Speeding ticket from the sky

 

While visiting the US recently i was driving along totally keeping pace with traffic in the Viper when we drive by a cruiser stopped on the side of the road. He lights em up and cuts out into traffic. I notice and wonder who he's after...cause it couldn't be me...i'm stuck behind a mini van in the middle lane of three.

 

He pulls me over Both my wife and i have no idea why...we were definitely not speeding and my radar was dead silent.

he comes up to the car and says "we have you doing 76 & 79 in a 60 zone from the air".

Now...i was in a 60 zone at the time...but the highway had been fluctuating back and forth between 60 to 65 to 70 zones for hours. I have no idea where on the highway they recorded my speed, i have no idea when, i have no idea what the limit was at the time and i don't even know if it was a plane or a helicopter.

 

Is this legit or BS? I've never gotten a ticket like this before...in fact i haven't had a speeding ticket in four years. I feel like he could have walked up to my car and told me they recorded me doing 90 in a 60 zone and there would be nothing i could do. (besides of course take it to court...which would be a huge headache being i don't even live in the country)

 

I'm not trying to say i was never speeding...i'm sure that at sometime during my trip i was. I just no for a fact that i wasn't when he pulled me over. And he certainly never had me speeding or any other officer on the ground...but apparently an invisible eye in the sky caught me.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

You can write a letter of discovery to the CHP and .cc the court and DA to request for evidence of speeding, exact location. Such letter will help you understand why you got the ticket and formulate a defense should you fight it in a court or via a written declaration.

 

If you choose not to fight it, you can plea guilty and pay the bail. If you drive in the US often and insure your car here, you may want to request for traffic school to avoid an insurance premium jump.

I heard that you can always demand to get the ticket from the officer that recorded your actual speed. And since he is up in the plane, they never bother giving you a ticket.

 

Not sure if it is true, but that's what I have been told.

I think this is bullshit.

 

How accuratly can you measure the car's speed when you are in the sky and moving fast or faster as well.

I think this is bullshit.

 

How accuratly can you measure the car's speed when you are in the sky and moving fast or faster as well.

 

 

you got pinched by a "Bear in the Air"!

They have signs for air monitoring all over VIRGINIA but I have never had an issue with it. Usually you can spot the helo or small plane flying so if you didn't see or hear that then id fight it or press for more info at least.

They have that here, apparently through the hills in all the winding roads they can time you from one end to another and then average a speed on the time it took you to reach the end. That doesn't sound fitting in your case though.

I think this is bullshit.

 

How accuratly can you measure the car's speed when you are in the sky and moving fast or faster as well.

 

Very accurately. It is done with digital timers that use mile markers on the highway to calculate your speed (by the time it takes you to pass from one to the next).

 

 

As for the ticket, sorry Falken. That sucks, I hope there is a loophole for you, as I am sure this will become more common in the coming years. There are signs warning you "that traffic speed monitored by aircraft" in NJ now too, but only once did I see something that looked suspicious (a state police helicopter hovering over the highway very high up).

 

Keep us posted! I hope you are able to get out of it.

 

 

I heard that you can always demand to get the ticket from the officer that recorded your actual speed. And since he is up in the plane, they never bother giving you a ticket.

 

Not sure if it is true, but that's what I have been told.

 

Doesn't work. That is why, like Lightning mentioned, they put "Air Monitored" signs on the roadways. After you seeing that and continuing to drive on that roadway you agree to their findings and their procedures. One of which being that a marked unit will pull you over to issue the ticket.

 

Pay it and move on.

 

Best

Very accurately. It is done with digital timers that use mile markers on the highway to calculate your speed (by the time it takes you to pass from one to the next).

 

 

As for the ticket, sorry Falken. That sucks, I hope there is a loophole for you, as I am sure this will become more common in the coming years. There are signs warning you "that traffic speed monitored by aircraft" in NJ now too, but only once did I see something that looked suspicious (a state police helicopter hovering over the highway very high up).

 

Keep us posted! I hope you are able to get out of it.

 

 

This was the way the California Highway Patrol got me 20 years ago in Northern CA. I knew nothing at all was going on, until I got to a 4 ways stop covered with CHP guys. One cop was pointing at various cars ( not all ) and gesturing them to pull aside from the junction. " going a little fast back there" said one of the cops. And after recovering from my total "bafflement" on this he points to a fixed wing aircraft at about 3000 ft that tracked speed using VASCAR and marks on the road surface.

 

So, I went in front of the Judge and asked them for Traffic School, did my 8 hours and that was that.

 

But they do get ya......

 

 

Fuckers have gotten me 3 times from the air. One time i was speeding. Then slowed down with traffic, but apparently the plane was back where i was speeding. If you know they do it in a location you can spot them fairly easily, its the one little prop plane that is flying directly above the highway parallel to the lanes. Not shit you can do about it. Just take it and move on.

