I was suprised to see a mobile checkpoint being set up near my house in San Diego county yesterday. Luckily, they were just setting up so I passed thru without delay. They had rollers and everything out there. I have no idea how my p-car would have driven up on their test station - it looked like my nose would have scrubbed. I was also lucky that my young one was not with me - probably been cited for no rear child seat......

 

I have seen these emissions checkpoints in my area over the last year. They setup on major streets and randomly pull cars over. Frankly, I have nothing to worry about with emissions and putting a C4 on the rollers will never happen but I still feel in some way there is a legality issue here.

Ive been stopped at these and other checkpoints (the infamous drivers license, registration, insurance checkpoints) and detained for up to an hour. They check all info and visually inspect your car, if anything was not in order your vehicle is impounded on the spot - I feel as though Im looked at as a criminal and detained without due cause or reason. I was even asked if I had any drugs or weapons in my car and would I allow a search of my vehicle. The checkpoints are supposedly random but still - the 2 guys in a beat up lowrider are not stopped and I am in my P-car wearing a suit/tie.

/Rant

 

Wheer in San Diego was this?

Actually there seems to be some kind of campaign going on in San Diego county.
Yesterday as I was driving up on the 15 Northbound around Miramar, all the sudden my radar detector went off and Indicated laser detection, I immediately slowed down as I was going to exit. All the sudden a white Unmarked Chevy Impala got behind me, No lights, and the license plate was a common license plate (not the usual CHP plates), as I got on the off ramp and got into an avenue with a speed limit of 40, my radar detector kept on going off and indicating laser, the white Impala was still behind me and by now I realized this must be some type of law enforcement vehicle. I of course never went past 39 and eventually he made a U turn and went back to the 15. My radar detector fiinally shut up......
This is the first time I ever see Lasar used in San Diego and more scary the first time I see such an unmarked vehicle
I had heard from an ex cop that sometimes CHP used a white volvo (Why a volvo, I don t know) with regular license plates, looking for speeders and other types o infractions and immediately report the cars to a marked CHP which then pulls people over.

San Diego County must be trying to gather some money to make up for the deficit that our last mayor created

 

Hey touf, isn't the courthouse right near that spot? Prob lots of policia in the area and maybe some communications equipt set it off and not a patrol car? According to stuff I've read the copper needs to be stationary to get an accurate lazer reading so seems unlikely one would be driving with a lazer on. As for random check points, I hope they never decide to impound cars on the basis of no front plate. I'm sure that I'll tell them it either fell off or was stolen and I didn't notice it. And of course I'll deny having had anything to drink.

 

I stopped by one of the guys I'm cool w/ who does VA State Inspection, Emissions Inspection, and is a Certified Emissions Repair Facility. So we're talking (I had a few random ?s for him) and he tells me that on paper, by the end of this month (August), VA will become fully OBD-II compliant. He doesn't know how long it'll take effect for things to catch on, but it looks like they're right on schedule. So if you're car's a '96 and up, byebye dyno. Just a 3 min port scan, and you're done. If you fail, you CANNOT dyno and pass....it's gotta pass w/ the scanner.

But wait...there's more...

The story behind this all is, VA strives to meet very good air quality standards/very low emissions standards, which qualifies it for federal funding (ah...did I say "VA" ? Then $$ MUST follow in the same sentence. But what's the problem? VA's been tough of emissions for years...

Get this: while VA cars have been consistantly smogged and maintaining low emissions, the air quality hasn't been getting better. They realized that a large proportion of the high emissions from vehicles is actually coming from OUT OF STATE vehicles - specifically Maryland vehicles. MD has much less stringent emissions standards than VA, and so high-emissions vehicles come into VA on the way to work very morning, pollute our air, then go back home, only to repeat the cycle.

So what money making scheme did VA come up with??

