Are radar detectors still a thing?

Zeitgeist wrote: Lidar\laser however requires a jammer for any real safety otherwise any laser alarm is just a false from another car safety system or you are about to be pulled over if you were speeding alert.

That depends on how good the officer using the lidar gun is. AIUI, the usual training is to aim for the front license plate because they're extremely reflective. If a car doesn't have a front plate then the useful range of the lidar system drops a lot, but if the officer doesn't adjust the range at which he engages then it leaves a small window to react.

Never saw the need for one. I found, years ago that you can go 9/10 over the posted limit and the troopers will just watch you go buy. I've noticed lately it may be creeping to 15 over.

I got a lot of use out of my V1 when I used to drive between Dallas and St. Louis and just for city driving in general. The biggest use was definitely around Dallas, especially since most highways were 8 lanes and the average speed of traffic was 15-20 over the limit. Notably, laser warnings are useful when you aren't the car tagged and it's a target-saturated road.

Now, I'm in Iowa. I don't drive more than 8 over the limit on highways or 4 over the limit in town. I'm always quicker than everyone around me and never get pulled over. My V1 is on permanent loan with a friend who travels for work. It's still useful for good distance travel, but without a city, it isn't necessary.

Humorous aside: my V1 actually got me out of a ticket once. I was going 76 through Oklahoma (55 mph limit) when my detector went off and I saw a trooper pull out going the other way. It was night and I was the only car on the road, so there was no question he wanted to chat. Without the detector, I would have kept driving until pulled over. With it, I just pulled over, turned my interior lights on, and waited for him to visit. The officer was rather impressed and gave me a warning.

TLDR: great for cities, especially those with a new police department every 5 miles.

iceracer wrote: Never saw the need for one. I found, years ago that you can go 9/10 over the posted limit and the troopers will just watch you go buy. I've noticed lately it may be creeping to 15 over.

It depends on the area. In some places, 10 over will get you pulled. On the other side of the coin, down in CT, I've passed a cop on the Merritt Parkway doing almost 80 in a 55 (with a few other cars going about the same speed) and he just totally ignored all of us.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Waze has replaced the need for a radar detector for me.

I love Waze, but even on busy interstates (I55/I57) I find that most of the time when a Wazer has tagged a cop, they're no longer there by the time I arrive...or they've already pulled someone over. The Escort has warned me multiple times of impending doom, however.

I have an escort passport 9500ix that I just leave on for my daily commute. I occasionally get some false alarms, but for the most part it is pretty damn accurate. I will have to check out the waze app.

petegossett wrote: I love Waze, but even on busy interstates (I55/I57) I find that most of the time when a Wazer has tagged a cop, they're no longer there by the time I arrive...or they've already pulled someone over. The Escort has warned me multiple times of impending doom, however.

I find this a lot. And then there's the times where people wait too long to tag them after seeing the cop, so you're already right on top of them (and have seen them) before the alert sounds (it only warns a 1/2 mile ahead, and I don't think there's a way to change that).

I rented a car in Britain a couple of years ago and it came with a Sat Nav. It was preprogrammed with the locations of all known speed traps (many many)and gave a warning when approaching one.

I like Waze, too, but I don't always have it on. Many times my phone is running Torque or a podcast or something else. My Escort 8500 is always on, though.

Even though I don't speed that much anymore, I still like knowing where the cops are. It's a situational awareness thing, I guess.

rslifkin wrote: On the other side of the coin, down in CT, I've passed a cop on the Merritt Parkway doing almost 80 in a 55 (with a few other cars going about the same speed) and he just totally ignored all of us.

Many years ago I had a work assignment in Taiwan. On my first trip there, I was riding in a cab on the freeway from the international airport to my hotel in downtown Taipei. There was a policeman chasing a speeding car, and my taxi driver passed them both. The cops didn't even look at us.

NO, WAYZE IS BAD, BAD, BAD, DO NOT USE IT. IT WILL GIVE YOU CANCER AND AIDS... DELETE IT.

No really only use it not in South East PA, near me....

I totally attribute the clogging of my precious back roads and side routes to the mindless masses who have spent the last part of their purgatory sitting in traffic, only to find this Wayze app and think... "HMMM maybe I'll go ruin Ross's day by driving all over the short cuts, hmmm that was a good route, why dont I tell all my friends about that route..." Go away.