Fuckers have gotten me 3 times from the air. One time i was speeding. Then slowed down with traffic, but apparently the plane was back where i was speeding. If you know they do it in a location you can spot them fairly easily, its the one little prop plane that is flying directly above the highway parallel to the lanes. Not shit you can do about it. Just take it and move on.

I got out of one a few years ago by proving the equipment used had not been calibrated recently....the plane is up frequently on the I-80 coming out of the sierras, typically the first part or end of the month, i always thought it was revenue generation to justify the CHP new hires and equipment...

Here is what I dont get. Say you are on a merry go round. The center of it is moving the slowest. The outside is moving the fastest. Why? The all points of the merry go round complete 1 circle in the same time, but the farther from the center you are, the farther distance you travel in the same given time.

 

Now, if I am on the ground and you drive away, I can measure your speed with a device. The error it only the error in the device...and they should also allow some error in your speedometer.

 

BUT....in the case of the airplane:

 

They are not level with you. Image the merry go round situation. Draw a triangle from the airplane, straight down....and then to then to the car....and back up. They are measuring your speed from the HYPOTENUSE. As you know this is the longest part of the triangle. So, technically, they are measuring your speed from the area of distance that is growing fastest. This makes you faster from their point.

 

So, I think there is more error. I think it is a crock. It probably started as a fcuking cop who got a pilots license and wanted an excuse to get paid to fly.

 

I made a diagram below. Say there is a perfect right triangle. From the ground, if you were doing 80mph, from the air you would be doing 80x(2^1/2) = 80x1.41. That would make you appear to be at 112.8mph. This is the worse case situation, where there is a 45 degree angle (which I doubt).

 

 

They have to have some correction. But, it is a fcuking waste of money and there has to be huge errors. Their angle, direction and altitude has to be changing constantly....and yours too.

 

Who knows....just an idea I always wondered about.

 

speed.bmp

 

 

I will say, the first time they got me i had cruise control set and they said my speed was DEAD ON what i had cruise set at. The second time I did a very untimely acceleration run. The cop said they had me doing 70 in a 55 but then I jumped up to 89 and right back down to 70. It was actually a little faster but they gave me the 4pointer of 89 in a 55. So it technically is just an average speed over that 1/4 mile.

Here is what I dont get. Say you are on a merry go round. The center of it is moving the slowest. The outside is moving the fastest. Why? The all points of the merry go round complete 1 circle in the same time, but the farther from the center you are, the farther distance you travel in the same given time.

 

Now, if I am on the ground and you drive away, I can measure your speed with a device. The error it only the error in the device...and they should also allow some error in your speedometer.

 

BUT....in the case of the airplane:

 

They are not level with you. Image the merry go round situation. Draw a triangle from the airplane, straight down....and then to then to the car....and back up. They are measuring your speed from the HYPOTENUSE. As you know this is the longest part of the triangle. So, technically, they are measuring your speed from the area of distance that is growing fastest. This makes you faster from their point.

 

So, I think there is more error. I think it is a crock. It probably started as a fcuking cop who got a pilots license and wanted an excuse to get paid to fly.

 

I made a diagram below. Say there is a perfect right triangle. From the ground, if you were doing 80mph, from the air you would be doing 80x(2^1/2) = 80x1.41. That would make you appear to be at 112.8mph. This is the worse case situation, where there is a 45 degree angle (which I doubt).

 

 

They have to have some correction. But, it is a fcuking waste of money and there has to be huge errors. Their angle, direction and altitude has to be changing constantly....and yours too.

 

Who knows....just an idea I always wondered about.

You are over-thinking and over-complicating it. As Lightning wrote, they simply time you between markings on the road, so it's very accurate and unrelated the aircrafts speed, distance and angle.

Very accurately. It is done with digital timers that use mile markers on the highway to calculate your speed (by the time it takes you to pass from one to the next).

 

 

As for the ticket, sorry Falken. That sucks, I hope there is a loophole for you, as I am sure this will become more common in the coming years. There are signs warning you "that traffic speed monitored by aircraft" in NJ now too, but only once did I see something that looked suspicious (a state police helicopter hovering over the highway very high up).

 

Keep us posted! I hope you are able to get out of it.

 

 

ok, yep if you use D/t=V then that's hard to fight the laws of physics.

 

but yeh I was thinking they use a laser or radar etc.

Oh fcuk. I forgot about that. I remember those markings as a kid. Havent seen them in years.

 

Still....the error is related to a size and it drastically goes up if the distance is shorter.

 

Also, they are not letting a computer of several megahertz (high accuracy) do the measurement, as they do with a radar gun. Instead, there must be someone starting and stopping a watch. In that case, there is 2 human errors in the measurement.

 

I still think it is a waste of tax payer money.

Ah yes, aerial patrolling... the reason for why I don't bother with a radar/laser detector.