There are lots of things I dislike. Very few things I hate. One of the things that I hate with a passion is speeding tickets. I drive fast as I need to get where I am going. Now in my neighborhood I have a map in my head of all the speed traps. A speed trap is a spot that local police hang out at waiting to pounce on the next motorist speeding along the road.
They sit there hiding and pointing their radar gun. When someone speeds by they are going to get hit with a ticket. Aren’t there SO MANY other ways you would rather spend your money?
Enter SpeedTrap. These guys have a database covering all the United States, Mexico, The Caribbean and Canada. The site is kind of fugly but they are developing a new beta version that looks much more Web 2.0 instead of something circa 1999. You can see their progress on the beta here. But from what I can see the beta version is the United States only for the time being.
According to the website:
The police may be out in the open, hiding behind bridge abutments, or passing overhead in an airplane. Driver after driver is issued a speeding ticket that results in exorbitant fines, points on their driver’s licenses and insurance surcharges. If only there was a way you could share your knowledge of speed traps, in exchange for the speed trap knowledge of others. Well, now there is!
The site is super simple to use. First select ‘View SpeedTraps’ on the home page or click this link to go to it directly.
Click on where you want to find speed traps. Sometimes you can find very specific listings like a specific highway or overpass and other times you can find more broad ranges.
I take the belt parkway over by Bay Ridge daily so I clicked on it to see if my speed trap was listed.
The best part are the comments. For some of my local speed traps a angry motorist who got stopped by the same cop 3 times had this to say in her comment:
“This cop doesn’t care who is speeding - he would give his own mother a ticket. My cleavage didn’t help me at all! He must be gay!”
I know the cop she is talking about and started laughing uncontrollably.
So go check it out. Add some of the speed traps you know and find some you don’t know about today! The more people who use it the more beneficial it will be for everyone!
Do you have another site that helps you out? Do you have the ultimate radar detector? How do you get around - and no, not speeding is NOT the answer :).
(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at the NEW AskTheAdmin.com today. Show your support and check us out today! Where all your technology questions are answered for free!
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Filed Under: Browser ¦ Cool Websites
Tags: cars, driving, police, save money
honestly, i have no problem with speed traps. here in the US drivers in general are not trained well enough to travel the roads at high speeds. i’m originally from germany and aquired my driver’s license while living there. you had to go through 30 hours (30 REAL hours, ala 60 minutes) of driving under real conditions, not on some roped of parking lot. those 30 hours included 210 hours in downtown traffic, 10 hours on the autobahn at high speeds, 5 on highways and 5 hours at night.
once they offer similar training over here, i would have no problem with drivers going past the max speed of 70 miles, but until then, more power to the speed traps and down with the wreckless speeders who feel they need to go in excess of posted speeds (and yes, i’ve had a few tickets since i moved here, but it was because i knowingly broke the law).
So you don’t want to know where they are so you COULD have avoided the ticket? Sorry mister money bags but that $75 is better spent elsewhere.
I must agree with herbhonestly. It’s not about the money, it’s about principle.
correct, driver training in the USA and Australia is sub-standard compaired with most of Europe. Poor quality roads, insufficient signage, tiredness, fatigure and alcohol all cause more accidents and fatalities than speed ever would.
Speed limits are there for a reason! To try to keep people safe from all the idiots on the roads, who if not already, would certainly get into an accident every second day! Can you imagine what driving would be like if there were no speed limits/traps ?!?!?!?! As if there are not already enough morons on our roads! How many speed related deaths & injuries is it going to take to make people like yourself realize how dangerous speeding on a regular basis is!?!?!?! I was very surprised to see this article on this website! If you guys have nothing interesting to write about then just dont write at all! That would be better than reading this kinda content.
“speed” does not kill anyone. The bulk of accidents happen at or below the speed limits. Idiotic, poorly trained, tired and unattentive or distracted drivers cause the majority of accidents. worldwide just about every government statistics shows this…… speeding fines are just another way to tax drivers. again most speeding tickers are so near to the speed limit, its hardly intentioanly reckless driving.
Off course the bulk of accidents happen at or below speed limit! That’s because the 90 percent of the people drive at or below speed limit!
