Given the financial perils many speeders face and new photo enforcement zones being created every day, one ASU student and one former ASU student have decided to fight back.
Journalism senior Matt Stone and ASU alumna Kade Miller, have created a Web site called RadarRover.com, that provides maps and locations of all the photo enforcement zones in four different cities.
Stone — a reporter, news editor and summer editor-in-chief for The State Press from 2006 to 2007 — said the site, currently in the testing phase, provides subscribers with e-mail alerts and Google maps that show the location of photo enforcement zones in Mesa, Scottsdale, Tempe and Tucson.
“It’s a way for motorists to stay informed,” Stone said. “Arizona is pioneering the use of photo enforcement for traffic violations and speeding tickets, and people should know where they are.”
Stone said there are many sites that offer a similar service but Radar Rover is unique because unlike other services, it tells motorists where mobile photo radar vehicles will be during a given week.
“Everyone can tell you where stationary cameras are, but the vehicles move around and change locations all the time,” he said.
For the time being the service is free, but Stone said as the operation expands, there will be a small fee for subscribers.
“A speeding ticket can cost close to $150,” he said. “Our service would be something like $5 a month, and over a long period of time, it is still much less than a speeding fine.”
According to the Web-site of ex-traffic cop Trey Garrett, www.fight-the-speeding-ticket.com, the average cost of a speeding ticket in Arizona is $150, and the average increase in insurance costs for one ticket, over a three-year period, is $947.
Stone said there are safety implications that go along with merely avoiding a ticket.
“When people see one of the photo vans the first thing they do is slam on the brakes, and speeding aside, that’s not safe in itself,” Stone said.
Lt. James Warriner, chief information officer for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said the locations of photo enforcement cameras are posted on the DPS Web site.
“We don’t try to hide the locations of the cameras from the public. We want them to know where they are,” he said. “What we won’t do is tell people where our mobile technology vans are.”
In response to Radar Rover’s postings of mobile speed enforcement, Warriner said there are 42 vans spread throughout the entire state that relocate every eight hours.
“If [Stone] can find out where they’re at, more power to him,” Warriner said.
Stone said he is given the locations of the vans each week by city police departments who decide on a city-by-city basis whether or not camera locations are part of the public record.
“This site is a way for students to easily and affordably keep an eye on where these things are,” Stone said. “There is no guarantee that people wont get a speeding ticket — we can’t promise that. Bottom line, you’re supposed to follow the law.”
Reach the reporter at jaking5@asu.edu.
