, the pursuit car on the other side of the ramp merged with me, then chased him down. You can tell me that a good detector is worthless but I'm not inclined to believe you.

 

I totally agree. Radar detectors are not so helpful in larger cities. Too many false signals. But if you do road trips out West, they are great to have.

Out here there are many long lonely stretches of road and it just seems natural to pick up the pace. With the V1 I have picked up radars from police working a mile away, or hidden behond a sign or a tree.

Outside of ABQ my V1 went off as I approached a hilltop. Sure enough, the revenuers were nabbing people who flew over the hill.

In Wyoming, coming into a very small town, my V1 went apeshit. A minute later, there was the county mounty, sitting just off the road in a white pickup truck.

The highway patrol in Colorado have a lot of unmarked cars. It helps to know when they're around even when you can't spot them.

 

Shawn and M8s, how would you go if you stuck to the speed limit? No tickets then hey? And no radar detector squawking away, much less stress too.

 

i wholeheartedly agree with you.
Valentine 1 here.

 

Actually, that's a good way to get stopped. The first time I was stopped for "speeding" was when I was driving slower than everyone else. I was young, driving a major north/south corridor with out of state plates, and looking at apartments for rent for a new job. To the officer a young male driving below the prevailing speed on that highway fit the "drug profile." (He didn't say that, of course, I worked that out on my own once he gave me a verbal "warning.")

So, rather than try to lecture me on something you don't understand, why don't you mind your own business?

 

personally i use my valentine 1 religiously. I typically drive slightly faster than the flow of traffic, and while i don't drive irresponsibly (most of the time, no one's perfect), it's nice to have the warning, or head's up. It also helps to know when vehicles are pulled over ahead of you, it gives you time to merge away to give them space, as per law

 

Thanks for the calm and rational response, at least some here can do it.

 

have a Valentine 1 also and I highly recommended it.
google their web site for more info.

 

I travel 40-50k per year on vacations taking pictures of national parks. I get radar'ed aprox 400 times per year. I use the V1 and have only got 1 ticket and that was in a blind corner with nothing to bounce the radar reflection. The cop was sitting at the bottom of a passing lane (total BS) on a downhill (more BS) in the mountains. He got me for 10 over and I was going 25 over as I passed. The v1 gave me the alert at the last second and I was able to brake down to 10 over before he got me.

Knowing which direction the cop is at is a must.

 

V1 here as well. Seems to be by far the deterctor of choice among discriminating speeders!

Seriously, though, I don't speed all that often, but here in Montana have found that the V1 will frequently alert me to things and increase my situational awareness. And all too often on 2-lane rural roads the speed limit will be 70mph for miles, and then suddenly reduce to 45, 35 or even 25 as you approach a wide-spot-in-the-road sort of town or village, and that's where the cops will be lurking behind a tree or sign. With the 'instant on' radar you may be screwed, but with the V1 if they 'light up' someone or several someones who are traveling ahead of you, you'll get some forewarning. I feel that the V1 has possibly (and I realize I'm speculating here on what a given officer might or might not have done in a certain instance) saved me from a number of tickets, thus paying for itself several times over.

 

another nice thing about the V1 is that it's completely upgradeable. as new things from the police come out, valentine will upgrade the software. you then can send it in for an upgrade, free of charge. it keeps up with the game.

 

well, we don't want to give the cops any reason to pull us over around here. with northern plates, you get written up for much worse than you actually did. get pulled for 10 over, they'll write ya for 20.

no joke. DH just got a ticket for faster than his car is capable of going, unless he's coming down the mountain at full throttle (which would be suicide anyway.)

 

Drive down I-81 in Virginia and there are sections of the road that if you are over the speed limit it is crimininal behavior plus radar detectors are illegal in Virginia. I stay in the right lane and just drive the speed everybody else does. As for two lane roads I stay right at the speed limit.

 

While I'm happy with the upgrades, the statement above about how they are done is mostly incorrect:
1. Some V1 upgrades are cheap. I recently did one for $85 or so on a model that was a few years old.
2. Older models cost more. I upgraded a second one that was ancient and had failed--this one was for the Prius. The cost was $249 (and there was shipping as well.) Essentially it is a really good discount for being a repeat customer.
3. I've only done a few upgrades over the years, but none have been free.

In both #1 and #2 I received new detectors, not my old ones rebuilt. I can't complain about the way Valentine treats their customers.

 

I've been driving for 25 years, never had a radar detector, and have never gotten a speeding ticket. Seriously. I can't say I've never sped, but it's pretty rare that I'm more than 5mph over the speed limit.

I don't get caught in speed traps because I actually read road signs and watch my speed. I did get pulled over once in Howard County, AR by a cop that had been tailgating me for a couple of miles -- I was going 30mph, the speed limit (and had out-of-state plates). He ultimately let me go without a ticket.

 

I don't know why any one needs a radar detector, breaking the law is wrong

 

Too bad everyone does it. I've not met anyone yet who has never exceeded the "speed limit." If the limits were intelligently set, then I would agree, but they aren't, so I don't. Many are set preposterously low and it wasn't until the double nickel restrictions were repealed that some sanity in speeds began to settle in. Still in many places they are effectively more of a minimum than a maximum.

I got my best mileage ever in the Tundra on a stretch out in West Texas at 80 mph...before they increased the limit on that stretch to 80. (It was either 70 or 75 posted at the time, don't recall which.) Funny how it works isn't it?