Proposed Radar Detector Ban Legislation

[pdisme]

I love it when elected officials spend time writing bills that none of their constituents asked for, and I sure hope this one doesn't pass:

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/NEWS01/702280362/1006

[Matt]

Yeah, theres a thread about this on LP right now. apparently there is some new photoelectric gun that sends out no information, rendering all detectors useless, as all detectors rely on information sent from the gun. so i dont know why they dont just put that into action.

[pdisme]

Legislation costs less than replacing thousands of radar guns. :) Although I heard that all of the FHP was laser now so I'm not sure why they're even wasting their time on this since laser jammers are already illegal at the federal level I think.

[Matt]

those damn state troopers... they're the ones you have to look out for too. they dont let you off easy.

[pdisme]

I hate it when they get you with the airplane, fuck that.

[Matt]

I hate it when they get you with the airplane, fuck that.

I've never seen that. I see the "patrolled by aircraft" signs on veterans but have never actually seen it in action. How the hell does THAT work?

[pdisme]

Basically they just count the time it takes you to make it from one marker to the next; you can see these big white lines on the shoulder of the road, I think that's what they use for timing. I'm sure they video it too.

I got airplane-busted on I4 once.

[Matt]

Damn, thats dirty...

[lambo_freak]

this would suck. 65 and 70 seem so slow with todays suspensions. The real issues is the drivers who are zig-zagging left and right while doing 90+ trying to get around peolpe. This is evident from looking at Autobahn accident records. The average speed there is 110 mph, and its the manuvers that are saving lives, not speed.

[Jon913d]

Basically they just count the time it takes you to make it from one marker to the next; you can see these big white lines on the shoulder of the road, I think that's what they use for timing. I'm sure they video it too.

I got airplane-busted on I4 once.

Rarely happens, but happened to my wife on her way to Tampa just last week. Such a load of crap..... Watch for the white lines, they run across the whole road sometimes too, or planes flying directly over the highway.

[Lasombra52]

Never knew how they were clocking people in helicopters.

But couldn't you fight it in court. They can't verify the exact speed that you were going. What I mean is aren't 70 and 80 mph too close to tell from measurements like that? Now if your going 110 mph, I totally understand. There's a difference there.

[pdisme]

I haven't seen them use a helicopter before since that generally costs more to operate than a small Cessna. Good point on the measurement though, I'm not sure if they video tape it or if it's just some guy flying around with a stop watch.

[lambo_freak]

Never knew how they were clocking people in helicopters.

But couldn't you fight it in court. They can't verify the exact speed that you were going. What I mean is aren't 70 and 80 mph too close to tell from measurements like that? Now if your going 110 mph, I totally understand. There's a difference there.

R=d/t

they have the distance and the time. that is all that is needed to find the rate. this technique gives average speed because the vehicle has the ability to change speed in between the lines.

[Lasombra52]

R=d/t

they have the distance and the time. that is all that is needed to find the rate. this technique gives average speed because the vehicle has the ability to change speed in between the lines.

How wide are these lines that they measure from?

So if you slam on your brakes when you see these lines, then you have a way to cheat the system, even if you haven't seen the plane. just slam on your brakes whenever you see the lines?

Any ideas about how far apart they are from one line to the next?

[pdisme]

That would only cheat the system if your goal was to maintain the speed limit on average while consuming more gas and brake pad. :) You'd have to stomp on it after passing a line, then slam on the brakes a few hundred feet before the next set and maintain a much slower speed until crossing.

[lambo_freak]

I dont know. Probably 1000 feet, or to make it easy on themselves 528 ft would be simplest in trying to find it in terms of mph. But yes if you even ease off the gas or maybe tap the brake for a bit, you could save yourself.

If you want to see an equation to how its computed here is my attempt:

d our distance is 1000 ft and tthe time is 5 seconds

so d/t = 1000/5
but that is in ft/sec
-------------------------------------------
to get into mph we need to

(1000/5)x(1/5280) because for 1 mile, there is 5280 ft.
------------------------------------------------------------
next we need to multiply by 60 becuase there are 60 seconds in one minute. we multiply again by 60 as there are 60 minutes in 1 hour.
----------------------------------------------------------------
so:

(1000/5)x(1/5280)x60x60

this comes to 136.364 mph.
--------------------------------------------------------------
so we slow the time to 10 seconds

(1000/10)x(1/5280)x3600 (60x60=3600)
=68.18 mph
---------------------------------------------------------------
lets take a litle faster at 8.5

(1000/8.5)x(1/5280)x3600 = 80.21 mph
---------------------------------------------------------------
so the little litlle changes of maybe .001 would be hard to argue either way. But the .01 is still capable of being ticketed or clear.

[Lasombra52]

weird, I actually understood that calculation.

[zzzzdoc]

Had a friend in Ohio caught at 150 in his 911 turbo via plane. The pilot called down and say, boy, we couldn't keep up with him.

To my knowledge, laser jammers aren't illegal anywhere. They aren't governed by the FCC, since they are light waves, not radio waves (all EE's are now spinning in their graves, but that's how our government thinks.)

[pdisme]

Hmm, I thought jammers were illegal everywhere, and most of them even combine logic with the detector that will jam for no more than a few seconds and then turn off because if you jam too long, the laser guns most cops use will register an error code that indicates jamming vs just bad read.