Get ready, 9 is no longer fine, McCrory socks it to the working class again

http://abc11.com/travel/speeders-beware-law-enforcement-is-cracking-down/1257209/

"The governor's highway safety program is ramping up what's being called "Obey the Sign or Pay the Fine" speeding enforcement crackdown.

Apparently, there's a belief out there that if the speed limit is 65, officers or troopers won't pull you over if you're doing 1 to 9 miles per hour over the limit - a so called buffer zone.

The DOT says that's not the case.

Law enforcement says beginning Thursday, they'll target and ticket anyone driving above the posted speed limit."

So, why are they doing this? 2 Possible reasons:

1) The Republican NC house and senate have defunded the state so much due to phony corporate tax breaks and other "job creation" packages that more revenue is needed
2) McCrory decided he would like the support of the traditionally-Democratic (and heavily-Cooper supporting) voting block that is attorneys and those in the legal professional, who stand to see a mountain of new election-year business from this

Just like the 1% corporate tax reduction that only makes a real dent in a company's bottom line if they are making several hundred thousands a year (ignores small businesses in the $200-$500K range, which is MOST small businesses in NC), and the subsequent raising of local sales taxes and taxes now on LABOR, this hurts the families rushing to 9-5 jobs trying to juggle tons of responsibilities.

Your governor's appointees - the heads of DPS, NCHP - are the ones who made this decision, just like the ones who decided to ticket sleeping truckers on I77 at the Shelton Vineyards exit in Surry Co, all because Charlie Shelton - a major McCrory donor - said he didn't like the trucks parking on his exit and marring the landscape.

Anyone voting for these thieves and scam artists is a fool, make sure you vote in November and NOT FOR MCCRORY

 

They have to pay someway for the 2 Billion Dollars that was voted in!
You can't expect them to pay for any of it!

 

That's paid for with your other tax dollars, this is a tax that isn't called such. They raised speed limits to more accurately reflect how people drive. People have been doing 75-80 for years. Think they will actually raise the limit to 75 or 80? Not a chance, because then they really couldn't write enough tickets

 

Yeah, what we need is some more bankrupting Democrats in charge. Yeah, the ones who raped the DOT of funds for their political welfare kids school programs. Save your disgraceful anger dude. Dems have been screwing the pooch for years now at the tax payers expense.

 

Ah, the ******* is back, cockin cork. Ok, praise McCrotch, and I guess you praise the LEOs who do 85 and then will be pulling you for 46 in a 45 because their bosses at DOT, DPS and NCHP told them they want you to send more of your hard-earned cash back to the state?

I could be wrong, but based on your postings you seem like one of those Rabid Redneck Republicans we have around here, the type who want to pull out a gun when someone tries to steal something off their back porch (rightfully so), but then want to vote for and defend the Republican governor when he raises your taxes and then wants to - for the first time in history - start charging you for running 1mph over the speed limit? You're OK with one kind of stealing, but not another? Or maybe you just aren't bright enough to get the nuance?

I guess you really are just a tax and spend liberal, Cork, because if you support these kinds of "creative" taxes on the working class, you are nearly as much a Socialist as ol Bernie

 

Given the resolution and accuracy of the speedometers in vehicles compared to the error range for the LEO speed measurement devices, it seems they are expecting either a miracle or that everyone believes they are going to be so strict. Selective enforcement would seem to be very possible with this situation.

 

Guys, the SHOP has about one trooper per county patrolling at most times . Honestly,how many one mile per hour over the speed limit tickets do you think they have the time and or man power to write? Get real drama queen lawnboy.

 

Looks like I struck a nerve Crok. No drama queen here, just despise the phony southern redneck conservative hypocrisy that is all too pervasive (but dying off!) in these parts.

If you blast someone like Jim Hunt or Terry Sanford who are the single-biggest reasons NC excelled in the last 50 years of the 20th century, who raised taxes to pay for education, but you applaud people like McCrotch and his cronies in the state house and senate who want to tax YOU to get your oil changed so YOU can pay for Duke Power execs to get a bonus, then you are only voting republican because your parents told you to, because you are a racist ******* prick who thinks Democrats support "niggers."

