New Service Maps Speed Traps By Cell Phone 404
esocid writes "In a modern equivalent of flashing your headlights to warn other motorists of police speed traps, you can now warn fellow drivers with a cell phone or personal digital assistant about speed traps, red-light cameras, and other threats to ticket-free driving. And as you approach a known threat, you'll get an audio alert on your mobile device. The developer of Trapster, Pete Tenereillo, said the system, which requires punching in a few keys such as '#1' to submit information to Trapster's database, should comply with laws banning talking on cell phones. The free service can automatically detect location using mobile devices' GPS capabilities or tap their Wi-Fi and get location from a database run by Skyhook Wireless. Police officials that Tenereillo has talked to haven't complained about the service because it inevitably encourages drivers to slow down."
Why complain? (Score:5, Insightful)
If getting drivers to slow down was the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
A patrol car in the median is more than enough to slow down all but the stupid or inattentive.
False Positives? (Score:5, Insightful)
Another way to avoid tickets (Score:5, Insightful)
OT: laws banning non-hands-free cells (Score:4, Insightful)
Rather than banning certain activities like shaving, talking on a cell, fiddling with the radio, or tending to unruly children, train new drivers on how to drive with common every-day distractions, train them to use common sense in minimizing distractions in unfamiliar environments, and if they get in a wreck and a distraction is one of the factors, let that affect who is deemed "at fault."
However, it could be considered ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Especially if you get someone who has some cell phone activity right before an accident.
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:4, Insightful)
They're just a tax on the stupid who are inattentive and don't understand how numbers work.
minimum subscriber base? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:So (Score:1, Insightful)
Just don't take anyone else with you
Re:False Positives? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If getting drivers to slow down was the point.. (Score:4, Insightful)
It works both ways. (Score:2, Insightful)
Police officials that Tenereillo has talked to haven't complained about the service because it inevitably encourages drivers to slow down.
So all the cops have to do to slow traffic down city wide would be two periodically send a car around with an officer punching #1 into his cellphone at many locations. This way users would know that there are speed traps EVERYWHERE.
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's green when you see it, assume it will turn yellow at any time: prepare to stop.
If it's yellow when you see it, assume it will turn red: you should be stopping
If it is red when you see it, assume the idiots coming the other way will run the yellow or red. Wait a second after it turns green then Go.
Stopping is not a problem if you assume everyone else is going to be more stupid than you are. It's driving again...
That's exactly what a selfish driver would say. (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I better than other drivers? Perhaps, it depends on what you mean by better. What I am is a safe and courteous driver.
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sigh (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So (Score:2, Insightful)
Why dont you just focus on your own driving for a change and worry about driving to your destination? That would be a pretty shallow way to live, thinking that somehow YOU have the say in how other people can drive just because you want to. In the state I live in, doing what you just suggested has a name. Its called BREAKING THE LAW. You see, driving at the speed limit in the left lane of a multilane highway is breaking the law. Its called the 'passing lane' and you could get pulled over and given a ticket if you thought it was amusing to be a smart ass by 'blocking' somebody in.
I eagerly await to hear your rationalization of how YOUR way of breaking the law is somehow more rightous that those speeders, and light runners who are breaking the law, albeit a different one.
Re:If getting drivers to slow down was the point.. (Score:4, Insightful)
And I imagine it's worse in many small towns where moving violations sometimes make up a large portion of the town revenue.
Re:That's exactly what a selfish driver would say. (Score:2, Insightful)
A gold star may not count for much, but the insurance discount sure does.
Individual officers may not mind but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That's a violation (Score:5, Insightful)
In addition, with speeders allowing their locations to be tracked, that database also documents their speeding. A juicy target if the speeder is involved in a collision and the victim(s) want another way to establish reckless driving.
Or, it's just a useful target anyway to document and prosecute speeders. Most subscribers will no doubt be speeders, so as the police state becomes stronger, look for your now well-documented past to come back to haunt you.
And what happens to all of that data if there is a security breach at the company and someone exfiltrates all of the records. Most probably wouldn't care, but the higher your profile, the more you could expect to see your actions published in the open for all to see.
No thanks. I'll just keep my radar detector.
