Not that I would ever speed on the M3 on way to the boat............

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Nick2

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Whilst trying to avoid the appaling weekend drivers on the M3 a freind of mine has occaisonally noticed his speed increasing a little beyond 70mph.....

Think it may be time for him to get a snooper radar detector thing and he wondered whether they actually work and if so which ones are worth buying?

I am appalled by the drivers who sit in the overtaking lane whilst the other two are empty which causes the traffic to bunch up behind. How do you get these drivers to move back into the inner lanes where they belong without flashing or undertaking? This really bothers me.

Tips on detectors would be appreciated (for my pal)

Nick

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I travel the M3 every weekend without a dectector or a problem with radar.
what's it going to do about the outside lane anyway. Just use the inside lane and ignore them all if it worries you; and let them worry about you if they wish.

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No the outside lane bit was just an aside which really bugs me when you get folk treating the two or three lane motorway as if it only had one - the outside one.

Tending now to take your approach to these Drivers Duncan.


Nick

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I have heard that that there not being many cameras down the M3, the best advice is to be on the lookout all the time. Radar detectors can be useful at night, but being painted bright yellow, most cameras these days should be avoidable using the Mk1 eyeball. Your friend won't be able to detect a laser sighting trap until it's too late in any case.

Unmarked cars are always an issue. Enforcers of the law tend to drive certain cars, and if you know what to look for, you can spot even the unmarked ones a mile off. You can write off many makes of cars as being never-driven-by-plod. Think about it... When was the last time you saw HM Constabulary driving any of:
Fiat
Alfa Romeo
Ferrari
Porsche
Renault
Citroen
Bristol
Bentley
TVR
Lotus
Daewoo
Suzuki etc. etc.

On the other hand, if you see any of the following in the inside lane doing 70mph, ask yourself "why is such a car doing only 70, and what do those black epaulettes on his smart white shirt mean, and why has it got two aerials ?"...
Subaru Imprezza (red, green)
Volvo 850 T5 / V70 T5 (dark blue)
Volkswagen Jetta VR6 (mauve)
Volkswagen Golf VR6 (titanium)
Vauxhall Vectra V6 (various)
Ford Mondeo ST220's

All the points on my friends license have been added due to mistakes or misunderstandings (e.g. leaving a New Forest village, road opens up, see a sign "Still 30", ooops, hit the brakes, spot the white van with the doors open too late...)

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Now if you drive above the speed limit, you must need TRAINING.

The ICC will be no use here, so go for an IAM.

But it's very irresponsible to speed. If you crash, you will have to 999, 'cos there's no PAN PAN on the Mway. And that will waste the valuable time of the emergency services.

If you were going to think about speeding that day, you should have looked out of the window before hand and said 'It looks a bit damp out there, I better not go out and drive today, because I know I will try and speed, and it wont be safe'.

Plus, you must make sure you have a reflective yellow jacket, a red warning triangle, just in case the engine fails, or you get a leak in a tyre.

But do remember to carry an auxiliary dyson in the boot. Attached to the rear bumper, it oughta be good for about 2 mph, if the main engine fails when an Eddy Stobart wizzes past, splashes you and flooding the engine bay.

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Go for the Bell 550, expensive but the best. Got mine the day after being done one Sunday evening coming back from the boat 34 in a 30 no one around, gutted. Be warned doesn't do the new fixed digital sites need the Morpeous Geodesy as well for them or similar.

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Was than on the M3 or in the M3?

If you want a camera device get a GPS one like Geodesy imho.

But no device (except maybe Mk1 eyeball as mentioned above) will prevent you being caught by a plod tailing you or laser gun zapping you. So what you need is a legal device....

There are only 2 ways to get caught. by camera or by plod on the roadside. Whichever one applies there is a foolproof method never to get points or be convicted. Not appropraite to post here too much (mentioned a bit before... I cant remeber). The camera one can be sorted after you get the ticket in the post. If stopped by a plod the crucial thing you must always remeber is be polite, give your correct name+address, dont show your licence or any ID, and do not sign the roadside ticket. If you do all this and implement the gambit you will never be convicted, I know for sure, done it

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I use a Supa Snooper. Detects all the different bands. Even picks up speed cameras from reflected signals from the cars in front in enough time to slow down. Has city setting as well. Not cheap, but saved my licence on more than one occasion.

