Trapster
Description: Trapster(R), your Android phone alerts you by spoken warnings such as “Live Police” or “Red Light Camera” as you approach police speed traps, red light cameras and speed cameras. Like flashing headlights at others drivers to warn of a speed trap ahead. Join three million mobile users worldwide, 1 million + traps in database!
Version: 1.5.9
Cost: Free
Developer: Trapster.com, Inc.
Are you one of those drivers who test the speed limit and don’t think those numbers next to speed limit signs apply to you? Maybe you’re one of those annoying drivers who checker boards through different lanes to get ahead by a few seconds. I don’t want to promote this behavior, but maybe Trapster is for you.
Trapster boasts millions of user and over a million traps recorded. Trapster is dependent on users recording speed traps and displaying those traps overlaid on Google Maps. Users can report Live Police, Mobile Speed Camera, Check Point, Speed Camera, Red Light Camera, Combo Camera and Police Often Hide Here. To see these term descriptions, check the Trapster.com website. Once a location is tagged, users can rate the location and confidence level of that location will be shown in either Gray, Green, Yellow, or Red. Gray being the least confident and red being the most. When driving by a tagged location, Trapster will notify by either display or sound.
When I drove by supposed “Police Often Hide Here” spots, I didn’t see any police in the area. But I can’t expect police to always be just hanging out in one area. It’s a good mind of reference though just to know where police may be hiding.
The Red Light Camera reports are probably the most useful because Red Light Camera’s are stationary.
Just using Trapster though may be cause for a ticket in areas with Hands Free Cell Phone Laws. If you’re driving around an area and cops are around and you’re fumbling with your phone trying to tag the location, there’s a chance the cop will see you and give you a ticket for being on your phone.
Trapster has an annoying bug of not always closing properly. Sometimes I’ll close Trapster but it will still be running in the background.
Trapster wouldn’t be something I would have on every time I drive but something I might use once in a while to get a feel of what type of speed traps are in the area. And don’t expect me to be contributing to the speed trap data bases. Sorry, I’m not risking a ticket for being on my phone while driving. That’s for the jerk that just cut me off weaving through lanes while being on his cell phone.
