Hopes To Cash In On Speed Traps
Steven Forage, a software salesman who spends at least five hours a day in his car, juggles a lot on the road: finalizing deals over the phone, sipping coffee, checking e-mail. One thing he no longer worries about, though, is speed cameras.
“Fuzz alert,” an electronic voice called out from the console of his Cadillac recently as it approached a speed enforcement camera in Montgomery County.
The system, known as PhantomAlert, feeds the locations of speed cameras and red-light cameras into standard Global Positioning System devices and prompts the devices to warn drivers when they are near one. PhantomAlert has subscribers throughout the nation, including more than 2,000 in the Washington region, said the company’s owner Joseph Scott.
Scott and a handful of employees scour government and police Web sites for camera locations. But subscribers send in most of the locations, which are added to PhantomAlert’s database.
Scott said police should be thrilled by PhantomAlert, particularly because officials say speed cameras are designed not to generate money but to slow drivers.
Photo by PhantomAlert.
Paul on June 19th, 2009 8:09 pm
The “speed trap” is a major revenue generator for many cities and there use will only increase as tax revenue drops due to the economy. The use of “insurance & DWI check-points” bring a lot of cash into the city coffers. With the use of camera traps, the cash rolls in, as manpower costs are kept to a minimum.
RedHotFranchises on June 22nd, 2009 12:26 am
This is just my guess, but as the recession continues to impact the budgets of municipalities, I’m thinking that police are going to be encouraged to write as many speeding and red light tickets, and make as many DUI arrests as possible. There is real money to be made there.
Jaclyn on June 22nd, 2009 1:38 pm
There is real money to be made with these phantom alerts. While the simple solution on avoiding a ticket would be to just simply obey traffic laws, we all know that is never going to happen, i am an offender of speed limit signs myself.
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