Average speed cameras

[exdos]

I know the cameras on the gantries with illuminated variable speed signs work, such as those on the M25 and M42; I suppose they're just basic GATSO type systems. But I'm unsure if all those yellow ones on a long stretch of motorway are actually interconnected so that a remote system can calculate your average speed? After all they put them up on the stretches where they are laying pipework along the central reservation which seems to take years to install, whilst the yellow cameras have gone up almost overnight. Are most of them dummies, if not all?

 

[PerryGunn]

I know the cameras on the gantries with illuminated variable speed signs work, such as those on the M25 and M42; I suppose they're just basic GATSO type systems. But I'm unsure if all those yellow ones on a long stretch of motorway are actually interconnected so that a remote system can calculate your average speed? After all they put them up on the stretches where they are laying pipework along the central reservation which seems to take years to install, whilst the yellow cameras have gone up almost overnight. Are most of them dummies, if not all?

They don't need to be connected together by wires - the ones made by Siemens, and presumably others, use a 3G connection to send data to a central datacentre for processing so all that really needs to be known is the location of the camera that's sending the datastream and the others in its local group

 

[exdos]

They don't need to be connected together by wires - the ones made by Siemens, and presumably others, use a 3G connection to send data to a central datacentre for processing so all that really needs to be known is the location of the camera that's sending the datastream and the others in its local group

So would it be easily possible to tell if any of the yellow gantries are sending data over 3G?

 

[PerryGunn]

They don't need to be connected together by wires - the ones made by Siemens, and presumably others, use a 3G connection to send data to a central datacentre for processing so all that really needs to be known is the location of the camera that's sending the datastream and the others in its local group

So would it be easily possible to tell if any of the yellow gantries are sending data over 3G?

Well you could probably use an IMSI catcher to sniff the tower signal but I couldn't see why they'd bother putting up a dummy one as it would take just as long as erecting a real one - unless, of course, there's a large cost differential between a real one and a dummy one...

 

[Nanu]

Resurrecting this thread.

I travelled up (and down) the M5 and M6 mid-week and passed through several speed restricted areas, which have been on the M5 and M6 for many years now. These areas have the yellow poles with three cameras on a boom at intervals along the speed-restricted stretches. I've always wondered if motorist ever get caught speeding because there's always seems to be one motorist who drives at 20mph faster than everyone else. Either they're complete idiots who've never driven on a motorway before, or they know something the rest of us don't.

I've heard that the cameras are actually used for facial recognition to track the movements of criminals rather than to catch speeding motorists by ANPR. I'm wondering if anyone on here has been caught speeding by this type of camera system?

Unsure about up north, but down here we have the same average speed cameras and a guy in work got caught by them, doing 59mph in a 50mph patch of road.

The cameras in the gantrys (sp) above the M6 definitely work, as I've been caught by them, as has another work colleague quite recently. Both doing 60mph in supposedly 50 limits. I'm 99% sure the one I went through said 60, as I was on cruise control, but I didn't have any evidence to prove it, unfortunately.

There was a big news story a few years ago about the 50/60 signs above the M6 looking very similar and catching motorists out (here!!!). But it was a year or so after I had attended a speed awareness course. So I just let it go. It still annoys me to this day though!

The Smart motorway cameras on the M6 around Birmingham are now mounted at the nearside of the road not on the gantry itself. They are about every 3rd gantry and as such are partially hidden. When they were above they were only 'on' when the speed limit was shown, usually 50mph and below, but now I am not so sure. Went down that way a couple of weeks ago and traffic was no problem until I hit this 'smart' section warning of queues ahead and slowing the traffic to 50mph. Yes there was queues but only as a result of the speed restriction. Once it was back up to 70mph the queues miraculously disappeared?

 

[Tinker15]

“Last year (2017) more than 70,000 drivers were fined on motorways with variable speed limits - a tenfold increase on five years ago, according to figures obtained by The Times.” See https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/30/review-ordered-smart-motorway-speed-limits-record-fines-handed/

 

[road warrior]

We have all these hooligans and speed cameras... Instead of getting drunk why don't they do something useful.

 

[patriot66]

We have all these hooligans and speed cameras... Instead of getting drunk why don't they do something useful.

? :?

 

[road warrior]

too cryptic ? we have hooligans who walk the streets, breaking smashing and destroying property, and yet the speed cameras remain intact.. ergo...