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I've written a few times about how speed limits are set. For those of you just joining the conversation, it mostly boils down to the speed that most drivers are going. Essentially, most people drive safely. It has been calculated that roughly 85% of the people on the road will drive at or below a safe driving speed, and this 85% is what engineers use to set speed limits. It isn't a complex system. They go out there with radar guns for a few days, get a bunch of readings, and voila! We have a new speed limit.

Well, in Oregon, some city officials have asked ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) engineers to take another look at Highway 62. While the road itself is the same as ever, there are new business and other buildings nearby that have sprung up in recent years that necessitate a new take on the speed limit. The influx of more traffic, as well as the different visual layout of the road, may cause some to slow down on the road.

This makes sense. For instance, if I'm driving out on a country road with nothing but farmland on either side I'm going to go a lot faster than if I'm driving through a school zone or if I see some kids running around their front yard playing soccer. There's a far greater chance of a kid running out into the road when I'm near a school zone than driving past a cornfield. Sure, it's possible someone could step out from between two cornstalks and into my path. But the danger of this is far less, and even if I don't consciously think about it, I slow down when there's greater danger on the road.

The thinking of the city council members who want Highway 62 looked at again is that there's more danger of accidents on the road now that more businesses are in the area, and if there's more danger, there's a good chance that people are driving slower anyways, and the limit should be lowered to stop that other % of people who drive too fast. It's the 15% who speed that necessitate speed limits.

What struck me as odd about the story is that the Mayor and a few of the council members have stated that they may not be satisfied with the ODOT engineer's findings if it doesn't go their way. This I don't like. They more or less said that if the engineers do not agree that the speed should be lowered, they'll make appeals in different ways until they win.

I applaud their fighting spirit, and it's nice to see a politician actually dig in their heels, but speed limits are set scientifically. One of the ODOT engineers pointed out that if the speed limit is set too low it have been proven SCIENTIFICALLY that this will cause more accidents. An unnatural speed limit will throw a lot of drivers off, and this causes accidents.

City council members should by all means work toward what they think is right. That's exactly what I want from an elected official. If their constituents are pressuring them and they take a stand, democracy is working. Awesome.

The problem here is that some people are stupid, and they think they know everything. Heck, sometimes they're very smart people, but they just don't happen to have knowledge of a particular experience. I like to think I'm a pretty smart guy, but I can't claim to know how to fix a car. I changed my first tire three days ago. If my radiator isn't working, I take it to a mechanic.

The ODOT engineers know their stuff. They're the mechanics of the roads. Their whole job is to make sure the roads run smoothly. They have spent their lives figuring out how to make roads safer, and though it seems counter intuitive, sometimes this means RAISING the speed limit.

Crazy, but true.

Lower speed limits may look good to voters, and it may show a politician is capable of getting things done, but we all need to be careful what we ask for. I'd like to attached a jet propulsion engine to the back of my car and rocket down the road like Batman. If I had the money I'd probably do it.

I'd also probably get into a horrible car crash going 1000 mph. If only I'd listened to the people who know what they're talking about...

Labels: oregon, police procedure, speed limits

Gather round, kids! Ol' Uncle Brian is going to tell you about yet another new Radar technology being developed. Radar has tons of uses. Clocking the speed of baseballs, cars and even asteroids. But radar also has it's limits.

One of these is that, for the most part, you need to have a line of sight visual of your intended target. A police officer can't measure your speed if there's a building between you and him. The same goes for baseballs, tennis balls and asteroids.

The reason for this is that radar works by sending out a radio wave, which bounces off a surface back to its origin. How fast the radio wave comes back as well as the change in its frequency can tell you how far away an object is, how fast it's moving, and, if you're really clever, what it looks like. Very cool stuff.

I did write a post a little while back about a radar gun that can see through walls, and while that's neat, it is only for short distances. If you're a government agency hoping to monitor the ocean, that system won't help.

So what stops radar from working on the ocean? Ships? Flying sharks?

Nope. The limit on radar, when covering an area close to the ground at long distance, is actually the curve of the Earth. At present, radar can only image out about 55 kilometers on Earth. While that may seem like a long distance, when you consider the vastness of the ocean, it's a drop in the bucket.

