Trapster: Get Warnings About Speed Traps on Your Cell Phone
Trapster is about speed traps. Trapster lets drivers report the location of speed traps, red light cameras, and other locations where you're likely to get a ticket.
The service can use Wi-Fi or GPS to find your location and sends you audio alerts when you're approaching a ticket threat. Users report the locations of traps and are rated on their reliability. The system gives greater weight to those that are rated more reliably. Users can also customize the alerts they want, so that they only receive notice of red light cameras or the like. Information about red light cameras stays in Trapster's database indefinitely, but speed trap data is only kept for an hour, with the expectation that the officers will move on to a new location.
Trapster will work with many different mobile platforms, including Nokia's Symbian based handsets, Windows Mobile, and Blackberries. The service is available now, though the site was down when we tried to visit it.
From Comcast News
Related links:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Tim @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:10PM
I got a far better, much more effective way to avoid speeding tickets ...
it is simple, anyone can do it and it costs nothing ...
... Don't speed.
aerospacemajor @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:15PM
Instead of trying to BREAK the law, why not just OBEY it? If the sign says "55 mph," don't go 56 or higher. What's so hard about that? People who intentionally break laws for their own selfish reasons are reprehensible to me. Whatever happened to respect for the laws of the land?
uralllying @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:32PM
Look, it's the only 3 people in America who don't drive faster than the posted limit....
Lon Horiuchi V @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:42PM
Traffic cops are ARMED TAX COLLECTORS. They are tow-truck dispatchers with pistols. They don't issue their corporate invoices (tickets) to "their own" but to everyone else. They call it "professional courtesy" but it's "corrupt hypocrisy".
Traffic is the most low-brow effort of the various badged RICO. No intellect involved in speed, drunk, or stolen car work.
You're driving faster than 55 these days thanks to the Okie City bomb. That's when BigBroFedGov decided it'd better back off, and FEDERAL speed limits were high profile means to do so. Remember, there was no discussion of rescinding the FEDERAL 55. It just happened quietly.
REAL STORIES OF THE HIGHWAY PATROL flopped because it was boring tv and revealed the mundane efforts of the grossly overpaid traffic cop RICO industry. CHiPs was successful because it was pure bs.
Shut down CHP and others, and give the funds to Sheriff offices, because deputies actually do real police work. Patrol, investigate, court, jail, coroner - all in one. Traffic parasites only do traffic for the most part, and what else they do can be done by deputies. Eliminate these burdensome, revenue focused traffic bureaucracies.
$100,000 per year for a CHP traffic highwayman is ridiculous. FU 3A!
bawno23 @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:50PM
uralllying says:
Look, it's the only 3 people in America who don't drive faster than the posted limit....
04/03/08 2:32 PM
flooby says:
when police offices drive at the posted speed them self and not run people off the road going at 80 or ninety miles per hour so the can hide in the ditch 5 miles down the road i will be glad to go at the posted speed
04/03/08 2:39 PM
You guys took the words out of my mouth. I'd say an average of 1 outta 10 people go the speed limit. Also, notice that most accidents caused by speeding is due to the slow person getting in the left lane or not moving over and forcing someone to pass on the right which is far more dangerous.
otrpu @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:03PM
The speed fines need to be changed. 1st offence. . .$1,000 fine; 2nd offence. . .$5,000 fine; 3rd offence. . .you loose the license. You've proven that you don't intend to follow the laws. Period.
Craig @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:06PM
I HAVE S SUREFIRE WAY TO AVOID TICKETS....DRIVE WITHIN 5 MPH OF THE SPEED LIMIT, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD GOD, TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO BREAK THE LAW AND SPEED WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT ENDANGERS ALL OF US.......WHY NOT JUST DRIVE LIKE YOU HAVE A LITTLE COMMON SENSE????
mike n @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:14PM
Who has time to look at their cell phone speeding down the road at 80MPH. One look at the phone and you will have traveled how many feet. They can only spell drive off the road and into a ditch. Stay focused if you are going to speed.
