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New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

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Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#151

Post by brewdad »

leetcrew wrote: post #68
mberning wrote: post #4

I find it odd that there is so much emphasis on enforcement of speed limits. Studies have shown that speed limits above and below the prevailing speed of most drivers is a much higher risk factor that raw speed. And then there are other behaviors such as using a cell phone and driving that may be criminalized, but do not seem to receive such fervent enforcement.

not sure why this is downvoted. I have found it quite hard to find good research tying speeding to accidents. the best you get from NHTSA is accidents where speeding "was a factor". the fraction of accidents where speed was a factor is surprisingly low (around 25% IIRC), and I'm pretty sure they count speeding as a "factor" whenever someone happened to be speeding right before the incident. I'm inclined to think spee…

When allowing for a reasonable margin of error, speeding is also one of the fairer ways of enforcing traffic offenses. Anyone can be inattentive and touch a wheel to the lane line once. If it happens repeatedly, the driver is likely distracted or impaired. but one time can be a simple mistake that doesn't require intervention unless it leads to a crash or other conflict.

A driver exceeding the speed limit by 20%, to throw out a number, isn't likely to do so as a one-off mistake unless he misses a signed change in the speed limit. If exceeding by 20% was a one-off under an unchanged speed limit, it most likely means the driver was already exceeding the speed limit by 10-15% as a matter of course. I am much more comfortable with a driver being cited in this case.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#152

Post by vkou »

ALittleLight wrote: post #89
Drunk_Engineer wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, there are 38,000 persons killed each year in car accidents -- and yet there are still those who think we do too much enforcement.

I would support steep fines for speeders and racers, with the proceeds going to a racetrack they would be free to use.

I would support permanently revoking their license to drive, impounding their car, and having them do a few hundred hours of community service.

They clearly do not possess the good judgement that it takes to safely operate a multi-tonne motor vehicle.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#153

Post by spoonjim »

smabie wrote: post #122
spoonjim wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have no hesitation as a juror sending these scumbags to life without parole.

But you don't even know any of the facts of the case? How would you have no hesitation when you have no idea what happened and haven't even listened to the defenses argument?

* raced a car

* killed someone

That's enough for me. Don't care what the arguments are, how much they were peer pressured or what their home lives were like. Obviously if the argument is "the cops got the wrong guy" then I'll listen to it.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#154

Post by overscore »

speedgoose wrote: post #80
chrismcb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But to what end? Ignoring the privacy aspect, the point should not be too ensure everyone goes the does limit or slower. The point should be that people are traveling at a reasonable and safe speed. Driving fast doesn't necessarily mean unsafe. You can be driving the speed limit and be going at an unsafe speed. So the speed cameras make it more likely that people will be under the speed limit. But are the roads safer…

> Driving fast doesn't necessarily mean unsafe. In all studies I read or heard about, speed is a huge factor for increasing injuries and deaths. > You can be driving the speed limit and be going at an unsafe speed. Then you are driving too fast according to the law. At least in France or Norway. > So the speed cameras make it more likely that people will be under the speed limit. But are the roads safer? Yes. The num…

Do the numbers speak for themselves? In Ireland, at least, speed cameras are generally placed at compliance black spots, not accident black spots. Speed cameras on extremely safe motorways here have never been shown to reduce accidents, only to reduce speeding.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#155

Post by forest_dweller »

dazc wrote: post #120
bArray wrote: post #77

> To the inevitable dismay of U.K. street racers who > primarily partake in their favorite illegal motorsport > after hours, the TruCam II also features night mode > whereas the first TruCam, which has already reportedly > been in use for the past six years, only worked during the > daytime. I think this really comes down to the letter of the law vs the spirit of it. To the spirit of the law, i.e. saving third-party…

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/18940314.three-donkeys-die-... This driver was probably only doing a few MPH over the 40MPH limit which is quite fast enough for a rural road. There is an A-road alternative for those 'in a hurry' but such carnage is a regular occurance.

I actually used to live near there and have driven down that road numerous times.

* @7pm in the morning in the winter the whole area can be fogged up and it was dark. I've driven down and cycled down there when it wouldn't have been safe doing 15mph.

