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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

#351

Post by [deleted] »

bookofjoe wrote: post #330
Closi wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll assume you aren’t in the U.K. (which this article is about), because the U.K. system is almost exactly as you describe! > Norway's system of timed speed cameras are particularly wonderful -- they simply photograph a car and then photograph it again many kilometers later. If you get there too soon, then at some point, you must have been speeding. Uk has a combination of: * Average speed cameras (as per the Norway…

As opposed to the U.S., where parked highway patrol cars conceal themselves in blinds where you can't see them until they've already clocked your speed. Most Americans believe they have a quota of speeding tickets that must be met.

[deleted]

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

#352

Post by tombrossman »

Reason077 wrote: post #313
iso947 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woodhead Pass and A14 come to mind. Tower bridge too. And the A9. Cat and fiddle. Only time I got caught speeding in 20+ years was an avcam at the bottom corner of the m60 near Stockport. Perhaps not as common as gatsos but not very rare.

In 10+ years of driving in the UK, the only time I got caught speeding was in France! Oh, and once in New Zealand. I see signs for the the UK average speed cameras all over the place, but I guess they're tuned to only trigger for vehicles that are significantly exceeding the limit?

"A friend" drove a (non-UK reg) car from Glasgow to Southampton last year, significantly exceeding the speed limit most of the way and maintaining >90mph for multiple hours, and wondered if speeding tickets would later arrive in the post. Nothing ever happened. I can only guess that speed camera tickets are only sent to UK registered vehicles? That's a pretty big loophole.

I don't drive like this in France, they will stop you and my understanding is you must pay the fine on the spot or they arrest you and tow your car.

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

#353

Post by Traster »

Lio wrote: post #321

There's the old joke: "All those present that object to receiving speeding fines please raise your right foot". People object to speeding fines but receiving them is entirely optional. Personally, I'd rather they clamped down harder on tailgating, poor lane discipline and uninsured drivers than on motorway speed limits.

My main objection is that enforcement, at least in the UK is absolutely useless. The likelihood of actually coming across a speed trap is tiny, the likelihood of coming across a speed trap that isn't one of the ones that are regularly used is close to 0. So it's not like people who speed get fined. It's people who speed and get unlucky get fined (and points). I just think it's bad policy to have relatively huge penalties and relatively rubbish enforcement. It's capricious and ineffective. People still speed because being caught is highly unlikely, people who get caught face a penalty that is disproportionate for something so common. The increase of tools like this don't actually address that. Tools like this don't actually address the policy failure in speed enforcement.

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

#354

Post by swarnie_ »

Lio wrote: post #321

There's the old joke: "All those present that object to receiving speeding fines please raise your right foot". People object to speeding fines but receiving them is entirely optional. Personally, I'd rather they clamped down harder on tailgating, poor lane discipline and uninsured drivers than on motorway speed limits.

Its the "one size fits all" rule which annoys me.

My car will comfortably sit at 110mph all day long, if I'm alone on a motorway in the early hours who am i hurting or endangering? It certainly isn't about safety because that same car will stop from 100mph in less distance than the highway code requires for 70.

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

#355

Post by Traster »

rconti wrote: post #3

I'm curious about the context of the $13,000 price tag. Is this a slight upcharge? Or an order of magnitude? I'm what the Brits might call a "keen motorist", but as someone who considers speed enforcement a necessary evil, there's a world of difference between paying a bit more for much better tech, versus way more. If this costs 4x what a normal radar gun costs, one must ask "what is the problem we're solving", and…

It's practically certain the major cost of a handheld speed camera is employing a hand. It doesn't have to be a lot more reliable/efficient to easily make up for the cost.

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

#356

Post by Silhouette »

NLips wrote: post #168
01100011 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's stupid for one reason. As an engineer I often considered 10% tolerance to be sufficient. I think enforcing speed limits to anything greater than 10% is just silly. I often drift +/- more than 10% of my intended speed. It's just human nature. I pay more attention to potential dangers and obstacles, and less on whether I am within a % of the speed limit, and I really hope other drivers do as well.

