Thursday, November 13, 2008

Dashboard gadget lets drivers warn others about speed cameras

"Drivers who spot hidden speed cameras will be able to warn other vehicles with the help of a dashboard gadget.

Motorists who have the Mini Coyote installed in their car will be able to press a button, alerting others within three seconds of the speedtrap.

The satellite-positioning device transmits the location of the camera to a processing centre.

The information is then relayed to other drivers who have installed the same equipment.

The £199 gadget sends out an alarm and colour-coded warning letting drivers know how frequently the camera has been reported.

It also displays the car’s speed, the speed limit and the distance to the camera.

A car travelling (sic) 300 yards behind the driver who first spots the trap would receive the warning in time to slow down before the camera.

More then 50,000 drivers in France already have the new device. They reported 27,000 speed traps in September.

Novus, the company behind the Mini Coyote, is taking advantage of a legal grey area.

Although police forces sometimes warn that drivers could be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice if they try to alert other drivers to speed traps, there have been very few successful prosecutions.

Road safety groups have warned that the device undermines the ability of police to enforce the limit because drivers would be able to speed with very little risk of being caught.

Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, told The Times: 'It should be made clear to drivers who are thinking of buying these devices that they could be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice.'"

Bullshit.

When a government finds ways to tax those wishing to get somewhere faster than the snails who clog the world's roadways, it behooves the intelligent driver to use similar technologies to avoid such arbitrary restrictions, that are in no way, shape or form to do with safety and EVERYTHING to do with reaching into our pockets to fund one socialist agenda or another.

I've slowed down a great deal since my salad days, hell, hardly exceed 90 anymore but I do drive somewhat faster than the run-of-the-mill soccer mom who of course is balancing a cell phone in one hand and a hair brush or lipstick tube in the other while striving mightily to master a 2-ton behemoth laughingly referred to as a SPORTS Utility Vehicle. Far more energy is wasted in creeping along behind such dangerous dolts so don't dare try and make it seem like most enforcements are about anything other than MONEY.

In over 40 years of driving I've only been ticketed once for speeding, but am aware of the probability that I'm simply not as good at spotting traps as when I was a twenty-something.

How about you?

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