Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Cellphones Businesses Communications Transportation Apple

New iPhone Apps Help Drivers Beat Speed Traps 330

Ponca City, We love you writes "Two mobile applications, NMobile and Trapster, are providing drivers with up-to-date maps of speed-enforcement zones with live police traps, speed cameras or red-light cameras. Each application pulls up a map pinpointing the locations of speed traps within driving distance and an audio alert will sound as vehicles approach an area tagged as harboring a speed trap. Both applications rely on the wisdom of the crowds for their data with users reporting camera-rigged stop lights and areas heavily populated with radar-toting police officers via the iPhone or their web-based application, creating the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it most — while you're driving. To thwart false alarms and eliminate inaccuracies, Trapster enlists its community of nearly 200,000 members to rank speed traps on their accuracy. NMobile founder Shannon Atkinson declined to provide detailed data, though he did estimate that 'well over 1,000' users had downloaded the application since it became available last week. The company insists they've received only positive feedback from law enforcement officials and police officers regarding their products. 'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

New iPhone Apps Help Drivers Beat Speed Traps

Comments Filter:
  • by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:10PM (#25865749) Homepage Journal

    When tools are banned.. oh, nevermind...

  • Too Many Traps (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iamhigh ( 1252742 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:13PM (#25865777)
    The problem I have seen with most attempts to list speed traps, is that eventually damn near every street in a city, or every few miles on a highway could end up on there.

    But maybe it will result in some speeders slowing down all the time.
    • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheRealMindChild ( 743925 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:26PM (#25865885) Homepage Journal
      This is just a misunderstanding of the system. Truly, a cop can grab you for speeding anywhere. However, a system like this should be for "speed traps". That is, a consistent place where cameras/cops can almost always expect to be found. I possibly might even take it a step further and classify a speed trap to be a place where you would never think of being nailed, like when the speed limit drops from 55 to 35 at the bottom of a 70 degree slope.
      • by sakdoctor ( 1087155 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:29PM (#25865915) Homepage

        1. Teflon coat a slope
        2. Lower speed limit on said slope
        3. Speed camera at the bottom
        4. Profit!

      • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:00PM (#25866131)

        You joke, but many Southern (USA) small towns are full of things like this. The speed limit may be 70 on a highway, but as it enters one of these towns it will drop suddenly to 30 or 35, often around a curve with little warning.

        The small-town cops collect money from travelers but don't ticket locals. It really is a sort of highway robbery.

        • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:4, Insightful)

          by repvik ( 96666 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:10PM (#25866225)

          Not that I support the tactics, but you should be driving so that you are prepared for anything around the next corner, be it a speed limit drop or a mad cow.

          • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:5, Insightful)

            by WillDraven ( 760005 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @03:26PM (#25866929) Homepage

            While I agree that you should be prepared for anything that may be obstructing the roadway, that white sign halfway hidden behind a bush as you turn a corner is exactly where your attention should NOT be. If you're having to look away from your vehicles path of travel while making a turn and then rapidly decelerate, you're being dangerously distracted from the much more important task of making sure you're not going to run into anything.

            The original purpose of speed limits was to protect people on and around the roadways. Then someone got the bright idea to regulate them to try and reduce fuel consumption. Now they've become so perverted that they seem to only exist in many places as a revenue source for local towns, and in causing drivers to spend more time looking at signs on the side of the road and their speedometer, they actually cause the roads to be LESS safe.

            • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:5, Interesting)

              by xaxa ( 988988 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @05:20PM (#25867747)

              While I agree that you should be prepared for anything that may be obstructing the roadway, that white sign halfway hidden behind a bush as you turn a corner is exactly where your attention should NOT be.

              In the UK they've recently (last few years) been painting speed restrictions in less-expected places (like on the approach to a small village along a fast, empty road) like this directly on the road. [westsussex.gov.uk] No need to look away. (another picture [mirror.co.uk]). It also reduces sign clutter.

            • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:5, Interesting)

              by canadian_right ( 410687 ) <alexander.russell@telus.net> on Sunday November 23, 2008 @08:44PM (#25869073) Homepage

              Were I live the cops call the local tv and radio stations so the stations can ANNOUNCE where speed traps are. The cops don't do this everyday or every time, but mainly when they are doing a big driver safety campaign.

              All traffic fines go into general revenue for the Province so there is no incentive for speed traps meant to just collect fines. Most speed traps go up where there are a lot of accidents, or the locals complain about too many cars speeding. Most rush hour radio traffic reports include any speed traps reported by drivers, and I've never heard of there being more than 2 or 3. This is in a city of about 1.5 million.

          • by Korin43 ( 881732 )
            You shouldn't need to slam on your breaks to slow down though. Braking from 70 to 35 is a huge waste of gas. They should give some sort of warning so people can just coast down to the new speed limit.
            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              Our highways have signs warning of up coming speed changes. It is unsafe to suddenly change speed on a highway. Isn't there a similar requirement on USA highways?
              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                On state non-restricted access highways there is no such requirement, and the speed limit can be determined by the local municipality. It's not uncommon at all to be driving along at 55mph and see a sign that says speed limit 25. And according to most state's laws, the speed limit is in effect not at the point in the road where the sign *is* but at the point where it is visible. Yes, many small towns (population a few hundred or less) in rural America use this as their sole source of municipal income.
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            You should always be in a position to where you can make a crash stop and come to a halt before hitting anything beyond the current range of your vision. However, a speed limit sign does not merit a crash stop! I should not have to slam on my brakes, cause undue wear and tear to my vehicle, and in traffic risk people behind me not being as prepared as I am to brake just because some small town enjoys fleecing people for speeding fines.

        • Re:Too Many Traps (Score:4, Informative)

          by Ethanol-fueled ( 1125189 ) * on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:13PM (#25866241) Homepage Journal
          Agreed, it's how the smaller towns make their money. Good luck fighting the tickets in their court!

          In my city, a big one in Southern California, I've seen plenty of "speed traps" but I've never see one twice in the same place.

          As far as cameras are concerned, they're almost always at intersections and people shouldn't be speeding through those anyway! By the way driving while viewing a cell phone is illegal here even though everybody still does it.
          • by Macrat ( 638047 )
            Drive up Hwy 101. Between King City and Salinas the Monterey division of the CHP usually have a half dozen cars doing nothing but sitting with radar guns waiting to see who doesn't notice the speed limit change to 65.
          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            All they have to do is make the speed trap locations expire in 24 hours. As people drive past the speed traps, they can stop texting and report the speed trap. Then the next day, if the speed trap is still there it will get reported again. If they really want this to work, they should make it so you can report a speed trap in 1 tap of your iPod screen and it uses GPS data to report the location about 1 block behind you.
        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          From the many feature films I've seen, the small-town cops in the Deep South don't actually collect any money from travellers. Rather they prefer to kidnap/rape/bugger/squeal/play banjos at/murder the travellers.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @10:19PM (#25869607)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by clang_jangle ( 975789 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:17PM (#25865825) Journal
    Like the streets aren't dangerous enough without every iPhone user fiddling with their toy trying to "beat the system" while piloting a two ton juggernaut on public streets.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:23PM (#25865865)

    damn you, iphone. now you've gone and made the CB obsolete

  • Ha (Score:5, Insightful)

    by clarkkent09 ( 1104833 ) * on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:25PM (#25865873)
    'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson."

    Isn't the whole idea of this app to allow people slow down just before the speed trap? If they drive slowly all the time then they don't care about speed traps in the first place
    • Re:Ha (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:44PM (#25866015) Journal

      There is an ancillary benefit. While what you say seems on face value to be true, anything that gets drivers to pay more attention to the road and traffic on it will increase safety. Even if that attention is somewhat fleeting, it will help. Public service minded police do not mind as long as you do slow down. There are those that want to catch you to fill the bank account with booty from fines, but for the most part people and police just want safe roads.

