Current Events > Do any of you own or have ever owned a radar detector?

(+) Yeah! (+)

ye, to try to prevent you from getting speeding tickets...etc...

No

go ahead and radar me you perverts

It's snake oil, by the time it detects the signal they already have your speed.

Lonestar2000 posted...

It's snake oil, by the time it detects the signal they already have your speed.

oh really? you owned one?

AirJordan2345 posted...

oh really? you owned one?

It detects if there is a radar hitting it. It quite literally is the only way it could function.

They're only illegal because the state makes bank on speeding tickets.

In reality it would keep people safer if everyone owned one. They'd be seeing signals all over the place and slowing down.

Yeah, my dad uses them and he gave me some. These days they really are pointless, though. I don't even bother to use mine.

Bass posted...

Yeah, my dad uses them and he gave me some. These days they really are pointless, though. I don't even bother to use mine.

why are they pointless these days though?

AirJordan2345 posted...

why are they pointless these days though?

Laser ones are also used.

Surely you don't mean a RADON detector?

Cheap ones aren't worth it. They're either overly sensitive and you'll get false hits so often from automatic doors, vehicles with adaptive cruise control, etc that you'll eventually tune it out and stop slowing down. Or, it wont be sensitive enough to pick up when they hit cars ahead of you and instead only goes off when they're already looking at you.

Quality ones are a few hundred dollars and work pretty well. But so few places still use radar that it's no guarantee. If they're shooting laser (which most police departments are nowadays) you're borderline too late by the time it goes off. You might be able to hit the brakes before they get a solid lock but you honestly have to have quick reflexes and they'll still lock in a number, just slightly lower than what you were doing before you hit the brakes. I find that using waze and just going with the speed of traffic +5mph is good enough 99% of the time.

I stopped running detectors nearly 10 years ago. With lazer, it's not worth the money for a good one when I only get a ticket once every half a dozen years anyways.

Waze is good.

The comments about it being too late before you can react are not entirely correct. If the officer is using laser, then that is correct. But with radar, it can pick it up by the radar being in the detectors general vicinity. More officers use radar than laser because with laser, the cop must be stationary for it to work. They can use radar when moving.

Basically - if you see a cop stopped, they're likely using laser and by the time it goes off, you're already caught. If you see them moving, they are using radar.

Have_A_Cigar posted...

Waze is good.

The comments about it being too late before you can react are not entirely correct. If the officer is using laser, then that is correct. But with radar, it can pick it up by the radar being in the detectors general vicinity. More officers use radar than laser because with laser, the cop must be stationary for it to work. They can use radar when moving.

Basically - if you see a cop stopped, they're likely using laser and by the time it goes off, you're already caught. If you see them moving, they are using radar.

oh, didn't know this. Where did you get this info from?

AirJordan2345 posted...

oh, didn't know this. Where did you get this info from?

Personal experience from almost becoming a cop and doing ride-alongs. Didn't make it through the entire process (physical test, polygraph and then interview is as far as I got). Feel free to Google any of it if you believe I'm wrong.

Have in the past. Mostly just went off due to automatic doors at businesses.

My whole family has them. My uncle has worked for Cobra for like 30 years and just hands them out like candy

bluezero posted...

Have in the past. Mostly just went off due to automatic doors at businesses.

Agreed with this. And "City" mode never seemed to stop it from going off at CVS. Nowhere else did I have that issue except CVS, which are all over the place here...

Waze exists lol