Get off my lawn...

Thanks Ross

Side note... Please continue to add speed traps, that part I like. Carry on.

Between V1 waze and running behind rabbits I've avoided at least a dozen tickets in my POV. Almost ironically I can't legally run a detector in my work truck (too heavy) and I've gotten two speeding tickets over the past 8 years driving at work. In these parts it's always Ka if I get a K or X warning I know just to mute it and drive on. Instant on is out there but seldom used, laser is why I run rabbits.

I run Waze and my Escort 9500i on my 65 mile round-trip commute. Both have been helpful.

On long trips I run both as well, but Waze has been more of a help lately.

Shaun wrote: I don't feel the need for one anymore. 10 Years ago I5 in Oregon would lurch between 50 and 65 every few miles for little reason and it was heavily patrolled. Now the southern half of state is nearly all 65 and the urban slowdown zones in the upper 1/3 make sense intuitively so its fine. And for me the fun is all had below 55 on the abundance of excellent Oregon secondary roads anyway. I just spent 10 days in Los Angles- holy smokes, no cops I could see, and the only rule is GO!!. 80-85 is fast lane flow of traffic on freeways until its start slowing- then the system goes into these 50 to 0 to 50 to 0 lurches. You can make time.

I was in the Seattle area for a few days after living in LA for 2-3 months, and could not believe how slowly everyone drove.

Geeeez it must be a lot worse around here where I live but I never go out anywhere without my radar detector. And I mean never! Communities run speed traps all the time to raise revenue here. 5 mph over and you are zapped. I use Waze too but the detector is better for the secondary roads. A detector is like a condom for your car.............you never go unprotected.

I have the Waze app, but seem to only use it when I see traffic ahead to find out how bad/where it ends. I'm thinking the data/battery drain would be pretty significant otherwise?

In reply to Jerry:

I've not had any overages/alerts from using it on a ~1800 trip 2-months in a row. There's battery usage from the display being on constantly, so I keep it in a cradle & plugged in on the trips.

I keep my phone plugged in whenever I'm using Waze (although it will still alert with the display off, good for night driving). Data usage is surprisingly little, I've found.

My city is bigger than some peoples' states and my state is bigger than most european countries, with a whole lot of nothing in between cities. I think 'speeding' means different things based on whether it's going to save you 30 seconds or 2 hours. For me, a big factor is driving in a way that's interesting enough to keep me fully engaged. I can speed a lot safer than i can drive bored.

I have found that ever since my commute has shrunk down off of the highways that i just dont ever get speeding tickets where i used to get ~2/yr and at some points had deferments going on in multiple jurisdictions. Most of the in-town surface level streets i drive on during my commute aren't safe to do any serious speeding on. You can call it ALL 'speeding' but i'm only ever driving as fast as i feel is safe for the conditions and that can run the whole gamut from 1mph to 100+.

rslifkin wrote:

iceracer wrote: Never saw the need for one. I found, years ago that you can go 9/10 over the posted limit and the troopers will just watch you go buy. I've noticed lately it may be creeping to 15 over.

It depends on the area. In some places, 10 over will get you pulled. On the other side of the coin, down in CT, I've passed a cop on the Merritt Parkway doing almost 80 in a 55 (with a few other cars going about the same speed) and he just totally ignored all of us.

My experience has been along the east coast from Fla. to Me.

I have a 10+ year old Valentine in my car. In the small town I live in, it's more of a police detector than a radar dectector since almost every car is running radar all the time. Sometimes the counter will show 3 hits, and our town is only 2 square miles. Entertaining, if nothing else.

Just drive a camry or a minivan. Beige. You will save money in tickets.

Robbie wrote: Just drive a camry or a minivan. Beige. You will save money in tickets.

I owned a B6 S4 Avant for 8 years (in Nogaro Blue, no less) and never once got pulled over in it, and that certainly wasn't true of the Nogaro Blue B5 S4 sedan I owned before it. So it seems that there's some truth to the "wagon body" idea. :)

I used to have one all the time. In city driving I found it mostly annoying and useless. Lots of false hits and I generally only go 5 over in town so its not needed.

Where I live the freeway limits are 75-80 mph, so again I drive 5 over and I don't need it.

I don't really do road trips anymore so I don't have one anymore...

Waze. No radar detector.