Drive Faster: Free Cell Service Alerts You to Speed-Traps

Anything that helps me talk to cops less wins. Especially if it’s free, and doesn’t involve hiding in a an abandoned bunker somewhere. And I’m guessing, if you like to drive fast, you don’t much enjoy their company, either.

Fortunately, Trapster (no, not the supervillain), a new wireless service, simply provides users with text messages and/or emails when they are coming up on a speed trap. Using GPS already in your cell phone or WiFi, Trapster knows immediately when you are getting close to a reported trap.

Red-light cameras and locations where police often set-up camp are recorded in Trapser’s database indefinitely. However, like many Web 2.0 applications, Trapster is reliant on user-submitted data for the service to work.

While you can still get busted by the fuzz if you’re the first person to encounter a speed-gun-toting cop or camera, this system allows for real-time information updates, which are kept on the database for an hour, since police often move on to another spot.

To avoid spreading bogus information, users are ranked according to the accuracy of their reports, down-ranking those who try to f**k it up for the rest of us. As far as police officers tampering with the system goes, Trapser says not to worry. “[Police officers] are way too busy to go to all that trouble. They don’t take it nearly that seriously,” states Trapster’s FAQ.

While I don’t think cops are going to spend much time messing things up, I’ve never encountered an officer that doesn’t take everything seriously. Maybe it’s because someone could shoot them at any moment, I don’t know. But I’ve already downloaded the service to my phone, and you should, too–because free is a hell of a lot cheaper than whatever it costs to get caught doing 90 in a school zone.