Have you ever watched any of those 80s cop films and noticed the “gun-like” instrument in their hands? I often noticed but have you ever wondered what they’re actually for? Seeing police use them, you’d imagine it’s for tracking the speed of a car. Well, technically, they’re actually tracking your speed similar to a speedometer; which helps them figure out whether or not you are actually going over the posted speed limit so the police officer can give the driver a speeding ticket.
So in order to avoid getting a speeding ticket, many drivers buy a radar detector to warn the driver if a police officer or speed trap is just ahead. So, Are Radar Detectors Worth It? For safety reasons, yes. However, you may realize upon further research, that they can be faulty. Actually, the reason why you don’t see radar detectors often is due to their small unreliability in some situations. Police often use other means of tracking speeding vehicles.
Read Further: Are radar detectors legal?
Even if radar detectors are old in today’s technology, why are radar detectors still expensive? Though they tend to be niche, honestly I was surprised myself that because of tech made today, the flaws of the older radar detectors are no longer an issue. Because of that, typically for a good radar detector, you’ll be looking at $299-$399.
Now if you bought a radar detector, the next thing you might be thinking is what other uses does a radar detector have? Surprisingly, hunting is one of the few things that you can also do with a radar detector. Well, not the fishing you’d imagine; you won’t be hooking any type of fish with it. Instead, its used for tracking the movements of fish under the water!
Radar detectors are great tools, they serve their function of tracking well depending on which model you buy. But before all of that, it would be a good idea to verify if they are legal to own in your state. Surprisingly, radar detectors are illegal within the states of Iowa, Virginia, and Washington. But why? It’s actually due to reasons related to crimes naturally, and many of those are to do with traffic, and usually people tending to use their radar detector for the wrong reasons.
Some of these include include:
- A tendency to over speed; especially when out of the line of sight of a police officer
- Increases chances of traffic accidents due to inaccurate numbers.
- Attempting to fool police, more often than not the police will catch up to you.
- Overall going over speed limitations. Which has been an influx of car accidents.
If you were to use a radar detector actively, I’d recommend finding a way to hide it. Police have a tendency to easily figure out that you have a radar detector even through talking to you. Or even at times, using laser to track your car, since laser blocks radar! I didn’t know too much about laser, but there are actually jammers to avoid this exact issue with laser. Laser jammers mess with the laser guns the police have the closer they get. And having a laser jammer onboard your radar detector can shake any suspicion off of you; especially if you can turn it off if you ever do get pulled over for speeding.
I want to end this off with the question that should be asked: should you buy a radar detector? Well, I still agree yes, but I think another question to ask yourself is how much you’re going to get out of a radar detector. Will the investment you put it actually pay off? Instead, would you much rather get your investment money better put to something such as lets say, a multi-tool, like a phone?
Due to their expensive nature and often niche uses, radar detectors have been unused by a majority of people. Only those who were present when radar detectors were almost a “life hack”, actually still use radar detectors commonly. Thinking about the longevity of something is an important factor in all of this. Ask yourself, what if your radar detector breaks? Would that be money down the drain? It should be urgent to you that you take questions like these into consideration, so you get the most out of your money investment.