If you’re like the average American, you spend some forty minutes every day on the road. Increasingly those forty minutes are being monitored by speed cameras and red light camera, supplementing the traditional cop-on-the-side-of-the-road monitoring of traffic. While we at PreCentral don’t advocate that you speed or run red lights, we know that it happens, and any warning to help you drive safely and avoid a ticket is fine by us. Enter Trapster, a database of speed traps, red light cameras, and speed cameras augmented with GPS tracking and constantly updated by people like you and me. Just last month the service exceeded one million users, thanks in part to its deployment on multiple mobile platforms. When active, Trapster monitors your position and will alert you when you approach a reported trap.
The good news: it'll be completely free. The law-abiding-yet-understanding folks behind Trapster gave us a rundown of their favorite features:
- The service is completely free to use regardless of device
- We have crowdsourced more than 500,000+ speed traps
- Trapster supports live police and checkpoint alerts (on top of alerts for all speed trap camera types)
- Majority of our users on iPhone, Nokia, BlackBerry, Android, Garmin, and TomTom
- We have the top spots in Travel on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Nokia Ovi Store and are quickly climbing on Android
- We have 1 million + members
Official availability in the App Catalog is, like all future App Catalog submissions, completely up in the air.
Comments
Wow that's a preety cool app and will definitely come in handy. Why is palm draggin their feeet with releasin these cool and non garbage apps?
Nobody said the app is ported to webos already. "Coming" not "Waiting"
I love how a police official called people who use this "cowards" - I think the same term applies to cops who do nothing but rake in revenue for our corrupt state and local governments that see traffic tickets as a way to balance their budgets.
While I obviously don't support reckless driving, traffic enforcement long ago moved from a safety issue into the revenue stream area, and I am more than happy to use this app to deny the more piggish their extortion money.
(note: I mean no offense to the police officers fighting actual crime out there - it's cops that sit at speed traps and the meter maids that disgust me. Police departments are being forced to cut investigation units in lieu of more "profitable" ventures, and it steams me to no end.)
Well said! Especially considering the fact that a lot of the most dangerous people on the road are NOT the ones driving over the speed limit.
Hear, hear to both comments!
The damage caused to a family who lost a loved one, whether by the gun of a notorious criminal or a reckless driver is pretty much the same.
Speedtraps (and the laws passed in various states preventing people from being warned about them) stopped being about safety and started being about revenue decades ago. They're the afterbirth of the coupling of lily-livered liberal nanny-staters and wingnut conservative surveillance-staters. Which one are you?
I'm a state cope and I agree with you!
STFU you fucking coward and abide the law, retard.
I love hearing about all the apps thats on the way. I just wish they would release a few here and there. I guess I can wait another two monthes for a few more food apps. Yeaaaaa
Looks like a nice application!
Libb, most monies from traffic enforcement won't go to the local or state police department. It will go to the local court system, local city and state govt. Most departments receive little of the fine from their citations.
I've used this app on iPhone and its a good helpful app. I can't wait for this to come to the Pre
500,000 locations? Really? According to the DOT's information on the number of miles of paved roads in the US, this means that Trapster has an alert for every 8 miles of roads. That is nuts. Have fun with all of that alerting! Heck, anyone can make an app that simply alerts you every 5 miles while you drive and save the trouble of people sending in locations.
From your comment it seems clear you've never used the Trapster service. Your skepticism is understandable but spouting off without any actual product experience is just ignorant.
As someone who spends 20 hours a week in the car, I welcome the opportunity to try this out for myself.
Considering one square mile of urban roadway could have 50 or so devices, I doubt it will go off that often in nonurban driving when our alert levels are down in the first place. But if it warns me of a popular speed trap a the bottom of a mountain or heavy enforcement down to 15mph in a neighborhood near a school, it can only make me a better driver and help my wallet along the way.
So Jalan, don't "buy" it, and let the grownups talk please. If you're going to live your life by simple averages, you'll be cursed with average happiness.
And I agree. 500000 is a lot! But they are not telling you what kind of traps. They have categories of traps and the one they have the most of is "police often hide here". If you turn this off you can get only the live police warnings which are the best. Hey I agree with the other comments that it's all about revenue and almost everyone has gotten a ticket at a speed where you were one of a hundred other people around you all going the same speed. If this app helps one time hey it's fine with me. It works great on my iPhone.
Love it! Looks very nice as well, implemented into the Pre's webOS flawlessly. I've used it on my old iPhone 2G, and as well as on my WinMo Mogul. The WinMo version was so bad, no GUI/maps, and it was really annoying. Can't wait until this and other apps come to the App Catalog.
I love how a police official called people who use this "cowards" - I think the same term applies to cops who do nothing but rake in revenue for our corrupt state and local governments that see traffic tickets as a way to balance their budgets.
While I obviously don't support reckless driving, traffic enforcement long ago moved from a safety issue into the revenue stream area, and I am more than happy to use this app to deny the more piggish their extortion money.
(note: I mean no offense to the police officers fighting actual crime out there - it's cops that sit at speed traps and the meter maids that disgust me. Police departments are being forced to cut investigation units in lieu of more "profitable" ventures, and it steams me to no end.)
This looks cool. I like the interface. Let me know when this is released.
Why wait for Palm?
I know of an app. catalog that could have this in the hands of Pre users later today!!
Come on, guys, let fileCoaster distribute this while Palm figures out what they are doing!!!
a police official where i live commended this application. He said that his goal is to have fewer people running red lights and fewer people speeding on the highways. Even though people who use this app, are driving safely for the wrong reasons, they are still driving safely....
