News

According to this article radar detectors may soon be legal in Virginia. Currently Virginia is the only state where having a radar detector is illegal, though they are also illegal in DC and on military bases. Virginia's ban has long been a frustration to drivers. You have to stop and take down your detector when entering the state, in fact there are even signs at the stateline warning you of this. For many people, a concealed radar detector was their only option. This is great news for everyone that drives in Virginia! We also encourage you to write to Delegate Joe May expressing your support for his plan to legalize radar detectors.

I am sneaking this post out a bit early. Do not tell anyone! For the month of November we have a new radar detector t-shirt contest! Between now and the end of November send us your favorite radar detector story (like the time a detector saved you from a nasty ticket, the time you forgot to turn it on, the old detector you found in a closet, etc...) as an email to : contest @ buyradardetectors.com (remove the blank spaces).

The best five stories, as determined by our in-house team of contest experts, will receive a Buy Radar Detectors t-shirt. Your story can be any length, and we might even publish it here on our radar detector blog!

So send in your story by November 30th and include the size of t-shirt and where to mail it to in case you win! We also have some more contests in the planning stages, so check back here often and do not forget to follow us on twitter.

"Oh, don't lean on me man 'cause you can't afford the ticket" - David Bowie

Most people do not run redlights on purpose. While this may seem like a strange fact to some, I have never encountered anyone that runs lights for fun. "I was so late for work, I just ran all the lights!" Most of these redlight cameras are being put in to give tickets to people that do not come to a complete stop when turning right on red. Most people come to a rolling stop, then turn. In fact if you do come to a stop, the person behind you will start laying on the horn.

Meanwhile, you get processed a ticket that tends to run $100. Have a nice day, drive safe!

There is an interesting news story about just this. In Collier Florida the citizens are getting more than a bit annoyed at getting tickets.

Out of 507, only 7 were people that ran a light. The rest just did not come to a complete stop when making a right turn. Many cities now know that all you have to do to make some money is shorten the yellow lights, and to also ticket those turning right on red. It is pure revenue.

It is not about safety, at all. It is about publically elected and appointed officials making money from their constituents. They want us out there playing bumper cars with each other, and causing road rage, while they profit.

A question, if the use of redlight cameras is to reduce the number of wrecks, improve safety, catch those that do not use cowardly devices, then why do they issues fines? If this is about safety, should they not make you attend a driving safety class, make you wear a funny hat, or just call and yell at you. "Drive safer, we saw you run that light, maniac!"

Ok, I know fines are a great motivator. However the people in River Forest, Illinois want to know "...whether the village's desire to have red light cameras was a safety or money issue." The people in River Forest wanted to lower the fines, and some interesting information slipped out.

It seems that the people who install the redlight cameras make about $36 per ticket issued, then police have to have people review and issue tickets. So for the process to be cost effective it runs up to $100 a fine.

That can be a lot of money for just not coming to a complete stop to turn right on a redlight. The truth is they are using them to make money, not improve driving safety. The people selling the cameras are making even more money. So if you live in a city with cameras, make sure to tell them thanks for making the camera operators rich.

I doubt any of us want people to run redlights, but making the lights shorter to "catch" people, and putting people making a turn on red in the same category out of greed is irresponsible. Make sure you are warned about the intersections with cameras, and please contact us if you have any questions about redlight camera protective devices, or if you are looking for a radar detector.

A news article recently caught our attention here at Buy Radar Detectors. The federal government is looking into using GPS to tax how much everyone drives. GPS devices would be placed in everyone's cars and once a month the information would be uploaded and you would be sent a bill. They plan to then repeal the tax on gasoline. The plan calls for having this in effect by 2020. Combine this with the blog post I did just a bit ago about using GPS to monitor everyone's speed for even more fun!

Readers of this blog know that I do not like red light cameras. If anything they cause wrecks since the people that install them also shorten the yellow lights. They often tell the city "shorter yellow lights means more tickets and more money!" They leave off the "...and cause more car wrecks" part. Notice I did not call these automotive accidents, nothing accidental about planned crashes.

Well over in Schaumburg, Illinois they are getting rid of red light cameras. According to a story on ars technica, Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, had some cameras put in to help prevent accidents. They thought they were doing a good thing, and help to make some dangerous intersections safer. The cameras did nothing, well they did make a lot of money from people making right hand turns that did not come to a complete stop.

So, people complained, the city realized that cameras were not reducing wrecks, so Schaumburg is getting rid of the cameras.

Yup, the city noticed that the cameras do nothing to improve safety. If a city wants to improve intersections, perhaps they should invest in better traffic lights and they way the intersection is designed and heavy traffic is managed. Fix the roads first! So if you have red light cameras where you live, ask them if they are all about money and why they do not care about your safety.

Until then, we will continue to provide defensive products to protect you from the cameras. Drive safe, and drive smart!

Over on slashdot.com, there is an article on a new device that will use GPS to monitor your speed. It will first warn you then even slow down your vehicle if you continue to speed. Britain and Australia are now set to test these out. In Britain at least they want to try them on taxis and buses first, something I don't think many in London would object to. I do not believe this will be implemented in every vehicle in the UK however.

