i have no doubt that you read tww, so i thought this would be an EXCELLENT place to ask my question...how does that work? your car is parked in the grass and you're standing on the bridge over 40, aiming your radar gun at traffic...if you catch someone speeding, do you radio ahead with the color of their car for a cop down the road who will then pull onto 40 in the hopes of catching them?

11/18/2009 1:25:29 PM

that's exactly how it works

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 1:26 PM. Reason : you so smart. you done figured out their scheme.]

11/18/2009 1:26:17 PM

[yes]

11/18/2009 1:26:25 PM

very good, you get a cookie

btw, chances are he is using a laser gun, not radar gun to get speeds

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 1:27 PM. Reason : .]

11/18/2009 1:26:35 PM

It's either the thing you describe, or he's got a goddamn stinger missile. Which would be more awesome but admittedly less feasible.

11/18/2009 1:27:35 PM

Cops are out in FORCE today on I-40. I just drove back to Raleigh from Chapel Hill and there were no less than 30 LEOs on the sides of 40 with close to 10 people pulled over before I got back home.

11/18/2009 1:28:53 PM

okay, cool...so does the cop that's down the road actually have to CATCH the person speeding IN THE ACT of doing so, or does the cop with the laser gun say "it's a blue ford!" and that's enough for the cop down the road to pull the guy over? i wouldn't think so, but...

11/18/2009 1:32:08 PM

it is

kinda like when you get paced by an aircraft and they radio to the car on the ground

11/18/2009 1:33:13 PM

nope. one guy is the pitcher and the other is the catcher

11/18/2009 1:33:16 PM

nope that's enough.. if it's a speedtrap like that i believe both officers' names will be on the ticket. that's how it is done up here in Jersey.

11/18/2009 1:33:31 PM

ibtjustdon'tspeed

11/18/2009 1:44:35 PM

Quote :

"Cops are out in FORCE today on I-40. I just drove back to Raleigh from Chapel Hill and there were no less than 30 LEOs on the sides of 40 with close to 10 people pulled over before I got back home."

Nice to know. I guess the third Wednesday of each month is the last day to meet their monthly quotas.

Quote :

"does the cop with the laser gun say "it's a blue ford!" and that's enough for the cop down the road to pull the guy over? i wouldn't think so, but..."

Quote :

"it is"

Kinda sucks if there are two blue Fords on the interstate.

11/18/2009 2:06:23 PM

Well, if he's shooting from the overpass at least you'll get about a 2.5 mph underestimation in your favor if he checks your speed thanks to the fact that the vehicle motion won't be parallel to the radar beam.

11/18/2009 2:09:11 PM

really? that much... I mean, I know angle of shooting starts producing errors, but I didn't realize it was that much... or are these guys waiting until the last second (nearly at the bridge) to shoot?

11/18/2009 2:12:06 PM

Most likely they are using LIDAR if they are standing on the overpass.

11/18/2009 2:14:48 PM

Considering the fact that hand-held radar guns have a ridiculously large beam width (~10 degrees) they have to wait until you're fairly close unless you're literally the only car on the road. I figure with and over pass that's 30 feet tall you can expect the radar beam to be roughly 15 to 20 degrees off axis from the car's direction of motion. That assumes that you're about 100 - 200 feet up/down the road from them. 10-15 degrees off axis works out to about a 2.5 mph underestimation.

Measured Speed = cos(degrees off axis) * True Speed

^ If they're using LIDAR all the need is line of sight and that could mean miles. At distances beyond a few hundred yards they're not going to be very off axis at all. In that circumstance you're looking at an underestimation of no more than a few tenths of a mph.

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 2:20 PM. Reason : LIDAR]

11/18/2009 2:18:04 PM

well hot damn.

11/18/2009 2:18:46 PM

that is why there is a really good chance he was using laser/lidar NOT radar

11/18/2009 2:20:25 PM

^ FYI, laser = lidar.

11/18/2009 2:21:43 PM

11/18/2009 2:22:52 PM

sharks with freakin laser beams

11/18/2009 2:23:29 PM

Quote :

"^ FYI, laser = lidar."

yes i know this; some people may not realize they are the same that's why i said it like that.

11/18/2009 2:24:07 PM

Quote :

"sharks with freakin laser beams"

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 2:25 PM. Reason : one more!]

11/18/2009 2:25:04 PM

were you wearing boots, a hat, and a beard saturday

11/18/2009 2:26:13 PM

ah, i know who you're talking about, but no...i was at the end of the long table most of the time

11/18/2009 2:27:15 PM

well that's all who stood out

so, i dont remember you

my sister and i were joking about his getup

11/18/2009 2:28:31 PM

t-shirt, jeans, flipflops...no reason for me to stand out

but yeah, he's actually pretty funny...a durham hipster/hippie/whatever, but a cool guy nonetheless

11/18/2009 2:29:14 PM

Lol at retarded speed trap comment.

