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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

#271

Post by iso947 »

spoonjim wrote: post #115
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.

In the U.K. excess speed is the 10th most common cause of accidents, way below “driver didn’t look properly”, which was 9 times as common.

As far as deaths go, the most common contributory causes are loss of control and failure to look properly. Exceeding speed limit was a cause in just 16% of deaths.

https://www.regtransfers.co.uk/content/common-causes-for-roa...

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

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

#272

Post by bluecalm »

jen729w wrote: post #257
LeCow wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's terrible but similar number of people die every year in car accidents yet there is no moral panic. We can't even agree on finally enforcing speed limits but with the virus we closed the whole world. I mean pollution in major cities is a bigger health problem objectively than the virus and yet we still allow old diesels to drive in most of them.

What I am saying is not that we shouldn't treat the virus seriously but that we really need a lot not urgency when dealing with topics like speeding and pollution.

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

#273

Post by 7952 »

coob wrote: post #223
IshKebab wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average speed cameras are very rare outside roadworks though.

They're really not, there's 2000 of them in the UK: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2020/09...

That is approximately one for every 200km of road. Hardly seems like a lot.

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

#274

Post by iso947 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #121
ransom1538 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take it another level. Every car should have a chip. Once you are in a speed limit - your car can't go faster. Oh wait, this wont generate revenue - so it wont work. Never mind.

> very car should have a chip. Once you are in a speed limit - your car can't go faster. This is actually dangerous because people need the ability to use discretion. Suppose you're transporting a part to repair a machine which is causing a fatality every five seconds as long as it's offline. Getting there 20 seconds faster saves four lives. Do you still want a chip that prevents you from exceeding the speed limit? >…

In that made up case you’d get a police escort to the helicopter.

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

#275

Post by buran77 »

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…

In many countries the word of a police officer carries more weight by virtue of the authority they represent. It's considered that they are qualified to be entrusted with a lot of responsibility, so they are also inherently more trustworthy. This sounds reasonable especially given how many incidents are witnessed with no hard evidence - like jay walking, littering, disturbing public peace, etc. and probably also a lot of more serious offenses. You could be caught trying to steal a car in a dark street and all that stands between you and freedom is the police officer's word.

In this day and age with the possibility of just using body cams to cover this it should no longer matter. But the real qualm I have with this logic is that it's never turned on its head: if a trusted officer of the law breaks that trust they should be punished far more harshly. This almost never happens.

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

#276

Post by lillecarl »

krapp wrote: post #266
lillecarl wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What privacy implications? The government already knows who you are, they processed your vehicle registration and issued that license plate specifically to make your vehicle publicly identifiable. Are you also terrified that just anyone can read your house numbers or the address on your mailbox?

The problem is automated and centralised surveillance. The government can aggregate this data and build movement patterns on all citizens. They might not do it, but they could. And once something to exert power is possible, It'll be done eventually.

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

#277

Post by lb1lf »

Ichthypresbyter wrote: post #238
brewdad wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit will put the kabosh on much of that I imagine. When the borders are closed to the rest of Europe it will be quite easy to make cars from unfriendly jurisdictions illegal on UK roads or to require the equivalent of a visa to bring a car registered in one of those uncooperative nations into the country.

Even without Brexit it is illegal for a British resident to drive a foreign-registered car on British roads. Though the law is rarely enforced, it does exist. Many EU countries have similar laws- and yes, they do apply to cars registered in other EU countries. Actually banning foreign-registered cars driven by non -residents from the roads would require withdrawing from international conventions that long predate the…

> Even without Brexit it is illegal for a British resident to drive a foreign-registered car on British roads. Though the law is rarely enforced, it does exist.

-Norway has a similar law, with the interesting application that if you, a Norwegian resident, is caught driving a car registered abroad in Norway, you're on the hook for the import taxes which would apply if the car were to be put on Norwegian plates.

In a way this makes sense, as (fossil) cars are taxed to high heaven and then some, doubly so if they are well-powered. If the law didn't exist, everyone wanting a muscle car would just buy it in Sweden at half the cost.

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

#279

Post by [deleted] »

compsciphd wrote: post #264
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.

it looks like its manually operated, so I don't see why that would be any different than a normal cop speed gun and pulling the driver over.

[deleted]

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

#280

Post by imtringued »

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…

> Beyond that, if you don't want to get a fine, don't speed.

I got a 100€ fine for speeding on a 130km/h. My crime? I was driving 100km/h instead of the supposed speed limit of 80km/h.

Every day I drive down that section I slow down to 80km/h while everyone else rightfully drives at almost twice the speed at 130km/h or even faster without getting a ticket. I don't think this is safe. It's also not good for me psychologically. It means the rules are stupid and arbitrary and not worth trusting.

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