Business offers downloadable databases to alert motorists
by Andrew Ujifusa | Staff Writer

Donnie Cole thought a post office and a church were the only highlights on the stretch of Georgia Avenue near his Brookeville home. But this past spring, a new addition to the neighborhood — a speed camera — slapped him with a $40 ticket. Shortly thereafter, another speed camera nabbed him on Olney-Sandy Spring Road.

"When I got the letter in the mail from them, it was kind of a whack in the head," recalled Cole, who said he is a safe driver who doesn't otherwise get speeding tickets.

After uttering a few choice words for the cameras, Cole decided to combat one piece of technology with another. He found Phantom Alert, an online database that can be downloaded to a car's GPS navigation device and audibly alerts drivers to everything from speed and red light cameras to school zones and past locations of speed traps.

A smartphone application coming this fall could help drivers use GPS to detect speed traps, cameras at red lights and more than 200,000 related alerts based on a database of locations compiled with updates from drivers.

PhantomAlert, based in Harrisburg, Pa., said today it plans to plans to ship its PhantomAlert software for Android devices in early October and for iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia devices before Thanksgiving. The company is currently taking orders at its Web site and is charging $100 for a lifetime fee for the software and GPS updates.

The company has been offering the application for use with popular GPS devices from Garmin, Tom-Tom and Magellan since May. About 100,000 users have already downloaded the application, CEO Joe Scott said in comments via e-mail.

The system works on reports from drivers and spotters who record their findings on the PhantomAlert.com Web site. Scott said two people have to verify a speed trap or other location for the warning to stay in a database, and users are asked to comment about whether existing reports are accurate. 

PhantomALERT gives users alerts on everything from DUI checkpoints to red-light cameras and provides GPS information

Gary Taylor, Sentinel Staff Writer,July 30, 2009

When Frederick Roberts recently rolled into Robinson, Ill., to visit his daughter and grandkids, he wasn't at all surprised when his GPS unit beeped twice to warn him of a possible speed trap in the small town.

Days earlier, from his apartment more than 900 miles away in Ocoee, Roberts had added the speed trap to a traffic database after hearing about it from his daughter.

Forget the oncoming motorist flashing his headlights to warn that a cop is around the corner. Never mind warnings over a citizens-band radio.

This is 21st-century technology that makes even a radar detector obsolete.

By: Hayley Peterson, Examiner Staff, July 7, 2009

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras.

 
John P. Krudy THE WASHINGTON TIMES

For Washington-area motorists who live in fear of the flash from a speed camera and the costly ticket that will surely follow, there is hope.

Joe Scott has an answer to their nervous prayers.

The 39-year-old D.C. resident has invented a GPS application that alerts motorists to speed traps and red-light cameras. He is marketing his PhantomAlert software as a way to help motorists avoid becoming entangled in the rapidly expanding web of traffic-enforcement cameras.

"Michigan Avenue at Trinity, or the I-395 tunnel — that camera is vicious," Mr. Scott said.

By Dan Morse, Staff Writer

 Steven Forage, a software salesman who spends at least five hours a day in his car, juggles a lot on the road: finalizing deals over the phone, sipping coffee, checking e-mail. One thing he no longer worries about, though, is speed cameras.

"Fuzz alert," an electronic voice called out from the console of his Cadillac recently as it approached a speed enforcement camera in Montgomery County.

At 300 feet, another warning: "Ding, ding. Ding, ding. Fuzz alert."

Database paired with GPS system beeps at drivers when they approach speed traps, red-light cameras

Adrian Morrow

N.B. Photo radar has not been used in Ontario since 1995.

As a finishing carpenter with jobs across the GTA, Gabor Sarvary uses a GPS system to help him navigate from his west-end home to work sites in Brampton, Markham and Hamilton.

Now, he's also using the device to avoid getting tickets for speeding or running a red light.