Just wondering.....

[GSibble]

I was wondering today....We have all sorts of hardware made for our Pocket PCs. We have GPS receivers, all sorts of bar code readers, USB connectors, serial connectors, and the like. Now, I have a great navigation setup in my truct but I realized it had an even greater potential...why hasn't anyone created a pocket pc basked radar detector yet?

Just think about it. You can have a screen that could give you the direction and distance to the transmitter (i.e. police car) and tell you how large a threat they are. Most radar detectors are flaky at best in their reliability. I used to use a friends which, while it would catch actual traps, would also go off every time I passed a store with automatic doors. With a software based detector, you would have so much processing power at your fingertips that it could finally tell the difference! Wouldn't that be great?

I was thinking that if people found this interesting, I might take some time to study this and build one for myself, possibly incorporating a bluetooth transmitter to make it wireless. I just want to be able to see exactly where the cop is infront of me (triangulating heading and distance with three antennas probably) so that there is no way I could ever be caught again. Any thoughts?

-George

[rhmorrison]

:idea: Wouldn't it be easier to just drive the posted speed limit?

[TopDog]

:idea: Wouldn't it be easier to just drive the posted speed limit?
What's the fun in that? :lol:

[Duncan]

What's the fun in that?

You've obviously never had to deal with the consequences of some moron thinking he could get away with speeding - or you wouldn't post such a downright idiotic comment. Speeding kills and speed traps are not a game.

I just want to be able to see exactly where the cop is infront of me (triangulating heading and distance with three antennas probably) so that there is no way I could ever be caught again. Any thoughts?

Just one. Speed limits exist for good reasons and only very stupid people deleiberately break laws designed to ensure safety. Why do you want to have the ability to break the law and endanger people without getting caught?

And let's not have any guff about breaking the speed limit by accident - traffic police allow a margin of error and if you don't know what the correct speed is for roads you go on you have no business driving.

Neither do we want any idiocy about the police being vindictive - radar traps are generally set up in areas where speeding is the most dangerous - in which case those caught deserve punishment to the fullest extent allowed under law.

[blazingwolf]

You've obviously never had to deal with the consequences of some moron thinking he could get away with speeding - or you wouldn't post such a downright idiotic comment. Speeding kills and speed traps are not a game.

Quote:
I just want to be able to see exactly where the cop is infront of me (triangulating heading and distance with three antennas probably) so that there is no way I could ever be caught again. Any thoughts?


Just one. Speed limits exist for good reasons and only very stupid people deleiberately break laws designed to ensure safety. Why do you want to have the ability to break the law and endanger people without getting caught?


I guess you never speed. 8O Perhaps you should tone it down abit?

[Duncan]

I guess you never speed.

Of course I don't! I despise the attitude that doing so is OK. What is so difficult about keeping to the law? Some other laws I don't break - I don't steal, I don't murder, I don't destroy public property, I don't set fire to things... my what an incredibly moral person I must be...! :roll:

In my carreer as a teacher I've had to deal with the aftermath of two serious traffic accidents - one caused by speeding and one by careless driving (moron on a mobile phone). When acting as a supply teacher I covered in a school where the teacher and many students were off to a funeral service - one of their fellow students mown doen by a speeding driver. While at university I lived off a road with a 30mph speed limit down which many drivers speeded and several people were knocked down an injured - some seriously - just during the time I was there. So you'll appreciate that I'm not talking in abstract terms here.

Tell me though - if I did speed - would that make it any the more right? Nothing irritates me more than the 'everyone does it so I can do it' attitude.

[PetiteFlower]

Perhaps in residential areas what you're saying is true but certainly not on highways. Speeding laws exist as a way to make extra money for the local municipalities, not because there's anything particularly unsafe about driving more then 65mph on a highway that was designed to be safe to drive on at up to 90. Of course some people drive like maniacs, but it's not just the speed that makes them unsafe. If speed limits were REALLY set at the speed that it was safe to drive at, then more people would keep to them. And if speeding tickets were REALLY a deterrent, then again fewer people would speed. But the cops don't WANT people to stop speeding, then they wouldn't make any money off it; that's why speeding tickets are a couple of hundred bucks not a couple of thousand. I've been told that in Europe, in the places where there are speed limits, people do not speed, because the penalties are too severe if they get caught.

Check out http://www.motorists.org/index.html for more information. Fight the power!

;)

[TopDog]

You've obviously never had to deal with the consequences of some moron thinking he could get away with speeding - or you wouldn't post such a downright idiotic comment. Speeding kills and speed traps are not a game.
I spend quite a lot of time on the roads as part of my job, so yes, I've experienced a lot of speeding lunatics in my days... but come on, everybody breaks the speedlimit from time to time :-)

It was ment to be a joke from my behalf, I have several friends that have been seriousely injured in traffic-accidents and have grown up in the Police Force (my father is a highly ranked officer), so I know speed kills!

But this is getting very off-topic or what?

[TopDog]

But the cops don't WANT people to stop speeding, then they wouldn't make any money off it; that's why speeding tickets are a couple of hundred bucks not a couple of thousand. I've been told that in Europe, in the places where there are speed limits, people do not speed, because the penalties are too severe if they get caught.
From personal experience... the Police don't get a dime of the speeding tickets... trust me, they all go to the state treasury!

