Trappster, could we beat the camera?

I have started using that little app for smart phone (Iphone or Android) looks very good and tells you all: school zones, cameras, and cops cars, booze bus, red light cameras.....etc. Any one using it? Have some feedback; if more people were using it we could beat the road side cash registers!

Simplest thing - obey the road rules. No fines. No Worries.

EDIT: Squidy beat me to it

No dicking with the phone at all! it is in the craddle and just gives a sound alarm when something is ahead, I can keep my eyes on the road, not glued on the odo and has a reminder for when I come close to a school zone.
And no I do not hoon around and I did not get a speeding fine in donkey years,I still have all my 12 points, it is just good to have a bit of peace of mind when driving.

I nearly agree with you. But the location of most speed cameras are not located in black spot areas, but areas where the most revenue can be raised.

^^^^^^^ +100

meh i just use my radar detector, don't need a stupid app :)

"Enjoy the ride" - was doing exactly that a few weeks ago but didn't stop me from being booked. Wife & 3 kids in car on way to Beachport for the long weekend and was cruising through the outskirts of a small town enroute to our destination, just on sunset (sun in eyes, but able to see the road clearly). My 2 oldest kids (7 & 5) singing joyfully in the back seat - all was good, checking the speedo every now & then.

I got pulled over & shown a readout on the radar - 77km/h...so what? (I thought), that's below 80...unfortunately the speed was 60km/h, I just didn't see the signs, but obviously that's no excuse.

So much for enjoying the f@#king ride! $370 later and 3 demerit points!

Something wrong there, should have been 6 points... wasn't it double demerits?

They are very useful for telling you when you are being booked, which is of course far to late to slow down...

Besides, in most states they are illegal anyway.

incorrect galah . mine picks up all multinova camera's around perth . True if you get done by a hand held then your ****ed either way but in the country or metro with mounted devices they work 100% of the time .

and they are legal here in WA

My GPS tells me what the local speed limit is, so if you miss a sign you still know what speed you're supposed to be doing.

Best invention ever

I nearly understand. Wouldn't an area where people are likely to speed be the same as an area where the most revenue could be raised? One requires the other??

I said "most speed cameras, police locations etc are focussed on traffic black spots where accidents are more likely to occur or people are to speed"

That is very much in your mind and very much in your control. Just relax. Put something nice on the sound system. (I listen to podcasts from the ABC and assorted web sites. They play in sequence on the iPhone so I can put one on and they play for more than an hour so I don't have to dick around with the phone when driving.)

There are two things you need to do:

1. Is remind yourself that if you get stressed over the traffic, you will escalate your stress levels and feel worse and worse.

2. There seems to be a pursuit reflex in people. You see wide open space in front of you and accelerate into it until you catch the next group, or pass the car in front to fill the gap. Don't do that. You just create the situation you are trying to avoid. Relax. Stay on the speed limit. Go slower if necessary to avoid catching the cars in front.

I think there is a "race" mentality in WA: that person in in that car can't be in front of me, or, I can get to the front if I do x,y,z...

I have been trying to avoid getting drawn into this mentality for the last year or so...

I try to hang back from the racers - if they are going too fast, and driving aggressively - why stay close or do the same and put yourself at risk as well?

I find the easiest way to relax is to look at someone who is really freaking, and think - geez, I am glad I don't look like that... Smile to yourself, and move on

Of course, all of the above is made even more difficult when the wind is up

Not me! I am one of those annoying people that leave a big gap to try and get the traffic moving at the same speed. It really pisses people off as they see this big gap and assume you are going slower than the rest of the traffic. (I don't do this to piss people off, but you can see that it does)

You also see that a lot of people can't ignore a gap in traffic, like you have said, and jump in there, and then often jump back into their original lane when they realise the one they jumped into is not magically 'fast'.

Surprisingly this technique of smoothing traffic works on traffic in front of you, not just behind you. Its hard to believe but the traffic in front of you smooths out, and it seems to be because the person in front of you is not stressed by someone being up close behind them, and the person in front of them is also not stressed by this and so on, so they start to leave bigger gaps and drive more smoothly.

When I was talking about not being able to relax when moving nowhere, I was literally talking about when you get 3 lanes of traffic not moving more than a few metres every minute or two, all because someone broke down (and other people are surely rubber-necking)... Murphy's law says that this only happens on the way to job
interviews or are going out somewhere. It never happens on the way to work for a boring meeting.

Use the school zone tracker a bit aye?
White Van Man.