Exactly. I haven't encountered a cop using X band since the 1990s. All X band signals I see now are door openers at grocery stores.

And yeah, a K band zap in the middle of nowhere usually means there's a Honda nearby.

Last time I had a detector (a remote Bel Pro RX75 Plus with laser jammer that works), I turned off X band because of incessant false positives. With just K and Ka (and laser), almost all detection were legit.

Radar detectors on the windshield look dumb, clutter the windshield, and encourage ticket-writing by offending some cops with fragile egos. Remote detectors or go home.

I remain amazed that Seattle doesn’t do this for the 99 tunnel that goes under the city. People routinely fly through there at like 40 miles over what the limit is - and due to a bus lane addition going northbound, they exit the tunnel at a high rate into some very varied traffic.

The tunnel is a toll road that’s photo enforced. Should be an easy ticket in the mail if your enter and exit time are way too close or something.

(I’m guessing it might be the age old “can’t prove it was you driving” defense?)

It sure doesn't sound like those systems were built to go after irresponsibly fast drivers.

This is easily managed by hiding your license plates. I haven't shown my real license plate in years (It has a ping identity sticker on it) and no plans on doing so, it's to protect my own privacy.

Improper and reckless behavior kill, not speed per se. Going the speed limit around a blind curve without sufficient stopping distance or going faster than one's headlights are dangerous. There is no universal rule except don't drive faster or riskier than your or your vehicle's capabilities or endanger others.

I just wish cops would actually do that more frequently. My local interstate is basically only trapped during a small window a day, easy to memorize.

I don’t blame people for speeding when we care so little as to actually monitor and enforce. Especially when it’s easy to automate.

I'm pretty sure the context here was not off highways.

If you've ever driven in italy you know that velocity is normally measured in a 100km/h road, right after a 20km/h sign that was there for no other reason than to fine people. For bonus points the sign can be hidden behind a bush or can be so old and faded nobody knows what it says.

I was momentarily confused because where I live "Off Highway" has a specific legal meaning - meaning not on public roads, e.g. on dirt trails or in a farm field.

https://www.blm.gov/programs/recreation/OHV

No, speed differential kills.

I don’t speed off highway. On highway though when traffic is light, visibility is good, I don’t see the big deal with going 70 in a 60. The detector gives me peace of mind so I can focus on what’s relevant rather than playing “find the cop” or, worse, going the speed limit and falling asleep. :)

Over here in Finland I can't even remember the last time I saw actual policemen with radars monitoring traffic. It's all cameras these days, making detectors like this highly useless. They were a thing in the 90's or so.

Not to mention cheaper ;)

My understanding is that in most jurisdictions a laser jammer is a magic device that transmutes a speeding ticket into a complementary trip to jail

Speed tickets are very unequally enforced. Last time I saw speeding enforcement plotted on a map, most states were broadly the same of hardly any enforcement. However, Ohio was the striking standout by iirc a full order of magnitude to the nearest peer.

There are quite a number of areas in the rural US where there's no cell coverage. In these places Waze won't help you, but radar detectors still work.

Make the speed limit sensible, and I will.

I don't speed in Europe because 130 km/h is a perfectly fine limit; I've driven faster on uncontrolled Autobahn segments, but I'm not bothered when there is a limit. 65 mph on the NJ Turnpike (and only on the southern part) is not.

Which one is it, driving sensibly or driving within the speed limit?

There are roads here that “feel” like a 35 or even 45mph road. The speed limit is 7. Yes, 7. It’s purely for local revenue.

http://m8y.org/bloomcounty.jpg

There are back roads out there that drop 15 mph at the state line with no population around for miles. Detectors offer peace of mind for travel at a leisurely self-determined rate.

...on the long (9 miles to the next town), straight county road just by my house with a 50 mph speed limit that sees maybe 1 car per minute on average. There's a reason that the average speed there is 65mph+

What fun is that?

That being said, "speed culture" varies a lot from state to state. Where I live it's assumed and expected that you will speed, and in other areas you can get a ticket for going 1 over.

The legal and cultural ambiguity means that someone who is unsure of the real, enforced, culturally-accepted speed limit may want to use a radar detector.

Then set the limits properly at the 85% mark. And ban speed limit fines from going into local coffers.

It's hard to find exact stats because of how procurement and statistics works across jurisdictions, states, etc... but from what I CAN find it seems that LIDAR is more common than Radar these days. Over the whole country it looks like a slight majority lead for LIDAR, but in some (quite populous) states they almost only use LIDAR (PA for example had 93% of their tickets come from LIDAR, and I believe most of the rest used speed cameras or 'clocking' rather than RADAR).

Sources:

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/TR/Transcripts/2018_00...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar_traffic_enforcement

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/lidar-sp...

Its like the dumbest product manager meme. “Humans use eyes for this right, why can’t our gadget?” “It must work at night? Oh we will just use a thermal camera” “Pixels in an image are not all from the same time instant? We will just pay 10x for a global shutter camera”

The list goes on and on and on. No, they will not just be replaced by whatever is producing loose AI facsimiles of the real world in a smartphone.

It's fine... if you're fine with constant video surveillance.

It's been done manually for decades. Read about VASCAR[1]

Yes with modern cameras and computers I would think it should be pretty doable.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VASCAR

Average speed cameras exist and are basically that. ANPR at two locations and measure the time it took you to get between them. It's actually more fair because an occasional accidental overspeed won't get you but continuous speeding will.