Should drivers be legally entitled to carry radar detection equipement?

Bullseye1

Why is it illegal to have this equipment on your car? If the Garda are hiding behind ditches, signs etc to catch people speeding how is this actually improving peoples driving habits? Its detection not prevention. Surely it is really a money making exercise.

Wouldn't it be better if there was simply a greater presence of Garda cars on the road. People seem to slow right down when there is a Garda car in the same traffic.

MarkoC

Freedom is taken lol

What i suggest to government is to make them legal and then invest a bit on small radar signal sending devices. You can get them dome really cheap in china...
Plant them after every 5km and i cant see any problems after that

kirving

Good idea in principal, you'd never know when it really was a Garda! Although, people slamming on the brakes every few km would cause even more accidents...

They could put a huge rader on the Garda Helicopter and fly it over places where people were known to speed!

Actually, do the Gardai only ever point the radar/laser at the front of the car? Surely, if they pointed it at cars travelling away from them, it would still be effective. (They really just measure the increase in frequency of the returned singal relative to the output signal. The change in frequency is realated to the speed of the car)

MarkoC

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Good idea in principal, you'd never know when it really was a Garda! Although, people slamming on the brakes every few km would cause even more accidents...

Something new for me
Breaking down from 130 to 110 km/h will case massive accidents ?
Or people will slam the pedal till the speed is 0 ?

Love this forum and these funny comments

BUT MAYBE if these devices were everywhere, people didnt bother to buy anti radar scans as they know it will be useless and keep theyr feet off from the gas pedal ?

Anan1

Bullseye1 wrote: »

Why is it illegal to have this equipment on your car? If the Garda are hiding behind ditches, signs etc to catch people speeding how is this actually improving peoples driving habits? Its detection not prevention. Surely it is really a money making exercise.

This old faithful gets dragged up at least once a week. The answer is deterrence, the fear of getting caught.

Bullseye1

Deterence to create fear is not logical as people are just as likely to slam on h breaks. With radar detection you are made aware of the presence and slow down accordingly without having to slam on the breaks.

If governments where serious about cutting out speed why dont they simply limit the speed of cars.

bmw535d

Bullseye1 wrote: »

Deterence to create fear is not logical as people are just as likely to slam on h breaks. With radar detection you are made aware of the presence and slow down accordingly without having to slam on the breaks.

If governments where serious about cutting out speed why dont they simply limit the speed of cars.

when my radar detector goes off i glance at my mirror and glue her to the road because i don't have time to check am i speeding before the speed camera would nab me as i don't know how far or where it is, the problem is, most people wouldn't look at their mirrors.

Anan1

Bullseye1 wrote: »

With radar detection you are made aware of the presence and slow down accordingly without having to slam on the breaks.

Come on now, I did more slamming on for fewer traps back in the days when I drove with laser jammer & radar detector. In any case, most people don't even see the camera vans that catch them.

Bullseye1 wrote: »

If governments where serious about cutting out speed why dont they simply limit the speed of cars.

It'd need to be location based which would, I imagine, be very expensive.

Töpher

Bullseye1 wrote: »

If governments where serious about cutting out speed why dont they simply limit the speed of cars.

Because most accidents don't occur on motorways? A car limited to 120kph could still do 120 in a 60 zone.

djimi

Bullseye1 wrote: »

Deterence to create fear is not logical as people are just as likely to slam on h breaks. With radar detection you are made aware of the presence and slow down accordingly without having to slam on the breaks.

The idea of speed cameras is that you are not supposed to know when or where they will be, hence you dont speed because there is a constant fear of getting caught. If people know where they are then whats to stop them driving twice the limit until they are within 200 meters of the camera and then speeding up once they are passed it?

Agree with it or not, thats the logic behind banning the detection devices.

Bullseye1 wrote: »

If governments where serious about cutting out speed why dont they simply limit the speed of cars.

Because Irish speed limits only apply to Ireland. Not every car drives exclusively in Ireland. And you would have to limit the cars to 120 which wouldnt stop someone doing 100 past a school gate or thru a small village.

TomMc

Bullseye1 wrote: »

Why is it illegal to have this equipment on your car? If the Garda are hiding behind ditches, signs etc to catch people speeding how is this actually improving peoples driving habits? Its detection not prevention. Surely it is really a money making exercise.

Wouldn't it be better if there was simply a greater presence of Garda cars on the road. People seem to slow right down when there is a Garda car in the same traffic.

Detectors shouldn't really be banned if they only highlight the presence of speed measuring equipment. Jammers which interfere with the signal should. So I guess in Ireland, we tend to have a very black and white view of things, hence they are illegal.

Having used an expensive one when I was younger, I wouldn't bother. Between false alerts, limited reaction time/distance (for Gatso), trying to conceal it and worrying will it get stolen, it didn't make motoring a pleasant experience. Far better to show due care and attention at all times, keep your eyes open (maximum concentration/no daydreaming*) and use discretion if you want to press on (favourable roads and driving conditions).

* How many times have we gone from A to B and were so focused on the destination or say thinking about work etc, we missed the journey. Autopilot isn't just used on airplanes.

cyclopath2001

Anan1 wrote: »

It'd need to be location based which would, I imagine, be very expensive.

Since most GPS's have the speed limit for a given stretch of road programmed into them and can be set to trigger an alert if you stray over, it would be theoretically possible for this to regulate the engine.

Insurance companies could give discounts to people who volunteer to have this kind of limiting.

L1011

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Since most GPS's have the speed limit for a given stretch of road programmed into them and can be set to trigger an alert if you stray over, it would be theoretically possible for this to regulate the engine.

Insurance companies could give discounts to people who volunteer to have this kind of limiting.

Every time you suggest this, you get told its unworkable due to the dreadful outdated state of GPS mapping in this country and utterly inaccurate speed limits for the roads that are there; let alone the errors that can occur in GPS positioning.

Every time you're told that, you stick your fingers in your ears and continue to believe it can work. It can't.

Are you that guy that broke on to the Late Late? Seem to remember this was his thing...