Radar detectors legal in the UK ?

thedoc46

thedoc46

thedoc46

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hi, I'm flying out to the UK later on TODAY !!!

I use a radar detector here in the US.. Was thinknig about bringing it, as i'll be in the UK for 3 weeks and will be doing a fair bit of driving.

Are radar detectors legal in the UK? Also does anyone know if they're legal in France as i'll be doing a few days there aswell.

Not that i'm a speeder, but its a friendly reminder when you may be accidently 10-15mph over limit. Which is easy to do.
 
Why bother? All of the UK speed measuring gear is laser now so all that's going to happen is you are going to be jumping every time it registers a false positive whenever a car with adaptive cruise goes past.
 
Even having camera POIs on your sat nav (whether it's being used or not) is putting you on dodgy ground in France.
 
Radar detectors are legal in the UK, illegal in France, although plenty of people still have them. They're getting less and less useful in the UK: they're helpful in telling you which of the motorway gantry cameras are switched on, but that's about it.

The best solution is a smartphone running Waze - they have a full, up to date camera database on UK roads and "danger zones" in France which is their way of telling you where the cameras are whilst still being legal. There's also the ability to report police and speed traps which saved me from a certain ban once in England, and allows me to only occasionally make a donation to the gendarmes christmas party over here.

It's also free as well, so you may as well try it!
 
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geekman said:
Radar detectors are illegal in the UK, illegal in France, although plenty of people still have them. They're getting less and less useful in the UK: they're helpful in telling you which of the motorway gantry cameras are switched on, but that's about it.
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Detectors are legal in the UK jammers aren't.
 
In the UK...By a long way, most speeding detection is by ANPR cameras that time your vehicle from location to location. There are a small number of fixed cameras left that use radar or induction loops in the road. There are also mobile speed cameras mounted in vans that park in hotspots. They use laser and by the time you see them it is usually too late. The best thing to do is not to speed, you do get quite a generous leaway here so just be sensible.

The detectors you stick on the dash are a relic of the 1990s to be honest.
 
As stated useless - Laser is used for speed detection.

Even laser detectors are largely a waste of time, will already be done before you can react so are relying on scatter from other target measurements.
 
tom_e said:
Detectors are legal in the UK jammers aren't.
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Jammers are legal to own, just not legal to use to jam a speed gun.

snapdragon69 said:
In the UK...By a long way, most speeding detection is by ANPR cameras that time your vehicle from location to location. There are a small number of fixed cameras left that use radar or induction loops in the road. There are also mobile speed cameras mounted in vans that park in hotspots. They use laser and by the time you see them it is usually too late. The best thing to do is not to speed, you do get quite a generous leaway here so just be sensible.

The detectors you stick on the dash are a relic of the 1990s to be honest.
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ANPR cameras do not detect speed, SPECS cameras which use an ANPR style system do. Pedantic I know, but this is OCUK after all :p
 
Not that I'm trying to encourage speeding, however if you've moved over to the US do you have any ties left here in the UK (e.g. UK Driving license)?

The reason I ask is assuming you're getting a hire car, even if you did get caught and given points, what will happen if you're using a US driving license?
 
geekman said:
Jammers are legal to own, just not legal to use to jam a speed gun.



ANPR cameras do not detect speed, SPECS cameras which use an ANPR style system do. Pedantic I know, but this is OCUK after all :p
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Surely a jammer isnt going to do anything for a laser speed gun or does it send out its own lasers to 'jam' the machine?
 
theone8181 said:
Surely a jammer isnt going to do anything for a laser speed gun or does it send out its own lasers to 'jam' the machine?
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Yes, that's exactly what it does. Have seen them in action and can confirm they work - Google Blinder HP-905 if you want to see an example. When using them you have to know exactly what you're doing however, if you just go driving around constantly jamming every police speed trap you'll find yourself in prison rather quickly.
 
Detectors and jammers are mostly a waste of money. Jammers work but it's obvious when they are being used.

You could always shape your car so theres no flat or rounded surfaces facing forward, like a stealth bomber. At least your not breaking any laws then. All you need to do is have a radar cross-section so small that the gun sees the signal reflected by objects around you before it sees you. The radar in speed guns is pretty low tech :P
 
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