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Anyone Use A Gps To Beat A Speeding Ticket?


Insp Gadget

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I was just wondering if anyone has used a GPS history to beat a speeding ticket? Would this be accepted in court?

 

No, I have not received a ticket. LOL Just curious is all....

I don't think it would hold in court. Ask yourself this question, how much does your GPS cost and how much does a ultrasound radar costs. Anotherthing, this I'm not sure but in its history, does your GPS keep the date and time? if not, how could someone proove that it took place at a precise day, at a precise time. Finally, how acurate is a GPS when calculating your speed?

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Finally, how acurate is a GPS when calculating your speed?

I would say pretty accurate, I have compared them to the car's speedometer and the two stay very close. I would say the speedometer is more inaccurate. I would also like to know, if anyone knows more about this I'd like to hear it too.

 

I doubt any officials would allow a GPS as evidence you weren't speeding, what if the max speed said 500.0 mph after a poor signal. :lol:

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The Magellen 210 claims 0.1 mph, and it's certainly better than my speedometer. IMO, almost all tickets are legit, and your GPSr will more likely prove that you were going even faster than the good officer said. It's not that the radar is much more accurate, and I think almost anything can be offered as evidence, though the weight may vary, but the coppers don't typically come after you unless they have a good reason and plenty of margin for error. In cases where the ticket is not legit, the system is so tilted against you, I doubt the GPSr will help much.

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Most civilian GPS receivers are accurate to .1 mph. They obtain speed by doplar shift, and not distance divided by time. They are much more accurate than your speedometer.

 

There was a thread in the general forum a year or so ago about someone beating a speeding ticket with his GPSr. As I recall, he was in the UK, and some forum members thought he was a poser. Forum search function being disabled, it may be tough to find the thread.

 

Edit: Maybe try browsing these

Edited by Sputnik 57
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As a car guy I can tell you that there is a company (and I cant remember right now their name) that sells a speedometer for cars that uses gps to calculate speed, that way you can change rear end ratios andor tire sizes as much as you want and you still get an accurate speed reading. I'll try to find their web site tonight for some more info like how accurate they are.

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I don't think it would hold in court. Ask yourself this question, how much does your GPS cost and how much does a ultrasound radar costs. Anotherthing, this I'm not sure but in its history, does your GPS keep the date and time? if not, how could someone proove that it took place at a precise day, at a precise time. Finally, how acurate is a GPS when calculating your speed?

Traffic court rules of evidence are generally more relaxed than in regular criminal courts so it would largely depend on the judge. And at least most Magellan and Garmin receivers can maintain a tracklog that includes the positions and times of successive points so you can see how fast you were going at what time and place. There have been several reports in the past where people did use their GPS data to reduce or avoid a fine due to a speeding ticket. Here's one example:

http://www.epinions.com/content_210403495556 : "I once managed to get out of a speeding ticket because of the tracklog data. It proved to the judge that I wasn't going as fast as the officer claimed."

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I think of it this way. Lets say I have been driving for an hour with the cruise control set at the limit. I come upon someone driving under the limit and pass them. As I pass I am over the limit and a cop catches me. If I went to court I could prove, using my tracklog, that I had been following the limit for an hour and the officer only caught a small portion of my driving. I wonder if the judge would rule in my favor based on that scenerio?

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I wonder if the judge would rule in my favor based on that scenerio?

 

I highly doubt it. The officer didn't stop you based on your AVERAGE driving speed, they stopped you based on the fact that at the time they sampled you, you were speeding. I tend to agree with what was previously stated, if you're speeding, you probably deserve the ticket, if you weren't then the system is already stacked against you. Your only hope then is what usually happens to people I know...the police officer doesn't show up on court day and the whole thing is dismissed.

 

Doc

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Good Gravy!!! There is no way you can beat a speeding ticket with your GPS!! Just pay it. You could still argue the point, but they won't recognise your device against a Radar or Laser certified Police officer. I could see if you live in a really small town and you have a Barney Fife type cop that doesn't know how to calibrate his speed detection device. Again you would have to prove the officer didn't use it correctly. From an ex-Cop.

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Here's another example of the use of a GPS tracklog in reducing a speeding ticket fine.

From http://www.texasgeocaching.com/forum/topic..._ID=2604戡

"I used the tracklog from my Meridian Platinum to get out of a ticket

last year. The cop clocked me at 83MPH in a 60 zone. The GPS showed

at that point that I was doing 69MPH. Yes, I was speeding but not as

fast as his radar showed. The speed your GPS shows is the average speed

between trackpoints and since mine was logging every .01 miles that

was over about a 50foot range so it was pretty accurate. I took a print

out of the tracklog to court and talked to the county prosecutor and

showed him the log. He was very interested in it and asked a lot of

questions. This was in a smaller Texas county and they don't see many

of those new-fangled gadgets there. He agreed to drop the charge to

69MPH and that saved me over $100."

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If someone had enough time on their hands, they could download the tracks to the computer and save the data as a .gpx file. Then they could edit the data to adjust the speed and then load the data back to the GPSr.

 

I'm no lawyer, but IMHO, the GPSr would have to be seized as evidence at the scene of the crime to be admitted as evidence.

Edited by Neo_Geo
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If someone had enough time on their hands, they could download the tracks to the computer and save the data as a .gpx file. Then they could edit the data to adjust the speed and then load the data back to the GPSr.

Wouldn't work on any of the Garmins that I've had since any tracklog uploaded into the GPS receiver loses the time/datestamp data - and that's even if it's uploaded as the "Active Log." Somewhere I read that this was done deliberately so the receivers could be used in some types of competitive events. (Not sure how it works on the Geko models that apparently treat the tracklog a bit differently.)

 

There would still be the possibility of using a device that simulates the transmissions from the GPS satellite constellation - but those are rather rare, not accessible to many people, and involve pretty extensive programming to create a realistic tracklog.

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