Maybe we'll just ban black vehicles like California.

thanks every1 it makes sense

Squishy wrote:

Maybe we'll just ban black vehicles like California.

And how's about we put up are hands when we are speeding to make it easier to find us......

I really wonder how much difference vehicle colour actually makes?

I heard that most lidar is effective from starting around 1200 feet it can get a pretty good reading?

i wonder how much difference car colour actually makes?

Obviously white being the best reflector and black being the worst or hardest to get a reading on.

hwybear in real world conditions is there much difference in how far an officer can get a reading? Is this only with lidar (pulses of light) or radar does colour make a difference?

tdrive2 wrote:

I heard that most lidar is effective from starting around 1200 feet it can get a pretty good reading?

Lidar is effective A LOT farther than that.....1.2km away easy easily obtainable targets. I personally obtain 3 readings 80% of the time, 2 readings 10% and 4 readings 10% of the time. All of my very last readings on vehicles are 200-400m away, with the odd except 100-200m away.

Is this only with lidar (pulses of light) or radar does colour make a difference?

Colour does not make a huge difference, although red is the very easiest vehicle to reflect back. The front surface of the vehicle, makes the most difference, the more sloped the hood, the harder to reflect a signal back, not that it won't reflect, but the target just has to be closer.

Very informative post hwybear thanks.

When you mean at the same time.

Do you refer to clocking 2 at a time from X feet and picking the fastest one or who is gonna get pulled over.

Mind you i had no idea lidar could work past 1200 feet, but how can an officer target a license plate on a crowded 3 lane highway?

I know where you patrol it is alot different but this must be hard in the GTA. Since lidar needs to be a direct path to the vehicle anything that would keep getting in the way would make it hard to get a reading. Plus the vehicles travel so lose on those 3 lane highways around Toronto i don't know how they do it.

Mind you i read lidar beams can be about 8 feet wide at 1200 feet. Even if they work would most officers take this into account. It would be very easy to hit some obstruction or other car if the beams were that wide. Again the cars travel way closer here. Go on the QEW those lanes are really crammed in some places i wonder how many feet is actually between cars at most times...

by time I mean.....I will obtain 2, 3 or 4 seperate readings on the same vehicle.

I do not know why people keep making a big deal of the licence plate. US cars do not have front plates, some Ont plates are on the corner. Aim directly centre of the front bumper.

Even at 1km away the lidar beam is only 3m wide. A lane is 3.75m. If for some reason the lidar strikes a 2nd vehicle at the same time, no reading will be obtained at all.

Very interesting. Lidar is hard to notice i find. They can get you from really far when you least expect it!

Does radar also have this kind of range (K / Ka)?

I have seen some officers in some really wild spot's on the 403 and i wonder how they're equipment can sometimes get readings from this kind of distance.

Today i saw a guy up on a hill on the side of the 403. He was way far away from the road. I guess he would radio other officers as it would be hard to catch up from that far. I have no idea how he was using anything from there. With the way he was facing it is my guess he was using lidar for the back of the vehicle.

On a side joke i heard if you really wanna get a bears attention all you need is honey.

Would a FuzzBuster 2000 under Elgin Rd Overpass or Bloomfield qualify Imagine having multiple officers cars singing a nice tune on their spectres!!! A freind of mine who trucks was out near Chatam last week coming from detroit he told me on Bloomfield overpass once he saw multiple cruisers on the side of the road under an overpass just waiting. Bears everywhere!

Radar does have the same range, however the beam width at that point is huge at 200m. Try and explain that one in court!

Having said that over 1/2 the radar units in our office are now directional specific. In stationary mode it allows the operator to track vehicles in 3 modes (towards, away or towards/away).

Unusual spots for cruisers....I do this quite often....usually go to an area where I am still visible to people driving by, thus slowing them down ( bear) however, I am doing my notes, completing reports on the car computer, waiting for other unit bring me my donut etc..