The radar detector is only one tool, and it does not usually come into play when referring to the kind of speeding we're talking about here.

Just because I have, mmm..., a little too much experience with this: please be careful with this attitude in VA and NC. I go back and forth between DC and NC all winter long (season tickets for Duke basketball games) and lots of the rest of the year to see family and the beaches and mountains of NC, and have seen most of their shenanigans on a lot of both states' highways.

VA State Police have standing speed traps on the interstates (almost always in the median crossover spots). They're generally easy to avoid if you interpret the "Authorized Vehicle Only" signs at the crossover spots as "Speed Trap Lurks Here" and slow down a bit.

NC can be vicious at 10-15 mph over - unmarked State Troopers surf from the other direction, using instant on, but using it so rarely you frequently have no warning. Oh, and by unmarked: I've seen them use a 12 year old, three model out of date Caprice they'd mothballed. Standard license plate. No visible markings, lights or antennae until he lit up like the cliched Christmas tree. Fortunately it wasn't me, but a car a 1/2 mile in front of me. Mid 80's Mustangs still make me tense up. And, of course, this is the state that used Volkswagon Rabbits way back when, too.

I don't know if it's true or not, but a lawyer friend of mine in California tells me that the state appropriates money for "Speed Checked by Radar" signs on the freeways, but doesn't actually give CHP money to actually buy radar guns. Nice state.

-jk