Them New Speed Cameras

[James_Porter]

dunno if there are anymore of them over the country... but they have these new digital speed cameras down here (on the m5 at exeter.)

they sit on beams over the road, they are covered in bright orange covers but they look like cctv rather than speed cameras. they have a few along a stretch and they know if you speed between each, what i mean is if the speed limit is 50, you go past one at 50 and then speed up between them and then slow down for the next it will know and you will get caught. i dont think they dont flash either, pretty sure they dont.

there has been a massive uproar down here about it cause no one was told they were speed cameras... just thought i would let you guys know just incase, cause i know how gutted you feel when you think you have been caught.

[br3n]

Just change lane and they cant work out your speed. usless design really.

[Walleee]

They were tested on a road near me between dundonald (shithole) and newtownards (another shit hole) but bcause they were in testing any speed's they recorded couldn't actually be fined/prosecuted/bummed.

[Broomer]

i heard about these on the radio a little while back. bloody annoying.

[Punkrider]

So what happens there is a minor accident, does everyone who is slowed down get a fine?

[Fish-Finger-er]

So what happens there is a minor accident, does everyone who is slowed down get a fine?

makes no sense at all, if you all sped up cos of a minor accident, then everyone who speeds up gets a fine. what james means is that with a normal camera, can bomb it up to it, slow down past it, then tank it again. but with these new type they take an average of your speed between the 2 cameras. so you gotta go slow the whole way to avoid gettin caught. i.e dont speed, which is kinda wat speed cameras are there for.

got similar ones on the m6 by brum now, and some on the m56 bridge repairs by warrington, which almost got me, comin along 2am on a monday morning, pushin over a ton, as there was literally not another car in sight, through the first set of cameras.(set to 40 for roadworks and width restriction). realised what id done, and sat on the hard shoulder for a good few minutes, letting me speed between the 2 cameras drop to a nice safe 20mph or so.

[TheMunn]

Average speed check cameras, they use them for going through road works too. Bit of a bugger they are.

[Synergy]

Just change lane and they cant work out your speed. usless design really.

doesnt work.

[F-Stop Junkie]

SPECS cameras? Popping up everywhere these days, a few around hertfordshire too. The lane change thing won't work as the cameras scan all the lanes. My sat-nav does alert over the timed distance, and gives a running average apparently. Haven't found out how to switch it on yet though.

On a side note, details are given from mobile phone companies about their users to the highways agencies to monitor traffic flow. It's not perfect data, and it's done anonymously, but it does contribute towards traffic info.

[bikerider]

Did you mean these ones?

[F-Stop Junkie]

Average speed check cameras, they use them for going through road works too. Bit of a bugger they are.

I think the one time I really agree with speed cameras on the motorway is when going through roadworks - ESPECIALLY when there are men right by the traffic working. The police are very keen on the 50 limits, and I nearly always see someone who's been pulled over after roadworks.

[Si-man]

Speed cameras are pointless. Round here they cause crashes for fun!

Mate was doing 50, down preston new road (30mph limit, which is really pointless since its a dual carriageway) and he spotted it to late, tried to brake (its round a bend) and ended up swerving into the central reservation and sent his car into a garden.

Just an easy way for the government to get money, f**king wankers

[munkee]

If you want to get absalutely arsed by these cameras go on the M42 goes down beside coventry/birmingham. It used to be a really nice streatch of road back in my dads day but now its crazy, there are over 12 of these cameras in a line and in each line there are 4 lanes. So thats a total of 4x12 cameras. No lane dodging you just get royally screwed. I had the snooper on at the time so could slow down in plenty of time and it continued to go off between cameras so i kept at the limit, i know for a fact there were people going past me so i expect there are a lot of drivers out there who are now f**ked.

Save yourself some points and maybe a life... buy a snooper (laser detector one, not the gps ones)

This is what they have attached the cameras too, couldnt find an actual pic of ones with them on, but this is on the m42

Edited January 7, 2007 by Spacemunkee

[PaRtZ]

got those average speed ones on a55 near pen-y-clip tunnels up here. its 30mph cos of rockfall on a stretch of road. they have one at the start and one at the end and they time you.

Dno if it works/is accurate i don't try it, but I know a lot of people who go through quite fast....or miss the road completly so to speak

[Ducko]

its pothetic!

if your speeding in that area i.e motorway you are not hazard to anyone except other road users and thats only if your a useless driver, there are no kids school old people all that bollocks and instead of protection busy areas where i agree with there being speed controls they do it on useless parts of the motorway to make money,

uselesss goverment in it for the money and not the people!

how often do you hear 'man run down in the middle of the motorway'not to often!

i have seen these cameras of which james has spoken and they are a joke cause traffic jams because everyone shits it. im sure they could spend our tax money on better things like hospitals etc.

sorry for the rant haha

[minitrialer]

its pothetic!

if your speeding in that area i.e motorway you are not hazard to anyone except other road users and thats only if your a useless driver

You have just answered you own question. That's why they do it, because they are a danger to other road users. Oh dear, what's wrong with sticking to speed limits anyway? It's not that difficult, save yourself a license and possibly yours someone else's life. What's to lose? 20 minutes ? Who cares.

[munkee]

You have just answered you own question. That's why they do it, because they are a danger to other road users. Oh dear, what's wrong with sticking to speed limits anyway? It's not that difficult, save yourself a license and possibly yours someone else's life. What's to lose? 20 minutes ? Who cares.

Well no, travelling from loughborough to the isle of wight keeping to speed limits = 4hours +

Not keeping to speed limits = 2hours 30 (done by me) and 2hours 15mins by my dad.

When you have a ferry to catch which means sitting around for 35 minutes+ after a drive that long doing nothing and you just want to get home.. i vote speeding.