Re:And you get a gold star now for douchebaggery (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:5, Insightful)
That's good advice, but if you're watching the light and traffic, it can still take anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 seconds to observe that the light has changed and depress the brake pedal. At 35mph, you're traveling at 51 feet per second and will need 101 feet to safely stop [jmu.edu], or 130 feet if you're a truck. That means that if the yellow light is less than two seconds and you're 100 feet away, you can't safely stop without entering the intersection, and you can't enter the intersection before the light is red. Hopefully, the cameras will at least let you go if you enter the intersection on the yellow and leave on the red, otherwise you need to add the full length of the intersection to the calculation, and that can easily be 50 feet, or another full second.
Therefore, if you come back and record the light's transitions and discover that the light provides less than two seconds of stopping time you have an affirmative defense in that it is physically impossible with standard automotive equipment for a vehicle to stop in the time allotted. You might reasonably argue for 3 seconds, since stopping distance is increased in foul weather to about 150 feet and setting the time less than that is unsafe (though if weather is that foul, the driver should be reducing their speed so that they can stop in 100 feet anyways). Also, a setting of 2 seconds requires that the driver be able to identify their range to the intersection as greater or less than 101-102 feet, which is an unreasonably small target to estimate on the fly. A setting of 3 seconds in fair weather allows the driver to estimate their distance as greater or less than a 101-153 foot space, which is reasonably manageable.
Re:Why complain? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unanticipated Use (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:3, Insightful)
Consider it your civic duty to protest the injustice in court, even if it is inconvenient, even if it costs more. If more people do this, then the operation becomes less lucrative, and they will then have less incentive to do it.
I've protested every one of the speeding tickets that I've gotten in my state -- it's never done much good, except a slight reduction in the fine a time or two. However, I felt slightly vindicated in that I was taking up some precious court time in the process...
The Easiest Way to Ticket Free Driving is... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If getting drivers to slow down was the point.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:That's exactly what a selfish driver would say. (Score:3, Insightful)
I see driving as requiring three different skill sets. Car handling skills, simply how well can you handle a car. Spatial awareness, reaction time, etc. Information processing skill, knowing how to read traffic. The last skill is attitude and it may be the most important of the three. I don't care how great your skills are in the first two skills if you have a crappy attitude you will never be more than a crappy driver. A good attitude will make up for shortcomings in the first skills.
You seem to have a good attitude towards driving. I wish everyone did.
Re:So (Score:3, Insightful)
People like you are the reason there is so much crime.
Re:So (Score:2, Insightful)
What state do you live in??
I consider myself a courteous and defensive driver but I usually drive 10-20 over the speed limit. I like to drive fast, what can I say? That said, I also let people in when they signal, I stay in the right lane unless I'm passing someone, and I try to anticipate what other drivers will do and act accordingly.
Just once I would love to see a cop ticket the assholes who drive the speed limit in the left lane. They are the ones who are a safety problem because they piss off myself and others who are trying to get by, so then we do something stupid to put you behind us. I'm going to get around you eventually, whether I do so by passing safely on the left as intended or I have to zip around your dumb ass on the right. (I say "you" in the non-specific sense of course...)
And don't even get me started on truckers... they used to be the best and most courteous drivers on the road but these days too many of them are arrogant jerks as well, driving 55 in the left lane for miles because they're too lazy to get over...
Re:Use your eyes. (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey, I've seen my fair share of asshats on the road but I don't think speeding automatically qualifies you as one.
In many areas the speed limits are artificially low and/or the flow of traffic precludes obeying the speed limit unless you enjoy people closing on you at 15-20mph and flipping you off as they pass.....
Re:Why complain? (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhh, it is sometimes. I do my fair share of speeding, but I'm open minded enough to assume that the police officer sitting outside the school zone at 7:30AM isn't primarily interested in revenue collection.....
Re:That's a violation (Score:4, Insightful)
And if you don't think that happens, go read how the Bush administration decided the Fourth Amendment did not apply to them and they could wiretap and eavesdrop all they wanted. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/03/1219200 [slashdot.org]
And if you don't know what the Fourth Amendment guarantees (or did until Bush decided to ignore it...):
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Re:Why complain? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, c'mon! You'll brook no argument from me on highway speeds being artificially low, but school zones? If you can't stand to slow down for the 30 seconds it takes to drive through a school zone then I don't really have much pity for you if you get ticketed.
Likewise, I have zero fucking sympathy for somebody that goes around a school bus with flashing lights.
Re:The Easiest Way to Ticket Free Driving is... (Score:4, Insightful)
If everyone else is doing 40, it very well might.
Re:Another way to avoid tickets (Score:3, Insightful)