    • Re:Ha (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MMC Monster ( 602931 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:35PM (#25866437)

      Actually, what will happen is that people will drive faster when the phone says they are not near a speed trap.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      As this application is trust-based it can be used (by police too) to slow down speeders at close to no cost -- no need of moving expensive equipment around or purchasing extra speed traps, just mark some streets on the map.

  • What would really be nice is for such a system to integrate with your in-car navigation system. I'd love to have a list of known speed traps overlaid geographically on the moving map, perhaps with a warning 5 minutes before you approach one.

    Such a system could probably pay for itself within months, in the same way a good RADAR detector pays for itself.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jeremyp ( 130771 )

      That would be a fantastic idea wouldn't it.

      That must be why my sat nav has had such a database of speed cameras in it for the last two years.

      • by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:19PM (#25866277)

        I was going to post exactly the same thing. The only reason this is on slashdot is that the IPHONE is involved, and so the story is automatically valid news and not a slashvertisement.

        My two year old Garmin also does pretty much exactly what the OP's describing, it will show an icon and play a sound when you're approaching a speed trap. Of course, since it doesn't have any wireless capability, the listed speed traps are mostly stationary speed cameras. I'd imagine newer models would be able to update the database often enough to catch all the cops hiding behind the bushes.

    • Tomtom have been doing this for years.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jo_ham ( 604554 )

      The Tom Tom One here in the UK already does this. It's not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the first time it's been done on a phone I guess.

      While the primary function of the Tom Tom is as a navigation system, it has optional extras that you can sign up for, like real-time traffic alerts that it picks up (via info texted to your phone) that allows it to automatically pick a route around blocked roads etc, and it also has a list of known speed traps that it can warn you about, including

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:26PM (#25865881)

    Back in the 90s in one of the Baltic countries, some radio stations let drivers phone in location of speed traps.

    Of course, soon enough the law caught up with that and reporting of police locations because illegal.

    However, that didn't phase the station operators a bit. They just requested that people report location of individuals in blue uniforms, using cars with bright flashing lights and shooting microwave radiation at passing cars. No mention was "police" or "speed trap" or anything specific was allowed.

  • They always manage to get some police officer to say "if NewSpeedTrapThingy makes people slow down, we're all for it". Doesn't matter what the thingy is, from radar detectors and people talking on CB Radio onwards... is there actually any research indicating that people with radar detectors or whatever drive slower, on average, after they start using these tools? Or is this just official bravado?

    • by Macthorpe ( 960048 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:36PM (#25865961) Journal

      I've always assumed they mean "We can't stop you using this, so we're going to pretend it helps."

      I wish people would just, you know, drive slower without having to be forced to, but I guess that's wishful thinking.

      • by larry bagina ( 561269 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:53PM (#25866087) Journal

        I just wish speed limits were designed for modern cars and modern traffic, not increasing revenue.

        • by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:10PM (#25866223) Homepage

          I just wish speed limits were designed for modern cars and modern traffic, not increasing revenue.

          Unfortunately speed limits are designed for the modern driver. You've all seen them - drivers with the attention span of a crack-addled squirrel and the reflexes of a hypothermic snail. These folks really shouldn't be going fast. In fact, they should stay in their driveway playing with all the little gizmos in the car.

          Hey, this would solve a bunch of problems: Oil consumption, traffic congestion, road rage. Buying more gizmos will help the economy. In fact, everyone should go out and buy a new, shiny, gizmo-laden car.

          And leave it in their driveway.

          I'm calling Senator Obama right now....

          • by Aranykai ( 1053846 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `resnogls'> on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:23PM (#25866309)

            Perhaps its our driving instruction and licensing procedures in the US that are at fault. Go look up what they have in Poland. You have to drive on a skidpad during one test even!

            • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

              by ColdWetDog ( 752185 )

              Perhaps its our driving instruction and licensing procedures in the US that are at fault. Go look up what they have in Poland. You have to drive on a skidpad during one test even!

              We have lots of skid pads to practice on here. We just don't bother segregating them from the rest of the roadway. More efficient that way.

            • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23, 2008 @03:33PM (#25866979)

              I'm an Englishman who just took his California driving test - I literally couldn't believe how simple it was. The practical consisted of less than ten minutes driving round the block, with no maneuvers other than reversing along a kerb. At no time did I leave a 30 mph zone and parts were even 20mph. How does this in any way test the ability of person to safely handle a car? Especially in the land of the freeway?

              It's been 12 years since I took my UK test, which was far more strenuous, and I understand it's been strengthened since then too.

              You let 16 year olds get behind the wheel of a 2 ton death mobile with no real qualification and then wonder why things go wrong?

              Having said that, after logging several thousand miles around CA, I would pick driving here over the UK any day of the week. Whilst there is the occasional moron it is nothing compared to the sheer aggression of those driving in England.

              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                Another example from Germany -- drivers license is hard to get here, full education may cost up to 2000 EUR (2500 USD). Practical includes driving on the highway as well as in 30 km/h zone.

                Many young people therefore fly to the USA to get their license there -- cheaper and *much* easier. From what I've heard the questions are really moronic...

          • by chrb ( 1083577 )

            drivers with the attention span of a crack-addled squirrel and the reflexes of a hypothermic snail. These folks really shouldn't be going fast.

            The funny thing is that 99% of drivers would agree with you, whilst not realising that they are probably included in that group. Unfortunately, nobody is perfect, and mistakes do happen. A mistake at a lower speed is usually less costly in terms of injury and life. In contrast, leaving 5 or 10 minutes earlier for a trip to get there on time really isn't that big a de

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            Those drivers are already ignoring the speed limits anyway, so what purpose do they serve?

            Around here, the speed limits on the highways are 55. (In a big city.) Whenever volume hasn't reached the point of causing a jam, the actual speeds vary anywhere from 55-60 in the far right lane to 70-80 in the far left lane. I've never seen the police actually pull anyone over. I've seen them on the side of the road with the lights flashing talking to a driver in another car, so apparently they do pull people over, bu

        • by Splab ( 574204 )

          Yeah because no one is driving around in a 20 year old hunk of junk Honda.

          And claiming speed limits are designed for revenue is just down right retarded, no one has to speed, just make sure you get out of the door in time - most of us can manage.

        • by eweu ( 213081 )

          I just wish speed limits were designed for modern cars and modern traffic, not increasing revenue.

          As long as the Lincoln Town Car is still on the road then I think the posted speed limits are just fine thankyouverymuch. Most cars on the road have crap suspensions and are poorly braked. Since I have to drive with those cars around me, I'd rather it be slowly.

          You can find HPDE track days everywhere now. If you want to drive fast, do it there.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by LordKaT ( 619540 )

        When cops start obeying the law, I will.

    • by The Man ( 684 )

      More likely it's that if they say they don't like it, everyone will see that they are acknowledging that "speed enforcement" is mostly about generating revenue. Since they can't be seen to acknowledge that fact, they have to pretend it's about safety, in which case these tools probably do help even if only in a few spots (and speed traps are sited more often than not in places where excessive speed really might be unsafe).