[yoyoyo]

It is hard to keep to limits sometimes. just got to get it into your head not to speed.

Before anyone moans, i know why limits are there and do my best to stick to them. But sometimes if your out in the open, and there's no-one around you do wonder why you need to stick to that speed. Say on the motorway, if it's straight, no-one else around, why 70.

I'm not promoting something like the autobahn, just something within reason.

Edited January 7, 2007 by yoyoyo

[munkee]

Just heard a great statistic on a 999 style program: 4% of car accidents happen on the motorway.

[craigjames]

i gotta agree speed limits in some areas do need revising, not just on the motorways but some places on b roads are silly speeds, 40's that used to be comfortable 60's. its a proven fac that speed camera's have not reduced the number of fatalirties on our raods since they were introduced and are unfotuantely a source of revenue. the stupid thing is the majority of the money that the government makes from speed camera's goes into maintaining, upgrading and installing new camera's! mad. so basically theyre pointless, dont bring in any extra revenue, dont reduce fatalities or accidents; i suppose they do keep someone in a job .

gotta say the most succesful way of making sure peopel drive sensibly is when you see a patrol car on the road, dont see many people speeding past one of them. i wonder why the cant afford to put any more of those on the roads......?

craig

[F-Stop Junkie]

You have just answered you own question. That's why they do it, because they are a danger to other road users.

That's one thing that gets me on here when people say "My mate is really good, he can speed safely, he's a rally driver!" He may well be a rally driver, or the second coming of Schumacher, but if the uninsured Nova coming the other way driven by a drunk 16 year old isn't, then he's f**ked.

The reason the motorway limit is 70 and not 30 is precisely because there's no people trying to cross the road. A lot of people take liberties as it is with the 70 limit, up the limit to 80 then the acceptable speed becomes 100. People leave the same gap they do now inbetween cars and then when there's a crash, it will be big, and there's more chance of loss of life.

Which is more important, getting somewhere a bit earlier or more people dying?

And before people start saying it I realise that speed is the main cause of very few accidents, but driver error is the biggest. Start driving faster, and the margins for error become lower and you have to compensate for the increased speed. Due to the low amounts of training required to get a licence, and the lack of follow up training, a lot of people would not compensate for it fully, and the increased amount of driver error would cause more crashes and hence more fatalities.

[munkee]

That's one thing that gets me on here when people say "My mate is really good, he can speed safely, he's a rally driver!" He may well be a rally driver, or the second coming of Schumacher, but if the uninsured Nova coming the other way driven by a drunk 16 year old isn't, then he's f**ked.

The reason the motorway limit is 70 and not 30 is precisely because there's no people trying to cross the road. A lot of people take liberties as it is with the 70 limit, up the limit to 80 then the acceptable speed becomes 100. People leave the same gap they do now inbetween cars and then when there's a crash, it will be big, and there's more chance of loss of life.

Which is more important, getting somewhere a bit earlier or more people dying?

And before people start saying it I realise that speed is the main cause of very few accidents, but driver error is the biggest. Start driving faster, and the margins for error become lower and you have to compensate for the increased speed. Due to the low amounts of training required to get a licence, and the lack of follow up training, a lot of people would not compensate for it fully, and the increased amount of driver error would cause more crashes and hence more fatalities.

I think more to the point nowadays is police rarely stop you doing 80.

80+ then they will. But at the same time they have to ensure traffic flow is good on motorways (part of the reason the drive up and down busy streatches to slow everyone down to 70.. eliminates the hard accelerating, hard braking of people in outside lanes causing mexican wave affect of braking). Ive spent many hours travelling with traffic doing 90.. the road isnt clear infront but everyone around you are doing the same speed, just lorries in the non overtaking lane. You are keeping with the speed of flow..

[guineasmithpig]

i reckon they should introduce a minimum speed limit. say about 120mph on the motorway? this keeps everyone awake and alert, traffic moving freely, no traffic jams. and best of all, crappy caravaners or retards who are scared of motorways would stay off them. problem solved.

i also believe that lane discipline has got to be the biggest contributing factor to motorway accidents (apart from maybe heavy rain). People driving too slowly or stubbornly for the lane they're in causes tailgating, and then some plonker ahead does the same, you get a rear end shunt, and everybody dies. i reckon poor lane discipline should result in an automatic ban. again, set a minimum speed limit and be done with it

smithy

Edited January 8, 2007 by guineasmithpig

[Mark W]

Speed cameras are pointless. Round here they cause crashes for fun!

Mate was doing 50, down preston new road (30mph limit, which is really pointless since its a dual carriageway) and he spotted it to late, tried to brake (its round a bend) and ended up swerving into the central reservation and sent his car into a garden.

Just an easy way for the government to get money, f**king wankers

How is it the government's fault that your friend wasn't looking out properly, then couldn't slow down properly? The government aren't at fault if your friend's a 'tard.

[manuel]

Speed cameras are pointless. Round here they cause crashes for fun!

Mate was doing 50, down preston new road (30mph limit, which is really pointless since its a dual carriageway) and he spotted it to late, tried to brake (its round a bend) and ended up swerving into the central reservation and sent his car into a garden.

Just an easy way for the government to get money, f**king wankers

Agree with OBM

Everyone calm down and just drive the bloody speed limit.... Its there to protect everybody. NO EXCEPTIONS. If you speed anywhere and a camera catches you you deserve the fine. personally i think the average speed cameras are a really good idea - they actually do reduce the average speed of a section of road. the old cameras I agree are dangerous sometimes - as even if you are going the speed limit the generall reaction is to hit the brakes if you see those white lines in the road late.....

Edited January 8, 2007 by manuel