Filed under: Government/Legal
Florida to become 2nd state to ban radar detectors?
Thanks to Florida State Senator Steve Oelrich, the Sunshine State could become the second state in the union to ban the use of radar detectors by motorists. Oelrich proposed the bill to the state legistature on Wednesday, which would make the use of radar detectors in the state a secondary traffic infaction punishable by a ticket if the offending motorist were pulled over for another offense.
The arguments against radar detectors are well documented, the most obvious being that users believe they can speed at will and not get caught. Those who actually use radar detectors know that they are anything but a free pass to speed on public roads. In my own great state of Ohio, radar detectors are used to navigate the mine field of speed traps that plague our roadways.
Currently, Virginia and Washington D.C. are the only areas of the U.S. where the use of a radar detector in any vehicle is illegal. New York and Illinois have laws against radar detectors being used in commercial vehicles, while Minnesota and California have laws against hanging anything from a vehicle's windshield, which includes radar detectors.
[Source: PR Newswire]
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Rob Miller 8:27PM (3/01/2007)
Here's an article where Oelrich's *high school* kid went to Cancun, got drunk, and busted his head. Yeah, good job on teaching your kid on being responsible. I suppose rational decisions are instilled in his genes.
http://www.sptimes.com/News/042201/Worldandnation/A_fatal_attraction_.shtml
Reply
David 8:32PM (3/01/2007)
There are radar detectors which aren't hung from the windshield... I've seen many that look like garage door openers.
Reply
George 8:52PM (3/01/2007)
Aren’t Radars also banned in Canada?
Reply
Mike 9:13PM (3/01/2007)
I have had a top of line detector for some time now. I get regular software updates from the manufacturer whenever they are released. Trust me a radar detector is not a license to speed. If you habitually speed, you will get busted. That being said, I just don't like the idea of being electronically surveilled without me being aware. That's why I use it. Forewarned is forearmed.
Reply
Barney 9:25PM (3/01/2007)
George, re #3: Only in some provinces.
Reply
Brian M 9:35PM (3/01/2007)
Remember that name at election time Floridians. Throw the commies out.
Reply
gatorXero 9:50PM (3/01/2007)
Brian M....also known as Denny Crane
Reply
Iridium 10:25PM (3/01/2007)
When you see 20 cops on the way from Cleveland to Columbus on the average trip on I-71 a radar detector is a necessity.
Or take Route 8, 65 to 55 to 50 within 1/4 mile. Those guys love to sit in front of the 55 mph sign at night, clock you in the 65 zone and pull you over. "I clocked you going 68 in a 55, license and registration please."
Reply
far jr 10:31PM (3/01/2007)
There are some other small gimmicks I have been told about that "in theory" could scatter radar signal enough to prevent a reading. All without emmitting a signal of any type. I guess a small box with spinning vanes of some sort of reflective material.
Hey the gal that told me worked for a large defense contractor on phased array radars, so I guess she knows what she's talking about. Come to mention it she drives very fast and I don't recall her ever getting a speeding ticket. Maybe I need to take a peek under her hood.
Reply
hank 10:33PM (3/01/2007)
Radar detectors aren't much help in Florida nowadays. Most of the cops now use Laser which is much harder to detect.
Pretty strange for FL to try to pass a law like this.
They have no problem with you riding around on a 186 mph Hayabusa with NO helmet and a waist stuffed with Glocks and a bunch of 15 round mags. But it's the little radar box that gets all the heat.
But then again FL is the land of the butterfly ballot and Katherine Harris, so what the hell do they know anyway?
Reply
TBlueMax 10:37PM (3/01/2007)
Being a native Floridian (and still living in FL), I can tell you from personal experience that I'm all for this legislation... right after they pass legislation making slow driving in the left lane a primary traffic offense punishable by a 6-month suspension of your DL (and revocation of your DL if you're caught slow in the left lane while on a cell phone). If you've driven the N-S stretch of the FL Turnpike, I-95, or I-75, you know exactly what I mean.