Watch out for morrisvilles mustang gt
Unmarked



[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 3:36 PM. Reason : lol at end of month quota. its only the 18th]

11/18/2009 3:35:08 PM

Everyone knows cops dont have quotas

11/18/2009 3:36:41 PM

Its painfully obvious that they don't.

11/18/2009 3:38:54 PM

it is a FACT that cops do NOT have ticket quotas...you can argue against this, but you'd be wrong

it is a FACT that cops DO have to issue a minimum number of warnings, citations, OR tickets in a given period...this is done to ensure that they're doing enough work to justify their job, but it is up to the cop's discretion whether the pullover results in a warning, a citation, or a ticket

i can understand how people get this confused, but it's the common disdain for LEOs that makes everyone believe it so readily

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 3:47 PM. Reason : .]

11/18/2009 3:47:24 PM

Troopers target speeders in NC
Nov 18, 2009

Quote :

"RALEIGH, NC (WECT) - Operation Slow Down/No Need 2 Speed is now underway in North Carolina. The state Highway Patrol and Governor Bev Perdue kicked off the event at the NC Highway Patrol Training Center in Raleigh. Local law enforcement officers and state troopers want to encourage people to slow down and follow the speed limit. They will be targeting speeders, especially on four lane highways."

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=11530795

BOLO!

11/18/2009 4:45:39 PM

^^ That's still a quota. It's just a quota with a slightly broader scope than what most people think.

11/18/2009 4:49:50 PM

I need to watch out for dem Po's
Cuz I know they gonna watch me
Wit dey radar guns
Look like the shootin as they clock me

11/18/2009 4:57:46 PM

fuck the damn 5-0



they can't find a little girl sold into sexual slavery, but they can give me a goddamned ticket for 15 over?



FUCK THAT SHIT






**note: I did not get a ticket today

11/18/2009 5:48:00 PM

^ Well, considering you're talking about one little girl and three people involved versus the thousands of people who are currently speeding in Wake County alone right now, I'd say it's not exactly a fair comparison.

11/18/2009 5:54:08 PM

^ yeah, but how many of those people speeding are actually hurting anything?

Quote :

" If they're using LIDAR all the need is line of sight and that could mean miles."

LIDAR doesn't have anywhere near that range.

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 6:41 PM. Reason : ]

11/18/2009 6:41:27 PM

^o lets see, how can speeding hurt anything


GOOD QUESTION

11/18/2009 6:42:12 PM

That has nothing to do with what I said.

11/18/2009 6:42:43 PM

youre right


nothing to do with it at all

11/18/2009 6:44:02 PM

don't get theduke arguing about speeding again

11/18/2009 6:45:58 PM

Quote :

"^ yeah, but how many of those people speeding are actually hurting anything?"

un like most of us car guys, speeding reduces the reaction time to avoid an accident.

11/18/2009 9:41:45 PM

Quote :

"Kinda sucks if there are two blue Fords on the interstate."

i tried to use that excuse once

apparently he didn't believe me there was another silver corvette

11/18/2009 9:43:27 PM

Quote :

"yeah, but how many of those people speeding are actually hurting anything?"

C'mon Josh...did you really have to ask that question. There are an awful lot of complete nimrods out there on the roads in their SUVs and crossovers, kids in the back seat watching Dora or Elmo, barreling down the road at 15 or 20 over and oblivious to damn near all of their surroundings.

11/18/2009 9:57:03 PM

Leave Dora alone!!!

11/18/2009 10:12:02 PM

quagmire02, stop following me everywhere...


fool showed up in the Verizon store acting like he wasn't trying to spy on my ass.

11/19/2009 1:07:53 AM

so they do have LIDAR in wake county?

11/19/2009 1:26:16 AM

Quote :

"nope that's enough.. if it's a speedtrap like that i believe both officers' names will be on the ticket. that's how it is done up here in Jersey."

theres no such thing as a speed trap. you were either speeding or not.

11/19/2009 7:07:06 AM

^ yes and no...someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i was under the impression that not all speed limit signs are registered with the county/city/state/whatever and so therefore are not all "legal"

i'm taking this from nearly 10 years ago when i got my first ticket and a durham county ADA that went to my church asked me where i got the ticket...she came back a week later, told me this thing about the signs and said that the sign wasn't legal and therefore it was an invalid ticket...i went to court, by myself, and sure enough, the DA said okay (i didn't mention the ADA's name since i didn't want to get her into trouble) and it was thrown out

it doesn't seem quite right to me, that there could be invalid speed limit signs out there, but i suppose it CAN make sense, especially in small towns...you have a 35 or 45mph sign up, but you want people to slow down at a particularly small stretch because of traffic (or whatever)...you throw up a sign that's 5 or 10mph lower than the registered speed limit with the hopes that most people slow down since they see the sign...eventually, you decide it's a great place to write tickets (whether the cops know about it is arguable)

i'm not saying this is absolutely true...just saying the information came from an ADA and that it got me out of a ticket almost a decade ago

11/19/2009 7:37:31 AM

Set em up

11/19/2009 7:45:12 AM