Hey guys, I am here to complain about my the speeding ticket that I got early this morning. I am really upset that CHP is doing there job, even though I was clearly at fault...

But seriously...

I went to SF last night to see the Oh See's http://www.myspace.com/ohsees with some friends. We left SF at about 3ish and I was hauling *** home because I was tried as hell, and I had school this morning. I live in Vacaville and I was keeping my eye on the onramps even though there is RARELY cops out around this time. I was in the home stretch with 2 exits to go when I noticed a car really close behind me all of a sudden. I knew who it was, but I didn't slow down and I started merging over to get to my exit.

Upon taking the exit, I got lit up and immediately pulled into a vacant parking lot. I rolled my windows half way down (since it was cold), turned off my car, put my keys on the dash, turned my dome light on, and put my hands on the steering wheel. The officer comes up to my window and informs me that he paced me doing 91mph and asked me for my license, registration, and insurance so I give it all to him, and the he says "I smell alcohol; have you had any drinks tonight?". I simply told him that I had not and that I am DD. I am pretty sure that he was asking me out of procedure (correct me if I am wrong). I had not been drinking so this was an easy answer.

He goes back to his car and writes the ticket, and upon return he informs me that he cited me for 80+ and he made sure to drive the point home that "I can also cite you for your exhaust, but I am not going to." I simply said "Thank you, sir." He said have a good day and went on his way.

Moral of the story: It would be ridiculous and STUPID for me to complain about this. This man was doing his job and COULD have cited me at 91mph and COULD have cited me for my exhaust, but I spoke respectfully and created a "safe" environment for him. If you commit a crime by speeding or whatever else, be respectful and own up to your crime. If he was in the wrong, I would fight the ticket (which I have done before and won), but it was I who was in the wrong.


Now it's time for traffic school... can anyone recommend a good one?

 

It makes a nice change to hear somebody admitting to driving too fast and not trying to ***** about it or weasel out of it.

 

i just did inandouttrafficschool.com. quick and easy.

 

Do you have a radar detector? I know it says he "paced" you.

 

What is it with you guys and not slowing down when a cop is on your ***?

 

Question for radar detector owners: if you DID get pulled over, would you try to hide the radar detector? Has anyone ever been in a situation where the cop has noticed the detector?

 

I kind of have to agree with you. If you're out there speeding it's likely you're going to be blasting by most people on the road. Even those that like to tail tend to drop off if you maintain a constant high rate of speed.
At night most LEO use their radar all the time. Just like you and I their senses are not as sharp, judgment of speed, distance, depth are all impaired. They may use their radar to identify you, then tail you. This why it's important to be aware at all times. Take note of the cars you've passed, their position of the freeway and glance at their head lights. They should become dots in your RVM. If not, you're being tailed. If you paid attention to what was in front and is now in the rear you can eliminate potential LEOs as the tail. Simply lose the tail or reduce speed and let them break off. You don't want to be tail by anyone. If it's an LEO you're busted, civilian you're street racing. Lose the tail. If you're going 90+mph 99% of the time your tail is black and white.

 

Nope, they probably already know you have one. The spectre is a detector detector. They're not illegal. If you get caught with a detector you're doing it wrong.

 

I always hide mine. Any detector I have had says that it's "undetectable" but of course I don't really know if that is true. Currently using a V1 though I only use it for road trips mostly - but it's on the list to be hardwired into my new car. This thing saved me 5 times on a recent trip to/from Phoenix. I am not saying I definitely would have been speeding past each officer that I saw, but I will say that the V1 let me know they were there long before I could have known myself, and permitted me to pay extra attention at those times. I watched 3 people get pulled over, and each of these people were doing obviously stupid things and after the second one, even my wife was able to say "that guy's gonna be a customer" - just because she was paying attention.

I was in a situation where an officer noticed my detector once, but this was back in '96 or so on the Big Island of Hawaii. I was going about 35mph on a back road on the Kona side and hit some moss on the road under tree cover, and oversteered into a curb. My friend's dad lived close and came to help, and eventually a police car came by and stopped. One officer was nice and just took down the details but the other guy was poking around in my car for some reason and saw my old Uniden that was in my center console. He went off on me for a few minutes about how that means I am a criminal and I am a young punk speeder and probably was speeding tonight and he will be watching me etc. Not sure what would happen here, but it probably would not look good if you were caught for speeding and seen using a detector. Cops are pretty binary with stuff like this.

Yep - I agree. After many many years of road tripping and much of it at higher speeds, I have learned an awful lot. I do not do the things I used to and have not for years, but I still like to get where I am going without being hassled, so I use my V1 to help with that. Gotta say though, if you are going 90+ for a long time it's easy to get complacent and that is exactly when you stop paying attention and get busted. Most of the times I have gotten pulled over it was because I stopped paying attention for a second and did something that attracted attention in some way. It's hard to teach these things though - you either notice this stuff or you don't.

 

I've been pulled over 2 times since I've had my V1, and neither of them mentioned it, nor seemed to care. Plus, both times they let me off (one was for no front plate though... haha)

 

Pulled over for speeding with the V1 operational?

 

That seems... Dumb.

 

anyone else ever been pulled over for speeding while their radar detector (beltronics rx65, escort 8500 x50, V1) was on?

 

Could have gotten hit with instant-on laser. Pretty hard to stop that if you're the only car blasting down the highway.

 

Both times, yes the V1 was on, but the front plate wasn't for speeding. As for the speeding one, I was driving down a 4 lane boulevard going 50 in a 45 at 3:00AM on black friday. It was completely empty and I saw one car 1 or 2 traffic lights behind me. As the car caught up, I thought no big deal considering the circumstances.

He was cool though. Joked around a bit, told me he's gone over 120 on the street he pulled me over, and let me go.

A cop car can drive up right behind you from another lane within seconds and you may miss them. It only requires 1/4 mile for them to get a pacing speed, which is less than 15 seconds at 80 mph. Maybe I'm lazy compared to you, but I don't check my mirrors every 15 seconds.

I've been really lucky with laser. I usually see the cop car prior to the laser going off, and I'm able to slow down. I was hit once going down the grape vine pretty fast, and I didn't see him, but this driver luckily passed me at the same time the V1 laser went off at about 10mph faster than I was going. So he lit him up.