Call it what it is, CROK

Are you a birther too? Do you think Obama was born in Kenya and is a muslim? It's ok, thete are enough people moving to NC that Burr - yes, stalwart BURR - is only up 5 points against Deborah Ross. Your kind is dying out, thank god. You should get on the right side of history so that you don't look like an embarrassment to your grandkids, when they produce interracial children

 

We haven't quite screwed up as bad as Kansas yet. Here is the latest on that laughing stock . . .
“Just boxes and boxes of dildos” Seth Meyers roasts Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback after state sells adult toys to fix his tax screw-up

 

I dont have an issue, they are giving us fair warning so this is avoidable.
Try driving 9 mph over on I-95 in southern VA and see if they ignore you.
If the goal is to bring in more money, I'd them rather collect it this way than to raise other taxes. It might even make our roads a little safer.

 

You are obviously too ignorant to strike a nerve with me. You can't debate w/o cursing or sensationalistic name calling. Go back and get an education or at least get out of the eighth grade before you embarrass yourself further.

 

Niggers??? Really? This in itself shows the type of person you are.. and you're calling someone else a racist.. Oh and the lil Enlightened person lap dog Hught likes your racist rant. No surprise there.. just another self righteous piece of sh!t. Who's the idiot that put this outside the pit. Again that says it all.
LOL.. and to think Hught apologized for contributing the pit to this side before.. good to know he's a man of his word, now he approved of bringing hate and racism here too,, oh and Dildos..
This is someone who recently chided me for being in the gutter. Yeah it's obvious he knows about the gutter himself quite well .

 

Actually they have tried to pass a bill a few times to raise the state maximum speed limit from 70 to 75. Most recently in 2013 I believe - http://www.wral.com/senate-to-vote-on-raising-speed-limit-in-nc/12325800/

It came close a few times to passing.

And as for my speedometer, I know my truck is off by about 3 mph at 70 mph according to my GPS. The radar gun can easily be off +/- 1 mph. And then you have to factor in the fact that you rarely maintain an exact speed. When you are doing 70 mph and then come to a large downhill section of road, unless you are on the brakes the whole time, you are going to speed up to like 72-73 easily. If they wrote a ticket for every person going 1 mph over the speed limit, they would be writing billions of tickets in NC alone per year.

 

13 of the most common errors in measuring speed with a radar gun. I once saw a building clocked at 34 mph due to the arm swing error. My boss at the time was the Police Commissioner and we were observing a training class for radar guns.

• Panning - This happens when the hand held unit is swept across the dashboard of the car or the control unit mounted to the dash of the car.
  
  
• Mechanical interference - the a/c or heating fan in the police car, alternator, ignition noises, rotating signs near the roadway, anything mechanical that is operating in the vicinity of the roadway can distort the readings.
  
  
• Shadowing - all moving radar units have this problem since the targeted speed is calculated by subtracting the speed of the police car from the closing speed of the target.
  
  
• Batching - this error is caused when the police car is either slowing down or accelerating when the radar unit is still calculating the speed of the targeted vehicle.
  
  
• Radio or Microwave interference - any outside source of a frequency transmission such as a CB radio, Ham or police radio, radar from a local airport, cell phones, power lines, neon or mercury vapor lights, power sub stations, etc., any one of these interferences can distort the calculations of the radar unit.
  
  
• Auto lock on wrong target - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggest that you disable the auto lock on units that have this function and the newer units no longer have this capability.
  
  
• No tracking history - this recommendation is most often ignored. It's one that is stressed in the operational manual and is impossible to avoid if you are using the unit in the "instant on" mode. Errors occur when there are multiple targets in the path of the radar beam and the police officer has not observed the average speed reading nor has he checked for any external interference.
  
