Each year, Americans spend billions (yes, we said billions) of dollars on traffic tickets. Launched in April, a new service called Trapster aims to help keep some of that money in your pocket by alerting you to nearby speed traps through your cell phone or PDA. According to CNN, Trapster incorporates a live database with your mobile device’s GPS or WiFi capability to alert you to nearby police speed traps as well as radar and red-light cameras. Details and demonstration video, inside…..
Trapster is basically live social network of mobile devices which is designed to give real-time alerts about the location of speed traps. Once you sign up for the free membership, you simply download the software to your cell phone or PDA. According to developer Pete Tenerillio, most current-generation phones, Blackberries and PDA’s can run the software. Once you are on the road, your device will emit audio alerts when in the vicinity of a reported speed trap. To report a speed trap, users can simply hit “pound 1″ or dial a toll-free number.
The article says,
“Pete needed to get Trapster into as many handsets as possible, as many different types of phones and PDAs as he could, in order to build a large interactive social network,” Ted Morgan, Skybook’s CEO, explained. “A big challenge for a service like Trapster is that it requires the phone to know its own location. So, by integrating our [WiFi positioning] technology, it enabled Trapster to expand the potential pool of phones they could get service onto.
“We take advantage of the fact that there are WiFi access points almost everywhere in populated areas — homes, offices, Starbucks stores, etc,” Morgan said. “We have crews that go out and survey every street, we’ve covered over a million miles of road, which covers 70 percent of the population. We’ve now mapped over 40 million access points.”
The debate as to whether this type of service encourages speeders or promotes safe driving is never-ending. Conversely, one could debate whether a speed trap’s primary function is to keep roads safe or to pad local revenues. Ultimately, it may be a combination of all these factors which plays a role in this high-tech version of cat and mouse. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any information regarding the size of Trapster’s user base so it’s effectiveness could be limited depending on your area.
Speed traps — new way to avoid them [CNN]
(Photo: Getty)
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@ohiomensch: man, no wonder you guys don’t know how to drive. ;P
Don’t want a speeding ticket? Don’t break the law. Cruise control is your friend.
I’ve had one speeding ticket in my 24+ years of driving. On long trips it’s hard not to speed as it seems like you are not getting anywhere unless you are passing people.
As bad as gas prices are getting I’m surprised they haven’t proposed going back to the 55mph speed limit to conserve gas, or is that not the most fuel efficient speed anymore?
I still say that it’s bull-shit how a person can ride a motorcycle down an interstate or highway, but yet me being in a damn car, I’m the one who has to wear a seatbelt. As if the motorcycle is somehow immune to accidents and that wearing a helmet on a motor cycle is somehow safer than me driving without a seatbelt.
btw, I always drive 9 miles over the limit. I’m speeding, but it’s not enough of an offense to warrant a traffic ticket, (on the highway anyway). I don’t drive down residential areas in the same mannor.
also- for every 10mph over 60 that you do, your gas mileage decreases significantly.
@InfiniTrent: I’ve gotten tickets for flat-out speeding, and yes I agree I have no right to complain about those. But ticketing people who are coasting down a hill on an empty street is a waste of cop payroll. Why aren’t these cops out looking for real reckless driving? I haven’t seen anyone pulled over for that yet in my entire life, and I bet there’s tons of it going on at midnight.
@snoop-blog: Huh? Are you saying motorcyles should have seatbelts? O_o
This isn’t the solution for the real speed traps. The solution for the real speed traps is to go after the government about their rules for posting signs. Anything else is a non-starter.
@uberbucket: You do know what a speed trap is, right? The law is specifically designed to be broken (and cruise control would be your worst enemy). Any attempt to circumvent speed traps isn’t breaking the law, but for to avoid being, oh, trapped into breaking a law.
As for the 55 mph speed limit, I don’t see it happening. The political shift of the past 30 years means any law that any law that comes at a small, short term cost for the greater, long-term good is anathema to free livin’ ‘Mer’cans.
@Balisong: Like this?
@spinachdip: Is that thing technically a scooter or a motorcycle? Cause I wouldn’t drive that thing on a US highway if you paid me!
@snoop-blog: Seat belts on motorcycles…seriously? You have obviously never ridden a motorcycle. The though of being strapped to 600lbs of out-of-control motorcycle is frankly terrifying and very dangerous.
@Balisong: i’ve seen it. once. ONCE. i was traveling rte 8 north (right around ansonia, ct) in bumper to bumper traffic when some idiot in the left lane jockeyed into the right lane (damn near clipped my front end). well, he just about ran a trooper off the road that was entering from an on-ramp in the process. heheh.