Reply
MikeW 10:38PM (3/01/2007)
How about banning:
Speed traps
Quotas
Illegally low speed limits (85-90th percentile for highways, just the IKE wanted)
LASER guns [they can not prove you were ever speeding, they only prove average speed, and the last time I checked the speed limit sign did not say 'Average Speed Limit']
Tickets in the mail, vis-à-vis photo enforcement, red light cameras [Unconstitutional, violate due process of law, and are a money making scam]
Reply
Jeff 10:55PM (3/01/2007)
Steve Oelrich just got elected to the senate. He is the former sheriff of Alachua County, FL which includes the town of Waldo -- home of the most infamous speed trap in the country. This guy has to come close to being the lowest life form on earth.
Reply
CaliberSRT4 11:02PM (3/01/2007)
How about going the speed limit?
Reply
fd 11:07PM (3/01/2007)
That is terrible. A radar detector is not a free pass to speeding. The moment your radar detector catches a wave, the police already know what speed you are driving.
The flow of traffic everywhere is faster then the posted limits. At least by 10 and often by 20-25 mph. It is not safe to not go with the flow of traffic, but at the same time I don't want a ticket.
I very much would like required photographic proof the way they have it in Europe. I have been the victim of a speed trap where the police officer overstated my actual speed. I was doing +- 9-10 mph too fast and had a witness. Not 20 mph over! He could not have lied if it were black/white (or color) superimposed on a 4x6 photo. Privacy doesn't apply. It is a public road. If I drive too fast, then the radar can take my picture for evidence. It's not like the cameras are monitoring my every single move day in / day out. A picture is only taken when a certain treshold is passed.
Things that should be banned first:
- slow traffic keeping left & center
- passing on the right
- agressive driving
- unsafe vehicles
- trucks in the left lane
- absurd speed restrictions in some locations
- people with a series of suspensions
And let's not forget: police solely focussing on speed
There are plenty of other things that could increase safety, without needing to ban a radar detector.
Reply
Mike K 11:45PM (3/01/2007)
Radar detectors are illegal in commercial vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds in all fifty states, per Title 49 Transportation Act.
Radar detectors are also illegal to operate on any military base.
Laser jammers are illegal to operate in the states of: Nebraska, Minnesota, Utah, California, Oklahoma, Virginia, Colorado and Washington DC.
Radar jammers are illegal to own and/or operate in all 50 states per the Federal Communications Commission.
Reply
phillip wise 11:49PM (3/01/2007)
A guy at the office recently got a ticket in Louisiana doing 10 miles over. His ticket was $207.00.
Reply
epp_b 12:16AM (3/02/2007)
[How about going the speed limit?]
----------------------------------
That's daftly naive. There are too many loopholes to be able to fully trust law enforcement.
Like slowing from a 65 zone to a 55 zone by coasting, and perhaps you're going 57 by the time you hit the 55 zone with your foot off the accelerator. Or cops who have nothing better to do than write tickets because they're bored.
Just another way the "Land of the Free" isn't so much anymore.
Reply
Barney 12:25AM (3/02/2007)
"Gee! officer. I was only speeding because my radar detector wasn't working. Give me a minute and I'll think of something." An excuse for using a radar detector is probably as common as the excuse for speeding.
Reply
Dan 12:44AM (3/02/2007)
I don't really see the point of them. I hate them only because I'll be behind someone with a radar detector and he (almost always he) slams on his brakes as soon as he gets word of a radar and jams up traffic. I'm sure not all owners of radar detectors are such poor drivers, but that pisses me off every time.
I pass two troopers every morning on the way to work and I leave my cruise at 73-75 in a 65 while morons hit the brakes. They've never pulled me over doing this and I think I'm driving much SAFER than those who think they're fooling someone.
BTW I love the idea of a law enforcing "drive right, pass left."
Reply