Canada doesn't like that. They want to be able to see WAY more than they can right now.

Their solution? High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar. Using a series of radar towers, this new radar tech broadcasts signals that follow the curve of the Earth. The Canadian government hopes to be able to get accurate readings out to 280 kilometers. That's a pretty serious improvement.

High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar has been around a couple years, and while it was tested a few years ago, the Canadian government pulled the plug on the system because it was interfering with civilian communications.

Fortunately, a few kinks in this radar system have been ironed out, and they should now be able to use the system without messing up your iPhone's signal strength.

This system will be used to stop terrorists and smugglers from entering Canada, and it can also be used to stop illegal fishing and find ships that spill oil or crash.

This is an interesting evolution in radar technology. It's not a completely different path for the tech, but it's also pretty cool and new. We have some of the best brands in Radar Guns such as Bushnell, Stalker and Decatur, and I know they're always upping their game.

Bushnell, for instance, just showed off some cool new toys at SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Not Radar-specific tech, but some really neat new items. I've been reading all about it on GearExpert.com. They're covering the show from top to bottom. If you like new tech, you should check them out!

Labels: new technology

First, I have to admit that I have never actually skied. Or at least snow skied. I'm a competent water skier, and I can wake board, but I've never strapped on skis, taken a chair lift up a mountain, and shredded some powder.

I admit this because I'm sure I'm most likely about to misuse a handful or words common to skiers, and while I'll make every effort to be accurate, there's likely to be a slip up. Feel free to let me know in the comments and I'll make the necessary corrections.

Now that I've revealed my inexperience, let me tell you about some radar gun related news for skiers.

First, and this isn't the biggest piece of news but I think it's funny, so you have to hear it: ski patrollers on some slopes have been using fake radar guns as part of their plan to slow down skiers and snowboarders.

Apparently one of the more popular things to do when skiing is schussing, which is going straight downhill as fast as possible. Ski patrollers want people to slow down for safety reasons. No doubt falling is fairly common on a ski slope, and the faster you're going the further you'll bounce around and break things (like your bones) as you travel downhill.

I don't see why they don't get a real radar gun. I wrote a couple weeks ago about State Deputies Using Radar on Snowmobiles. The Decatur Genesis Handheld Radar Gun would be a great choice for skiers and snowboarders too. It's portable, accurate and durable enough for police use. I don't think the ski patrollers have the authority to give out tickets, though they may have been given that power by the ski resort, if guests agree to it in a written form. I doubt there are ski speeding tickets, but I suppose it's possible.

On the topic of ski speed, the other bit of news I just read about is an iPhone app that allows skiers to track their speed on the slopes. Rather than being used to keep speeds down, it appears that many skiers are using the app as a tool to fuel bragging. Most skiers try to see if they can approach the same ski speeds as the pros in competition.

I have to say it sounds nuts. I understand the urge, but the pros can get over 70mph!!! If you fall at the speed you're going to tumble a long ways, and while snow is relatively soft, you're still going to get banged around quite a bit, and you could get seriously injured or killed. And if the app is getting people to reach speeds higher than they're comfortable with it could spell ruin for a number of people.

I can drive my car over 100 mph, but I'm not a NASCAR driver, and my reflexes, as well as my car's performance, aren't up to dealing with sudden problems such as a deer jumping out in front of me.

The same thing happens on the slopes. You're schussing along at a high speed and a deer, or maybe another person or, God forbid, a child pops out from behind a tree. You're going way faster than you can handle and either hurt yourself, the other person, or both of you.

That said, it does sound like a lot of fun, and I've done similar stuff on bicycles or jet skis, so it's a bit hypocritical of me to condemn this practice. But as parents everywhere tell their children, "Do as I say; not as I do."

One thing that might be cool is if, instead of measuring your own speed using your phone you could have a friend with a radar gun testing your skiing speed at the bottom of the hill. As this is about bragging as much as anything, having someone else taking a reading and cheering you on would be more fun than just reflecting on your speeds at the end of the day.