They are now using roadside sniffers on exits, on-ramps etc, to detect the immediate emissions output of your vehicle while in use. Should your car be detected putting out too much emissions:

- A picture of the vehicle, exhaust, emissions levels, license plate, and speed will be taken
- You will receive a summons to repair your emissions system and reduce your vehicle's emissions - WHETHER OR NOT YOUR VEHICLE IS IN OR OUT OF STATE!! In effect, if you're from out of state, say MD, your vehicle will not be allowed back into the Commonwealth until an emissions repair has been performed - or it will be ticketed when in the Commonwealth.
- For 25 year old emissions-exempt vehicles (this applies to VA cars), if the vehicle is putting out high emissions, you will receive a summons to reduce the emissions to the emissions standards of that vehicle's year. So if you have an '84 911, and the sniffer catches you, you'll have to reduce your vehicle's emissions output to 1984 levels.

I've already seen one of these sniffers before, but thought it was for survey purposes only. As a head's up, here's a pic of one in Cali, but they look VERY similar.

Happy driving

 

I need a James Bond license plate flip switch for when I see those (no plate up front).

 

call it cliche at this point, but big brother is creeping everywhere.

 

one more for the nanny state--oh how we want to be safe....

 

And we let him. In fact, we invite him in with open arms.

Anyone who says: "well we have to be safe so we should stop {insert current hysteria here} is part of the problem.

 

The mobile station was on Mesa just east of the college intersection in Oceanside, CA. The sniffers might have been there as well. The mobile station looked similar to what Patfat shows in his post but this one had rollers as well. Not sure if it was 2WD only or if they could test full time all wheel drive cars.

I could not believe they were setting up a mobile station like that blocking one of the lanes of traffic!!! It looks like it would take 3-4 technicians a half a day just to get something that elaborate up and running.

 

Word. Everywhere indeed. My sleeply little college town is putting 100 CCTV cameras in the downtown area that is littered with bars. Seems the city grants permits to these bars and then trys to solve the problem of public drunkeness through big brother means. No signs of mobile emission trucks yet, but I am sure they will be here soon. Our government at work.

 

Check out the DEQ web site; there are some interesting documents there. This only applies to Va-registered vehicles. Pardon the digression but DC is the only place I know of that tickets out-of-state vehicles for violations of local laws, and even laws outside their own jurisdiction. I have gotten tickets on Va-registered cars parked in DC, for supposedly having an invalid VA state inspection, or no VA front license plate. In both cases, the cars were perfectly legal under provisions of VA law, but DC of course does not know or care.

Back to the subject, which contains plenty of unsettling ideas. There seems to be an intention to enforce northern va emissions inspections on vehicles registered in parts of Virginia outside of emission inspection areas, if they regularly commute or drive in emissions inspections areas. For example if your car is registered in, say-Clarke county (non-emissions), but you drive past a remote sensor in Fairfax Co. (emissions) spewing clouds of emissions every day, it would be forced to comply with northern Va emissions testing. So far, there is no law to allow that. There are also suggestions to extend the remote sensing to other parts of the state which have ozone problems. Again, no laws yet to create any teeth. I did not find any plans to extend the program to vehicles over 25 years old.

Presumably after driving past a remote sensor, you would get a notice in the mail and you would have to go to an inspection station to get an emissions test (doubtless at your own expense). The results would clear you until the next time. Expect the state to put a positive spin on this by saying cars observed to be non-polluters would not need the regular annual (or whatever it is) emissions test. Also, believe it or not the state will not make any money on this.

According to the vendor, the remote sensing works best when vehicle is under a load, as on a slight uphill, and the van would presumably be manned by one person. I wonder if there would be police there as well? Another caution the remote sensing will record SPEED and acceleration! Can't you imagine that in court? "Your honour, um...my car does not pollute". "Young man you were speeding. Just be glad it is only an emissions ticket, 'Guilty'".

Someone should call the DEQ and find out more about the program, including what phase it is actually in. It hasn't gotten much publicity.

 

 

Time to buy a Prius

 

More like, time to buy firearms.