@Balisong: It’s basically a scooter, but I think it requires a full motorcycle license in Europe, but don’t quote me on that.
@mac-phisto: Actually it just popped into my head that I’ve also seen it ONCE. In some crawling traffic on an interstate where half the lanes were blocked off for construction (though with no construction vehicles around in that particular spot), some guy missed his exit and to get back to it drove slooooowly backward in the construction lanes. I was trucking with my mom at the time, and from our vantage point we could see a cop at the exit just sitting and waiting for the guy to finally get to him. Oh sweet justice XD
Though really, what cop wouldn’t ticket for that crap?
I love this idea. My dad actually got pulled over in a speeding trap in the Anza Borrego Desert -FOR GOING TOO SLOW. These people will give you a ticket with a damned if you do, damned if you don’t mentality.
I hope you don’t mind that I added a little link for it on my new blog, The Cheapskates Guide to Life at [cheapskatesguide.wordpress.com]
Um are you guys serious? I know it wasn’t that hard to get the point I was making. That if it is illegal to drive a car without a seatbelt, than motorcycles should be illegal alltogether. Please tell me you guys aren’t that dense. Wow the Wonkette readers were right.
@uberbucket: you worry me.
@snoop-blog: That still makes no sense whatsoever. The reason motorcycles don’t have seatbelts is because you want to toss yourself away from your giant lump of metal that will crush you if you’re attached to it as it skids across the pavement. The reason cars have seatbelts is so you won’t be tossed through the windshield of your giant lump of metal and be splattered all over the pavement. Motorcycle with seatbelt will kill you. Car without seatbelt will kill you. Get it???
The safest speed is the flow of traffic. Period.
No traffic? Road conditions dictate what is safe, not an arbitrary limit.
Common sense people.
Those of you who preach about not exceeding speed limits, need to be followed to make sure you use your turn signals everywhere, including parking lots, and that you follow the rules at a 4 way stop, as well as avoid changing lanes while passing through an intersection, along with all the other safety rules of the road. Excessive speed for the conditions only accounts 3% of all accidents.
“Failed to look properly: 32%
Bad behaviour or inexperience: 25%
Misjudged other drivers speed/path: 18%
Poor turn/manoeuvre: 15%
Going too fast for conditions: 12%
Loss of control: 14%
Vision affected: 10%
Slippery road: 10%
Following too close: 7%
Sudden braking: 7%
Disobeyed traffic signal or stop sign: 6%
Impaired by alcohol: 5%
Exceeding speed limit: 5%
Road layout: 3%
Vehicle defects: 2% “
[www.speedcameras.org]
so what you are saying is that no one has ever died wearing a seat belt, hmm interesting. Because my point was that a car without a seatbelt is safer than riding with a helmet. No where did I anything about a motorcycle having a seat belt, only a fuktard would suggest that. Qoute me saying that motorcycles have seat belts please. I know it read confusing when I said that “and I’m the one who has to wear a seatbelt, but was I meant (and I was really hoping that not all consumerist readers are 9th grade english teachers that haven’t cracked smile or farted in 10 years) and that just maybe you would not take everything so literal, as I’m sure other commenters are wondering why you didn’t get my point.
@Balisong: read my last comment.
fuck it. nevermind. I don’t know why I even bother to argue with you blog-lo-dytes. Just read my damn comments. Or not, but don’t even bother to post a response if it is just an attempt to show the world how bad my grammer is.
@snoop-blog: so what you are saying is that no one has ever died wearing a seat belt, hmm interesting.
I didn’t say that : I said “Car without seatbelt will kill you.”
Because my point was that a car without a seatbelt is safer than riding with a helmet.
Not that I have statistics to back myself up, but off the top of my head I don’t agree. But then I’m taking into consideration that a motorcycle driver that isn’t an idiot would be wearing more protection than merely a helmet (i.e. not just shorts and a t-shirt, which should be as illegal as not wearing a seatbelt in a car).
But yes, your posts were confusing.
@snoop-blog: Grammar, not grammer.
(Sorry, just trying to push you over the edge…)
There’s an even better way to keep all of that speeding-ticket money in your pocket: don’t speed.
There’s a distinct and obvious difference between speeding tickets and speed traps.
Speeding tickets: Going 50 through a community where the speed limit is 30. 102 in a 65 on the highway.
Speed traps: An officer sitting, under cover, where the speed limit changes from 45 to 30 and hitting you just as you go by the sign.
If you don’t understand that then I don’t know what to tell you.
And if speed legislation was meant to save lives, it wouldn’t be horrifically easy to circumvent. With enough money, you can have any speeding ticket reduced.