Don't mock the Police. 99% of them are damn good guys just doin' their job so you and me can be more safe!!!

But your'e right on one point, it's not the speed alone that kills, it's the maniac behind the wheel...

[Bearjaw]

Well..anyway...moral issues aside...and speaking on a technical front. I think it would be possible to make one but as far as telling you where the signal is comming from I cant quit figure out how it would do that without having two sensors...measure the time it takes to hit the two sensors and you could in theory triangulate the position and display it. This would be very intresting to see.
Oh and I use my radar detector so I'm not suprised by the jackass infront of me breaking hard to slow down when he comes up on a speed trap. With the detector I have a warning letting me know to be more carefull about the drivers infront of me. Cause you know you brake even if your not speeding.Everybody does. Its a defensive tool, not offensive in my car. Lets not be to harsh on people that want to expand possibilities. Even if we dont agree with the reasons behind them.

[Duncan]

But your'e right on one point, it's not the speed alone that kills, it's the maniac behind the wheel...

I rather thought it was the heavy object on wheels, which needs longer distance to slow down at higher speeds, that kills - you don't need to be a manaic when an extra 5mph can mean an extra 20 metres stopping distance ina 30mph area.

I've never seen a radar trap on a motorway straight - only in places where there is risk in travelling at speed such as residential areas or other roads where limits to speeds are necessary.

As for using radar detectors protectively - no, I don't think so. Watching your own driving and keeping a safe distance between you and the car in front is all the protection you need.

As for speeding generally - except for those occasions where it is unsafe to do otherwise (on motorways), or for emergencies, I see no need to exceed speed limits for any reason - so I don't. I don't happen to think that is in any way remarkable, it isn't even a matter of morality, it is simply sanity...!

PetiteFlower - that is such an astonishingly biased site you referenced.

Look - my reaction may seem OTT to you - but I have seen the consequences of speeding, the casualness with which people break sensible driving laws - so I'm not going to tone it down, nor do I think I'm being off-topic (in the end I am questioning the need for the software/hardware requested).

After one of my students nearly lost his life to a driver doing 45mph in a 30 zone (yes - just 15mph over) I, along with several colleagues, took advanced drivers tests - and we were all shocked at just how dangerous our driving habits were. I haven't speeded since (on motorways I stick to the limit as long as it is safe to do so - one can't stick to 70 if everyone else is doing 80).

So don't wait until it affects you and you get a similar wake up call. Speed limits and traps exist for good reason, there is no need to speed and if one (middle aged mangager and father of another student) man had kept to the limit a young boy would still be able to walk properly. You don't need a radar detector - just common sense.

[Bearjaw]

I wont speed anymore. I'm glad that this GASS(Geeks Against Stupid Speeders) session took place it has made me take a look at my own driving habits. So thanks for the great question about a PPC as a radar detector. But as you can see there are some morally upstanding people on these boards that cant in good conscious give you an answer. Try asking for a serial number to a product or if someone has ripped a DVD and see what you get for an answer. I bet it will be somewhere along the same lines. So you might want to try and ask that question elsewhere. You might get an answer and not a lecture. Peace out and buckle up!

[blazingwolf]

I haven't speeded since (on motorways I stick to the limit as long as it is safe to do so - one can't stick to 70 if everyone else is doing 80).
So in other words you do speed. That seems a bit hypocritical to me. Before you try to say I don't know what I am talking about I am a Paramedic/Firefighter and have seen an amazing amount of stupid auto accidents. A vast majority of which are due to driver stupidity (speeding is only a small amount). Most are due to driver inattention (playing with the radio, cell phone or talking to a passenger). I don't incourage speeding to anyone but I at least will admit that I do it. Nor do I agree with you about speed traps. Some are solely created to to generate money. I agree with PDA Norway when he/she (sorry not sure which) says not all cops are bad because they aren't but here in the states this type of thing does happen. Only in Virgina and DC are radar detectors illegal (for personal vehicles) and until they make it illegal every where I would like to see this. Here is a little item that backs this up "A survey by the research firm of Yankelovich Clancy Shulman showed detector users had 23 percent fewer accidents per mile traveled than nonowners, and drove almost 60,000 miles farther between accidents. The survey concluded that radar detector owners are at least as safe drivers as nonowners. " Does this make everyone safe? By no means but it does show that radar detectors aren't all bad.

[PetiteFlower]

Unless things have changed recently, the money from speeding tickets goes not to the police department but to the municipality where the ticket occurred. Local speeding tickets do NOT go to the state, the state only gets the money from tickets that are written by state troopers on state roads, money from tickets given out by local cops stays local. And the one speed trap that I know of near me is on a large, wide, straight, 4 lane road in a totally non-residential area...at the bottom of a hill. It's there to catch people, plain and simple.

Anyway I was just saying that driving over the speed limit does not necessarily make one an unsafe driver. Yes, it increases your stopping distance but if you compensate for that by not following anyone too closely then you're not being any more unsafe. You can be going over the speed limit in many areas and still not driving unsafely for the conditions. Again I'm referring to highway not residential here. Local cops in many states(mine included) aren't even allowed to use radar for their speed traps so it's really only applicable on state highways for most people anyway--radar detectors won't help you if they're using another detection method!