Xref: utzoo sci.physics:4571 sci.electronics:3978 rec.autos.tech:4707
Path: utzoo!utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-di!leibniz!keithh
From: keithh@leibniz.UUCP (Keith Hanlan)
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.electronics,rec.autos.tech
Subject: Re: Can 31 party balloons aggravate 1 police RADAR?
Summary: Maybe you were speeding
Message-ID: <171@leibniz.UUCP>
Date: 4 Oct 88 03:30:43 GMT
References: <880928.0208.11468@ontmoh.UUCP>
Reply-To: keithh@leibniz.UUCP (Keith Hanlan)
Distribution: na
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 34

In article <880928.0208.11468@ontmoh.UUCP> peter@ontmoh.UUCP (Peter Renzland) writes:
>
>While driving an 11 year old Mazda GLC filled with 31 balloons and a
>passenger, I was stopped for speeding -- 88 km/h in a 60 km/h zone.
>
>I had just turned onto the road from a side street, and had only gone
>a few hundred metres before being stopped.

Peter, typically the speedometer lags behind the true speed of the
vehichle. If you had just turned the corner and finished accelerating
and your speedo read 70, with error, it is not unreasonable to guess
that you were really doing 88. 

28kph is starting to sound unreasonable I'll admit but I know that
when I accelerate *hard* to "80" kph (where I safely cruise in 60 zones)
my engine speed drops off almost 20%.  Therefore, I was actually doing
closer to 100 kph when I eased off the throttle. ( I often do this
to give myself lots of room when I leave an intersection.)

Also, I never go below 20kph over the speed limit unless traffic
prohibits. I have gone through numerous speed traps and never 
been pulled over. This is on a flashy looking sport bike (BMW K75s)
that typically is not going to be forgiven easily. 

One final comment, if your 11 year old Mazda is at all noisy when 
it is accelerating, this is likely to attract attention. This is
not to say that the cop is right/fair/justified to pull you over,
it is just a statement of my experience watching.

Fight it though, and make sure you read Matthew Lee Stier's article
first.

Good luck,
Keith