Last Thursday, our glorious and indomitable police forces stopped me in Beirut and slammed me with a 50,000 LL fine and took away my driver’s license to reclaim it from the very clearly indicated spot of “Tayyouneh”

“Geofany, kinet meshe sab3een” which translates into pronouncing my name horribly and telling me I was “speeding” at 70 km/h, on 2:00 AM on an empty stretch of highway.

I’m all for better road safety, but this was absurd. Try to drive at 20km/h where it says so sometimes, I tried to do that in front of the Interior Ministry, I had to put my foot on the break even when I hadn’t stepped on the gas…

So, in the future, to deny part of the $166,000+ the government ripped off on Monday November 8, 2010, here’s what you can do for now:

Trapster. Trapster is an application for Android, Apple, Blackberry, Windows and Nokia phones that allows users to “mark” speed traps and other road safety “annoyances” like fixed radars or police checkpoints.

Basically, when you spot a speed trap, you specify its location on your Trapster app to notify other Trapster users. For example, If I mark a speed trap on Bliss for example, and you are headed to Bliss, your phone will alert you of the upcoming danger (of course, you need the app to be open and your GPS enabled as you’re driving). If you indeed find a speed trap, you “confirm” my entry and it becomes more “credible”.

Now, as with any app, if it’s not used by enough people, it’s absolutely useless. Fortunately enough (or unfortunately) most people have Blackberries or GPRS-enabled phones with GPS. As a result, many Lebanese people have already downloaded and begun using Trapster.

You should too. Just go here, or use your Market/App Store/Ovi Store to download the app

Good luck, and always update us on the sneaky speed traps =)