Average Speed Cameras?

Garthy

Pity they don’t put this much effort into catching people on their phones/texting or with a touch screen array all over their windscreen that Tony Stark would consider a bit much. 

underdog

Garthy said:

Pity they don’t put this much effort into catching people on their phones/texting or with a touch screen array all over their windscreen that Tony Stark would consider a bit much. 

Or even people stealing from houses, commiting assault etc. Fact is traffic offenses raise money, everything else costs them money.

Grunfeld

boogieman said:

SimonC said:

They also make it plainly obvious that a lot of drivers have absolutely no idea what the speed limit is.

Or what average actually means. 

"I believe that when I do a ton in a 60 I'm basically a statistical outlier and if by "average" speed we use the median then all is tickity boo, m'lud!"

Phil_aka_Pip

skunkwerx said:

Theres also a small percentage, especially around here that are clearly not legal anyway, or have unintelligable or stolen plates. 

That sounds about right for the area around the A13

darthed1981

Garthy said:

Pity they don’t put this much effort into catching people on their phones/texting or with a touch screen array all over their windscreen that Tony Stark would consider a bit much. 

The cameras are simple technology and turn a profit and this frees up officers from enforcing speed limits to go and prosecute other crimes.... that's a no-brainer?

The idea that speeding is actually an "OK" crime that the police should give a pass to is bizarre to me, a simple technology exists to enforce speed limits so they use it, what's wrong with that?

Do you think if there was a simple straightforward technology that automatically chucked an oik in the cells when they nick an old ladies' purse that plod wouldn't use it?

They really do need to be able to do more about assholes on their phones while driving, it's actually getting worse as now it seems to be eyes down to screens in traffic rather than eyes up and one hand to ear, but as far as I'm aware given as a huge number of people don't give too hoots about the law, it is basically impossible to police.

Policing in Britain relies on consent, i.e. most people are willing to obey the law for the greater good.  The increasing number of people whatsapping while driving, on top of all the "waah I got a ticket for a crime I did it's so unfair waaah!" brigade, means policing by consent on the roads is increasingly difficult.

Another note, a police officer told me once that the reason police officers often get so pissed off at the blase reaction of drivers to warnings about speeding and driving on their phones is that most of them have attended serious RTAs, with piss, shit and blood and dead kids all over the road, and are therefore painfully aware of the consequences.

underdog

@darthed1981 you either are very lucky with your local police force or have been lucky to not need them. They no longer investigate petty crimes against individuals in most cases. Burglary no longer warrants a police visit, you get a crime number for your insurance company and that's it. Same with car theft, even assaults are not worried about as long as no one is in a coma or dead.

Rocker

As I understand it, average speed cameras work together in pairs.  One here, its pair (say) 10Km forward.  So your car 'should' take so many minutes to get to that camera location.  You take longer, no problem.  They are in use in the North Wall Tunnel in Dublin.   No idea if they slow down traffic one little jot.

ICBM

Average speed cameras are effective and justified.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1457907/deaths-and-crashes-down-since-average-speed-cameras-introduced/

Unlike fixed location cameras which are almost completely ineffective once people learn where they are, and can be actively dangerous when people don't and suddenly brake when they see one.

darthed1981

underdog said:

@darthed1981 you either are very lucky with your local police force or have been lucky to not need them. They no longer investigate petty crimes against individuals in most cases. Burglary no longer warrants a police visit, you get a crime number for your insurance company and that's it. Same with car theft, even assaults are not worried about as long as no one is in a coma or dead.

I think that's terrible.  It's got diddly-squat to do with speed cameras though.

Trust me I am no fan at all of the cuts in police funding I think they are going way too far and too deep, and we see the consequences.

If anything though that is an argument for more cameras and technology, so the precious resource of officer's time is spent helping exactly those issues.

underdog

darthed1981 said:

underdog said:

@darthed1981 you either are very lucky with your local police force or have been lucky to not need them. They no longer investigate petty crimes against individuals in most cases. Burglary no longer warrants a police visit, you get a crime number for your insurance company and that's it. Same with car theft, even assaults are not worried about as long as no one is in a coma or dead.

I think that's terrible.  It's got diddly-squat to do with speed cameras though.

Trust me I am no fan at all of the cuts in police funding I think they are going way too far and too deep, and we see the consequences.

If anything though that is an argument for more cameras and technology, so the precious resource of officer's time is spent helping exactly those issues.

Sorry was picking up on your point that it gives police more time for real crimes, was just stating that crimes against real people are rarely looked in to these days. 

This is not a slight on the police force at all, they are massively understaffed like lost public services these days.

darthed1981

underdog said:

Sorry was picking up on your point that it gives police more time for real crimes, was just stating that crimes against real people are rarely looked in to these days. 

This is not a slight on the police force at all, they are massively understaffed like lost public services these days.

Can't argue with that, the thin blue line keeps getting thinner.

Garthy

darthed1981 said:

Garthy said:

Pity they don’t put this much effort into catching people on their phones/texting or with a touch screen array all over their windscreen that Tony Stark would consider a bit much. 

