Can Radar Detector Usage Make Our Roads Safer?

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This idea sounds like blasphemy to sheriff/highway patrol agencies and to many politicians! Yet the stated goal of every law enforcement agency which patrols our highways and interstates is to make our roads safer. Politicians also tout this goal, complete with halos above their heads, when proposing legislation to ban radar detectors. Presently only about 5% of drivers use radar detectors. Yet, if this number were to rise to at least 10% or perhaps to 15% then law enforcement officers could usefully patrol much larger stretches of our highways while at the same time being far more effective at keeping most motorist speeds within reasonable and safe bounds. Why, you have got to wonder? It's Quite simple because if 10% or more of drivers with radar detectors slow down to the posted speed limit when detecting radar then the effect is that nearly all other drivers will be forced to slow down to the speed limit. Why? Because if 10% or more of drivers with radar detectors have slowed down, then it will either be much more difficult to pass these drivers or because other drivers will see the alerts from the radar detectors within the cars of the 10% or more of drivers who use radar detectors. It really is a simple argument which for example the state of Georgia has employed for years to great effect on their interstate highways even though other states have considerably higher fines for speeding. Thus increased radar detector usage would result not only in our roads being safer, but also in significantly less police needed to patrol given stretches of highways and interstates.

A good example is Virginia where radar detectors are illegal. Many radar detector users note that VA troopers, compared to their own states where radar detectors are legal, must employ nearly four times the manpower to have any effect on reducing speeding or to reduce traffic flow to safe and reasonable limits, quite simply because VA motorists who can't use radar detectors are completely unaware that they are under surveillance by law enforcement. Moreover, VA law enforcement tends to only go after motorists who exceed 80 m.p.h. since then additional and very expensive revenue generating "reckless driving" fines are imposed, regardless of the fact that the general traffic flow on VA' rural and highways and interstates averages 78 m.p.h.! In other words, VA politicians have made it "extremely profitable" to only go after drivers within VA who have excessively exceeded the posted speed limit or who are driving at more than 80 m.p.h.. So this brings up another reason to use a radar detector. Contrary to what most law enforcement agencies and politicians preach, the bountiful revenue from speeding citations consistently and politically outweighs all agency cited safety goals of keeping our roads safer for all motorists.

The point which is trying to be made is that, contrary to what both the general public and many politicians erroneously perceive, is that radar detectors are far from the "evil" or illegal devices which they have been made out to be. The radar detector manufactures have known all of the above facts for years. This is why they have no moral reservations regarding the products which they manufacture, market and sell. Its about time that the general public becomes aware of the numerous positive benefits of using radar detectors. These devices, when properly and intelligently used, actually make motorists safer drivers — simply because they are far more aware of both their driving habits and their surrounding driving conditions. Moreover, politicians who are truly interested in making our highways and interstates safer, regardless of revenue, should realize that motorists using radar detectors are less likely to excessively speed, are more likely to drive at or very close to the posted speed limit, are more likely to be more alert and aware of other vehicles and road conditions, and that they have a positive effect on slowing down other motorists who are not using radar detectors. In other words, radar detectors communicate to motorists that they are under surveillance and that they should slow down to the posted speed limit. Yet this only works if police officers transmit radar gun signals and if motorists are allowed or even encouraged to freely use radar detectors to receive these signals in order to "get the message" from law enforcement that they are aggressively monitoring traffic conditions.