How to Dodge Speeding Tickets

In the eyes of Americans, speed limits have joined the long list of laws that don't apply to them, like jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk, and paying nanny taxes. Travel times are quoted in terms of speeding or not speeding. Going above the posted limit is not viewed as lawbreaking, but rather, a prudent timesaving approach to driving.

Of course, the police departments around the country have a different viewpoint. Most police officers actually take their duties of enforcing the traffic laws seriously. Every day in the United States, there are tens of thousands of speeding tickets written (100,000 by one estimate) with millions of dollars of penalties to motorists (not to mention higher insurance premiums for repeat offenders). For many municipalities, ticket writing is an important source of revenue, and state police departments often have quotas to keep troopers on their toes. Radar guns can be notoriously inaccurate to boot, and you may be ticketed even if you aren't the one speeding. To minimize your chances of getting a ticket, there are a number of tactics that can be employed.

Radar works by bouncing radio waves at a specific frequency off of a subject, which are returned at a different frequency. An algorithm calculates the speed of the subject based upon the change in frequency. Radar beams spread out over distance and are consequently less accurate the farther away the subject is. Regular radar has an operating range of about 2,000 feet, while laser radar is theoretically effective up to a mile. However, both radar systems' effective ranges are closer to 600 to 800 feet due to police department guidelines, requiring the officer to first obtain a visual speed estimate. Radar can be used in both stationary and moving vehicles.

Laser radar, or "Lidar," has been around for over a decade, but is still used by only 10 percent of police cars due to its high cost. Instead of radio waves, Lidar uses a beam of light that is bounced off the subject. Lidar is more of a threat to speeders than regular radar for two reasons. First, its longer range is deadly at night when coupled with the "instant-on" feature, which makes its radar signature harder to detect in advance. Second, it uses a very narrow beam of light that does not diffuse like radar, thus reducing errors caused by interference from neighboring vehicles. Lidar can only be used from stationary police cars and must be mounted on the outside of the vehicle.