PA - Speed radar legislation again looks destined for no vote

http://www.fox43.com/news/wpmt-amnew...,6389583.story

Fantastic!

Awesome! Less highway taxes to worry about!

Very nice.

I don't understand you guys. If I lived there, I'd LOVE for them to start broadcasting radar, rather than sitting in the shadows and clocking me!

Everytime I've driven through PA its been pedal to the floor. I rarely see any state troopers taking radar out there. Hell they can't even use Lidar. PA looks better every day...but then again they can't beat MD's awesome point system and ways to get out of tickets without a lawyer.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stealth Stalker

I don't understand you guys. If I lived there, I'd LOVE for them to start broadcasting radar, rather than sitting in the shadows and clocking me!

---

Because I drive a lot in the country where I'm in the only car for miles. It's a lot easier to keep track of the white timing lines and to see new ones than it is to have to watch out for every possible hiding spot in the world. Plus, after I see the cop I still actually have a chance to get my average speed down, something that's obviously impossible if they just hit you the second you come into view. ENRADD use is growing but because it's so labor intensive to set up and operate I haven't seen it used on anything other than a busy road in the daytime.

-Radar for local police will likely never pass in the near future in PA. They thought it would pass with a bill that was introduced back in 2003? and it never did. Right now, there's 9 bills between the House and the Senate to regulate radar...this wasn't the only one. But there is, on average, about that same amount (10) each year and they never pass...it's because everyone has their own ideas and they want to introduce their own bill instead of getting together and supporting one single bill.
--Side note, lawmakers have been trying to get texting while driving banned for the past year or two - right now, theres 13 bills in PA legislature to ban text messaging while driving.

-Speed-trap towns is what is always cited by the lawmakers, who often are also the ones who support consolidating all of the boroughs and townships and having the county as the sole local government...some of them aren't fans of small local government. While speed trap towns could occur, there's so many provisions that would stop it; for instance, every bill I've seen to allow radar for local police also says that the money that is brought in from speeding tickets couldn't exceed a certain percentage of the police budget.
--While not as simple to do, local police could find suspended drivers or uninsured drivers if their goal is to make money for their town, and they wouldn't have to wait on a new bill -- on a 20-over speeding ticket, local police get roughly $32.50 (I should know these numbers off by heart, but that's a rough estimate). For a suspended driver cite, they would get about $100.00...for uninsured driver, it would be around $150.00.
---While radar or lidar might make it easier to find speeders (which is one reason cited for not letting local police use it)...ENRADD is catching up on that. Once the ENRADD is set up, anyhow, as long as you can see the cars passing by it, the device does most of the guesswork for you. And really, even if you're using VASCAR, if you see someone speeding it would only take a few extra seconds to find their speed as compared to finding it using radar.

-I would rather have radar personally - VASCAR lines are easier to detect, but sometimes lines aren't used (instead using two permanent points) and ENRADD is making it harder and harder to find speed enforcement zones. Being that ENRADD can be deployed anywhere, since it's wireless, it is difficult to find set spots that it's used. A town near me has two ENRADD units that they use almost every day and while they have their favorite spots, sometimes they go to areas that no one would expect and it's hard to see them until it's too late.
--Radar and Lidar can be detected most of the time by a detector...minus your eyes and memory, it's tough to detect VASCAR or ENRADD. But radar is probably harder to fight in court, too.

People in PA often say that it will be terrible if radar is allowed by local police because of the speed traps that will happen everywhere. Radar is used in every other state and has been for a long time...so why would it cause Pennsylvania to become filled with speed trap towns anymore than they are already? I've heard of speed trap towns in other states but not to the extent where it causes the entire state to shut down speed enforcement operations. While Pennsylvania has a lot of small towns with strapped budgets, Illinois does too (they have more small municipalities than PA, although I think they are the only one above PA) and they are able to use radar.