      Bottom line: when cops stop saying stuff like this, it's time to get outta Dodge. Th

      • The biggest problem I find is when they are in fact accountable to their nominal employers... the citizens of the shit-hole town you have to drive through. Where I live, what I'd classify as a large town (~60,000 people including students, I think), the police tend to look for excessive speeding, running red lights, and drunk driving... and except for the new red-light cameras that have been installed (the company that installs them takes a share of the profits and requires the yellow lights to be no longe
  • Revenue stream (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Xistenz99_2000 ( 1413985 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:27PM (#25865897)
    I am sure that there are some that want people to slow down at the speed traps, however speed traps are intended to collect revenue for the city that they are in. Traffic tickets are one of the easy ways an officer can collect 140 dollars within 15 minutes for the city and supply his paycheck without doing any hard work.
    • If people RESPECTED the FRIGGING speed limit, no matter what their opinion are on what the maximum speed should be at that place, then there would be NO revenue. The problem is that people think they are ENTITLED to have whatever the speed they think they can handle. I am on my side pretty sick of getting nearly killed once per year by stupid idiot which think law don't apply to them. Please : put a speed radar at every corner street....
  • by v1 ( 525388 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:32PM (#25865933) Homepage Journal

    'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson

    It gets them to slow down when there's a speed trap because they want to avoid the high probability of a ticket.

    BUT, it also gives them the confidence to speed more when they don't believe there's a speed trap.

    So it works both ways: It helps increase the "deterrent factor" of the speed traps, but lowers the overall effectiveness of discouraging speeding in general, in the process.

    In the end it's probably about a wash for changing the amount of speeding going on. The only thing that's changing is the money that was going to speeding tickets is now going to the authors of the app. And of course since that's what's really important isn't it, we've gotta put a stop to it don'cha know?

    • I'm not sure users of such software are going to drive any faster outside of the tagged zones. In most places I drive the average traffic flow outpaces the posted speed limit by 10-15MPH. The POI's I have on my GPS for speed traps and red-light cameras aren't to help me speed/run red lights, they are to reduce my chances of getting a ticket. I find it even more helpful when I am driving in a new city or unfamiliar area. I generally go with the flow of traffic, but if I get an alert I slow down about 2MP

  • by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:46PM (#25866025) Homepage

    Now all the police has to do is rate their actual speed traps low and catch the iPhone speeders!

    I mean, I always said that Apple users would not pass a round of natural selection, this could be an example ;)

    • Yes, that's exactly what they has to do.

      Or maybe the cops would just pull over the other 93.5678% of the speeding population that doesn't own an iPhone.

      • by Ecuador ( 740021 )

        Naah. The 6.4322% of smug iPhone-owning speeding population is the one that deserves to be caught :D

  • Speed up (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bezultek ( 1109675 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @01:59PM (#25866125)
    In California the problem isn't people driving too fast, it's people driving too slow. By all means, slow down when the conditions merit it. But why must people drive stop before turning, go slow because there is an accident on the other side of the freeway, etc?

    I appreciate anything that keeps the traffic moving. What we really need is an app to disable the speed trap.

  • Crazy Idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RAMMS+EIN ( 578166 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:01PM (#25866143) Homepage Journal

    ``the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it most while you're driving.''

    Or you could just not drive so fast you would get a ticket. I know, I am totally out of touch with reality and my ideas are correspondingly crazy. But I'll happily take a few minutes extra travel time and have a relaxed ride, because I don't have to worry about law enforcement and other drivers slowing me down.

    • Re:Crazy Idea (Score:4, Informative)

      by Nyeerrmm ( 940927 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @03:04PM (#25866745)

      Unfortunately, there are situations when its not really about that... its small towns that have sudden speed drops and try to take advantage of it. Take the speed trap town I hit a couple of nights ago. The speed limit dropped from 70 to 55, I saw the sign as I was about to pass it (it was night, I didn't have my high-beams on), and began to slow down just as I passed into the zone. I didn't see the cop until I was in the middle of the town, at the proper speed limit (I think it was 35), when he turned on his lights and I noticed the car that had pulled out behind me was a cop.

      He ticketed me for 15 over without any questions, no acknowledgement of the fact that I was in the process of obeying the limit, just didn't feel like slamming on the brakes, hurting my car and ruining my gas mileage. The fact that the 1-5mph over fine is $165, should be more than clear that this is not about public safety, but about trying to extract money from the people driving through. They finally put in a nicer convenience store that I was planning to stop at, not going to now... however, I think the $200 they made off the ticket is more than any loss of business the town as a whole will lose now. Also, though I don't recall exactly how the signs were arranged, I wouldn't be surprised if they set up the speed limit signs so that they were hard to see.