Ignoring whether it’s “human nature” to vary by that much, the remedy is simple: in a 60mph limit (the clue is in the name), target 54. +/-10% is now 48.6-59.4, instead of 54-66. It’s within the speed limit, and a smaller absolute speed differential between lowest and highest speed. Similar arguments have been made against average speed cameras on UK motorways - “I’ll have to be entirely focused on the speedo the who…

The speed limit is not a target.

Platitudes like this and the evergreen "speed kills" can themselves be dangerous.

Obviously driving at the speed limit all the time is not a legal requirement and there will be times when driving slower is appropriate. However, driving far slower than the speed limit for no good reason when there is other traffic around can itself increase the risk of something bad happening, because you won't be keeping up with the flow of traffic and behaving as other drivers will expect.

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

#357

Post by prawn »

muro wrote: post #349
jen729w wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed — Brit-turned-Aussie here — the drivers here are absolutely atrocious. I often say that Brits can be pretty rude until they get behind the wheel, whereupon they turn in to gracious, giving angels. Australians directly mirror this: in person, they’re adorable, yet behind the wheel they’re selfish monsters. I hate driving in this country. So much so that I don’t own a car.

I had the exact opposite experience with Aussie drivers - with the exceptions of taxi drivers, who were the absolute worst, it was always easy to merge lanes, noone driving too dangerous or fast.

I live and drive in Australia and find people polite and decent in all my commuting or country roadtrips. I swear it's improved over the years. There used to be more selfish driving, but there's always someone pausing to let you merge or flash you to continue if you both reach a narrow point.

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

#358

Post by Traster »

avianlyric wrote: post #334
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…

> i.e. saving third-party lives, on a non-busy road doing 35 mph in a 30 mph really going to kill anybody? Yes, the stats show quite clearly that 30mph is the point where pedestrian fatality rates really start climbing. [1] At 30mph, if you have a collision with a pedestrian there’s a 20% chance the pedestrian dies. At 35mph it’s 50% At 40mph it’s 90% The article mentioned the car was doing over 35mph. Additionally i…

The point is that whilst the danger of a collision goes up as speed increases, you're not considering the context - the conditions. It is unquestionably more dangerous to drive past a school at 8:30am on a weekday at 30mph than it is to drive in that same area at 2am on a Monday morning at 35mph.

If we're talking about safety, then the speed limits should be to reflect conditions, but instead what happens is we cap the limit at the lowest value considering worst conditions.

Realistically the way we deal with this is through selective enforcement, the police probably aren't going to give you a ticket for 35 in a 30 at 2am on a monday morning, but it's silly to pretend that conditions don't matter.

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

#359

Post by mysterydip »

Spare_account wrote: post #251
LeCow wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything involving fines needs to be absolutely 100% infallible. Taking a speed reading then the plate leaves a lot of loopholes. I don't think any speed operation would work unless the car has been sighted, number plate read and speed detected simultaneously.

I was prosecuted and fined for speeding in the UK on the basis of two Police officers' testimony that they observed their own speedometer while following me. A UK Police officer can assert that he saw a thing recorded on a calibrated device and it will stick in court. I would imagine that a Police officer could testify that he measured the speed using the calibrated device and continued to observe the same vehicle un…

This happened to my friend in the US. He presented evidence for why it was impossible for the officer to actually measure his speed from where the officer was and where they said he was at the time of measurement (around a corner I believe). The judge simply asked the officer if the device was calibrated, to which he replied 'yes', and my friend was deemed guilty.

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

#360

Post by mcintyre1994 »

Traster wrote: post #353
Lio wrote: post #321

There's the old joke: "All those present that object to receiving speeding fines please raise your right foot". People object to speeding fines but receiving them is entirely optional. Personally, I'd rather they clamped down harder on tailgating, poor lane discipline and uninsured drivers than on motorway speed limits.

My main objection is that enforcement, at least in the UK is absolutely useless. The likelihood of actually coming across a speed trap is tiny, the likelihood of coming across a speed trap that isn't one of the ones that are regularly used is close to 0. So it's not like people who speed get fined. It's people who speed and get unlucky get fined (and points). I just think it's bad policy to have relatively huge penal…

Ironically you can pretty much only get caught by the irregular ones if you’re on a quiet road too - otherwise someone will flash you as you approach to let you know. At least in some places anyway.
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