Oh, and since we're on the topic of skiing, I also read this amazing blog post on proper skiing and snowboarding eyewear on the OpticsPlanetBlog. I may be a bit biased, but the writer is a really handsome, brilliant guy. He might also be me.

What? I'm multi-talented.

Labels: radar uses, skiing

I know a lot of you have been waiting with bated breath since my last post on grocery stores using radar for automatic doors. At the end of the post I mentioned looking into stop lights, and whether they use radar to see when a car is waiting for the light to change.

Short answer: No!

It turns out the way a traffic light senses that a car is waiting for a green arrow or light is an inductive loop. So what's that?

An inductive loop is a coil of wire embedded in the road. After the asphalt is laid, road workers come back and cut a groove in the road and install the wire. Often the disturbed piece of road is covered by white paint, but you can often see it, with a big rectangular loop in the middle of the road.

An inductor (the wire) is an electromagnet. But instead of being designed to draw in metal, it is there to see IF there is a big metallic object is nearby. Like, for instance, a car. The loop in the ground is a magnet, and if you measure the amount of inductance it will be far higher when a car is present. It doesn't take very much energy, so these magnets are left on all the time.

Don't worry, they won't mess with your electronics.

The reason for this, rather than a radar gun, is that it is more accurate at determining if a car is still waiting, and hasn't turned right. While a radar gun would be capable of measuring if a car has turned, it would be a more complex process than using an inductive loop.

These loops can be tricky for motorcycles and bikes. They may not have enough metal to trigger then, so I've seen bike-mounted magnets that will produce a greater amount of inductance than the bike alone.

So it turns out that traffic lights don't use radar guns to sense if a car is waiting, but they do have a pretty cool piece of technology for tracking cars.

Labels: traffic radar

There's a relatively new use for radar, and you've probably experienced it many times, and possibly in a couple of ways, without even knowing it! Those automatic doors at many supermarkets and stores are now using a form of radar to detect the presence of shoppers!

I know many of you are thinking that those doors have been around for a long time, and while they have, the tech behind them has changed over the years. Some still use the old standard of a pad in the floor to detect when a person approaches, which, while initially effective, can cause a lot of false readings, which makes the door open and close repeatedly, and in areas with inclement weather, such as Chicago, snow can render them almost useless.

To combat these issues, automatic doors have been upgraded in recent years to use similar technology to a radar gun. Many doors now send out a radio wave, which, if something moves in it's vicinity, changes frequency, and the change tells the door to open.

Unlike a baseball radar gun, which takes a precise measurement of the radio wave frequency to see how fast an object is moving, these radar doors simply wait for a significant enough change to open. The power is set fairly low, and the sensors are not as sensitive as police radar, as the door shouldn't open when a fly zips by or if someone walks past the door at a distance. The angle is also calibrated fairly specifically, with the sensor on the top of the door aimed down. If it aimed straight out the radio wave might bounce back from a great distance.

I looked into this because the other day the radar detector in my car when off when I was in the parking lot of the local supermarket. I looked around and didn't see a cop car anywhere, and the detector only when off when I drove past the front door. It was fairly weak, but it still registered. I'm going to look into whether the same thing is what some traffic lights use to sense if a car is waiting. Stay tuned for more posts in the coming days/weeks.

Labels: radar detectors, radar technology

I'm surprised to say that the concept of imposing speed limits on cyclists is going national. I've been reading reports on this for the last few months, and it appears that yet another city is about to impose greater restrictions on cyclists!

Boulder, CO is changing up the rules for crosswalks. There will now be a speed limit of 8mph for anyone entering or traversing a crosswalk. I'm pretty sure this doesn't just apply to cyclists, so runners who are really blazing along will also need to slow down before entering a crosswalk.

In addition, before entering the crosswalk any pedestrian or biker must activate the warning device to let cars know of their intention. The new rules aren't just for pedestrians, as drivers are now prohibited from passing a car that is stopped at a crosswalk.

These are curious times. On the one hand, this seems like extra rules for little-to-no benefit, and they seem to be more about trying to force people to pay attention and do what most of us would consider to be safe practices.

