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

thedrive.com

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

#251

Post by Spare_account »

LeCow wrote: post #229
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you could measure the speed at a distance then image the number plate as the car gets closer.

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 until it was possible to read the number plate.

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

#253

Post by jen729w »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #249
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…

Australia is the most nanny state country that I know of. The driving rules are absolutely draconian. In fact when I was growing up there, I was baffled at how aggressive the enforcement was, while at the same time the general level of driving ability was so low. Would you like to be responsible and have a designated driver to drive your inebriated friends home safely? Nope. Not allowed. Drivers on their L or P plate…

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.

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

#254

Post by [deleted] »

LeCow wrote: post #229
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you could measure the speed at a distance then image the number plate as the car gets closer.

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.

[deleted]

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

#255

Post by toyg »

jsinai wrote: post #248
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…

> I once saw speed cameras as “un-sporting”. With no attack on the parent, this reminds me of the general driving attitude of South Africa where I am from. A combination of lack of road enforcement and public mistrust in the police have created an environment where the rule of law on the road, designed to protect lives, is treated merely as suggestions or guidelines, often ignored. It’s extremely common to see driver…

Lol, in SA it’s almost funny, because the crappiest the car, the fastest it will rocket through the countryside. Insane speeds, and I’m Italian.

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

#256

Post by iso947 »

IshKebab wrote: post #209
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…

Average speed cameras are very rare outside roadworks though.

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.

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

#257

Post by jen729w »

LeCow wrote: post #231
b112 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "when you do $x, you drain society's emergency resources" is, IMO, an absurd argument. If this is true, then you need to point the finger at so many things. Rock-climbing. Mountain biking. And it progresses, to "anything even remotely risky", where "risky is now the absolute lowest common denominator". And of course, so many sports? Banned. This sort of "walking on eggshells" view of life is quite disturbing to m…

You've just described the world's attitude to Coronavirus.

Perhaps not the greatest example given that it’s killed one-point-six million people to date.

That’s an awful lot of people, and if you don’t think that’s a terrible thing then I don’t know how you sleep at night.

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

#258

Post by iso947 »

lillecarl wrote: post #240
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…

We do not have average speed cameras in Sweden and I hope we never will. The privacy implications of taking a photograph of everyone, process "who they are" (reg plate, generally driven by family member) is horrifying.

You don’t have ring doorbells?

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

#259

Post by kolp »

_ph_ wrote: post #221
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…

This is funny, but in repeated cases the authorities would require the car owner to keep a driving log for that car. So this wouldn't work for very long.

At that time, British and Irish governments didn't share licence plate ownership data with their continental European counterparts. German authorities couldn't trace the owner of the car without a physical stop. Situation has changed in recent years and I understand that now the data is exchanged.

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

#260

Post by ehnto »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #249
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…

Australia is the most nanny state country that I know of. The driving rules are absolutely draconian. In fact when I was growing up there, I was baffled at how aggressive the enforcement was, while at the same time the general level of driving ability was so low. Would you like to be responsible and have a designated driver to drive your inebriated friends home safely? Nope. Not allowed. Drivers on their L or P plate…

They only target low effort enforcement like red lights and speed, and I think our license program is good now but the majority of the people got their licenses before that, with a couple of bucks and an hour or two with an instructor.
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