Sent the following to the Illinois DMV

[Warner]

So how did those radar boxes they set out in front of schools manage to catch my speed for hundreds of feet (at least a hundred)??

I'm 110% positive it was me that it was catching.... do those boxes have a wider beam than a gun or something?

Were you the ONLY thing going past them? That's the only way I could think that they would pick you up instead of a much larger car that was anywhere near you....

Warner

 

[sparky]

Of course. And chances are I'll be the only person in the bike lanes and sidewalks. The point was that the thing picked up MY speed on my tiny MB for a pretty long distance. If those boxes use the same technology that cops use, then don't expect to ignore the street signs or your state's laws. The technology is there, but the cop will prolly be pickin' his nose when he sees a cyclist flying by him.

As for speeding, cops don't need radar or lasers with me. They somehow just know that I'm going 100+ on the Interstate for some reason. Sweet thing is that cops always write my tickets as 19 mph over, so as to not automatically give me a reckless driving charge that incurs at over 20 mph. Cops are just good people, aren't they? I'm not even exaggerating that only one of my 20+ tickets wasn't 19 mph over.

 

[loquin]

But, IF there were a car behind you, two or three times further away, IT would have a larger radar cross section than you on the bike would, even though you are much closer.

And, if you're near a street sign, and a vehicle is moving in the other direction behind the radar, IT can cause an erronious reading.

There's a TON of things that can lead to read errors with radar. 0nd, even though a radar gun can get an accurate reading on a moving bicycle, the bicycle's tiny radar cross section can lead to many other, larger targets' speed being read by the radar when you are the closest target.

 

[fasteddy]

I read a story years ago about a guy who was stopped for speeding.He told the cop there was a solid tin fence behind him as he drove by and the radar had bounced off it and registered on his gun.
No dice, it went to court.
The speeder shows up in court with charts,graphs ect. Judge want's thier radar expert to be in court next day.
Next day speeders back.Court expert walks in and talks to Judge. Judge dimisses case.
The speeder invented the radar gun.
Steve.

 

[nustar1]

God Bless America

It looks from the last update on the state of Illinois site previously linked that the revised law has passed both houses and just awaits signature from the Governor.

 

[bluegoatwoods]

nustar, do you know if the House and Senate bills have been reconciled?

Last I knew only the Senate version explicitly included gas powered bikes. Let's hope the final bill is the same way.

I have a hard time imagining the Governor veto-ing it. So we're likely just about where we want to be.

 

[nustar1]

5/7/2009 Senate Passed Both Houses

Is all it says on the website. I guess it still needs some other mumbo jumbo mixed in but as a citizen of IL it makes me a lot more comfortable about getting a MB.

 

[crazycrawler]

Make it Legal now!

Got my bike built. I will be testing it as soon as this Illinois monsoon season ends. I hope the mighty Gov. Quinn is quick with his pen. Lets go!

C

 

[Warner]

This is all good news guys. Thanks for keeping on top of this! I haven't been on here much (or on my MAB at all!), but I do stop by from time to time...and with gas prices rising again....who knows??

Thanks again,

Warner

 

[HybriDude]

OORRR.... we could go one step further and come up with all the states that haven't defined motorized bicycles, and then send each of their legislators a letter showing how awesome MBs are for everyone... and there only needs to be an age (16) and speed limit (25 MPH??).

If anybody has some time to spare... finding the threads where we tried to accomplish this task and adding to them would definitely be helpful to many on this site and would-be MBers as well.

Did anyone ever do as you suggested?