HOW WOULD U KNOW?

Spammer Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 5717

i reckon i have been caught by the speed camera today but it was a busy road on both sides . according to me i was doing about 28-29 mph at about 6pm (it was quite dark) and i have 195/50/15inch wheels on my car instead of 13 s .so how much would it effect my speed in reality ??
is there a sort of tolerance with the speed cams letting u of up to 10% of the speed limit ??? would they still book u for doing 32 mph on a 30 mile zone??
might be silly questions but i really have no idea how it works .
whats happening next if i am booked ?? are they sending my dirty pictures on action to my house ??
cheers

Level 10 User Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 614

I think your safe. The wheel size you say is allmost the same size as the 13's. It be 1 mph out at best. plus speedo tend to overead. Did you see two flash's or just the one. I've been tho' a cam at 46 mph on a 40. tho' I'd done it, but nowt came tho' post.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

overall dia of the 15's is less than the 13's so your going slower than with 13's.

Gay Rights Activist Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 1268

well with larger wheels your rolling radius is increased, but the lower profile tyres compensate a bit....so i reckon overall they will only be around an ince bigger in diameter. in which case id say you wont have been flashed.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

once again the 13's with those tyres on them are bigger overall than the 15's.

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

i went thru a cam theother day about 37 in a 30....day dreaming i was...no flash tho....either i was lucky or this camera is set very high

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

or its a digital version which england/wales are now using which don't flash.

Spammer Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 5717

i have felt a blue flashing light ,might be 2 as well not so sure . but certainly i was not going over 30 according to the speedo ,thats all i know now .
would it be flashing to someone else ?
just went passed the same road after half an hour i realised there were no lines on my side of the road ,would it make any difference ?

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

well it looked like a regular gatso style....was ages ago so i wud have heard by now...

schakel, were u driving towards the camera or away from it? or was it at traffic lights?

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

was it a front facing camera etc?

Anyway schakal you'll be fine.

If you get a producer get the sped noted and then demand the calibration certificate.

Spammer Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 5717

i was on the left towards the camera ,the camera was on the right to me

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

thats for the other lane.

Spammer Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 5717

so i am not booked than .
and the camera flashed to someone else.
good to know ,i have not lost my virginity yet Smile

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

normal gatso only flash u goin past them not towards them...which is annoying when ppl slamm on when heading towards one.

Spammer Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 5717

really ? i did not know that either ,i am one of those slamming on the brakes when i see a camera

Level 6 User Joined: 20 Jun 2004 Posts: 155

It's wierd - I always assume that everyone should know the basics about how speed cameras work/which way they face, but in reality there isn't any reason why they should. I can't even remember who first told me - I think it was my driving instructor ironically Smile

So for the benefit of those who don't know anything about speed cameras, and for the rest of us who are fed up with people doing emergency stops when passing speed cameras on the opposite carraigeway, and largely because I'm bored, I shall impart my limited knowledge on the subject...

For anyone who doesn't know, with a regualr gatso, you have the camera facing forwards (ie. away from you as you approach it), so you can see the backside of the camera box which should be painted yellow nowadays (I think you can get out of paying if it isn't). Starting roughly in line with the camera, there will also be a series of white lines running across the carriageway for a few metres. This is what the police use to double check the camera's I seem to remember, so if you argue the toss with them saying the camera wasn't calibrated right, then some lucky policeman gets to look at the two photo's generated by the gatso - which are always taken at a precise time apart (and is why you get a double flash) - and do the maths to figure out your actual speed based on your cars position relative to the white lines across the road. So as long as you are doing the right speed (ish) as you go over the white lines, you won't get done.

With the newer digital jobbies, you sometimes get the white lines as with the original gatso (like on the M25 variable speed limit gantries), and sometimes you don't. The newest and nastiest ones look exactly like the dark blue little cameras that the traffic services use, except they are painted yellow and have two white 'ears' which are actually the speed sensing stuff. These are pure evil cause not only they are bloody tiny, but they face the oncoming traffic, so by the time you see it you can already have been done. There are also the older infra red gatso style cameras, which are a hybrid of the digital and the gatso systems - they face the oncoming traffic, so you still get done by the time you pass the camera, because they use an infra red flash which means the police don't have to worry about blinding drivers who are speeding and making them drive into the nearest lamp post. These ones have a little tripwire type system in the road surface, which looks like two thin white lines across the carriageway very close together. Go over those lines too fast and you better smile for the camera Very Happy

What gets me is that round where I live, there are several places where there are the gatso white lines on the road, but no actual cameras. When people get to these they invariably think "Shit! Where's the camera!" and slam the brakes on Razz

There is also a place where there are two gatsos, one on each side of a short section of 30mph road, which is on a big slope, and they are notorious for going off when cars are coming towards them in the wrong direction, which is particularly dangerous and unpleasant as the flashes they use are fecking bright!

Most gatsos have at least a 5mph tolerance, usually more as the speed limit increases, presumably to avoid having gazillions of people arguing the toss over 1mph speeding infractions. Just don't tell the road safety brigade Wink

- I seem to remember them taking the police to court over having a tolerance on speed cameras!

If you pass a fixed speed camera at 35mph in a 30 zone, you are highly unlikely to get busted. The only exception to this is when some police forces decide to have a 'crackdown' on speeding motorists. I think this is more common up north - my grandad who lives in Stockton on Tees (near Middlesborough and Darlington) got done during a crackdown session for doing 33mph in a 30, and he was well pissed off. Also, mobile speed cameras, either hand held or in the back of small vans, tend to be more viciously tolerance free.

OK so now everybody knows, so I expect never to see another Renault slamming their brakes on as they pass a gatso for the opposite carriageway Wink

Cheers
Alex

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

i thought the 2 wires accross the road were for statistical purposes....as i have seen many in places where there are no cameras.

Site Subscriber Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 1139

Bravo! Alex C

Level 6 User Joined: 20 Jun 2004 Posts: 155

Yeh they are different ones for the infra cams round here - the road monitoring ones are just like chunky rubber cable across the road. The white strips for the infra red cameras are really hard to see unless you are looking hard for them. I think they must only be about 5-15cm apart, and a couple of cm deep, and are about 10-15m in front of the actual camera. They aren't actually raised above the road level much at all, unlike the road monitoring ones I've seen - you can't feel them as you drive over them or anything.

I've only seen about 25 odd infra red cameras ever, they are mostly in the countryside in villages I find. There also used to be some on the A1 where there is a 50 limit through some urban bit, mostly hidden round corners and the like - nasty!

Cheers
Alex