Speed cameras are getting nasty

[Refugee]

In my area they have now started fitting new digital cameras in old disused looking housings.
The example I have encountered is on a road that has at least two obviously disused units on it including one that has clearly had the box cut from the top and the other has vegetation in front of it.
   
This one has been fitted with new electronics and has not seen a new coat of paint.
   
This one is clearly disused.

There are even new motorway cameras that are in plane wrappers too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine...r-30841666

[Radio Fixer]

Tried hard to give up speeding anywhere. If SWMBO is with me there is no chance.

On my own, the foot can go down a bit and then I wonder why I'm doing that? Retired, no where to rush to. If going to an airport we set off hours or often the day before.

But I guess disguised cameras will make some money for a cash strapped council.

Gary

[Yorkie]

I'm probably going to make myself  unpopular when I say that I find it rather odd when speed cameras are referred to in the media as 'sneaky' and 'stealthy'.  

Surely 'sneaky' and 'stealthy' apply more appropriately to those motorists who speed when they think they can get away with it, (which they judge to be most of the time, until they get ticketed)?  Cameras are popularly termed 'cash cows' but really, it's a tax on the stupidity of those who don't adhere to speed limits. I'm working on a slogan for that: "A [something?] and his [something?] are soon parted" - I just need to think of the two words to insert there.

 How not to get a ticket isn't difficult to grasp - if a motorist is doing anything when driving, which - if they did it in their driving test would cause them to fail -  they'd best not do it.

I was in the barber's a week ago when a chap in the chair was bemoaning having got a speeding ticket in the post that morning for having exceeded the 50mph limit on the motorway on average speed cameras. Huh?  He drives for mile after mile past bright yellow 'Specs' cameras mounted high up on visible poles with sign after sign saying '50MPH, average speed cameras' then when he gets a ticket, he tells a shop full of customers. Do what? Really, guys like that should be laughed off the face of the planet.

All that probably sounds more than a tad haughty and I'll admit to having little sympathy for errant motorists.

That said, if there's one thing that strikes me as a real danger which little seems to be done about, it's lorries driving far too close to each other on motorways. They're supposed to not exceed 56mph, at which speed the thinking/stopping distance on a dry road surface is 240 ft - 18 car lengths. Often, there's barely one car's length between them, and the tailgating lorry driver can only see the rear end of the lorry in front. If that was properly policed (even by cameras) they just wouldn't do it, or if they did, they'd be taken off the road out of harm's way.

I guess that in not to many years away, so called 'driverless cars' in which built-in technology will regulate speed and distance from other objects and will protect drivers and other road users from their own stupidity. I think by that time, if I'm still around I'll have been downgraded to a mobility scooter! Meanwhile, the presence or absence of cameras is something I don't need to concern myself with. Just need to be aware of what the speed limit is. In a 30 limit, best thing to do is stay in third gear then you don't need to fall back on excuse #19: "There wasn't much traffic, it was a clear day, I'm not familiar with that stretch of road - it wasn't a deliberate attempt to flout the law -  my car is very quiet and my speed drifted up in a moment of inattentiveness...

Yes, of course.

All in all, a topic that's destined to generate more heat than light.

[pwdrive]

Ditto, what he said.

Lawrence.

[Alan Douglas]

I don't know how things work over there, but locally there are some speed limit signs that must date back to the 1920s; you wouldn't see a bicycle going that slowly. Of course nobody pays any attention to them, and I've never heard of anybody being flagged for exceeding the limits, but it does foster disregard for such things.

[Refugee]

The cameras in UK are strictly enforced in miles per hour and many modern cars come from parts of Europe that have slightly higher speed limits in KM per hour with many cars optimized for this and there are many improvements that could be made to the approaches.
First of all there should be railings to prevent pedestrians from stepping off the curb on the approaches where drivers will be driving with there eyes on the dial and not the road. I have experienced a dog running out at a mobile camera location that would have been stopped by railings. If they are going to be enforced we want the railings for sure and they will have no finance related excuses for failing to install them and also no overtaking/parking lines painted on the road.
There is only a limited jaywalking law on major highways in the UK.
Now that enforcement has been tightened up I would advise that nobody crosses a road within 100 yards of a speed camera as drivers whom have already had a ticket will be looking at dials and will be distracted as badly as if they had a phones welded to the sides of there faces.
The main point of this thread is to let everybody know that the old cabinets are being recycled with new strict enforcement equipment of the type that is inside the newer shiny units with big round LED flashes while using the old flash guns. The only way to tell is to get out of the vehicle and look for the trench scar where the ADSL cable has been laid.

[Nick]

Technically, they are called "Road Safety Cameras", not "Speed Cameras"...

The ADSL for these is provided by BT Redcare (obvious when you think about it).

If you drive well below the limit in restricted areas, you don't need to concentrate on the dashboard. I do confess to using cruise-control in contraflows etc with average speed cameras...

[pwdrive]

In 4th gear in the Defender, the sound of the engine revs tells me what speed I'm doing.

Lawrence.

[Nick]

In 4th gear in the Defender, the sound of the engine revs tells me what speed I'm doing.

Can you even exceed the speed limit in the Defender

[pwdrive]

In 4th gear in the Defender, the sound of the engine revs tells me what speed I'm doing.

Can you even exceed the speed limit in the Defender

70 plus, six speed box, 12 speed plus two reverse with the transfer box.

I was traveling down the 303 once heading down West doing 70, four army Landrover Wolf's overtook me no problem.

Lawrence