The technology to do this has been around for quite a while. A lot of commercial vehicles have speed limiters that essential do this already, there are also a lot of vehicles that come from the factory with a top speed limit programmed in. Many of you are also now mentally listing a lot of reasons why this will not work in the long run: not able to respond to emergencies, false data creating the wrong speed limit, creating traffic problems from a software bug, and all of the resulting court cases from all of these. I also do not feel like I need to discuss the fact that we are not condoning aggressive driving or speeding so much as being controlled by some arbitrary device. That is another topic for another time. The simple fact it, this will create more problems than it would ever solve.

The reason I think you will not see wide spread adoption of this in the US. Money. Many city and county governments use traffic fines as a major source of income. You will notice I did not say law enforcement officers there. While that is true some of the time, it is a lot more complicated than that. Many municipal governments view drivers as a way to make money not just the local police. Truth is, many law enforcement officers hate traffic stops and would rather do something else. This is also related to the shortening of yellow lights as soon as a red light camera is installed.

This is an often asked question: "In what states in the US are radar detectors legal?" First though radar detectors are currently illegal in the following states:

Virginia (VA)
Washington DC (DC)

Also, radar detectors are illegal to use at the federal level (in all states), in commercial vehicles over 10,000 lbs and on military bases, so keep that in mind.

Ok, here is a list by state where radar detectors are currently 100% legal to own and use:

ALABAMA (AL)
ALASKA (AK)
ARIZONA (AZ)
ARKANSAS (AR)
CALIFORNIA (CA)
COLORADO (CO)
CONNECTICUT (CT)
DELAWARE (DE)
FLORIDA (FL)
GEORGIA (GA)
HAWAII (HI)
IDAHO (ID)
ILLINOIS (IL)
INDIANA (IN)
IOWA (IA)
KANSAS ( KS)
KENTUCKY (KY)
LOUISIANA (LA)
MAINE (ME)
MARYLAND (MD)
MASSACHUSETTS (MA)
MICHIGAN (MI)
MINNESOTA (MN)
MISSISSIPPI (MS)
MISSOURI (MO)
MONTANA (MT)
NEBRASKA (NE)
NEVADA (NV)
NEW HAMPSHIRE (NH)
NEW JERSEY (NJ)
NEW MEXICO (NM)
NEW YORK (NY)
NORTH CAROLINA (NC)
NORTH DAKOTA (ND)
OHIO (OH)
OKLAHOMA (OK)
OREGON (OR)
PENNSYLVANIA (PA)
RHODE ISLAND (RI)
SOUTH CAROLINA (SC)
SOUTH DAKOTA (SD)
TENNESSEE (TN)
TEXAS (TX)
UTAH (UT)
VERMONT (VT)
WASHINGTON (WA)
WEST VIRGINIA (WV)
WISCONSIN (WI)
WYOMING (WY)

Do speed cameras promote economic fascism and not safety, well according to the Veil Guy Blog they do and he wants everyone to know the background behind state government's involvement with foreign based companies in order to increase state collection revenue. He uses two examples to illustrate his point. The first, imagine being pulled over by a traffic patrol officer after observing your driving behavior and cites you for one act of indiscretion (going over the posted speed limit for 10 minutes). The citation (around $100) covers the whole speeding episode that was observed and it acts as an instant deterrent to your actions. However, in the second example, there are no law enforcement officers, but rather you trip a series of 10 or more speed cameras that are strategically positioned on highway "speed zones". Several weeks later 10 or more speeding tickets are found in your mailbox amounting to over $2,000, since each speed camera represents its own unique violation. In that scenario, there is no instant deterrent of speeding and that allows each separate action to be considered a violation.

With state governments trying to fill shortfall in budgets many are turning to these technologies to alleviate some of the pressure. Does it seem fair to punish people for multiple infractions of the same law as they drive down an interstate? How many times do you find yourself just going with the flow of traffic or just going a few miles over the speed limit as you come down a hill? The use of these technologies to generate revenue for budget shortfalls does not match the governments push to utilize them for safety. Should foreign companies (or any company for that matter) receive a portion of revenue from traffic fines that are paid after their product is used to implicate you? Head over to the Veil Guy Blog to read more on the fight over the governments' use of speed and red-light cameras.

I just wanted to point out a couple very in-depth and well researched articles that were recently written by the Veil Guy.

• Automated Red Light Speed Camera Photo Enforcement: For Safety or Profit?
• Automated Photo Enforcement: A Growing Cancer Undermining the Very Fabric of our Civil Liberties

These articles examine the rapidly growing trend here in the United States toward automated traffic enforcement. Veil Guy explores the motivations behind these systems, and questions if we are moving in the right direction.

I believe that these are important issues, and more people should be concerned. This really isn't just about running red lights. I'm afraid that we are in the process of becoming a more watched society, and the red light and speed cameras are just the beginning. Many cities, including Boston, have already received grants from the federal government for surveillance cameras. We have to decide as a society if we really want the government to have the ability to potentially watch our every public move, or if our constitutional right to privacy should prohibit these types of systems.

Veil Guy has done a great service putting this information out there, and I encourage everyone to check it out.