  
• Harmonic Error from Phase Lock Loop - This problem is common with moving radar units when the police car is accelerating and the target vehicle is moving at a slow speed, typically under 20 mph and error can occur in the reading.
  
  
• Terrain error - One common factor in radar units is that they always read in a straight line. They cannot read around a turn or the other side of a hill. In this case, the radar unit may in fact be reading another vehicle farther up the road rather than the target vehicle that is going to be issued a citation.
  
  
• Look past error - in this case the radar unit finds a larger vehicle between the patrol car and the targeted vehicle and consequently gives an entirely different reading for an entirely different vehicle.
  
  
• Multiple bounce error - These occur usually when there is an overpass in the vicinity of the chase and the radar beam is reflected off multiple targets at the same time. The vehicle in question, an overpass, a sign, etc. will result in an improper reading.
  
  
• Reflection error - If the antenna part of a radar unit is hung on the outside of the police officer's car , the beam can actually hit a side window or part of the window and a false reading occurs which will distort the actual reading for the targeted vehicle.
  
  
• Arm Swing Error - When the officer swings the unit up to point at the targeted vehicle, the speed of his arm is added to the speed of the vehicle and results in a misrepresented reading generated by the vehicle
  

 

I wonder how many, if any of these, apply to laser/lidar? I've seen several times in the triangle where they were using this instead of radar.

 

All of them to some degree. The difference is that the radar uses sound waves to calculate the speed based on the Doppler Effect and laser uses light to measure distance change. The mechanical systems interference aspects would be less likely, but interference in the processing is still remotely possible.

 

A laser is an artificially generated and amplified light which is in the infrared light section of the electromagnetic wave spectrum. It is not visible to the naked eye. It is very concentrated. The laser speed detector fires a series of laser pulses at a selected remote target. When the laser light strikes the target, a portion of the light is reflected back to the detector. Since the speed of light is a known constant, by measuring the time which it takes for the laser pulse to travel to the target and back, the detector is able to calculate the distance between the detector and the target. Each laser pulse which is fired and reflected back establishes one distance reading. The laser speed detector fires 43 laser pulses every time the trigger on the detector is squeezed. These 43 pulses are fired in a total period of approximately one-third of a second. If the target at which the laser pulses are fired is a stationary target, each of the 43 pulses will give the same distance reading to the target, and distance will be the only thing that the detector can tell us about the target. However, if the target is moving, each of the 43 pulses will give a slightly different distance reading and the detector can then compute the velocity or speed of the target from the changes in distance divided by the known elapsed time between the firing of each of the laser pulses. In simplest terms, this is the basic theory underlying the use of lasers to calculate speed, and there can be no dispute about its fundamental validity.

There are, however, both conceptual and practical problems which have to be overcome in designing and constructing a reliable laser speed detector. The detector works by measuring the time it takes a laser pulse which it transmits to go out to a target and come back. However, there are many other pulses in the environment of the detector which can interact upon it, and the detector must be programmed to distinguish between those "false" pulses and the "true" pulses which it has transmitted.

As mentioned above, the laser is very concentrated and has a characteristically narrow beam. At a point 1,000 feet away from the detector, a laser beam is about three to three and one-half feet wide and has a height of about three feet. This may be contrasted with the beam of radar which is about 320 feet wide at a point 1,000 feet away from the radar transmitter. Although the laser beam is much more concentrated than the radar beam, it is far from being a true pinpoint. As the three by three and one-half foot laser beam strikes the very irregular surface of a moving motor vehicle, it does not hit a single, highly-reflective point on the vehicle. In effect, it splashes over a portion of the vehicle. This is true even though operators are trained to fire at the front license plate area of the vehicle, because the beam is considerably larger than the license plate. Indeed, depending upon the angle at which the beam hits a vehicle, and depending upon the vehicle's location with respect to other vehicles on the highway, particularly a multi-lane highway, it is conceivable that a portion of the beam splashes onto another vehicle. For reasons which will become apparent when I discuss possible sweep error, there is a sense in which it is important for the detector to be programmed so that it can distinguish the point on a vehicle from which the return impulse is coming.

