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."

Comments

Illegal Tool

[nurb432]

When tools are banned.. oh, nevermind...

Too Many Traps

[iamhigh]

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.

Re:Too Many Traps

[TheRealMindChild]

This is just a misunderstanding of the system. Truly, a cop can grab you for speeding anywhere. However, a system like this should be for "speed traps". That is, a consistent place where cameras/cops can almost always expect to be found. I possibly might even take it a step further and classify a speed trap to be a place where you would never think of being nailed, like when the speed limit drops from 55 to 35 at the bottom of a 70 degree slope.

Re:Too Many Traps

[sakdoctor]

1. Teflon coat a slope
2. Lower speed limit on said slope
3. Speed camera at the bottom
4. Profit!

Re:Too Many Traps

[Anonymous Coward]

You joke, but many Southern (USA) small towns are full of things like this. The speed limit may be 70 on a highway, but as it enters one of these towns it will drop suddenly to 30 or 35, often around a curve with little warning.

The small-town cops collect money from travelers but don't ticket locals. It really is a sort of highway robbery.

Re:Too Many Traps

[WillDraven]

While I agree that you should be prepared for anything that may be obstructing the roadway, that white sign halfway hidden behind a bush as you turn a corner is exactly where your attention should NOT be. If you're having to look away from your vehicles path of travel while making a turn and then rapidly decelerate, you're being dangerously distracted from the much more important task of making sure you're not going to run into anything.

The original purpose of speed limits was to protect people on and around the roadways. Then someone got the bright idea to regulate them to try and reduce fuel consumption. 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.

Re:Too Many Traps

[xaxa]

While I agree that you should be prepared for anything that may be obstructing the roadway, that white sign halfway hidden behind a bush as you turn a corner is exactly where your attention should NOT be.

In the UK they've recently (last few years) been painting speed restrictions in less-expected places (like on the approach to a small village along a fast, empty road) like this directly on the road. No need to look away. (another picture). It also reduces sign clutter.

Re:Too Many Traps

[canadian_right]

Were I live the cops call the local tv and radio stations so the stations can ANNOUNCE where speed traps are. The cops don't do this everyday or every time, but mainly when they are doing a big driver safety campaign.

All traffic fines go into general revenue for the Province so there is no incentive for speed traps meant to just collect fines. Most speed traps go up where there are a lot of accidents, or the locals complain about too many cars speeding. Most rush hour radio traffic reports include any speed traps reported by drivers, and I've never heard of there being more than 2 or 3. This is in a city of about 1.5 million.

Re:Too Many Traps

[Cor-cor]

Obviously isn't helping improve driving skills much. The second bloke's on the wrong side of the road!

More driver distraction

[clang_jangle]

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.

Re:More driver distraction

[MilesTails]

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.

Yeah because speech alerts are really distracting. Did you even read the articles?

Re:More driver distraction

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Did you even read the articles?

Evidently, you are new here.

Re:More driver distraction

[clang_jangle]

Yeah because speech alerts are really distracting. Did you even read the articles?

I really did actually, and I noticed that voice alerts are a feature. However, voice alerts != voice control. And I've seen plenty of people start plotting their trip several minutes after they leave the house while driving.

Re:More driver distraction

[larry bagina]

let's see you read the article while trying to first post while piloting a 2 ton juggernaut on public streets while mixing another jack and coke.

Re:More driver distraction

[coolsnowmen]

But this has nothing to do with planning a trip. GPS puts you on a map without you telling it ahead of time. When you are close to a reported speed trap, it tells you. That is no different than any other auditory clue. There is no control needed.

Ha

[clarkkent09]

'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

Re:Ha

[zappepcs]

There is an ancillary benefit. While what you say seems on face value to be true, anything that gets drivers to pay more attention to the road and traffic on it will increase safety. Even if that attention is somewhat fleeting, it will help. Public service minded police do not mind as long as you do slow down. There are those that want to catch you to fill the bank account with booty from fines, but for the most part people and police just want safe roads.

Re:Ha

[MMC Monster]

Actually, what will happen is that people will drive faster when the phone says they are not near a speed trap.

Radio stations did something similar before

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in the 90s in one of the Baltic countries, some radio stations let drivers phone in location of speed traps.

Of course, soon enough the law caught up with that and reporting of police locations because illegal.

