Slashdot Mirror
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."
Please tell me that you're being sarcastic.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
I'm not challenging that, I'm challenging the idea that breaking the law is fine and dandy just because someone else does.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
And you sound like someone who's never outside of a major city. It's not at all uncommon for signs in rural areas to be 100% obscured by plants. The locals know about it, they weren't planned that way, but it happens.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Now they've become so perverted that they seem to only exist in many places as a revenue source for local towns, and in causing drivers to spend more time looking at signs on the side of the road and their speedometer, they actually cause the roads to be LESS safe.
Agreed. My favourites are "school zones", an area around a primary or secondary school with a speed limit of 40km/h between 0800-0930 and 1430-1600. That's 40 no matter what the usual limit is. I've seen open highways with a school zone on it, and the limit going from 110 to 40.
They've just started putting in speed cameras that can enforce these variable speed limits, and they're making a fortune.
All the while, the traffic keeps it eyes on their speedos, and off the roads with the unpredictable kidlets running around, the ones that you need to keep a close eye on.
It makes me sick to my stomach