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PSA Vt Hand Held Device Law Enforcement

deadheadskier

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Just want to share an experience I just had in Stowe. First I have no issue with cell phone bans while driving. Using the phone while driving is unnecessary and dangerous. That said, a bit of leeway for when you have the car in park seems fair to me.

Today in Stowe, I was stopped at the Little River bridge construction site. I had the car in park. My car was in park as they let the on coming traffic through the one open lane. I glanced at my phone to see if an email I was expecting from a client came in. The flagger walks up to my car and says, "just so you know, one of the flaggers on the other side of the bridge is an undercover cop and he's looking for cell phone use. Because this is a work zone he is writing $500 tickets.".

Sure enough later in the morning I saw him pull a driver out of line and into an adjacent parking lot. If I had looked at my phone on the other side of the bridge I would've been nailed while the car was in park.

Little over the top enforcement no?

And yes I know VT has a revenue problem.
 

Puck it

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What does Vt. Law say? No texting? Then just say you were changing your song. Mass. says that is okay.
 

deadheadskier

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No idea. Just happy the flagger gave me the heads up on the undercover cop across the bridge.
 

dlague

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Many States/Towns are running into budget problems and are trying to find ways to get more revenue - I am not surprised. It is becoming a serious problem with our country and only going to get worse!
 

deadheadskier

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Oh no worries. I didn't get a ticket. Just warning folks to watch out and be careful. I've never seen a cop go undercover as a road crew flagger. Way over the top
 

Not Sure

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My Parents used to live near Ocean City Md, was on a straight stetch of highway near Salisbury Md. when I passed a creative speed trap.
Cop was in a cherry picker fully extended up near the top of a telephone pole...pretending to be working on the lines wearing a yellow jacket and Radar gun in hand.
Down stream they had 4 cars pulled over....luckly my foot was'nt too heavy that day.Work zone multiplier too
 

freeski

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When you're going into Maine on I95 the police stand on the bridges over the interstate with radar guns. You get a half mile up the road and you have a line of unmarked cars on the side of an onramp. Then you see lots of cars being pulled over. They seem to set up this speed trap on the nicest of summer days.
 

deadheadskier

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When you're going into Maine on I95 the police stand on the bridges over the interstate with radar guns. You get a half mile up the road and you have a line of unmarked cars on the side of an onramp. Then you see lots of cars being pulled over. They seem to set up this speed trap on the nicest of summer days.

Yup. that used to drive me crazy when I lived in Maine. From just south of Wells to Biddeford it's speed trap city.

89 South in both VT and NH today were loaded with cops. 101 as well. Maybe the cops figured people had heavy feet out driving around on the first real spring like day of the year.
 

Geoff

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What does Vt. Law say? No texting? Then just say you were changing your song. Mass. says that is okay.

Vermont law is that you can't physically touch your cell phone for any reason. New Hampshire is going to have the exact same law this summer. July maybe? It's only a matter of time before Massholia adopts it. Vermont is a $100 (minimum) to $200 fine the first time and $250 (minimum) to $500 subsequent times. If it's in a work zone, it's also 2 points on your license the first time and 5 points subsequent times.

The 2015 Subaru Outback / iPhone integration lets me do hands free fairly well. I can usually hit the button on the steering wheel, do a "Hey Siri", and do basic phone and text functions.

Vermont now sucks so bad with traffic tickets for anything & everything that I drive like I'm taking my driver's license test. Complete stop at stop signs. Turn signals pulling onto the road from a parking lot. The EZpass is in the glove box because it's a fine to have it behind the mirror (huh?). I use cruise control at all times. At Killington, I won't even drive on East Mountain Road because it's posted 25 mph. At 25 mph, it's not a short cut. Vermont plates doesn't help. The Killington cops don't write tickets but the State Police do and there is often a Rutland County Sheriff around looking for easy pickings. Bridgewater, Mendon, and Woodstock are now automatic tickets at 10 mph over and iffy at 5 mph over.
 

deadheadskier

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What's ridiculous is that an iPod takes the same effort to operate as a cell phone for music. Are they going to ban those too?

The NH law does go into affect July 1st.
 

legalskier

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They don't like waze either.

Sheriffs expand concerns about Waze traffic app, complain it interferes with speeding tickets
http://caledonianrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=726&ArticleID=124700

waze-icon.png
 

Glenn

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They don't like waze either.

Sheriffs expand concerns about Waze traffic app, complain it interferes with speeding tickets
http://caledonianrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=726&ArticleID=124700

waze-icon.png

Waze is wonderful. I use it daily. It's a huge help with traffic as well.
 

Puck it

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What's ridiculous is that an iPod takes the same effort to operate as a cell phone for music. Are they going to ban those too?

The NH law does go into affect July 1st.

Mass allows use of a music player. What about food? Shouldn't they ban that too. That Chipotle burrito takes two hands to eat.
 
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dlague

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They don't like waze either.

Sheriffs expand concerns about Waze traffic app, complain it interferes with speeding tickets
http://caledonianrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=726&ArticleID=124700

waze-icon.png

I have a friend that is a state trooper and they often will put in false reports since they know it will slow down speeds. They also will go in and mark valid locations as "no longer there". In effect, they are trying to discredit the tool.

I have used it several times but almost got busted because there was an officer in a location not reported yet. It gets tricky.
 

ctenidae

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Mass allows use of a music player. What about food? Shouldn't they ban that too. That Chipotle burrito takes two hands to eat.

And four stomachs.

It does constantly amaze me the number of things I see people doing other than driving when I'm out driving. And then I'm amazed that it continues to amaze me. And then I see something that goes above and beyond amazing, to amaze me all over again. The other day it was a person (I hesitate to call her a driver) putting on her reading glasses at every stop.
 

gmcunni

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I have a friend that is a state trooper and they often will put in false reports since they know it will slow down speeds. They also will go in and mark valid locations as "no longer there". In effect, they are trying to discredit the tool.

saw an exec from WAZE interviewed a few months back and they said they are pretty good at rooting out false reports and getting better all the time.


the example given was a user putting in a "fake" police site.. many other users (some with a high score, which equals long time users) will report it not there so it goes away.. if the same user does this over and over then WAZE starts to ignore that user.

same with removals, if someone says "not there" and others re-report that incident then that "not there" user's reputation in the WAZE app diminishes and they stop contributing.

no system is perfect, i find waze pretty good.
 

Geoff

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I wish Apple would do a good Siri integration with Waze. I'm trying to use voice control for everything.
 
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