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New iPhone Apps Help Drivers Beat Speed Traps
Ponca City, We love you writes "Two mobile applications, NMobile and Trapster, are providing drivers with up-to-date maps of speed-enforcement zones with live police traps, speed cameras or red-light cameras. Each application pulls up a map pinpointing the locations of speed traps within driving distance and an audio alert will sound as vehicles approach an area tagged as harboring a speed trap. Both applications rely on the wisdom of the crowds for their data with users reporting camera-rigged stop lights and areas heavily populated with radar-toting police officers via the iPhone or their web-based application, creating the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it most — while you're driving. To thwart false alarms and eliminate inaccuracies, Trapster enlists its community of nearly 200,000 members to rank speed traps on their accuracy. NMobile founder Shannon Atkinson declined to provide detailed data, though he did estimate that 'well over 1,000' users had downloaded the application since it became available last week. The company insists they've received only positive feedback from law enforcement officials and police officers regarding their products. 'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson."
The problem I have seen with most attempts to list speed traps, is that eventually damn near every street in a city, or every few miles on a highway could end up on there.
But maybe it will result in some speeders slowing down all the time.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
Like the streets aren't dangerous enough without every iPhone user fiddling with their toy trying to "beat the system" while piloting a two ton juggernaut on public streets.
Caveat Utilitor
'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson."
Isn't the whole idea of this app to allow people slow down just before the speed trap? If they drive slowly all the time then they don't care about speed traps in the first place
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
I am sure that there are some that want people to slow down at the speed traps, however speed traps are intended to collect revenue for the city that they are in. Traffic tickets are one of the easy ways an officer can collect 140 dollars within 15 minutes for the city and supply his paycheck without doing any hard work.
I just wish speed limits were designed for modern cars and modern traffic, not increasing revenue.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I appreciate anything that keeps the traffic moving. What we really need is an app to disable the speed trap.
``the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it most while you're driving.''
Or you could just not drive so fast you would get a ticket. I know, I am totally out of touch with reality and my ideas are correspondingly crazy. But I'll happily take a few minutes extra travel time and have a relaxed ride, because I don't have to worry about law enforcement and other drivers slowing me down.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
The -ster suffix seems to have evolved to mean "We acknowledge at some level that this will probably get us shut down sooner or later."
Yes, becuase the 200metres in view of the speed trap is so much more important than the other 10 km of the driver's journey where they're flooring it because they know there's no speed cameras. This will make people speed up, not slow down. If the drivers are driving too fast they should be punished- whether there's a speed camera around or not. Now it would be completely different if schools and playgrounds and roads with blind corners were flagged because it would be DANGEROUS to go fast around them.
Locating speed cameras means people can slow down to avoid a fine and then speed up again- not slow down to be safer. If they were truly trying to help people drive safer how about "WARNING! SCHOOL AHEAD" or "WARNING HIDDEN EXIT AHEAD", no, because slowing down for a speed camera is more rewrd than slowing down and driving safely around risky areas.
When cops start obeying the law, I will.
Unfortunately speed limits are designed for the modern driver. You've all seen them - drivers with the attention span of a crack-addled squirrel and the reflexes of a hypothermic snail. These folks really shouldn't be going fast. In fact, they should stay in their driveway playing with all the little gizmos in the car.
Hey, this would solve a bunch of problems: Oil consumption, traffic congestion, road rage. Buying more gizmos will help the economy. In fact, everyone should go out and buy a new, shiny, gizmo-laden car.
And leave it in their driveway.
I'm calling Senator Obama right now....
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Local police have found a new way to setup surprise speed traps. It stems from an application on the popular iPhone that allows drivers to avoid known speed traps. Now officers just avoid these locations and catch the drivers before or after they exit the alleged "safe zones".
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Perhaps its our driving instruction and licensing procedures in the US that are at fault. Go look up what they have in Poland. You have to drive on a skidpad during one test even!
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
You're either reading too much into my statement, or you're a fucking moron.
