Coyote Systems Mini Coyote

Other systems

Hi,

You might want to give a try to some other much cheapers systems like FoxyTag , with Speed Cam Hunter for Android Phone or EyeRadar for Iphone

Heck , you can almost buy yourself a new handset for the price of this system

Sat Nav POI warning

Many popular satellite navigation systems include a function to warn when approaching certain categories of POI (Point Of Interest). As some of these allow the POI databases to be manipulated, speed camera updates can be downloaded for free from various websites - i.e no subscription needed.

This Coyote device seems to do less and cost more - or maybe I'm missing something.

@JohnG "speed camera updates can be downloaded for free from various websites"

But that doesn't work when you are doing 60 *cough* on a country road and want to make sure you are up to date. Unless you fancy surfing the web while steering with your knees.

It's the GPRS Updates ...

I think it's the GPRS updates that cause the subscription, as they also offer an alternate unit that updates the traditional way (USB via a PC) for just 149 quid, and that includes a lifetime's subscription to updates.

Speed cams

Again the speed cams thing.

They did an advert claiming that a child has an 80% chance of living if hit at 30mph and 10% chance if hit at 40mph, but that's not true. It's much closer than that (perhaps a 10% spread, NOT a 70% spread), the number is skewed because there are many more non fatal accidents in slow zones making slow zones appear SAFER than they are when quoted as a ratio of fatal accidents to all accidents.

http://www1.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/09/ofcom_clarkson_ruling/comments/

I recently found out it's not even as good as that, because accident speed can't be determined reliably at slow speeds, so <40mph accidents in 30mph roads are assumed to be at 30mph unless the skid marks really prove it was faster. (Keep in mind it was based on 1979's data before anti-lock brakes and when cars had metal bumpers, so they had skid marks to measure and more people died when hit even at slow speeds).

And that this magic effect *changes* with the speed limit. In other words if they reduce the speed limit to 25mph, then cars travelling faster than that are assumed to be at 25mph when their speed cannot be determine otherwise and the magic shift between fatal and non fatal appears to be lower.

The obvious solution is to separate cars and people and cars and bikes like they do on the continent, with bike lanes separated from cars (and railings at dangerous corners). Instead they just lower the speed limits, increase the fines and wonder why it doesn't fix anything.

@AC

"Unless you fancy surfing the web while steering with your knees."

Umm, you download the free update at home onto your satnav. Obviously.

Best way to cut road deaths...

Teach the stupid pedestrians - especially children - that getting hit by a car is a Bad Thing, and that roads are for cars, not people. Then make the parents responsible for any damage caused by their precious offspring when said darling little tyke runs out in front of the car.

It's not always the fault of the car driver, as the stupid little girl who CYCLED straight across a pedestrian crossing, without looking, right in front of me learned the hard way.

The thing that always amuses me is where the "road deaths" figures come from... according to my local council, they get the figures from the Police. When I asked the Police where they get the figures from, they said the local council... and when the only "roadkill" mentioned in the local paper is a drunken idiot who stepped out from between two parked cars straight into the path of a car but the signs justifying the speed camera claim "21 deaths on this road in the last three years" you have to wonder exactly who is making these figures up...

Is it legal to warn of a mobile speed trap?

I'm sure it used to be illegal to flash oncoming traffic to warn of rozzers round the next bend?

Isn't this just an electronic extension of that?

Why speed kills

The reason is very simple. As speed rises, force of impact rises as the square of the speed. This is just physics. So, if you go from an impact at 20 to an impact at 40, the force of the impact does not double. It is 4 times as great.

This happens with something else. The human body, for rather obvious evolutionary reasons, is not damaged by impacts as a straight line function of their force. As the force of impact rises, the damage done rises as the square of the force. You can see why we would have evolved like this. We evolved in an environment in which low speed bumps and falls were common, and high speed ones rare.

This is why it is simple undisputable truth that if car hits pedestrian at 20mph, 90% will survive, and at 40mph 90% will die. It is the combination of a non linear rise in impact force on a non linear rise in susceptibility to damage.

There is empirical evidence that when speed bumps are installed and speed limited to 20mph, pedestrian deaths fall by about 70% and cyclist deaths by about one third.

We need to run the country for the convenience and safety of those who live and walk around and cycle in neighborhoods, not for the amusement of people who just want to drive through them as fast as possible. So the more speed cameras the better. The lower the limits the better.

You see, we do not care how much fun you have driving. We don't care if you don't like being careful to monitor your speed. We don't even care how fast you get from A to B. We just want you going through where we live very slowly and carefully. And if you won't do that, we want you off the road.