There is a few unmarked cars on the M3. Mainly volvo's. Blue and silver. Saw one today on the way back from Basingstoke. Surrey constab are little Hitlers with revolving heads.

If people say "Ooh not me, I never speed" They is talking bollox. Try sitting in lane 1 at 70 and see how many cars you overtake ans how many cars that overtake you!

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Obviously from here I cannot comment on the models available, but the good ones do work. I have "a friend" with one of the permanent types installed in his car (behind the grille low to the road for the cameras, your wheels have the biggest cross sectional area to radar) and uses a portable one for use in second car, rentals, etc. He drives around 45,000 to 50,000 miles a year, mostly open road and has not been caught by a radar trap in the 15 or so years he has used a detector.

For the radar speed cameras (obviously not the permanent mounted ones set off by in road sensors etc) one has to be alert because the radars are very low power and are angled across the road. However, the angling across the road is a help, as you have to be virtually right on top of them to spring them, so to speak.

To use them properly you have to spend time getting used to differentiating between the various alerts and false alarms (of which there are alot in business and industrial areas) - it becomes second nature, but you have to work at it, casual is not good enough. Also, use ones eyes still. One should also still drive tactically by being more alert looking for and listening for radars in suspicious areas and perhaps even slowing down (heaven forbid) in them. Keep things in mind like the cosine effect on corners (one way increases your speed and the other decreases it as seen by the radar) but if like here there should not be speed cameras or any other radar use on bends, so are pretty safe on corners.

My "friend" has considerable experience with civil and military aviation radars and considers that given the foibles that they have even costing millions of dollars, some little thing operated by a copper who doesn't know the first thing about what he is doing is hardly likely to be reliable. That the latter is true is demonstrated by the fact if you drive a red sports car with a radar detector one will find that a copper coming the other way in a car will fire his radar off at one even though you are jambed in a slow moving queue of traffic, or in a few strange instances even when one is actually stopped (figure that out!).

The ultimate pleasure which my friend has realised a number of times is sitting behind a lane hog pushing his speed up, having the radar detector go off, braking, but the lane hog doesn't brake and "snap".

I assume they use lasers over there too. I have not used a laser detector but my friend's son does and despite general claims to the contrary, it seems to work very well. My friend's son has also played with one of the lasers themselves and says they are instant, as long as you can get on the target, which is hard from any distance. Again tactics are useful, the best ones oriented around that they normally need to target some flat part of the vehicle such as the number plate - keep your number plate screened by other vehicles from a shot from ahead when in risk areas, if possible.

There are a number of good internet sites on detectors and tactics.

My friend passes this comment on "Have fun, keep to the conditions." Reading the forgoing, he actually sounds like a bit of a maniac, but he assures me that in converging situations, wet conditions, ice, etc he finds that he actually drives slower than most everyone else.

John



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Ive got the latest one

really, really, useful. mine goes of AFTER youv'e passed through the trap, very handy, lets you know when the next summons is coming through the door ;( ;(
anyone have a position that doesn't require a car ???

<hr width=100% size=1>man made it ,man can repair it, i think??
 
others have commented about the radar detectors. but the huge increase in speed traps in the last year or so have been either mobiles using infra red laser guns or now the numberplate recognition type of trap where two cameras a fixed distance apart measure your average speed.

the lasers are instant, and unlike the radar are only triggered when plod (or an employee of one of their subcontractors) presses the button. so when he is waiting for you, they give off no signal to be detected - unless it is bounced off another poor sod in front of you. there are jammers that apparently work against the laser guns, but it is obvious to plod what has happened and I was told by a plod that you could still be pulled and charged with "perverting the course of justice". bit more serious than an sp60. so to be legal, you can only use a gps based system which, since there are many more sites than there are cameras, must give lots of false positives.

the numberplate cameras are undetectable. you can only use a gps based system to avoid them, and this has to be up to date.

all this accounts for the allegedly increasing number of vehicles either not registered to their new keeper, or having false number plates. in which case they are not insured - a much more serious matter (IMHO) than 34 in a 30 limit.

personally, I now largely stick to the limits - but wouldnt dream of going to the assistance of the police who are persecuting us.


