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.