For a lot of people, speeding is a normal part of every day life. However, getting speeding tickets regularly becomes expensive. Not only are they expensive, speeding tickets increase your insurance premiums as well.

Are you are fed up with getting speeding tickets? If you drive with a heavy foot or find that you are always in a hurry, it might be time to buy a radar detector.

What is a radar detector?

A radar detector is essentially a microwave radio receiver. It is a device used to detect speed traps set up by police officers, and can also detect the presence of radar guns that are used to measure the speed of vehicles. Radar detectors are very popular these days, and help many people avoid costly speeding tickets.

Owning a radar detector is a great way to help you abide by the law. Radar detectors are very effective for warning you that you are approaching a speed detection device. The detector will make a noise or flash lights when it senses an incoming signal on specific frequencies. All radar detectors are capable of detecting police radar.

Before you decide to purchase a radar detector, it is important to check whether radar detectors are illegal in your area. They are currently illegal in passenger vehicles in Virginia and Washington, DC.

Buying a radar detector:

The price of radar detectors varies greatly. This is due to the fact that some radar detectors are more sophisticated than others. Choosing the right detector is essential to avoiding speeding tickets. The following are the three types of radar detectors:

Corded Radar Detectors: These are the most popular, and are designed to be plugged into the cigarette lighter of your car. The detector itself is attached to the windshield with suction cups.

Wireless Radar Detectors: The advantage of these is that there are no annoying cords. Wireless radar detectors are winning drivers over with their flexibility.

Remote Mounted Radar Detectors: The remote mount type of radar detectors are mounted permanently to your car, hidden from sight. These detectors are more costly and require professional installation.

When purchasing a radar detector, the general rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for. The more costly the detector, the more features it has, and therefore the better chance of it giving you an advance warning, so you can slow down in time. Advance warning can be critical when hoping to avoid a speeding ticket.

Where should you buy a radar detector?

The best way to buy radar detectors is online. This way you can do some research and read reviews of all the various models and compare the features. It is more than likely you will find a better price online than at your local electronics store.

When looking at prices, just remember that a speeding ticket could cost you up to five times as much as a radar detector.

Radar detectors are not foolproof and do not work all of the time, however, drivers who use radar detectors are safer as a group than those that don’t. So to avoid those speeding tickets, make sure you get the best.

Outside of the United States, there has been a widespread ban on car radar detectors. However, this is not a new motion. In Canada and in many European countries, radar detectors have been illegal for some time now because of the fact that they would normally allow motorists to break the law until the mildly annoying beeping noise notified them of police presence.

In that case, the motorist would quickly slow down to the proper speed and nobody ever had to know that they had been driving 50 Kmph over the speed limit.

The radar detector would notify the motorist in plenty of time before the police caught them on their radar. It seemed like the perfect crime. However, radar detectors were soon outlawed. Some police organizations also fitted their radar with a detector that would detect… well… radar detectors.

In other words, they developed a radar-detector detector. For the most part, this made it nearly impossible to use one and get away with it. Now the word on the street is, why are radar detectors banned? What is so bad about them?

The counter-argument to those who advocate use of the radar detector is simple. The anti-radar detector group believed that motorists who use radar detectors pose a greater risk on the road than those who do not use them. At first glance, you may be inclined to agree with the anti-radar detector group simply because those using radar detectors would be more likely to drive faster, therefore increasing the risk of accident.

However, the 2001 Mori Report tells us that those drivers using a radar detector actually pose 28% less risk than those who do not use them. Interestingly, this may point to the fact that those drivers who drive at or under the speed limit pose as great of a risk of accident, if not more, than those who drive over the speed limit.

In Canada, the car radar detector is illegal in all provinces and territories except Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was legal in most provinces until the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.