Motorway speed cameras

[ARW]

As it is over three weeks since the yellow camera flashed and no NIP has arrived I assume that they are just there for fun.

TBH a different one got me on the way back so that's two cameras in one day.

[Tim Streater]

The heat seems to have gone out of the speed camera issue in recent years. Anyone know whey?

[Fredxx]

I didn't think that was the case except for perhaps managed motorways with an excuse to fit scameras:

Those are quite some numbers given not everyone drives.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Many years ago I got flashed whilst driving in Oxford. Yip, I was going too fast. I knew where the job was, then I realised that I did not know where the job was and sort of put my foot down. 7.30am. The next day I was in Dole On Sea, Hastings. I saw a camera flash and thought - "please not again"! It was not me that got flashed, it was some other bloke. No satnav in those days.

[Bill]

In message <q760l3$d7m$ [e-mail], Mr Pounder Esquire [e-mail] writes

In winter, on New Brighton Promenade, I was tootling along the deserted road to pick up some metalwork from a fabricator. We saw a police van, and as we approached I said to my passenger that "At least we can't be done for speeding". Right by the police van, a police car overtook us.

I got a ticket in the post.

That's one reason I bought a dashcam with GPS. Next time I will argue.

[Another Dave]

My understanding is that all Gatso cameras were switched off 8 years ago because nobody made photographic film (on which they rely) any more. Not all yellow cameras are Gatsos though.

Another Dave

[Brian Gaff]

I'm not convinced that they prosecute everyone. However expecting the old days when they had film is wishful thinking, they are now using video in any case, They also use anpr and some AI to decide on the actual situation I understand, so some will obviously fall through the cracks if they do not see the number or if they feel there are circumstances where prosecution will be hard to prove.

They need not really flash at all in most daylight hours, but maybe its a deterrent if they do. Brian

[Andy Burns]

All the red light cameras round here (that were film based) have been replaced recently with digital ones.

[Another Dave]

Somebody set fire to a Gatso near here; they replaced it with a modern camera.

All the others remain as Gatsos and definitely don't work. People still slow down for them so they still function in a way.

Another Dave

[Adrian Caspersz]

I've seen a Gatso camera covered up* to look very 'out of service' and only a few metres down the road a new permanent installation, which ye will definitely trigger at fine inducing speeds, if you try and be (not) smart with the first ....

• A1(M) Northbound, under the iron footbridge at Beeston, Nr. Sandy, Beds.

[charles]

near here the replacement camera is on a very tall pole.

[dennis]

The ANPR cameras I see every day here are about 6m up lamp posts.

I don't think many people realise what they are.

[Jethro_uk]

I'm sure some are for traffic surveillance. What gets my goat is that if these things worked, surely they are an easy way to flag up untaxed/ uninsured/unMOTed cars with a nice couple of officers a few hundred yards down the road to do the paperwork ......

[charles]

I don't think the police have enough people to do that.

[Jethro_uk]

What ? An easy collar - massively improve "clear up" rates and get a few morons off the road too.

It's enough to make you wonder if they are actually working ....

[charles]

sadly, motoring ofences do not figure in the "crime statistics".

[dennis]

It depends on how many drivers like that drive down that road.

Its more for working out where terrorists and criminals have been driving I would think.

The speed sensors on motorways are more likely to be used to catch speeders as they can report when an idiot is doing excess speed and tell officers down the motorway to look out for them.

Some motorways have speed sensors every mile or so.

[Jac Brown]

Much more viable to have the cameras in the cars running full time and beep when they detect an untaxed/uninsured/unMOTed car.

[Steve Walker]

Some do. The ones around the Trafford Centre shopping centre certainly were doing 18 months ago. My cousin's car was flagged twice within a week as having no insurance and police actually stopped him within the car parks both times. As it happened it was a problem at the insurance company end - they'd forgotten to put his details on the insurance database the first time and still failed to have done so by the second.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

The police regularly state that drivers that they stop for having no insurance or no tax or no MOT, frequently turn out to more general criminals and are often arrested for burglary, shoplifting, carry or supplying drugs, carrying weapons, skipping bail or other types of crime. Quite a few are also wanted for questioning.

Failing to use the ANPR cameras to stop everyone without the required documentation is losing a massive opportunity to catch people for other types of criminal behaviour.

SteveW