"YOUR SPEED" installations less frequently giving speeder's speeds

[bugo]

ODOT has flashing blue lights on their pickup trucks.

Bell Labs Princess rotary dial phone

[SP Cook]

I wouldn't consider any of these signs accurate enough to check my speedometer against.

And we have a winner.  You answered the OP's question.

Changing a numerical score to some preachy message keeps the general public from knowing how grossly inaccurate radar is, and why it should be per se inadmissible in all courts.

[Kniwt]

There are some 3-digit YOUR SPEED signs out there:

Common (and necessary) in Canada. What I found amusing this summer is that, quite often, the sign that was affixed above it was a U.S.-standard sign that would say something like "SPEED LIMIT 80" instead of "MAXIMUM 80 km/h." I suspect the same machines are sold in both countries with a simple mi/km configuration option.

Also: I chuckle uncomfortably when I see a Photoshop where someone has added a "HIGH SCORE" indicator below these things. The kids at Failblog made a hand-printed one a couple of years ago:

[hotdogPi]

So after they get past, they get out of the car and write it down on the paper? Wouldn't that just nullify the extra speed from speeding?

[thenetwork]

As far as these portable installations go.  I was once told by a cop that these YOUR SPEED IS devices are where old unreliable speed guns go to die -- which is probably why, with the exception of the portable trailers and the larger interstate installations, those small, pole-mounted installations don't last much longer than a year or two before they are taken down.

I've always wanted to have one of those portable speed meters on my street for a few days.  I'd use it like a baseball speed pitch meter!! 

[TCN7JM]

I was once told by a cop that these YOUR SPEED IS devices are where old unreliable speed guns go to die -- which is probably why, with the exception of the portable trailers and the larger interstate installations, those small, pole-mounted installations don't last much longer than a year or two before they are taken down.

So, these aren't actually used to assist cops in catching speeders, then, are they? If they're this unreliable, I fail to see the point of their existence at all.

[vdeane]

They're PR devices aimed at slowing people down.

[TCN7JM]

But what if, perchance, somebody was doing the speed limit and ran by a broken indicator that told them they were going a few mph over/under and made them think their speedometer was broken? That might cause confusion.

[Alps]

They're PR devices aimed at slowing people down.

I went by one not too long ago with a cop watching from the next side street. I wonder if he was shooting radar separately (since the sign would throw off its own pulse, lulling drivers into a false sense of security) or watching some indicator on the sign itself.

[TCN7JM]

I immediately thought of this thread while driving back to Sioux Falls from Minneapolis today. I drove by three "YOUR SPEED" signs, and the problem can't be that they don't work in rain because one of them gave me the correct speed. The first one I drove by in Mankato told me I was going 70 when I was going 55, and the second one I drove by outside of Mankato was flashing between 11 and 12 while I drove past at 60. If I wasn't driving in such horrible weather conditions I'd probably have laughed my ass off.

[KEK Inc.]

They're PR devices aimed at slowing people down.

I went by one not too long ago with a cop watching from the next side street. I wonder if he was shooting radar separately (since the sign would throw off its own pulse, lulling drivers into a false sense of security) or watching some indicator on the sign itself.

Probably the latter.  I've seen multiple cops on a highway.  A second cop not too far ahead to catch confident drivers thinking there wouldn't be a cop after a trap.

[jeffandnicole]

These signs are generally "For your amusement only".  No one should ever get a ticket based solely on that sign.  A cop can be nearby running his own radar, but that would be separate from the sign.

Could someone be speeding past the sign (especially in a residental neighborhood) and get called in by nearby residents?  Quite possibly. But even then, the driver would be cited for excessive speed, careless/reckless driving or the like, and the witnesses would have to demostrate that the driver was truly driving as such (or the driver would have to admit to it).

[SidS1045]

Could someone be speeding past the sign (especially in a residental neighborhood) and get called in by nearby residents?  Quite possibly. But even then, the driver would be cited for excessive speed, careless/reckless driving or the like, and the witnesses would have to demostrate that the driver was truly driving as such (or the driver would have to admit to it).

It's much more involved than that.  Without a police office as the complaining witness, the citizen would become the complaining witness (effectively, a "citizen's arrest") and would be held to the same judicial burden of proof as a police officer.  IOW, the citizen would have to prove that his/her speed measurement device had been properly calibrated at the time of the alleged violation, that it accurately measured the alleged violator's speed and was not subject to the myraid ways that vehicle radar can show an inaccurate speed.

Since I sincerely doubt that those "Your Speed Is..." radar installations are ever calibrated to the standard the courts demand, they could not be used to prove someone was speeding.

[Dr Frankenstein]

There are some 3-digit YOUR SPEED signs out there:

Probably for those countries that use metric.

[jeffandnicole]

Could someone be speeding past the sign (especially in a residental neighborhood) and get called in by nearby residents?  Quite possibly. But even then, the driver would be cited for excessive speed, careless/reckless driving or the like, and the witnesses would have to demostrate that the driver was truly driving as such (or the driver would have to admit to it).

It's much more involved than that.  Without a police office as the complaining witness, the citizen would become the complaining witness (effectively, a "citizen's arrest") and would be held to the same judicial burden of proof as a police officer.  IOW, the citizen would have to prove that his/her speed measurement device had been properly calibrated at the time of the alleged violation, that it accurately measured the alleged violator's speed and was not subject to the myraid ways that vehicle radar can show an inaccurate speed.

Since I sincerely doubt that those "Your Speed Is..." radar installations are ever calibrated to the standard the courts demand, they could not be used to prove someone was speeding.

Isn't that the "and the witnesses would have to demostrate that the driver was truly driving as such" that I said?

[agentsteel53]

Common (and necessary) in Canada. What I found amusing this summer is that, quite often, the sign that was affixed above it was a U.S.-standard sign that would say something like "SPEED LIMIT 80" instead of "MAXIMUM 80 km/h." I suspect the same machines are sold in both countries with a simple mi/km configuration option.

I would really like to see some photos of these.  do you have speed limits above 85?  80 and 85 are found in the US readily, but a 90, or even a 100, would be a very very interesting thing to see.

[Kniwt]

I would really like to see some photos of these.  do you have speed limits above 85?  80 and 85 are found in the US readily, but a 90, or even a 100, would be a very very interesting thing to see.

The ones I saw in Canada (at least, the only ones that I bothered to remember) were portable ones within work zones, so the "speed limit" / "maximum" was always lower than 100. Sorry, didn't grab any pics, but there were many on TC 1 on Vancouver Island through the various work zones.

[SidS1045]

Isn't that the "and the witnesses would have to demostrate that the driver was truly driving as such" that I said?

Courts take judicial notice of police radar *only* when the radar is shown to have been correctly calibrated at the time of the alleged violation and not subject to the known ways that it can give a false reading.

IOW, it's not enough to say "he was driving at XX MPH."  All elements of the violation must be proven, and that includes proper verification that the radar was giving an accurate reading.