      So yes, sometimes it is an issue of people needing to slow down, however, it isn't always... it's small towns using one of their biggest resources, the highways that go through them, to generate revenue at the expense of those traveling through.

    • Or you could just not drive so fast you would get a ticket. I know, I am totally out of touch with reality and my ideas are correspondingly crazy. But I'll happily take a few minutes extra travel time and have a relaxed ride, because I don't have to worry about law enforcement and other drivers slowing me down.

      I fully acknowledge your preference for that particular driving style. Now, would you acknowledge my preference to get where I'm going at a speed that I find comfortable without being hassled all the time? Or do you expect me to agree that your preferences are acceptable but mine, alas, are not?

  • -ster (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Trillan ( 597339 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:02PM (#25866147) Homepage Journal

    The -ster suffix seems to have evolved to mean "We acknowledge at some level that this will probably get us shut down sooner or later."

  • I'm no fan of Phone.com, but they had a similar app years ago. We heard about it via the corporate (!) announcement when we (Software.com) merged with them. I thought it made the company look like a bunch of fucktards, but what do I know.

  • Bollocks to that (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JamesRose ( 1062530 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:08PM (#25866203)

    Locating speed cameras means people can slow down to avoid a fine and then speed up again- not slow down to be safer. If they were truly trying to help people drive safer how about "WARNING! SCHOOL AHEAD" or "WARNING HIDDEN EXIT AHEAD", no, because slowing down for a speed camera is more rewrd than slowing down and driving safely around risky areas.

  • Corrected title (Score:2, Informative)

    by quattr0 ( 1210192 )

    New Apps Help Drivers Beat Speed Traps for Blackberry, iPhone and Nokia N95

    There you have it. Even in alphabemodel orders.

  • by lagfest ( 959022 ) on Sunday November 23, 2008 @02:29PM (#25866379)

    Stretch control is the new hotness.

    On a freeway, set up ANPR cameras on all the ramps, and bust the drivers on their average speed.

  • In Soviet UK ... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DrogMan ( 708650 )
    Speed, er "safety" cameras are everywhere - but most of the time they're fixed, so there exists databases of "point of interest" to download into most GPSs. (Along with the speed the camera is set to). Even the mobile/temporary ones are usually at known locations, so they're included too. So anyone with a GPS who gets caught speeding deserves what they get... We've also had average speed cameras for a while now too - number plate recognition (ANPR). I deal with these using cruise control, but it really ir
    • Not that you need a database... they're painted in flourescent yellow FFS. You'd have to be speeding *and* blind to miss them. And all the 'warning speed camera' signs leading up to them.

      Also there's a 10%+3mph leeway on the cameras so you don't get hosed if you're a couple of mph over for some reason.

      People slowing down is a big problem - the one near us has near permanent skid marks leading up to it as boy racers seem to try to brake at the last minute. Surprisingly there have been comparatively few ac

  • Should be called the Pocket Akbar,

    because, when it doubt, it's probably a trap.

  • "The company insists they've received only positive feedback from law enforcement officials and police officers regarding their products. 'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,'"

    Don't get me wrong, slowing down is a good thing overall, but I'm wondering how LE will feel in a year or two when revenue from speeding violations drops 400%, thereby slicing into departmental budgets?

    And you thought gas prices were bad last year? Wait until they readjust the prices due to decreased revenue and you pay $350 for that parking ticket. Pay me now, or pay me later...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Supporting a government budget on the basis of fines collected from illegal activities is reprehensible. It's an obvious conflict of interest and I'm frankly amazed that people allow it to be done at all.

Our business in life is not to succeed but to continue to fail in high spirits. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Working...