scoobynutta555

Have noticed in the last few days that 4 cameras have sprouted up on 2 sets of gantries on the m1 southbound, just before the m25 turn off. The gantries are a few hundred yards apart, and have a camera for each lane. If they were traffic monitoring cameras i would suppose there wouldnt be 4 on each gantry, with such a short distance between gantries. They seem to be this digital camera format. I will be mad as hell if these bloody things are spread across the motorway network. Especially since motorways are the safest highways in the UK.

Im fed up to the back teeth of do gooders pressing for these "safety cameras". There would be a lot less accidents on motorways if said sandal wearers left their caravans at home and drove their volvos (at an exact 70 mph) in the left hand lane. What is this country coming to.

The present farcical limit of 70 mph is a joke. I would bring in 155 limit for drivers with capable cars and something like an advanced drivers course. Speeds limited upon heavy traffic of bad weather. Cars have come a long long way since the piles of crap that were rolled off British Leyland production lines.

If those in their ivory towers are so concerned about our well being, why dont they ban alcohol and cigarettes. We could also drive around bubblewrapped from helmeted head to toe in a sinclair c5.

And let me also pose this thought. Isnt it possible that many people are killed on our roads from parents driving their kids to school in their big 4 wheel drive monsters/volvos than on the motorway? Why not spend some money on school buses? School runs generally make upwards of 30 % of local rush hour traffic.

RANT OVER ( for the meantime)

scoobynutta555

anyone know anything about the cameras then?

Ian Cook

Do they look like standard CCTV cameras, ie white camera bodies with a little black box to one side ? There were some on the M25 a while back, they were traffic monitoring cameras, they can also use these cameras to track tax dodgers as well ! I havent been that way on the M1 for a while, but will have a look next time i do !

adamm

I'm off down there tomorrow so my detector will let me know if they are radiating... I'll let you know...

scoobynutta555

from memory they are small camera with two small darkish boxes each side. What i cant work out is why they have another set of cameras a few hundred yards down the road if they arent speed cameras

RB5#295

Same thing on the M6 through the southbound roadworks around (Knutsford?) services; no idea what they are for but they aren't SPECS cameras as I thought when somebody at work first described them to me.

boomer

Possibly related to http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadid=112855

mb

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

There are actually SPECS cameras by junction 19 (knutsford) so be careful when travelling there, these are on the blue poles by the side of the road, they do get quite alot of revenue as lots of people fly through the 50 zone there.

Tony

Flat 4x4

I can confirm that whilst I hug the inside lane with an HGV up my **** as my Morpheous goes wacko for a few miles.

Why the 'hell' they don't sign it properly as
" Speed Cameras are measuring your average speed over next 5 miles"
I don't know

Oh yes I do, it's sod all to do with road safety Mr Chief Constable

Ian Cook

There are SPECS cameras on the M6 around Birmingham too ! usually have a semi circular board behind them (blue or yellow backed i think) and are on some of the gantries ! The ones in the roadworks dont have the backing plates but are on poles on the roadside !

SPECS cameras look like

Jolly Green Monster 2

I saw these the other week and I am undecided whether they are speed cameras or not.

My detector remains silent but then it would for SPECS..

I am sticking to the limit through there for the time being, well I am acutally driving nearer and nearer the limit everywhere these days..

On the one hand we shouldn't speed but on the other 99% of drivers do and it is harder to drive at 70mph with everyone else wizzing past and cutting you up to come off at junctions and lorries doing 71mph past you so you have to slow to go out round caravans and arctics.. I think it was easier when I used to speed everywhere.

JGM

Gordo

I'd echo the previous comment - went through the ones in Knutsford several times a couple of weeks ago and, suspecting they were SPECS, stuck at 50 with a fookin HGV up my **** every time. bless them - like I'd want the 50 tonne **** up my rear if I had to brake!

I forgot to rant about some ****e I saw on BBC1 last week where speeders were caught doing 35 in a 30 limit (careful now) and taken in front of a load of schoolkids who sanctimoniously asked questions like 'do you know how many children were killed on Britain's roads last year' - what's that got to do with driving safely for the conditions? if one of the little ankle biters dives out into the road chances are it makes sod all difference whatever speed you're doing, it would still be the parents' / school's fault!

Left wing Britain is getting carried away - the number of deaths on the roads has remained pretty constant since the 50s even though there is a lot more traffic. accidents happen, accept it and move on rather than trying to solve a problem that can't be solved, it's the price of mobility in a modern world!

We've got an ageing population so a real pensions issue looming and need to spend ever more on the NHS. What do the lefties think the answer is? Make the old buggers live longer and exacerbate the problem by hosing more cash into the NHS. Death race 2000 is clearly the only answer.......

G

SiDHEaD

the blue cameras on poles to the left of the road are TrafficMaster masts. They are used with devices you fit in the car to alert you to traffic jams (its a bit poor tho). I think the rac use them to know where the jams are also.

As was correctly pointed out the SPECS cameras look like CCTV cameras with small rounds pods either side (infra red, they glow at nite). No flash, you are busted.

As for painting yellow boxes round them - they are tiny, but do help you to know its an actual speed camera.

Motorway speedlimits are a joke (excluding dangerous areas of roadworks), they should be much higher, with more attention paid to "inappropriate speed for conditions etc" and other dangerous driving such as tailgating.

The thing that gripes me is the issue thats echo'd by many - if cameras are NOT about revenue/stealth tax - why the hell are they in undangerous locations and HIDDEN BEHIND THINGS. This doesnt slow people at all. The government are a bunch of to$$pots. More traffic police monitoring traffic for dangerous driving (not ppl exceeding stupidly low speedlimits on a big straight 3laned road.)