However, that didn't phase the station operators a bit. They just requested that people report location of individuals in blue uniforms, using cars with bright flashing lights and shooting microwave radiation at passing cars. No mention was "police" or "speed trap" or anything specific was allowed.

Revenue stream

[Xistenz99_2000]

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.

it works both ways, so look at the bottom line

[v1]

'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson

It gets them to slow down when there's a speed trap because they want to avoid the high probability of a ticket.

BUT, it also gives them the confidence to speed more when they don't believe there's a speed trap.

So it works both ways: It helps increase the "deterrent factor" of the speed traps, but lowers the overall effectiveness of discouraging speeding in general, in the process.

In the end it's probably about a wash for changing the amount of speeding going on. The only thing that's changing is the money that was going to speeding tickets is now going to the authors of the app. And of course since that's what's really important isn't it, we've gotta put a stop to it don'cha know?

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[Macthorpe]

I've always assumed they mean "We can't stop you using this, so we're going to pretend it helps."

I wish people would just, you know, drive slower without having to be forced to, but I guess that's wishful thinking.

Great police tool!

[Ecuador]

Now all the police has to do is rate their actual speed traps low and catch the iPhone speeders!

I mean, I always said that Apple users would not pass a round of natural selection, this could be an example ;)

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[larry bagina]

I just wish speed limits were designed for modern cars and modern traffic, not increasing revenue.

Bollocks to that

[JamesRose]

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.

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[ColdWetDog]

I just wish speed limits were designed for modern cars and modern traffic, not increasing revenue.

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....

In other news

[Aranykai]

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".

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[Aranykai]

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!

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[LordKaT]

Consider the crap that the beat cops pull on a daily basis around here, no I'm not.

Pulling a U-turn when a sign clearly states otherwise, flicking your lights so you can go through a red light - then turning them off and parking at a diner for your break.

Cops here also have a bad habit of just grabbing people and their objects with no regard for the law. This has happened to me twice. The first time I explained to the cop that if he didn't release me I would be more than happy to defend myself - which got me arrested, but subsequently released - and the second time I reminded the office that I find the rough grabbing of my arms to be an aggressive act - he backed off.

I've also witnessed a cruiser fishtail a vehicle in the middle of the night, without pursuing him. No lights, no siren, nothing. The guy ran a red light, and the cop fishtailed him, THEN put his siren on. The guy in the car was arrested for failure to stop, failure to comply, and some other things. He was shocked - SHOCKED - when I showed up with a video of the event at court on behalf of the defendant.

The city dropped the case and last I heard the man is pursuing civil action.

This shit happens a lot more than is reported. Quite frankly, I think most cops need to be purged from their respective authority systems and shipped to clown college.

so, yes, when cops start obeying the law, so will I. Until then, fuck them.

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an Englishman who just took his California driving test - I literally couldn't believe how simple it was. The practical consisted of less than ten minutes driving round the block, with no maneuvers other than reversing along a kerb. At no time did I leave a 30 mph zone and parts were even 20mph. How does this in any way test the ability of person to safely handle a car? Especially in the land of the freeway?

It's been 12 years since I took my UK test, which was far more strenuous, and I understand it's been strengthened since then too.

You let 16 year olds get behind the wheel of a 2 ton death mobile with no real qualification and then wonder why things go wrong?

Having said that, after logging several thousand miles around CA, I would pick driving here over the UK any day of the week. Whilst there is the occasional moron it is nothing compared to the sheer aggression of those driving in England.

Re:Sergeant Stronginthearm says...

[LaskoVortex]

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.

Re:And, they're stupid.

[iangoldby]

Here in Nottingham we have average speed cameras all the way around the ring road. As you suggest, the system is impossible to beat - you simply cannot get from one end to the other in less time than it would take at the legal speed limit, without paying a fine.

As a result, compliance is almost 100%. The system doesn't make any money. In fact it costs considerably more to administer than it brings in by fines.

I personally think this is an excellent system. The council cannot be accused of installing 'revenue cameras'. Everyone obeys the law. There are no cheats (you know, the ones who have the speed trap gadget on their dashboard and endanger everyone by slamming on the brakes at each camera, but never get caught) and everyone is equal.

Similar systems are now being introduced along motorway road works too.

And contrary to what a few other respondents suggest, nobody stops just before the exit camera '"just to be sure" they don't get a ticket', and nobody takes the back roads - they are even slower. It just works - in every respect other than making revenue for the authorities, which is how it should be.