PA- Local police continue to press for use of radar to catch speeders- with video

[mikered30]

Article with cool radar video, though not sure what the cool cop was talking about with speed signs every 0.5 miles, he was a bit nervous, he also said 71 mph was a high rate of speed, I guess the PSL is 55? I believe that was shot near the rest stop at MM 80 on I 81, cant tell for sure: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...nts_conti.html

Bill, which is from last year, includes lidar for locals, note the section on 3rd class counties: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2009&sessInd=0&bill Body=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0554&pn=0561

[radarrob]

the problem i see with that gun picking cars off is 1. cars coming in /going away how does he know he is not picking off cars going away as well? from a off axis shooting.2. the beam of that radar gun would not give that much of a signal warning to drivers at that angle coming tords him on that low power gun that thing is old.v1 would find it but not sure how everything else would do. very nice article!

[mikered30]

Good question, not sure.

[Solidjake]

That gun looks like it's been through hell

[krypton2]

Mike: It doesn't seem like that link to the bill is working for me...it's linking to the article. But the link to the bill within the article doesn't seem to be working, either.

Nice find though, interesting pictures.

For anyone who has seen the bill mentioned (as there's about 10 different ones in legislature right now) -- does it indicate that the radar would ONLY be available to third class counties? Or is it third class and larger? EDIT: It looks like it's third class and above from another article I read - to include 16 of the 67 PA counties.

Third class counties are ones with population around 200,000 to 500,000...of the 67 counties, only 10 fit into the third class bracket. Then there 4 or 5 that are above that, in the first or second class bracket. It would be strange to give it to one class and not the ones above it, but I've seen stranger things introduced before.

It would help a ton if we could run radar in PA, but the reality is that it probably won't happen for a long time. Over the past 10 years, I'd guess that at least 50 bills have been introduced to allow it in some way, shape, or form and it never passes...in the end, running vascar on a 4 lane, 55mph road has some issues. And yes, I can confirm that occurs. Troopers can take care of some of that trouble, and they do, but they're limited in staffing. It depends on the trooper too, as there are some who write 20-30 citations per week and some that write 1 per month.

the problem i see with that gun picking cars off is 1. cars coming in /going away how does he know he is not picking off cars going away as well? from a off axis shooting.

Most of the places that troopers run radar in PA, at least in the Pittsburgh region around me, are divided highways. I guess you could pick up traffic going the other way but it's iffy. In this article though, it does look like it's a divided highway, divided through a wide grass strip. In the second photo on the article (the one that is not posted above) makes it look like two lanes, both going in the same direction (towards the trooper). With how low-powered the radar guns that they use generally are, I'm not sure whether the beam would go down the road far enough to hit traffic going the other direction. In the picture in the article, it doesn't look like that would be too much of a problem.