How reliable is Bushnell's Velocity Speed Gun?
 

Hello,

It seems like a lot of drivers in our town break the 30kph speed limit.

Before meeting with the mayor, we need to gather data.

Is Bushnell's Velocity Speed Gun reliable for that purpose, or should we get something more upscale?

Thank you.

It has 788 reviews that average over 4 stars if that means anything these days. As a former LEO it's good enough as you aren't going to court and be obligated to testify as to it's accuracy; it's for demonstration purposes only.

I will offer one note of caution; it might be better to just video traffic with a telephone; which is a common sight in today's society. I had a few homicide cases where someone who was pointing a gun or PERCEIVED to be doing so in the direction of a driver were killed by being shot or run over. Unfortunately, the world we live in today it is not inconceivable that someone might randomly point/fire a gun at a passer by without provocation. This could be in the back of someone's mind as they drive by and see you checking speed. Doing it from a position of concealment would almost be a guarantee of a call to the police and a tragedy of the first order.

I apologize in advance for the unasked for opinion.

It should be good enough for your purposes-- provided you can set up in a spot close enough. Consumer radar guns are mostly used for baseball, and therefore have a limited range-- they only need to measure about 100'.

Myself, I would just put two marks on the ground a known distance apart, and set up a camera. Nothing is as accurate as time over distance.

True. But there is a reason why those white marks on highways are usually 1/4 mile apart - the longer the distance, the more accurate the measurement. Since I doubt the OP has an aircraft, the distance would be so short as to make it pretty inaccurate, I'll bet.

Well, we can easily measure the time it takes a human being to cover 100 meters down to one thousandth of a second, so I think clocking a car over the same distance should be easy to extrapolate whether or not it's going faster than 30km/hr.

How long has the limit that low? I commend your town. NYC just lowered its limit from 30 mph to 25 mph. It's progress, and I hope we keep lowering it.

I remember an article about someone setting up a speed camera at their house. I should do that, we have a problem because the "no outlet" sign is too far down the road from the intersection and after people see it they start speeding. This is particularly bad on days when main street is closed and people think our road is a parallel route

I love this speed gun, I often use it to measure my son's baseball pitch. The Bushnell gun can still be useful to get a general feel for how hard the pitcher is and whether he's making progress.