A good idea would be an enforced lower speed limit around junctions/blackspots, and then the rest being a lot higher. Maybe with more variable speed signs depending on conditions. Like on the M25 but not used to make everyone do 50 all the bloody time!!!

<END OF MY OWN-OPINION TWODDLE>


Andy

King RA

And why don't the nation stand up and do something about it.....? Because we have no true leaders out for the people in this country, vote Clarkson for PM!!

ChrisB

I went through the roadworks on the M6 around Knutsford Saturday AM. I'm sure the SPECs cameras are painted bright yellow.

SiDHEaD

Chris: yes i saw the boards on the M6 ones. I didnt notice cameras on the M1 so that probably means they werent painted and i bazzed thru them (following LizzyWizz in Mikee's car - i'll blame her !)

Jolly Green Monster 2

I am not convinced they are SPECS as I can only describe them as a large square camera about 6inches by 6inches by 18inches with two slimmer pods either side, but they are square and do not resemble the SPECS pictured above.
Also the SPECS measures all three lanes at a time and therefore only one camera is required. The ganteries have three on each and also there is two ganteries with them set up on about 200yards a part... could be a new type of speed camera or just new monitoring cameras as that junction does come to a standstill very often and there is a fair number of accidents at that time.
Or they could be the Tax disk checkers?
But anyway I am 100% sure they are not SPECS.

JGM

Tiggs

hmmm, this case is allways hampered by ppl saying "i'd have a 155mph limit..." which is just as (if not more) stupid than the current system.

no wonder a lot of ppl dont listen to "us", they think we are all fast driving idiots.

T

ps- and if anyone seriously wants to be on a UK motorway with drivers doing 155mph then they are nuts.

^Qwerty^

Does that not depend on the conditions?

I.E if the motorway is quiet, Im tramming on at 130 and somebody comes past me at 155 whats the difference between that and the current situation where a wagon is doing 55 and most of the 3rd lane is going 90-100mph?

Problem is a lot of people don't appear to have the common sense or are not able to make the call of how fast it is safe to go in the conditions in which they are driving, hense the blanket speed limits imposed by the government.

You only have to watch the news in winter when the first fog arrives to know that some people just don't have a bloody clue......

Tiggs

ahhhh, good point! i hadnt realised that traffic doing 55 and 90 was the same as 130 and 155, clearly there is no difference.

T

ps- if its all the same to you i'll pick the 55 and 90 to have a accident in.

shunty

Tiggs, I think qwerty has made a good point there,
yes I can obviously see your point also that in the event of an accident then your better off doing 100 than 150...

BUT...who's gonna stop first, a 1990 fiesta doing 70mph or say my car with uprated brakes & suspension etc doing 100...I bet I could stop a lot earlier. So if a wagon jack-knifed in front of us both, we were level but me travelling a lot faster than the fiesta, I know which car I'd rather be in (actually an audi S6), but joking aside....I wonder what the stopping distances differences are ?? I also appreciate reaction times would make a difference, but because I'm lightening fast I'd be ok then
all IMHO of course.

shunty

MATTeL

I've seen the ones on M1 - They do indeed look like traffic monitoring.

Thery certainly aren't SPECS.

Boo Hiss to the ones in Northampton and on the M6!

Tiggs

shunty, if a lorry jacked in front of you at 155mph you would probably be dead... how are your reflexes when squashed into a truck? good luck!

T

Jolly Green Monster 2

I think we need to link these two together

Other thread

shunty

shunty

scoobynutta555

Tiggs
There are many cars made these days that are well within their limits at 155 mph. Just cause that would be the maximum limit theres no reason to believe that every1 will be bombing along at that speed.

On a clear road in good conditions i myself have gone that fast and i dont consider myself to be "nuts".

Ok in theory a lorry jack-knifing right in front of me and ill be in trouble. But I wouldnt be speeding in the first place if there was a possibility that that may happen. After all i have said there would have to be good conditions, a clear motorway, a properly maintained and capable vehicle and a competent driver.

I think i have read somewhere that the faster you go the more you concentrate on your driving, youre less likely to have an accident through falling asleep/lack of concentration. I bet there are more accidents trough drowseyness on motorways than there are through "speeding".

In my opinion driving at 70 is some motorway situations is "speeding".

Jolly Green Monster 2

Yeah but if you were used to driving at 155mph your concerntration would not be so high!

That first time on the motorway at 70mph you were concerntrating like mad... after a month you were half asleep like everyone else and doing 90mph.

The point is that you get people that think they can drive and they do 70mph and they are a danger to everyone.. swerving between lanes and cutting in, travelling too close etc.. so this would be the person now able to do over a ton!!!! scary.. you can try and test people to enable them to get a fast licence but firstly try enforcing it and secondly the guy at 70mph now who is dangerous has allergerly passed a test already... yes you could make the fast licence test more strict but still give it a couple of months and he would have forgotten.

Rant off



JGM

scoobynutta555

it hasnt escaped my notice that 17 year olds can pass an urban driving test and be allowed onto a motorway at once. You would be happy with said youth in his 20 year old fiesta swerving away and taligating you in traffic, or an experienced driver in a proper car? Its six of one and half dozen the other.

And in all the times i have gone over a hundred, and there have been many, i have never been less than 100 % vigilant. I even stop smoking, chatting on the phone, reading the paper and tell the misses to get off her knees in the footwell.