In a previous post I talked about Trapster.com.  Today, I had a chance to use the application in a real world scenario.  For those that do not know what Trapster.com is, it’s a social networking approach to the detection of police speed traps.  It accomplishes what radar cannot and I’m here to say that the application is effective.  Trapster works by downloading an application to your iPhone, Blackberry or other smart phone with a GPS device attached or built into it.  The application integrates with Google Maps and displays points of interest on the map in real time as you drive.  The application uses your GPS position to query a central server for nearby police traps reported by other users and warns you when you come within a certain distance of the trap.  All sorts of speed traps can be reported using the application and collectively, the nearly one million strong user base helps each other avoid costly speeding tickets and insurance increases.

The theory behind the application is solid, if not ingenious.  After all, people telling other people about the location of speed traps is not illegal and can’t be made illegal.  Trapster.com is the 21st century equivalent of flashing your lights at oncoming traffic to warn them of a trap you just saw.  In practice, the implementation achieves most of what it sets out to do while at the same time leaving me wanting for more. 

The first thing I noticed was the plethora of alerts for the trap type “Police Hide Here”.  This seems to be the largest number of trap types we saw reported on our journey from Louisville, KY to Hilton Head, SC.  The total trip time was 12 hours and there were enough of these that we had to put the type of alert on vibrate and reduce the rating sensitivity. 

Later in the trip we found a few “red” alerts.  These alerts were supposedly confirmed by more than a few users and each time, they amounted to nothing.  I found myself wanting to see a small box above the map point showing the date of report, number of confirming users and the last time it was confirmed.  While it was good to know where police might hide, even the red alerts amounted to nothing on this trip which reduced the meaning of an alert being red. 

Reporting alerts was easy.  We passed a stretch of highway where we found three police cars pulling over speeders.  I quickly, grabbed the phone and reported the live police officer to the site.  The application asked me to select the type of trap and then confirm my selection.  Once, saved, I received a text message to my phone indicating the successful uploading of the trap location.  It’s easy enough to do and it makes using the application a breeze, something I considered critical to the success of the social network.  If it was difficult to post updates, then people wouldn’t post them and the whole concept would break down.

The most informative alerts that we saw all day were red light cameras being employed in eastern Tennessee.  I can immediately see how these stationary fixed traps would be cataloged for everyone on the network to see.  If you drive in the city, this alone would make it worth while to use.

All in all, I thought that the application’s core strengths were solid.  They could use a bit of refinement by giving the viewer more information to go on and by trying to make sure that red alerts are in fact red alerts but overall, I’m pleased with the application.  That said, there’s a couple of minor improvements that I think the application could benefit from. 

1) Adding speed limit data to Google Maps so that you always know what the speed limit is.
2) Fixing a bug in the application where if you receive a phone call during your trip, the GPS shuts off resetting the recorded trip distance in a running recording of a trip.
3) Add the ability to add non-speed trap information for all to see.  We passed a couple accidents and it would have been nice to report a GPS accurate position of the accident for others to see.

Good application.  Solid download.  Price is right in that it is free.  I’m sold and hoping the company continues to improve the application.  Can’t wait for the new Windows Mobile version that should drop in two weeks according to their web site.  Download it now and pass it on.