Radarded

Well, I got my wish. In the past twenty-four hours, I've been hit by two cops. First, at night, an instant-on K band in Kirkland. No warning - BLAM! My little radar device goes nutsy and I brake ASAP. The next morning, heading off to work, turn a corner..... ALARM! Lasered!

So, there's some good news to all this.

• I've experienced the two most common forms of speed trap that I'm likely to encounter (instant-on K band radar, and stationary laser trap), and know what to expect.
• Both warnings were very obviously true positives from the sort of signal I got. None of this wishy washy echo crap.
• I was driving legal speeds in both cases, and thus didn't get pulled over. I'd feel EXTRA bad about getting a ticket at the 156th St cash grab, which they do to shake up money from Microsofties weekly.
• My detector had no trouble picking up the laser signal, even at close range. This is actually a non-trivial task.

But of course, the downside being in neither case did the detector save me since I wasn't speeding. More to the point, they wouldn't have saved me even if I was speeding! The laser and instant-on gave me no warning before I was hit. Sure, at least for radar that may not always be the case, but it certainly could happen.

So yeah... you're never really safe....