Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General How to avoid speeding tickets!

heres an idea, dont speed!

dont speed? wheres the fun in that?

going 80 on an Interstate is way different than going 50 in a residential area.

To me, those who speed near homes and kids are the ones who really should be ticketed.

Here, here! I admit, I speed on the highway, but I will stick to the set speed limit on al residential streets. I see it like this, God forbid you hit someone's child! And never, ever, EVER pass a school bus that has its lights on!

hehe, good luck using their advice!

And I quote:

Sorry, but it doesn't take me 3 seconds to clock someone. My radar unit typically returns a reading in far less than a second. The author is also assuming that the officer would necessarrily have to start clocking you from close range, which is not at all accurate. I write tickets for 1/2 - 3/4 mile out all the time. That distance also reduces the cosine error.

In addition to that, there is nothing saying that the radar reading is a one time only reading. Once activated, it is continous until the operator (officer) shuts it off or returns the unit to standby. This means that the officer can observe the indicated change in your speed as you drive by, even though you actual speed may stay the same. Thus, the officer can testify that the cosine error was observed, and proves that the unit was working as intended. It also proves that your actual speed was higher than your indicated speed, at which point you are assured a conviction.

Just goes to show, don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Not that I've ever used a radar gun, but I'm a physics student, soon to be a physics minor. Only if you are travelling directly at the (stationary) radar gun will it give your true speed reading. This cosine error (if I'm understanding correctly that it refers to the error produced by varying angles) will only give a lower speed than the car is actually traveling. For example, if you are clocked going exactly perpendicular to the radar, it will show a speed of zero, because you are not moving in reference to the radar. So even if you are clocked close the officer, it can be proven with simple physics that you were going even faster than the gun showed.

Food for thought I guess.

The cosine effect always benefits the violator. I don't see it as a very good defense in court. LOL

Sandman333,

Just curious....is there any minimum overage you generally don't pull people over for.

Say for example someone was going 8-9miles over. Would you persue them or would you wait for something a bit more. I know that I've passed cops sitting on the side of the highway several time going say 8-10mph over the speed limit and they didn't pull me over!

Always wondered if there was a minimum overage or something?

In defensive driving, they've told me 7. I'm sure it varies when you're on the highway and in the city, etc. My buddy got pulled over for doing 76 on the Interstate (75mph limit), and I know people that have just gotten warnings doing 15 over in the city. So I'm sure it's all relative.