I pondered long wondering as to whether to write on the above topic, would your readers class me as an irresponsible speeding bogan, a thoughtful caring motorist or an enlightened observer who sees and tells it like it is?
OK let's own-up right away, I own a radar detector and have had one for years, sometime ago when I frequently flew around the country I even carried a portable radar detector for use in hire cars. I once heard the using of a radar detector being likened to protected sex! Why take chances?
You see, at a rough reckoning for every dummy who uses a radar detector to avoid unreasonable and petty enforcement there are also a reasonable number of quota-driven overzealous police officers equipped with radar detectors who deliberately sit at the end of passing lanes, or just around the corner or sweeping bend at the end of a long straight just waiting to pick you off as you slow down from a safe and sensible passing manoeuvre.
Let me boast for just a moment, I have been a licensed driver for 57 (yep fifty-seven) years, (less I have to admit three months off for 3 speeding tickets within a year in about 2001) but I have never ever had any prangs on the road in all my driving life and for many years averaged well over 50,000km a year.
A radar detector is better called a safety device to protect motorists against pettifogging bureaucracy, saving them significant monies for occasionally and inadvertently exceeding the statutory limit or having the temerity to finally accelerate safely past some inconsiderate driver that cruises adjacent to the centreline blissfully unaware of the mounting massive caravan of vehicles gathered in their leisurely wake.
Personally, I'm quite happy to put my car on cruise control when appropriate, but spare me the grim faced self-righteous law enforcement officer who slams on his lights and siren, does a 360 degree on the highway and surges up one's rear to deliver a ticket for doing 112km ph down a hill with no other traffic around.
And if your readers don't think that sort of thing happens regularly, then they must be visitors from another planet. I support our Police Force in virtually all they do, and that includes road safety, but for goodness sake, just a little discretion, lighten up a bit!
So, as long as police policy is so strictly by the book then I think I will keep my radar detector on the dashboard... why spend a large chunk of my pension in the cause of unreasonable pedanticism in the form of a ticket wielding robotic who deserves to be promoted sometime soon to the heady heights of a parking warden.
Pat Brunton, Tauranga.