Quote:
Originally Posted by RickFLM4
Where are you getting this information? Pouring rain may affect lidar but that isn’t the time to speed anyway. I’ve gotten tickets in the past in light rain and the Ka band radar was accurate.
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Radar needs clear line of sight, as well as consistent
and predictable qualities of substance (i.e., the stuff waves move through) to work properly, not to mention accurately. This is why radar is still effective as a way to measure precipitation.
Thing is, reading anything within the anomalies that represent that precipitation is nearly impossible. This is why radar is useless for, say, being able to tell if hail or tornadoes exist within a precipitation event/return. Once the waveforms are distorted, accuracy goes out the window.
Water droplets of any type exponentially decrease the accuracy of a radar return that is meant, and tuned, to travel through clear air and hit a flat, perpendicular surface. Depending on the heaviness of the precipitation, any speeding ticket received from a radar reading during that precipitation can easily be tossed if the reading is taken from a distance of roughly 1,000 feet.
As for rain not being the time to speed ... modern performance tires perform just as well in the wet as in the dry up to about 85 percent of the limit. If you're driving at 85 percent of the limit on a public road, you're about to crash anyway. As long as you pay attention to what's around you, knowing that most others slow down and are somewhat more unpredictable in the rain, driving quickly is perfectly safe. Just be
smart about it.