Text 15542, 154 rader
Skriven 2005-11-08 11:59:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 15506 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
Ärende: looters in NO
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 > California's methods of doing things is one reason why I no
 > longer live there.

Vote with the feet. The American way...;-)

 MvdV>> There is indeed no arguing with these robot cops that we have
 MvdV>> here. Actually, most of the time you never see them. You won't
 MvdV>> know you speeded until you find the ticket in the mail.

 > If it's means of detecting your speed is radar or laser, I'll
 > know they're there.

How?

They use rader for the robot speed traps and they are facing in the same
direction as the traffic moves. A radar detector (illegal here) won't see them
until you get past them and hit the forward facing beam. And then it is too
late. it measures the speed while you are moving away from it and photographs
you from behind.

 > And of course, the red-light cameras are easily
 > defeated with a polarized plate cover.

Illegal here.

 >>> Now I hear that they have those cameras on some interstate
 >>> freeways here in Texas. Of course, the thing to do there is
 >>> to find out where they are

 MvdV>> Over here they have fixed and mobile cameras. Of the fixed
 MvdV>> ones, only 20% are loaded with film at any one time. Of course
 MvdV>> you can't see which ones.

 > Shades of Big Brother.

I don't see it that way. The camara only gets activated when one is speeding.
How is that worse than a human cop standing on the side of the road watching
traffic?

 >>> and mount your rear plate on a hinge that you can manipulate
 >>> from the drivers seat.

 MvdV>> You don't want to be caught with a gadget like that over here...

 > Nor here, but such gadgets are widely used.

Not here. I have never seen movable plates or even heard of them.

The point is that over here nearly all these tricks to evade speed traps carry
a much higher penalty than just the speeding. Speeding is mere violation of the
traffic laws. You pay the fine and that's it.

But deliberately manipulating plates to avoid detection is forgery. And forgery
is a crime. That means that when convicted you are marked for life.

 MvdV>> Radar detectors are outlawed here. The police employ radar detector
 MvdV>> detectors.

 > Radar is easily defeated with a radar jammer. It detects the
 > radar signal and adds some white noise to the reflected signal,
 > confusing the radar gun. And, unlike radar jammers on the market,
 > it's quite legal to use.

Over here it would not be legal. If only because using such a thing without a
license is a violation of the radio regulations.

And then there is always "obstructing a police officer carrying out his
duty"...

 MvdV>> Not very smart. The cop has to *measure* the speed to be able to
 MvdV>> write a ticket isn't it? A mere "it looked to me like he was way
 MvdV>> over the speed limit won't stand in court would it?

 > I'm sure that if he wanted to, he could have pulled us both
 > over and written a ticket for something.

That's the thing. Look closely enough at any car and you will find *something*
that is at fault...

 > Not being able to prove our speed, he may have been able to get
 > away with writing 'exhibition of speed', which might fly in court.

Not here I think. But then there is the catch all of "reckless driving"....

 > But, without any proof of how fast we were going, he'd
 > have a hard time making it stick.

Over here cops never patrol alone. So they have each other as witness...

 MvdV>> OTOH, it would be a very bored policeman who would stop you for
 MvdV>> something that in two weeks would no longer be a violation.

 > Very true. This past week, I drove the 98 Camaro to Illinois
 > to visit my mother on her 86th birthday. No front plate and
 > obeying the speed limit plus 5mph. Which they'll give you.

They are stricter here. The robot speeds traps are set to trigger at plus 3kph
at speeds below 100 kph and at plus 3% for speeds above that.

And, oh yes, the grace period for red light cameras is 800 mSec.

 MvdV>> For a missing plate, you can get away with a "fix-it" ticket if you
 MvdV>> can make the cop believe it was there when you drove off and lost
 MvdV>> it very recently.

 MvdV>> But that won't fly if there are no marks whatsoever to show that
 MvdV>> there ever was a plate to begin with.

 > If you look at the front of that photo of my Z28, there used
 > to be a license plate mounting bracket screwed to the plastic
 > grill, where it says 'Camaro' now. I think that was the first
 > thing I did to thatcar when I bought it.

I have that too. I don't consider a car "mine" before I have made some
modification to it. ;-)

 MvdV>> Here we have compulsory inspections for all vehicles over three
 MvdV>> year old, except motor cycles and trailers under 3500 kg.

 MvdV>> Doesn't matter if you drive it or not.

 > At the moment, they'd have to come to my place to check the 56...

Wouldn't do here. You have to get it to an authorised garage for inspection.
Some how...

For oldtimers I think you can get a suspension. But then you can't drive it on
a public raod any more.

 MvdV>> Makes sense. But then what if the plates are forged?

 > I'd think that the chances of someone matching the car compared
 > to the discription of it in their database would be hard to do.

Simply walk the streets of a big city until you find a car matching yours. Then
copy the license number...

 > Therefore, it'd be easy to get caught doing that.

By a robot cop?

The discrepancy won;t be noted until a human looks at the pictures...

 > If you do forge a plate, the car is impounded, so it best be a
 > car you don't care about.

Here you lose more than the car. You lose you "white sheet" That's worse in the
long run.


Cheers, Michiel

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