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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

#111

Post by viraptor »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #100
gorgoiler wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s strange to see you advocate for 35mph. In many parts of Southern England I saw 20mph become the norm. It makes a lot of sense in terms of road safety as well as noise, and makes little to no difference to journey times.

20/35 is 4/7 the speed, and therefore it makes every trip take 7/4 as long. So you spend an additional 15 minutes on every 20-minute journey. You're rapidly going to waste more human lifetimes sitting in cars than you would ever save from driving slower.

Until you can donate someone your time, that's not how it works. This take is "my 5 min is so important, I'm willing to risk someone's 60 years" (scaled to thousands of people).

You can also make other choices that reduce your 15min to begin with. (If the small difference there makes important changes in your life)

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

#112

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#113

Post by spoonjim »

Sebguer wrote: post #83
est31 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK about the UK, but in Germany street racers have killed many innocent bystanders, just for the crime of crossing the street at night. So yes please, enforce rules more strongly. In fact, even ambulances crash into each other every now and then at night, because they usually drive without their horns (technically then they aren't allowed to run red lights, only if it's been sounding for at least 15 seconds, but peo…

America, as well, even in broad daylight: https://www.fox13news.com/news/suspected-bayshore-street-rac...

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

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

#114

Post by brewdad »

01100011 wrote: post #105
ehnto wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My state in Australia have heavy, heavy fines, even compared to the rest of Aus. It doesn't reduce the amount of poor driving but speeding at least is unambiguous. There is no grey area. If the speed limit is 60kmph then you will get booked for exceeding it by 5kmph, and the only reason you get that 5kmph leeway is to account for camera calibration and some grace for speedometer calibration. They would ping you at 61…

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.

This tends to be my rule of thumb. Speed Limit +10% assuming good conditions. It keeps me from being a hazard when other drivers wish to go faster while pretty closely adhering to the whole point of speed limits. 7 mph over the limit on the freeway is still pretty safe. 7 mph over on a narrow residential street can be quite dangerous.

This rule of thumb means I really don't have to waste any mental energy keeping an eye out for police, since someone else is almost always going faster and I find it doesn't significantly impact my trip times since traffic and stop lights tend to cancel out most potential gains from driving any faster.

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

#115

Post by spoonjim »

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…

"un-sporting"? It's not a game. It's about reducing the most common cause of preventable death. The harms to privacy or "freedom" or whatnot are more defensible here than pretty much anywhere else.

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

#116

Post by ryanlol »

scott_w wrote: post #104
megablast wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It shouldn’t matter. Owner is liable until proven otherwise.

To the people downvoting this: this is the U.K. law in this area. If you weren’t the driver, you must tell the police who was driving. If you don’t, you’re the one who gets the speeding ticket.

This is easily defeated by registering your car overseas, as is the case with most fast cars you see in London.

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

#117

Post by brewdad »

xxpor wrote: post #78
TomVDB wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better: in Germany, the cameras black out the passenger's side of the car automatically for privacy reasons, so that only the driver is identified. This was a problem in 2008 when a car with steering wheel on the right systematically got caught speeding. The driver knew full well what was going on an placed a muppet in the passeger's seat. The picture is fantastic: https://gizmodo.com/the-muppets-animal-caught-s…

In Washington State they go one step further: cameras can only take pictures from the rear. They're not allowed to actually take a picture of the driver.

So it becomes a civil matter between the state and the vehicle I assume? Registered owner automatically becomes the liable party?

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

#118

Post by viraptor »

01100011 wrote: post #105
ehnto wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My state in Australia have heavy, heavy fines, even compared to the rest of Aus. It doesn't reduce the amount of poor driving but speeding at least is unambiguous. There is no grey area. If the speed limit is 60kmph then you will get booked for exceeding it by 5kmph, and the only reason you get that 5kmph leeway is to account for camera calibration and some grace for speedometer calibration. They would ping you at 61…

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.

Speed limiters and cruise control are pretty common in modern cars. You can set your mental intended speed lower and won't drift as much. This is from experience of switching to a car with speed notification beeper (very low tech) - it took maybe 2 weeks to stop drifting over almost completely without paying extra attention. We ended up treating it as a game with gf - shortest time for a 300km drive with no beeps.

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

#119

Post by bigmattystyles »

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…

Except if you do get hurt, and even if it is just you, the rest of us are, via social contract, obligated to spend common resources to come rescue you and pay for your medical bills. I know you could make this argument against any activity like rock climbing, but then lobby your government. Even if I grant the response I’m expecting, I dont want to be saved or helped if I injure myself, one, bullshit. Two, even if that’s true, we still have to pay someone to come hose blood off the pavement and dispose of the wreck.

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

#120

Post by dazc »

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.

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