I think traps cause more safety issues.
People tend to break unexpectedly when they see a cop. People also tend to slow down drastically when driving by an officer who has pulled someone over. Both of these create unsafe events on the road. I’ve been behind idiots who even slow down for flashing lights and sirens– on the opposite side of the concrete barricaded interstate. Are they just stupid, or are they slowing down to look? OMG FLASHING LITEZ!
The selfless public servants who tell you what to do have only your best interest in mind. Now pay your fines and move along citizen.
[www.thenewspaper.com]
Municipal cops in my state (Maine) don’t see the cash from the tickets. It all goes to the state, which ironically pass the laws that the cops enforce. So the cops aren’t propping their gas funds with the speeding tickets… here, anyway.
Besides, it would make me relax, ever so slightly, if people could just drive the speed limit… But I hate driving and am hopelessly biased.
Ya know you could also DO THE SPEED LIMIT, and you wouldnt have to worry about speed traps. But I guess people think its OK to break the law.
How about 10 strikes and you are out of a drivers license for ,say, 10 years? If you want to get it back you have to pay 10 thousand dollars and serve 500 hours of community service? That would make people slow down.
back in the dark ages when i was with the police force,the
issuing agency would get 10% of the proceeds from the summons, and the state would get the rest..i’ve been retired for 20 some years, so i don’t know if it’s like that now….
e
@Daniels: Word. And when does the “speed limit” begin… as you pass the sign or when the sign is in view? Because even the LAPD can’t decide.
I once got a ticket for suddenly braking when the speed changed from 50 to 35 going downhill. The signs were only 20 feet away from each other. You can’t slow down 15 mph within 20 feet without slamming on the brakes HARD, yet the cop gave me a ticket because he “almost hit me”. I argued, well, if you were tailgating, you wouldn’t have been in danger. I fought the ticket and the signs got moved, but a year later they put them back up and posted 6 motorcycle cops there to hand out tickets all day. When the speed signs dictate a driver must do the impossible to obey, that is a speed trap.
I love the obedience-drones on this site. Remember folks, obey the rules, and wall will be well.
On the topic, Trapster is excellent and remarkably accurate. It won’t save you from a random hiding spot but it’ll definitely ruin the usual hiding places if more and more people use it.
were=weren’t
@mac-phisto: Well, that guy’s doubly idiotic for doing it THERE, of all places. Route 8 makes me nervous around the whole Ansonia/Shelton/Derby area.
Although to be fair, it’s not as bad as getting on 84 east in Waterbury from 8 north, where you practically have to check oncoming traffic into the boards just so you don’t get railroaded into the exit that’s a foot and a half in front of the on-ramp. -_-
@akede2001: I can’t tell you how much road rage I get when I’m cruising along at about 5 over and the people in front of me who are going BELOW the limit hit their brakes because there’s a cop in the median causing me to run up on them and looking like I’m tailgating. By the time you’re passing the cop, it’s too late and slamming on your brakes creates dangerous conditions.
Never have I been pulled over going ~7 over, or even had lights flashed at me to slow down. That being said, I’m in Cincy for the summer and the cops here sit in the emergency lanes standing behind their open passenger doors with their hand-held radar guns. It’s quite intimidating, and when you’re going 55+ it looks like they’re pointing a pistol at you and even I will hit my brakes a little because of this.
There’s a QotD over at TTAC about mandatory seatbelt regulation, and there was a comment that fits here too about how we owe each other common courtesy on the road. Speeding’s fine in my book, as long as it’s coupled with proper behavior for that speed.
I will confess that I do drive like a jackass occasionally and that probably makes me a huge hypocrite. However, having people do to me what I’ve done in the past has made me realize how reckless I have been.
wow – in New Brunswick, there are always “Approaching slower limit”-style signs up. Dropping from 80 to 50? That’s a sign, about 100m metres (300 feet, I think?) before the 50 sign. Extortionist police policies ftw!
@Balisong: Estimates for seat belt effectiveness vary wildly depending on the study, but I’ve never seen one that suggested that they reduced fatalities buy more than half or so. So, an unbelted driver is facing ~4 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.
Compare that to a motorcycle rider, who must contend with over 40 fatalities per 100M VMT. It’s still 10x more dangerous than being in a car.
Motorcycles are vastly more dangerous than cars. Period. Nothing against them. They’re awesome. But riders should be aware of the risks, try to mitigate them as much as possible, and understand that they may get to die doing something they love.
As far as this technology goes, I fail to see how this doesn’t constitute a company conspiring to break the law. Or enable people to break the law or something.