Luvprincess @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:28PM
My husband has a spray that you spray on your license plates. So when the camera takes your photo it blurs out your plate in the same fashion that breasts are blurred out on TV. It's $125 a bottle. Washing your car (or soap and water on your plates) will remove it and you'll have to spray them again. Currently, it is completely legal.
buzz lightyear @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:28PM
Speed limits are for white knuckle drivers, and sheep like you. Just move to the right, and try not to go too slow, its dangerous out there.
dj @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:29PM
Speeding fines, especially "work zones" are a fat cash cow for revenue. You are the cow being milked. I don't remember ever being asked what I thought a reasonable speed limit was. Have you? Ever voted on that or been given a chance to speak your opinion? Some people call for respect of the "law of the land." News flash for those folks, the law of the land is voted and agreed by the people of the land. I also have another animal name for those who blindly obey. It's called sheep. I'm all for increasing fines and jail for drunk or reckless driving. But speeding by itself and in the usual 10-15 over? No, my opinion is the officer better have something other than that to work with or it's just revenue, and could I suggest it was intended that way to get into your pocket? That speed limits were intentionally designed to congest traffic 10 mph from reasonable speeds? It's all about money, folks. It has NOTHING to do with respect for the law. THIS law was designed to be an addional tax revenue from you, the motorist. It's a TAX.
Wendy @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:56PM
CHiPs was successful because it was pure bs.
---------------------------------------
Not true. Many of the scenarios (The spilled glue-transport in particular) were taken out of actual case files.
Becky @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:59PM
I think everyone should drive at a normal posted speed. I was an emt for 10 years and i have seen my share of "fast driving accidents" and they are not pretty and the outcome is not nice either. If you don't want your loved ones to identify you by body parts or in a morgue. Please use common sence.
ErinRx @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:05PM
Going the speed limit? I don't even go just the speed limit when there is a cop riding my bumper, as they almost ALWAYS do... But going the speed limit is not the solution to avoiding a ticket in a "speed trap". They are called speed traps not because there is a cop hiding behind a bush waiting to catch intentional speeders. Generally if you are driving in a 55 and a half mile or so down the road the speed redudces, there is usually a warning sign posted that says "reduced speed ahead". You then know to start reducing your speed. Speed traps do not have these reduced speed warnings, and cops hide out directly by the lowered speed limit sign and stop you before you have the opportunity to completely reduce your speed. We have SEVERAL speed traps around my area. In fact, I saw on the local news this morning that they are trying to pass a law to make speed traps illegal in one city because 80% of the town's revenue came from speeding tickets...80%!!!
Wendy @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:08PM
THIS law was designed to be an addional tax revenue from you, the motorist.
------------------------------------
Actually, it was designed to conserve fuel during the oil embargo of the 70's. Most cars are most fuel efficient at 55 MPH. They just kept it because they saw the accident rates/fatalities went down.
con @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:10PM
I have been told by several law enforcment officers that they will never stop a person going 5 miles over the speed limit. The radar they use has a margin of error of 5 miles.
FSR2003 @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:11PM
If we have police officers sitting around hidding in a corner waiting for someone to drive 5mph over the speed limit then we have too many police officers. Our police force is supposed to be out there preventing theft, murder, drug trafficking, cathing someone who has commited real crimes. Driving too fast is stupid, but being stupid should not be a crime. Punishing the stupid and creating an alternate tax revenue source should not be the role of our police force. Catching criminals should be. Ever tried calling for an officer when your car or home got broken into? It takes them forever to get there, if they don't just take your report over the phone and send you a form. Why? Because they are 20 miles away eating a donut and waiting for someone to ticket for driving too fast. I'd rather have them investigating the crime, taking finger prints and catching the person who broke into a car or home. They rarely even take finger prints when they investigate a break-in unless someone has been shot or killed. They sure do take down a lot of information for a speeding violation though.... And they will seriously speed to catch you and ticket you. Your going 60mph, no harm to anyone on a practically empty highway in the middle of nowhere but they will endanger public safety at 80 or 90+ mph to catch up to you and issue you a citation. That is nothing short of insane and that is far more dangerous than the few mph someone might be exceeding the speed limit by.
Kerri @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:12PM
Lon Horiuchi V-
How many fatal accidents scenes have you been to in your career? How many people have died in your arms because the car in front of you crashed into a tree. Walk a mile in an officers shoes before you pass judgement on what they really do in a day.
Jon Guckenberg @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:16PM
Violation of speed laws that result in a fine are NOT a TAX. Taxes are COMPULSORY for all. If you obey the speed law, it will not cost you a DIME!
wayne @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:19PM
I drive roughly 40,000 miles a year in a car. I have not had a speeding tickets for over 20 years. I drive 5-7 miles over the speed limit on highways and 3-5 miles an hour over on slower speed roads. I always see cops pass me doing well over 15 mph over the speed limit. They other day I went through a green light and behold there was a cop at the red light. As soon as I went through my green light he ran his red light. Must be nice to drive what ever way they want and get away with it. Maybe they should set an example and practice what they preach. After all we are paying for their gas and salaries.