That's a great point. If the application included drunk driving traps so people could change their routes to keep drinking and driving, then it could get dangerous. But nobody is going to change their route and go out of their way to keep speeding and running red lights. They'll just drive safer when they know there's a risk of getting a fine. Not the most noble reason for driving safely, but it still results in safe driving.
If drunks had that much insight they wouldn't be driving.
Can't wait for palm to release apps like this.... Of course it would be nice for them to release some dates of actually when they will be releasing them. Of course tho they are doing the right thing by taking their time and doing it right... For that I Appreciate them. :-D Thank U palm!
On another note... I Also Super appreciate those Homebrewers that are Really working their Tales off to push out apps and Beta them for us. I Really Appreciate you guys Thank you Sooo Much... you have made the Pre worth hanging in there for. :-D
-Joshua
As someone who lives on the road, I can see where something like this can and will be useful. But also, as someone who lives on the road, why don't we all just drive safe anyways and then there wouldn't be a need for applications such as this!
How safe do you really thing someone is driving if they are looking at their phone or other mobile device WHILE driving in order to determine if some sort of speed trap or camera device is coming up?
"driving safely," and not speeding are NOT the same thing.
I have never been in an at-fault accident in over 300,000 miles of drive (read: ever,) and I regularly speed. My car is capable of very high-speed manuevers, braking, cornering, etc.
When I speed, I am constantly scanning the horizon, sides of roads, parking lots, rear/side-view mirrors, and being more alert in general--all because I am looking for police officers.
I see "you people," who get in your cars, and bumble along at the exact speed limit, in the fast lane, with no regard for traffic flow, and thing you're being self-righteous, helping save lives, or whatever nonsense you convince yourselves of.
Speed != dangerous driving. In Texas, and a few other states, you can have a ticket dismissed if you can prove you were "driving in a safe and prudent manner." This is normally impossible, but I have a camera in my car that overlays speed/gps information.
If you go to the public library, you can see the initial studies done on each roadway in your area... You will find many expert's findings on maximum safe speed on these roadways. They are typically much greater than the speed limit.
It's obvious that the red-light cameras, and traffic enforcement in general is a cashcow for the government. It doesn't matter WHAT department it goes to, it's still taxation without representation.
The reason the system has not been refined to raise speed limits, and lower penalties on these "dangerous" offenses, is because it's raking in the money for the municipalities. They would have to increase taxes to otherwise meet their budgets. The sheeple also do things like defensive driving, double, and tripple deferred judification, etc.
Oh, and the insurance companies make a pretty penny off all this too.
I can say that this application on other platforms is incredible.
@developer: post your app on the homebrew here! don't wait for palm to update the app store. :)
I have been waiting for this app on the Pre since the Pre came out. i knew about this last year and was waiting for this. Im excited!
I checked out several speedtrap gps devices. And even for the one that has paid subscription cannot keep track of all the cameras out there. It seem that European countries have a more sophisticated system than here in the states. These camera traps can be downloaded onto their GPS, but no good ones are available here in the states. The cameras locations are very outdated. I checked the maps on one company providing this service and you might as well not have it because it's not useful. I hope palm gets their data from somewhere that's more accurate than the rest. Also, I hope this app monitor your direction of travel and only detect cameras that are on the same side of the road you're traveling on. Some just have a proximity detection and that's not useful when there are cameras pointing the other direction or perpendicular to the road you're traveling on.
Oh and I agree with people who thinks these revenue generating crap is not helpful at all. These cameras and cops who wait at speed traps due nothing to prevent accidents. Studies have shown that camereras do not prevent accidents...it's only purpose is to generate money for the gov. I hate these cops that sit there waiting when they can stop crime elsewhere. They need to get their ass off and patrol the streets. One time my house was robbed, took them 2 hours to get there. The irony is that day while driving home I saw 2 cops sitting at a corner doing nothing but waiting for people to speed or no sticker or whatever the hell they were doing.
For anybody delusional enough to think speed and traffic cameras are actually a good thing, do a quick google search on them. Many cities have been caught timing their green, and especially yellow lights to illegally short time periods nobody could possibly stop for, where their cameras are located. The whole reason for doing this, and it's only at the camera lights, is to make people run the lights to get more revenue from tickets. Not that I've ever been caught by one, but my biggest complaint is there are a million legit reasons why you might be in the middle of an intersection while the light just turned red. Maybe your car stalls or something, maybe there was a sudden stop in traffic ahead of you, an animal ran out, etc. Not that I like traffic cops, but at least a human has reason and logic, they can see the whole situation. The speed cameras have just as many flaws. They ID the wrong cars frequently. Haha, it's also a game with kids now to frame people they don't like by printing out a pic of their license plates, sticking it to a car and speeding through a camera trap. Since it's all a computer automated system, a ticket just gets sent in the mail to the person the plate is registered to. An actual cop would see the problem right away.
@ ScrapMaker.
Ya know I never thought of it that way. But I drive as much in my mirror as ahead of me. I drive for a living and you are right we are much safer looking for cops. I tell people all the time that they shouldn't even be allowed to drive because they have no experience. They drive five or ten miles to and from work a day. They get on cell phones, and are oblivious to traffic flow, or even what is going on around them. Crazy I say!
I love this app is for all platforms, but let me ask someone who has used it. Can we add a live trap on Rt.20 and then someone who sees it is gone update it?
Palm really needs to stop playing around and get these Apps in it's catalog. Why are they so slow!!!! It's nice and exciting to see the awesome capabilitys of these Apps and what they can do but if they are not in the consumer's hands, then what good are they.
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