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You may be interested to know that most of the manufacturers are now offering a combined unit with radar detecting and gps for similar money to a single radar detector i.e. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.uk-radar-detectors.co.uk/start.htm>here</A>

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The lasers are not as deadly as the police like to have you think. Also, I assume as here the police operate normally off radars from unmarked cars also. Also not as deadly as they like to have you believe.

The laser is instant, provided they can hit a surface reflective enough to give a return - normally the number plate. Try hitting a number plate with a laser at 1 km and if you are good at it you'll get a starring role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid II. As I said in the earlier post we have played with a laser speed gun and have tried a laser detector. The detector actually works a lot better than common opinion says - mainly I think because the copper is moving it over the front of the car to get a hit. For him to reliably hit you straight off and get a lock on you actually have to be pretty close - and that is why they say an alert driver is a safe one (well safe from lasers anyway)

The radars that are fired have a problem in that if they are in a moving patrol car they have to be monitoring the speed of the patrol car which is often picked before the radar is fired. That is quite strong as I found out when working for some time in a real fast driving remote area. Was driving home one night up to a crest of a steep hill and the local copper who I knew came over the top of the crest in his 4x4 with his radar off but tracking his speed ready to shoot - it set the detector off better than the full blown radar as it was aiming down the hill at me. If that is not picked up, then if there is other traffic around you always pick them up firing their radar at vehicles far up the road ahead. In very good conditions (a long straight slightly sloping downhill run over a plain) I have picked them up 4 or 5 km away. In any event, police cars are generally not quiet at radar frequencies (lots of IF's in radio equipment, in their radar, etc) so one way or another the detector will give at least a hint before any affirmative action from the copper.

Don't believe the coppers, they don't know the first thing about how radar works. Police vehicle radars cannot dicriminate between targets as they shoot straight down the road. Which means that if there is a car between you and the radar or at least a km down the road behind you they cannot claim that it was you they got (the cameras are different, they are angled across the road so can discriminate).

We don't have the number plate cameras here between fixed distances so are not a concern yet. Will worry about that if it happens.

PS I am not a maniac, I do have an interest in radar operations though having been seriously involved in it.

John


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Have often thought, often after the occasion, that a detector would be a good investment, until afew months back...

Was pulled over by marked police car, high powered BMW jobbie. Had seen it in the rear view mirror a number of cars back though I'd be ok as we all were at 80mph or so and just thought the police car was needing to pass to some other problem.

All the cars behind me pulled over one by one and police gets behind me by which time was driving at 70mph'ish, I pull over, but to my alarm so do the police, stays behind me till next lay-by.. Then... Oh sh1t copper indicates, just with a flash of his head lights and a hand signal for me to pull over, think he knew that I knew that it was me he was after.

Get out of car and copper asks if I had any idea where he had first clocked me, trying not to look concerned I said I'd no idea!!!! He then shows me the display in his hand held speed gun and explain the rather large 3 figured mph reading was me leaving the slip road to join the M*7....... SH1T, now i'm in real trouble.

But, all was not against me, copper then explains how he would not be able to use this reading because it could not be considered accurate, the only accurate reading they had, by the time they court up, was from the BMW car and that showed 76mph. So regular fine and 3 points, it was a relatively quite Sun morning with little traffic.

Thank you very much nice copper chap from Sussex police.

So perhaps the hand held speed guns/traps are not so accurate after all??

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Why do you get so het up about stuff like this. Relax. Life's stressful enough as it is without self-inducing it. If you are always in such a hurry, get up earlier/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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