I don't really understand where you think I'm executing illegal U-turns, speeding, or fishtailing other people because they run red lights. I've never stated that I did any such things, in fact I'm outright denying it right now.
But, hey, you seem to think the statement "when cops start obeying the law, so will I" is a statement of fact. If that was the case, I would've killed a few cops with a taser by now.
Just for reference - since you seem to be unable to think beyond statements - I have not, and have no desire to kill people.
So, just hand everyone a ticket as they leave the highway, if their average speed was X% higher than the posted speed limit (65) (or mail them one if they use EasyPass).
Which will have all kinds of unintended side-effects. Like people stopping 100 feet before the exit and waiting for 30 seconds, "just to be sure" they don't get a ticket. And people deciding they would rather take the back roads instead of the turnpike. Things like that. Depending on their specific response, as little as a handful of people per day could seriously screw up the system of commuting. And since commuting, not ticketing, is the reason for the existence of the turnpike, I don't see your ideas being particularly successful.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Clearly I'm the moron, because you made a statement and I assumed you actually meant what you said.
To clarify, in case its a little opaque for you--the statement "when cops start obeying the law, so will I" means that cops represent the government entity that creates laws. When cops break these laws, the government entity effectively breaks its own laws. If that government entity turns a blind eye to this law breaking, it has sacrificed any and all of its moral authority. Moral authority is the only absolute authority any law can have. When this moral authority is gone, then the populace has no absolute reason to obey any law and can and *should* break laws they disagree with or don't like. This is one of the corner stones of civil disobedience and it is an important component of democracy. So quit being righteous and try to think about the motivation about what people say.
When you see people blatantly breaking the law and you are aware of abuse by the police at the same time, you might consider whether that particular municipality has let its moral authority slip. I'm waiting for your righteous rebuttal before I provide half a dozen real world examples of this effect in action. But make sure you are very indignant and condescending when you rebut, or it won't be worth my time.
Just callin' it like I see it.
I'm challenging the idea that breaking the law is fine and dandy just because someone else does.
No, breaking the law is fine and dandy depending on who that someone else is. It makes a big, big difference. If it means that you won't pay your taxes if Joe the Plumber didn't, then that isn't fine and dandy. But if you don't want to pay your taxes when the government does not reciprocate with representation, then not paying your taxes is fine and dandy and should be expected. I hope you understand the difference. If not, I can point you to a good American history textbook. Or are you some kind of anti-American pinko commie who doesn't understand why the USA was created?
Just callin' it like I see it.
When you get into an accident and didn't wear the seatbelt the damage you suffer is much greater than otherwise. If the accident is someone else's fault that someone will have to pay your much higher medical bills (or, more likely, your funeral and damages to your family). If you want an automatic no seatbelt = your fault rule you get a lot of uglyness with the reconstruction afterwards since you have to be sure who wore a seatbelt, who didn't and whose just failed to work in order to even find out who pays (and what priority that should have if e.g. the other guy was driving with 0.12% blood alcohol).
The firemen, paramedics, etc are required by law to help you, they can't just leave you to die because you're a dumb fuck who didn't wear his seatbelt. So it's not your own business no matter how much you want to claim it is and I don't think you'd want anyone to just shrug you off when you have a life-threatening injury.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Those drivers are already ignoring the speed limits anyway, so what purpose do they serve?
Around here, the speed limits on the highways are 55. (In a big city.) Whenever volume hasn't reached the point of causing a jam, the actual speeds vary anywhere from 55-60 in the far right lane to 70-80 in the far left lane. I've never seen the police actually pull anyone over. I've seen them on the side of the road with the lights flashing talking to a driver in another car, so apparently they do pull people over, but I've never seen it actually happen. I can only assume that they don't start pulling people over until past 80 miles per hour.
Given that a huge number of drivers are going 70+, and the police ignore them, what purpose does a 55MPH speed limit on these roads serve?
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
Supporting a government budget on the basis of fines collected from illegal activities is reprehensible. It's an obvious conflict of interest and I'm frankly amazed that people allow it to be done at all.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.