But isn't that what a lot of the rules of the road are? I've talked before about setting speed limits, and that one of the main factors considered is the speed that 85% of people drive at. So the limits are set based on what your average safe driver does naturally.

If I'm riding a bike and come to a crosswalk I slow down, and most likely so do most people. Unfortunately, there are some people who get so caught up in their exercise that they ignore the rules. We've all seen them on the highway. A couple times a week I see a guy blow by me going at least 25 mph over the limit while talking on his cell phone. I've even seen girls speeding while doing their nails!

In addition to giving police a greater ability to punish offenders, these rules are designed to give cyclists more rights. Previously, they had to travel under 2.5 mph to enjoy the same rights on a crosswalk as a pedestrian. If you've ever tried to ride a bike that slowly you know that it is incredibly difficult. They essentially had to stop and walk next to their bike to have the same protection as a pedestrian. The new 8mph speed limit will force drivers to be more aware of cyclists, increasing their safety.

Enforcement of these new regulations may prove difficult. Having a cop with a police radar gun sit at crosswalks to catch speeding cyclists seems like a waste of resources. More likely there will simple be a greater police presence at the crosswalks to remind people of the new rules. A lot of people would be mad if they started getting tickets when riding their bike.

I feel that bike police should be equipped with Handheld Police Radar to catch these speeding cyclists. Then the bikers will get radar detectors and mount them next to their little bell, and a fun time will be had by all.

Especially me. Cause I'll be on my Rollerblades, and we all know there are no rules when you're bladin'. Radar guns can pick up my speed, but they also show a little note to let the cops know I shouldn't be stopped. The note says, "Too cool to go slow." And the cops understand and just give me a thumbs up.

Labels: bicycle, police radar

I was just reading a news article about the Washington Toll System being able to accurately measure the speed of cars. I actually worked for a time for IPASS, which is the Illinois Toll System, and I can say that it is technically possible to see how fast a car is traveling on the tollway.

As of now, I don't know of any toll roads that are using information collected from tolls to issue speeding tickets. I know in Illinois police were not allowed to see the information, unless they had a subpoena, which I believe is the case in Washington as well.

I actually had a call once where a police officer called in to check on a stolen car. The car actually went through some tolls after being stolen, and the police were trying to use the information to find the thief. Unfortunately, only the owner of the car could access the toll information.

On another occasion a woman called to see where her husband's car was going. Since she was on the account I was allowed to inform her of the tolls. Thankfully, her husband went in the direction he said, so she relaxed and didn't have to yell at him about possible infidelity.

There are very specific rules about what this info is for. Police would no doubt love to get their hands on toll info to give out speeding tickets, but as tolls are not designed to measure speed the data cannot be trusted in the same way that a police radar gun can be. There's more that goes into issuing a speeding ticket than just the speed of the car. Road conditions also play an important factor, and sometimes other drivers can have an effect. For instance, if someone is tailgating you, you may speed for your own safety. If a police officer is present, the tailgater will get the ticket, and not you.

There's always a new speed detection method being put into use somewhere. Whether it's pneumatic tubes across the road or the tolls you pay every day, there's always some new method of finding out how fast you're going. Fortunately, our lawmakers have been pretty good about making sure police use only the best radar guns that have been designed for traffic measurement. You don't have to worry about speeding tickets from toll booths, but there are still police officers on toll roads, so keep your speed at a safe level.

Labels: police procedure, police radar

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to use a radar gun. I wrote a while back on Radar Guns for Swooping, or Skydiving, and I thought that was pretty cool. But as it's almost January and the temperatures drop and snow begins to fall, so a different use for radar guns has presented itself: snowmobiling.

There are two ways that radar guns are being used for snowmobiling. First, police radar guns are used by Conservation Officers and State Deputies on Snowmobile trails to make sure no one is exceeding the speed limit. This is a lot like those police officers using radar on bicyclists in Dallas, as there is a great need to make sure people are safe when out in the wilderness.