* Animals can be hard to see, even in good conditions. Especially the donkeys, they are grey, on a black road and the sky is normally grey in England. Many of the animals there have high-vis collars to make them more visible at night.

* It depends what section of the road. In one section of that road the visibility is excellent (when there isn't fog). In another stretch even in the summer, the visibility is weird due to much of the road being in partial shade due to the trees.

* Drivers go much faster than the 40mph limit in that area almost all the time, especially on the high visibility parts. It doesn't help that if you come off the M25/A31 you would have been going about 70mph and so doing 40mph makes it feels so slow that you can step out of the car.

* The three A-roads near are either blocked due to heavy traffic especially in the summer (infrastructure in general is a joke in Hampshire and Dorset) or they don't go where you want.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#156

Post by overscore »

est wrote: post #36

Reminds me of a similar news in China recently. A guy's car had issues and pulled over on a high way, police remotely helped him dialing the tow truck company, via speed cameras and a loud speaker. The best part? The police was able to look at his phone screen clearly and yield over the speaker "no dude you got the third digit wrong with the phone number!!!" https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4558925167075110

That's a nightmare.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#157

Post by smabie »

spoonjim wrote: post #153
smabie wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't even know any of the facts of the case? How would you have no hesitation when you have no idea what happened and haven't even listened to the defenses argument?

* raced a car * killed someone That's enough for me. Don't care what the arguments are, how much they were peer pressured or what their home lives were like. Obviously if the argument is "the cops got the wrong guy" then I'll listen to it.

What if there was a bomb in the car that exploded if the car dropped below a certain speed (ala Speed, the movie)?

If it was unclear, the point I'm making is that you are awfully quick to judge someone's guilt based on a web page you read.

Also, you don't get to decide sentences as a juror, so your statement doesn't really make sense.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#158

Post by petre »

mberning wrote: post #4

I find it odd that there is so much emphasis on enforcement of speed limits. Studies have shown that speed limits above and below the prevailing speed of most drivers is a much higher risk factor that raw speed. And then there are other behaviors such as using a cell phone and driving that may be criminalized, but do not seem to receive such fervent enforcement.

> using a cell phone and driving that may be criminalized, but do not seem to receive such fervent enforcement

It does in Germany, but then again, they regulate how much your dog is allowed to bark in Bavaria. The truth is most new cars have great phone assist, you'd be dumb to use a phone while driving otherwise and it should totally be enforced. Not criminalized, just classified as a misdemeanor.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#159

Post by magicalhippo »

chrismcb wrote: post #25
ISL wrote: post #17

I once saw speed cameras as "un-sporting" until travelling elsewhere in the world where they are commonplace. In those countries, it seems like everyone just drives the speed limit. If the point of speed enforcement is to, you know, ensure that everyone is going the speed limit or slower, they're awesome. Norway's system of timed speed cameras are particularly wonderful -- they simply photograph a car and then photog…

But to what end? Ignoring the privacy aspect, the point should not be too ensure everyone goes the does limit or slower. The point should be that people are traveling at a reasonable and safe speed. Driving fast doesn't necessarily mean unsafe. You can be driving the speed limit and be going at an unsafe speed. So the speed cameras make it more likely that people will be under the speed limit. But are the roads safer…

> But are the roads safer?

Absolutely yes. Speed contributes in two major ways when it comes to accidents, which this is all about: reaction time and energy.

Going faster means you have less time to react and handle the situation.

If you're going 100 km/h instead of 80 km/h, and something happens 100m in front of you, you have only 3.6 seconds instead of 4.5 seconds to react and deal with it. This scales with distance.

If you're going at 100 km/h instead of 80 km/h, your car has 50% more kinetic energy. This translates fairly directly into increased breaking distance.

So as speed increases you have less time to react and in addition you require more time to slow down.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#160

Post by aitchnyu »

Scoundreller wrote: post #50
dvdbloc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until they just add terrible IoT transmitters to license plates

You already have TPMS sensors in most cars... not sure how long it takes to read them.

Umm, those things need to transmit only a few inches.
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