Website claims to help drivers avoid speed traps

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drivers in most of the United States and some of the UK can find out where the police speed traps and so-called red-light cameras are on the Internet -- for free.

But, U.S. drivers can also download that information to their car's GPS system for a fee.

"We're hoping to expand the download service to London and the rest of Europe as soon as we can," said Shannon Atkinson, the 33-year-old founder of Njection.com.

"No one likes to get a ticket. No one likes to get hit by a red-light camera," he said, referring to the devices that snap pictures of cars running red lights.

Atkinson, whose full time job is as a systems engineer, set up the website (njection.com) last summer. Most of the information on the speed traps is user generated, and gathered anonymously, he said.

Asked if he's had any complaints from law enforcement, Atkinson said the response has been to the contrary. "I've gotten lots of positive feed back from police officers. It's the idea of getting people to slow down in those areas and if this helps, they're happy."

But some municipalities may not be so thrilled. Atkinson said one side-effect may be a lack of revenue from speeding tickets not issued.

(Editing by Toni Reinhold)