Snowmobiles can travel at speeds up to 150mph. That's crazy fast when you consider it's always on icy roads, and there may not be anyone to help you after a crash. You could be miles from the nearest person when you wipe out on your snowmobile, and if you're knocked unconscious or don't have a cell phone or radio you may not be able to call for help. Deaths occur every winter because of this.

Forest Rangers try to get out to the busiest snowmobile intersections with police radar guns to hand out warnings and tickets to keep injuries and deaths to a minimum.

The other snowmobile use for radar guns is more fun. A lot of snowmobilers like to check out their speed, and while they have on board speedometers it can be more fun to have a friend clock how fast you fly by. I'd suggest a traffic radar gun for this type of purpose, as they're designed for a vehicle, and the Decatur Genesis Handheld Directional Police Radar Gun would be a great choice. It can clock speeds from 12 to 200 mph, and it's pretty tough, so you shouldn't have any problems seeing how fast your snowmobile is traveling.

One thing to note is that heavy snow can affect the accuracy of your radar gun, so you'll want to do your speed testing after the heavy snowfall, not during it.

Look at that! Another cool way to make your radar gun useful!

Labels: radar gun uses, snowmobile

I wrote a post back in July about Who Sets the Speed Limits and How, but I just came across some news about a strange twist to this procedure up in Winnipeg, Canada. I won't go through everything from my previous post (as I expect you have no doubt memorized it by now), the basics are that speed limits are set based on the speed that 85% of people drive at on a given road.

So civil engineers set up a traffic radar gun that records speeds over a given period of time, and then consider the speeds over the length of a road. Sharp curves, hills and more can cause the speed limit to be lowered, but it's generally not too difficult to set speed limits.

This procedure was done in Winnipeg about 10 years ago on a number of roads, but city councilors decided that the speed proposed by the engineers was too high, and lowered it by 10kph. Their reasoning was, allegedly, because if they set the speed limit at 50kph most people would drive at 60kph, and so they'd be driving at the suggested speed limit.

I understand the reasoning, but I don't really agree with it, and it has been causing some problems recently.

Specifically, there have been a ton of traffic tickets issued by police officers strictly enforcing the unnaturally low speed limit on certain roads. If the speed limit is too low even safe drivers will find their speed unconsciously drift up. So though they're driving at a safe speed, cops armed with police radar guns are going to find a greater number of people are exceeding the posted speed limit.

There has been some uproar to have the speed limit raised, although I think it might be a good idea to at the very least put up a speed trailer for now, as it will remind drivers to keep their speed down. The Decatur OnSite 200 Radar Speed Display would be a perfect solution here, as it would not only help keep driver's speed down, but it also has tracking software to allow civil engineers to take another look at average road speeds to see if there's some room to increase the speed limit.

It stinks that some random bureaucrat could screw up roads for so many people based on faulty logic, but at least there are plenty of speed detection tools to allow the mistakes to be corrected.

Labels: speed limits

This excessive idling is bad for the battery and severely limits the life of the car, so when a car manufacturer is contracted to make police vehicles, like Dodge recently was, they add a bunch of extra features to make the cars and trucks better suited for cops.

Enter the Dodge Ram 1500 Crew Cab 4X4 Special Service Package. This pickup truck is a beast.

The 1500 Crew Cab comes equipped with 100,000 mile sparkplugs and an extra large oil cooler for those long times idling, and the electronics in the truck are outstanding. The lights and computer in a police vehicle drain the battery, and police radar guns can likewise take a toll on the power, so there's a 220 amp alternator, which gives a lot of juice to all the equipment police officers regularly use.

Those of you who don't have access to the suped up Ram 1500 might want to take a look at some of our other options for accessorizing you radar gun. Our police radar gun accessories include tools like mounting brackets and large digital radar display signs.

For sporting enthusiasts, our baseball radar guns are fairly energy efficient, but even they need a recharge once in a while. If you're away from a power outlet, a great option is a solar battery charger like the Brunton Explorer Foldable Solar Panel, which will give you energy anywhere the sun makes an appearance.

Whether you're a police officer in need of the best equipment available or a little league baseball coach who doesn't settle for second place, our radar gun gear will help keep you performing at the highest levels.

Labels: police procedure, police radar