Best thing is to use a rabbit. Some poor SOB 4 car lengths in front of you that grabs his brakes and takes one for the team electronically so everyone else gets a pass.

Using a rabbit doesn’t always work! In fact, it almost never works.

1. Just last week, I saw six motorcycle cops writing tickets, each about a mile apart from the next. End of the month, or anytime a Presidential or Vice-Presidentail visit is nigh, they crack down.

2. One year, a local cop dressed as Santa and stationed himself on the highway with a radar gun. Right there, standing in the median! If he nabbed one or two or five, he’d just radio the motorcycle guys to go get ‘em all. Yup, some people got busted by Santa Clause.

3. In Ohio, Indiana, and Georgia, the state police would use multiple patrol cars and/or motorcycles to pull EVERYBODY over, even the ones who weren’t speeding. If you were caught in middle of the speeding pack, you were considered part of the pack.

4. Legend has it that a single Michigan State trooper will just pull over 6 to 12 cars at once, and walk the line, writing tickets for each driver. Hey, he’s already radioed each license in. If you bolt, your car would be impounded and you would be thrown in jail!

I’ve been pulled over a couple of times in the last couple of years without being ticketed. But I do everything you’re supposed to do: light up the interior if at night, pull as far off the road as I possibly can, stick my hands where the officer can see them, and that there is nothing in them, etc, and I am absolutely as polite as I can be. One time I had the dog in the front seat, and she immediately started barking. I hung onto her and said, “don’t worry officer, she wouldn’t hurt a flee” (which was true).

Actually there was a detector that monitored the police radio bands. You didn’t hear their conversations as much as monitored the signal when they keyed the mike. The idea was they would be calling in drivers and you would know where the car was.

With both video and audio recording of the traffic stop, you have no chance of getting out of a ticket anyway. The cop has to explain why he “decided” to let you go.

Best thing is to use a rabbit. Some poor SOB 4 car lengths in front of you that grabs his brakes and takes one for the team electronically so everyone else gets a pass.

A law ignored by most is a useless law.

Even the best detectors can’t see the cop hiding behind the bridge abutment, in the ditches, or watching you from the top of highway overpasses or entrance/exit ramps. They can’t see the motorcycle cop sitting in wait behind the billboard sign. They can’t see the cop in the unmarked patrol car.

And radar detectors are completely useless at seeing the “bear in the air.” Every one of those states had or still has traffic enforcement from helicopter or airplane, and that method of detection doesn’t use radar.

His philosophy was the one ticket you didn’t get paid for the device. He sped daily and never got a ticket during that year and a half. So yes, this product does work. Does the 9500 work better? I don’t know.

I’m cheap and I chance it daily. I’ve never owned a radar detector. How many tickets have I had over the course of my 15 driving years? Some number approaching ten. How many times have I been pulled over though? Some number approaching thirty. Either a written warning or a lengthy discussion concerning the whys and the should nots. But that was all mostly in my younger years. Worth it? Absolutely.

But that got me thinking, a typical operating fuzzmobile in the USA is a transmitter of all kinds of unique EM emissions.

It’s too bad donuts don’t give off some kind of detectable emission…

But that got me thinking, a typical operating fuzzmobile in the USA is a transmitter of all kinds of unique EM emissions.

They have their proprietary wireless link back to Fuzz HQ with their dashboard computers, they have their radios on all the time, etc. Perhaps rather than just trying to build a radar/laser detector specifically, have a general “fuzz detector” that keys on all those EM signatures.

The only way cops can hide-out from that kind of detector is to turn all their electronic widgets off – cop without a radio is like a baby without its mother, i.e., relatively helpless. Has anyone ever seen a product that does something like this?

For the nostalgists:

Fuzzbuster:

http://www.radarbusters.com/images/radarbusters_skin/assets/support/fuzzbuster.gif

The radarbusters site also has a lot of good information on detectors and their history. Be advised it is also a detector sales site.

You actually sped on I-75 in Georgia? My god, man, that stretch between Atlanta and the Florida border has more highway patrol than regular traffic!

Oh yeah, not driving too fast (no more than 10 over except in very short bursts) helps as well.

If traffic is sparse, I keep it within 10 mph of the limit and have no problems breezing through traps.

If you get caught far from home (last time for me is when the limit dropped by 5mph and I couldn’t bring myself to slow down a bit), find get on the net and find a local attorney in the town where the court is located that looks well established (for example, private attorneys often serve as the Town Attorney for small towns) and see if they can represent you without you attending the hearing.

The fee will be more than any reduction in your fine, but you will probably avoid any points, which pays off in the long run.

My experiences pretty much coincide with Zarba’s, except regarding laser warnings. The laser alert has clearly saved my bacon several times now. For instance, just yesterday I was returning on I-75 from a family funeral yesterday (200 miles away) and received a timely laser warning from it….enough time to slow enough not to get nabbed. Was lasered in the fast lane, immediately dropped 8 mph, and was ignored. The sheriff unit waited another minute or so (could still see him in rear view mirror) and then pounced on another unfortunate soul traveling roughly the same speed.

I have read elsewhere that target lock requires a short delay in heavy traffic (the beam is narrow, and easily jiggled around). Two or three seconds warning can make all the difference…..

I haven’t had a speeding ticket in 15 years. I am a believer in good personal defense. I can’t tell you how many times my detector has allowed me to slow down far in advance of seeing the bogey. I’ve also watched numerous cars blow by me, only to get nabbed.

I agree with your assessment that a cheap detector is worse than nop detector at all. They primarily just set off other detectors.

Everyone swears by the Valentine V1. I’ve had very good success with BEL’s high-end models, and currently run an RX-65 Pro.

As for Laser, I’ve only been able to get a REAL laser alert a few times; generally speaking, if you get an alert, you’ve been clocked.

My only complaint is that sometimes I’ll get a Remora on my bumper, following me because they see I have a detector.

BTW, I just got a new Passport 9500i — the one with built-in GPS. The detector’s capability to “know” where it is has the potential to be really useful. Now I can teach it to ignore the locations that always set it off — the door openers, speed display signs, etc., which really reduces annoying falsing.

How much longer will it be before someone combines GPS with 3g or EVDO internet capabilty to provide real-time warnings of the locations of radar traps, particularly along major highways? When these two technologies merge I think drivers will have the ultimate upper hand in the tech war.