It is important for the laser detection device to measure distances between it and a motor vehicle at the same point on the motor vehicle. In traffic law enforcement, the ultimate use of the detector is to fix the speed of a vehicle. However, the primary measurement made by the detector is distance. (In this respect, the detector contrasts with the Doppler radar units employed in police work. The Doppler radar units compute speed from differences in frequency between microwaves. For them, distance is not significant.) This distinction is important, because, although the entire vehicle travels at the same speed, not every point on the vehicle is the same distance away from the detector. A vehicle traveling along a highway at 60 miles per hour travels 88 feet in a second. In the one-third second which elapses while the laser speed detector is firing 43 pulses at the vehicle, the vehicle will travel 29.33 feet. If the laser pulses being fired by the detector were allowed to sweep [714 A.2d 374] from the front grille of the vehicle to the windshield of the vehicle during the one-third of the second the pulses were being fired, the pulses reflecting back from the windshield would be four feet farther away than the pulses reflecting back from the front grille. Unless the detector has an appropriate error trapping program built into it, the detector would conclude that the vehicle traveled 33.33 feet instead of the 29.33 feet which it actually traveled, and the detector would show the speed of the vehicle as being 68 miles per hour instead of the correct 60 miles per hour. This would be what is known as "sweep" error. If the detector were allowed to sweep for ten feet along a vehicle, that would lead to about 20 miles per hour being erroneously added to the calculation of the vehicle's speed. If the detector were allowed somehow to pan from one vehicle to another vehicle in a way which would lead to a distance differential of 30 feet, that would convert to a speed reading 60 miles per hour too high.

The inventor of the laser speed detector is clearly aware of many of the conceptual and practical problems involved and has designed computer programs and hardware mechanisms designed to trap a variety of errors. The State's expert, Dr. Gezari, submitted a report which had this to say on the subject of error trapping:

One of the basic operating features of the LTI 20-20 is an error trapping algorithm which tests the integrity of the received data. Thirty to forty data pulses received must have the correct pulse shape, rise time, duration, color and basic time sequence to be considered valid data fit for analysis. If at least thirty received impulses do not fit the criteria the data is rejected and no velocity is calculated. Other criteria are also used by the manufacturer to identify valid pulses having to do with actual vehicle characteristics--acceleration/deceleration parameters, change in target direction, etc. The LTI 20-20 speed gun will display error messages if no velocity is calculated informing the operator as to the reason no answer was given or no velocity was calculated. These error messages do not indicate errors were made; they simply identify the reason that no calculation was made. The error trapping approach used in data analysis further insures that factors such as steadiness of the gun during the measurement, weather conditions, motion of other objects nearby, etc. do not affect the accuracy of the speed reading calculated.

The electrocomputer circuitry of the LTI 20-20 speed gun uses sophisticated techniques including pulse stretching algorithm, statistical data analysis techniques, etc. to provide fully adequate timing accuracy in the generation and detection of laser pulses resulting in typical velocity measurement accuracies of ± 1 mile per hour or better for typical highway speed measurements.

The inventor and designer of the detector, also testified fairly extensively with respect to his efforts to eliminate inconsistent data and to trap error. One of the mathematical techniques to screen out inconsistent and erroneous readings is a procedure called the "average of least squares". That procedure was discussed at some length by Mr. Dunne and by three of the defense experts, and an exhibit setting forth a partial test program for least square speed error was admitted in evidence. The average of least squares is a common procedure which can eliminate inconsistency and error in a variety of applications, but it is only a limited part of the error trapping techniques which are purportedly built into the laser speed detector.

 

I figure the whole thing is just to slow people down in general. The word like this gets out (Facebook/4042/com/ wral etc) and people will naturally slow down a bit.

 

That is the most probable reason.

 

Just make sure you have a good radar detector and use Waze every time you drive Out of 100 of the most recently times I have seen police on the side of the road, at least 98 of those times they have been marked in Waze, and the other two, the radar detector saw them.