Radar detectors and Waze

[clyde]

I bought Escort's Passport 9500ix radar detector last fall in anticipation of getting the Focus ST, but the way things turned out, I didn't really start using it until recently. The week before we went to Florida, I found a mounting solution in the Focus that I'm happy enough with that I've started using it. What shocks me most is how often so many of the local speed cameras are inactive judging by most of the ones I pass every day rarely triggering a laser or radar alert. Some are on almoist every time I pass, but most only trip once every few days.

Our trip to Florida in the Outback was the first road trip I used it on and it was kind of interesting.

I also used Waze in place of my wife's 3 year old Nuvi for navigation and its community features. I know that Waze isn't stellar in navigation all the time, but I basically knew where I was going...South on 95 to my exit, turn left, hit the beach, turn right, look for the building a couple blocks down. That said, I've been using it daily on my commute since January and jsut about everywhere else I've gone and the navigation isn't really any worse than anything else.

The Passport alone may have saved me from 2 tickets during the trip. Without the radar detector, I probably would have been going slow enough in those areas that I wouldn't have been stopped, but dunno. In those two cases, if I had been relying on only Waze, it wouldn't have helped.

Waze and the Passport together alterted me to probably 20 active speed traps. In those cases, either one alone would have saved me.

Waze on it's own alerted me to police in about 50 loactions where there did not seem to be any when I got there (say 25 each way). OTOH, the Passport went off more than a few times that probably had nothing to do with speed enforcement.

I did mostly refrain from using the Passport in VA which makes up nearly 1/5 of the trip each way.

The conclusions I drew were that if you don't or can't use a radar detector, Waze is a pretty damn good alternative on a trip like this.

The combination of the two seemed pretty good and short of also using a CB and/or scanner, probably makes as effective of a set of countermeasures as one can take these days.

[Josh (PA)]

My favorite feature of the Passport, is locking out false signals via GPS. This makes it really useful for my daily commute on the PA turnpike, where there normally would be 8 or 9 false alarms. Now that they are locked out pretty much every time the detector goes off it is either a cop or a new mobile speed sign. It's saved my bacon more than a few times.

[bren]

We used Waze on a trip to the beach earlier this month. Over the course of ~320 miles there and back it showed a non-existent speed trap and had no mention of the sobriety checkpoint that caused a huge traffic jam which were stuck in for 30 minutes.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

My favorite feature of the Passport, is locking out false signals via GPS. This makes it really useful for my daily commute on the PA turnpike, where there normally would be 8 or 9 false alarms. Now that they are locked out pretty much every time the detector goes off it is either a cop or a new mobile speed sign. It's saved my bacon more than a few times.

The auto lockout can be a little flakey. It's stored a couple speed cameras as falses. I get the "speed camera ahead" voice alert, but it won't sound the tone...just spin the gps icon to tell you it's rejecting it. It's only done it to some of them, not all. I'm not sure where I stand on it.

Originally Posted by bren

We used Waze on a trip to the beach earlier this month. Over the course of ~320 miles there and back it showed a non-existent speed trap and had no mention of the sobriety checkpoint that caused a huge traffic jam which were stuck in for 30 minutes.

It's worth checking out the police reports to see when they were added. If it's more than 10 minutes ago, there's a decent chance it won't be active when you get there.

The traffic reporting is sometimes iffy, but in general seems much better than most of the other services. It updates based on speeds users are driving and reports users are making. Both on the trip and in daily traffic, it's missed some things, but gotten quite a few right...and when it gets it right, it's often with more detail about why (which somehow helps).

Both ways, it's mostly at the mercy of its users and their reports. Integrating with Google's traffic data in the future could be a really good thing (minus the inherent evilness of google).

It was also kind of cool to send my brother and parents a link where they could watch our progress and such. Easier for them than using FMF and easier for me not having them call/text asking where we were.

[Josh (PA)]

I've disabled the auto-lock feature, and just store the falses I know to be bad.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

I've disabled the auto-lock feature, and just store the falses I know to be bad.

I can't remember which buttons push in what sequence to store falses or mark known spots (cameras, speed traps, etc). The way I have it mounted in the car, I can't see the button labels...and not having much experience with it, don't know which is which without looking at the labels.

First world problems, I think.

[BahnBaum]

Waze has horrible routing algorithms and the traffic re-routing is sketchy. Regardless, the crowd sourcing of traffic issues and police reports is super valuable to me. Even if a few end up being stale.

Alex

[Josh (PA)]

Originally Posted by clyde

I can't remember which buttons push in what sequence to store falses or mark known spots (cameras, speed traps, etc). The way I have it mounted in the car, I can't see the button labels...and not having much experience with it, don't know which is which without looking at the labels.

First world problems, I think.

do you have it plugged into the cigarette lighter? if so the single button on the lighter plug mutes and stores (3 taps for store).

[clyde]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

do you have it plugged into the cigarette lighter? if so the single button on the lighter plug mutes and stores (3 taps for store).

Hard wired, but it has the remote thing with the mute button. Not sure if I knew about the 3 taps to store.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by clyde

What shocks me most is how often so many of the local speed cameras are inactive judging by most of the ones I pass every day rarely triggering a laser or radar alert. Some are on almoist every time I pass, but most only trip once every few days.

Those cameras may be triggered by sensors in he road instead...