Came past a forward facing speed camera the other night, approaching at 40 mph and passing through at same speed. So the camera has done its job. Slowed me down to make that section of dual carriageway safer. Obviously an identified blackspot requiring a speed camera.
But to my right a motorcyclist bombed past me and the camera doing IMO 60-70 mph. Ha! I thought, gotcha. But no. Think about it. These cameras see the plate on the front of a speeding vehicle. Motor bikes don't have plates on their fronts, so they can blitz through unchallenged.
Isn't this biased. The camera is therefore not performing a speed reduction at that blackspot. It is then a revenue raising camera, not a safety camera and therefore should be replaced for a rear facing one to make the system fair for all.
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Although we do not have fixed cameras in Fife I have seen one of these vans recently. It was parked at a "T" junction with the side camera looking down a 20mph road which I was on. I suspect he got the car in front of me, fortunately the car in front shielded my number plate, we were both (just) below 30mph.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 27 May 10 at 15:42
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The new Chief Constable of North Wales is looking at binning camera policies and being all round good egg in the area of speeding.
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I'll believe it when............
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Yes, I agree, forward-facing cameras are useless in that they will fail to catch motorbikers who are without a shadow of doubt the worst culprits for speeding.
There's an experimental camera on the A3 southbound, just north of the Robin Hood junction. This has a forward AND rear-facing camera. Bit of an overkill, I thought. Let's hope the experiment fails!
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>> There's an experimental camera on the A3 southbound, just north of the Robin Hood junction.
>> This has a forward AND rear-facing camera. Bit of an overkill, I thought. Let's hope
>> the experiment fails!
>>
I saw similar on the A24 yesterday with a big sign saying "experimental cameras"
Still awaiting the replacement for the camera northbound between Tolworth and New Malden :-).
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>> Still awaiting the replacement for the camera northbound between Tolworth and New Malden :-).
>>
Me too ;-)
It's amazing how many people still slow down for the camera that is no more!
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You will be waiting a long time if this new so called government sticks to their words :)
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Are you sure there isn't a tiny experimental camera built into the adjacent lighting column? :-)
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>> It's amazing how many people still slow down for the camera that is no more!
>>
My satnav would warn me of the camera, and not knowing the area I would check my speed, but I would not need to slow down. :-)
Have you noticed the size of the cameras on the side of the van in the above link?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 27 May 10 at 17:54
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They are big pictures on the back of the van clearly identifying what it is.
However the reality (around my area) is that most of these vans are white in colour at the back with no signs.
Only when passing the van its clearly shown on the sides of the van what it is.
By then its too late (if your speeding).
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But if you drive a lorry, other lorry drivers flash you to warn you!
I used to flash cars if the driver looked nice and I always gave the 'thumbs down' to motorbikes:)
Pat
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Do you mean facing the direction of flow of the traffic? Don't they see the plate on the rear of the vehicle?
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Boxsterboy - 'motorcyclists are without doubt the worst culprits for speeding', but you hope the A3 experiment fails! Wouldn't it be better staying there and catching all those errant motorcyclists? After all, they're far more dangerous and anti-social than speeding cars, aren't they?
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>> Boxsterboy - 'motorcyclists are without doubt the worst culprits for speeding', but you hope the
>> A3 experiment fails! Wouldn't it be better staying there and catching all those errant motorcyclists?
>> After all, they're far more dangerous and anti-social than speeding cars, aren't they?
>>
What I meant was it was a bit of overkill to have both a forward AND rear-facing camera, mounted on 3 poles - it all adds unecessarily to the street clutter. If you are going to have a camera, whats wrong with a simple rear-facing camera?
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L'es,
Face oncoming traffic only. Infra red so you don't get a flash in the face. This particular one faces one way only and targets fronts of vehicles.
Last edited by: Cpt. Flack on Fri 28 May 10 at 11:49
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The line from the Mail article 'We don't want to catch people, we want people to slow down.' made me laugh.
Its just not true is it. Cameras aren't working, so spending even more on them suggests a waste of £28,000 per van.
The day I see a van like this parked on the road outside where I work (which is near a large school on a busy road) is the day I start believing in them. As usual they're to be found on dual carriageways with unexplained 40/50mph limits.
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>> L'es,
>> Face oncoming traffic only.
So it's backward facing, n'est pas?
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So they should be called in-yer-face cameras rather than up-yer-jaxie ones, right?
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Snakey, they may not be working in terms of safety (arguable - do you have facts?) but I care not. If other people choose to pay then that's up to them. The real argument should be whether we agree with our speed limits or not. There's continual discussion about speed camera deployments and whether they're 'fair' or not, but I think the point is missed. If anyone disagrees with the camera then presumably they disagree with the speed limit itself. But I suspect if limits were raised, and cameras deployed thereafter, we'd still have exactly the same arguments. Some european countries now have a zero tolerance approach. Any amount over the limit and there's a fine. No discussion about 'fairness' or tolerances - there ain't any - there's a LIMIT. Max. Law. We could always petition our MP's to get them changed.
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"If anyone disagrees with the camera then presumably they disagree with the speed limit itself"
I don't disagree with the speed limits or the camera. What I dislike is that I have to adhere to the rules whereas, with this particular type of camera, a motorcyclist can speed through at whatever speed they like, and they wont be caught by the camera.
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Forward Facing Speed Cameras - Old Navy