The cameras are simple technology and turn a profit and this frees up officers from enforcing speed limits to go and prosecute other crimes.... that's a no-brainer?

The idea that speeding is actually an "OK" crime that the police should give a pass to is bizarre to me, a simple technology exists to enforce speed limits so they use it, what's wrong with that?

Do you think if there was a simple straightforward technology that automatically chucked an oik in the cells when they nick an old ladies' purse that plod wouldn't use it?

They really do need to be able to do more about assholes on their phones while driving, it's actually getting worse as now it seems to be eyes down to screens in traffic rather than eyes up and one hand to ear, but as far as I'm aware given as a huge number of people don't give too hoots about the law, it is basically impossible to police.

Policing in Britain relies on consent, i.e. most people are willing to obey the law for the greater good.  The increasing number of people whatsapping while driving, on top of all the "waah I got a ticket for a crime I did it's so unfair waaah!" brigade, means policing by consent on the roads is increasingly difficult.

Another note, a police officer told me once that the reason police officers often get so pissed off at the blase reaction of drivers to warnings about speeding and driving on their phones is that most of them have attended serious RTAs, with piss, shit and blood and dead kids all over the road, and are therefore painfully aware of the consequences.

Which wasn’t what I said. 

darthed1981

Garthy said:

darthed1981 said:

Garthy said:

Pity they don’t put this much effort into catching people on their phones/texting or with a touch screen array all over their windscreen that Tony Stark would consider a bit much. 

The cameras are simple technology and turn a profit and this frees up officers from enforcing speed limits to go and prosecute other crimes.... that's a no-brainer?

The idea that speeding is actually an "OK" crime that the police should give a pass to is bizarre to me, a simple technology exists to enforce speed limits so they use it, what's wrong with that?

Do you think if there was a simple straightforward technology that automatically chucked an oik in the cells when they nick an old ladies' purse that plod wouldn't use it?

They really do need to be able to do more about assholes on their phones while driving, it's actually getting worse as now it seems to be eyes down to screens in traffic rather than eyes up and one hand to ear, but as far as I'm aware given as a huge number of people don't give too hoots about the law, it is basically impossible to police.

Policing in Britain relies on consent, i.e. most people are willing to obey the law for the greater good.  The increasing number of people whatsapping while driving, on top of all the "waah I got a ticket for a crime I did it's so unfair waaah!" brigade, means policing by consent on the roads is increasingly difficult.

Another note, a police officer told me once that the reason police officers often get so pissed off at the blase reaction of drivers to warnings about speeding and driving on their phones is that most of them have attended serious RTAs, with piss, shit and blood and dead kids all over the road, and are therefore painfully aware of the consequences.

Which wasn’t what I said. 

No offense meant, wasn't directed straight at your good self, just pre-empting the direction the thread was about to take

prowla

When I get to average speed zones I tend to turn on cruise control and turn off my brain.

Emp_Fab

randella said:

underdog said:

Funkfingers said:

There is a permanent ASC section on the M4 through Port Talbot in South Wales. (It is supposed to reduce exhaust emissions in a residential area.) Invariably, any driver exceeding the speed limit takes one of the motorway exits within the zone. Since they do not complete the entire distance, the robot has insufficient data from which to calculate an average speed.

That section is right behind my house, you're generally very lucky if you can go 50mph there anyway these days. It's easily the worst slip road on to a motorway I've seen so far.

I came through on Sunday at about 7mph.  The road was bonkers busy.  Where were you all going? 

Three cheers for the new bypass off the Margam Crem junction!  Scoot past the clogged up elevated section, get back to J41, up the old A48 stretch to Baglan, over the old bridge and get back on the M4 at 42 ! (Where you have to crawl along but there's no alternative).

p90fool

prowla said:

When I get to average speed zones I tend to turn on cruise control and turn off my brain.

Me too, in fact it's the perfect time to catch up on Facebook, but no, not in this nanny state apparently. 

siremoon

skunkwerx said:

They do get tickets. 

Its why they put them there. They make millions.

Well actually with average speed cameras they don't.  If you drive through av speed zones regularly then you'll be aware that most traffic drives at or around the limit.  A lot of money is made when the system first goes live because people forget/don't realise it's active, thereafter the fine revenue goes right down consisting largely of those who don't understand what average speed means, those who get distracted and let their speed drift up or those who are unfamiliar with the area and don't know it's there.  Near to me the A217 is a good example of the risk of the latter.  It has average speed cameras, the cameras are very inconspicuous and the signs warning of their presence are very small and easily missed.  It is one of the main routes from the M25 to Epsom racecourse and I expect many visitors to Derby week this year got tickets. 

In fact far more fine revenue is generated on smart motorways where the provision of "conventional" speed measuring cameras is random and many drivers believe urban myths about the capability of the cameras employed. 

axisus

Drive from the first to the second at 20 mph then annoy everyone by belting between the next to at 80

axisus

I heard that they can't follow you if you switch lanes between different cameras? Might be an urban myth I suppose.

Roland

It’s a myth