You can’t dismiss the fact though, that the chance for and the graveness of an accident increases exponentially with the speed.
If you have good control of your car, congratulations. But not everyone has.
props to LeafsLover. Posting content that shows people how to speed is irresponsible, lame, and kinda below standards for your website. All this article says is “ZOMG u guyz. Chek out this website!!!!!11111one”
Hey also you know what else is lame? Gay jokes. Seriously Karl. Grow up.
Irresponsible lame and below standards?
are you kidding me?
And what do you say about the radar detector industry? They must all be bloody murderers with out a care in the world eh?
Also I really don’t see that as a GAY joke - it was a post saying a woman could not get out of a speeding ticket after she flashed her cleavage - it also said he would ticket his own mother - is that a mother joke?
OH PLEASE DON’T CALL ME MOTHER!! LMFAO!
No, I’m not kidding you. Here’s the thing, MakeUseOf is supposed to be a site that supplies useful information on web applications, and sometimes desktop applications. Emphasis on the application. All you supplied was a web adress to a site that could be easily navigated by an eight year old. You offered no expertise, no insight, into the website, and I therefore find absolutely no merit in your article beyond a long-winded and glorified “This website is kool!”. You say yourself “The site is super simple to use”, so why do you need such a long article explaining it. Next time you write something, try to make it actually useful not obvious and redundant.
Thank you thank you thank you. This will help me big time with moving. It took me a while to find all of them in my last towne.
Shame on the bulk of the posters here, this is genuinely useful and can be a huge help. If your best friend called to tell you about a speedtrap on the way, I doubt you’d go off on him about the obtuse ethical and safety concerns: you would thank him. Thanks, Karl, I appreciate it.
Oh boy
The difference between that beta and the current site is astronomical
‘I drive fast as I need to get where I am going”. How irresponsible!?! What makes you more entitled than any other driver out there? Is everyone else driving around aimlessly in order to intenionally slow you down? As a police officer, I have no problem with speed trap information sites because if they make people slow down then they are helping to resolve a problem. My problem is with people who think it is okay to speed because they are in a rush, such as the author of this story. Stats aside (I question some posted here), the most horrific and tragic accidents I have witnessed have involved speed. It is ashame that such a useful and informative site such as this one had to direct readers to a possibly worthwhile site in such an irresponsible manner.
Thanks for your insight and comments based on first-hand experience!
Having spent my youth and early years driving in Germany I DO like to go fast, but not at the risk of getting a speeding ticket or endangering mine or the life of others. I do agree with you that the mst horrific accidents I have seen have involved speeding (and drinking). Speeding kills, just like driving while under the influence does.
On a side note I do agree with some of the opinions stated here that speed limits at times are useless and traps are more used as a cash cow than anything else; however, given the current state of driver training, I must say I’d rather have it this way.
PS: Also thanks for serving as a police officer in an increasingly hostile society. Be safe!
This site was very useful and I will definitely use it. I wouldn’t think to ever look for a site like this so you finding it for me was fantastic. I like to drive the speed limit, maybe 10 over from time to time and I highly doubt that is being irresponsible. I do agree with speed traps as well but when they get you for 5 over the speed limit its completely wrong. Not only is the ticket way to much, now my insurance has to sky rocket because of it as well??? Completely unnecessary.
I also must say that I completely agree with the more accidents occur to people who drive to slow statement. When you have a row of 3 cars on the highway and 20 cars behind each of them because they now have nowhere to go because someone doesn’t want to actually PASS someone in the PASSING lane then yea something bad is definitely about to happen.
Here’s another couple of things to factor in
* Faster speeds burn much more fuel. Multiply that by millions of vehicles and the Global Warming rate just went up a notch. Plus it’s costing you in your pocket every time you fuel up.
* Here in the UK, since fuel prices increased (and they are way way above USA prices) drivers drive less and more slowly, so congestion is down, accidents are down and road travel is generally much more pleasant.
* My own experience is that, in this lower speed world we are in at the moment, drivers are more courteous too - they will let you out of that side street, for example.
The easy way to get to where you’re going on time is this - leave 5 or 10 minutes earlier than you would.
Don’t risk your life and others lives, just because you couldn’t tear yourself away from the tv/computer screen, or you stood shooting the breeze for too long.