www.irishspeedtraps.com

CowDog

Does anyone know if they have closed down http://www.irishspeedtraps.com/ cause the site is coming up with " Service Unavailable " on all their pages ?,

Is there any other sites with good content like the above ?,

Thanks,

Promote Safe Driving -

nag

its probably dead from a mass volume of traffic hitting it after it was featured on the RTE news yesterday. just wait til everyone wakes up again and im sure itll be back in no time

Rovi

On RTE Radio 1 at this very moment!

fletch

It's back working again

prospect

I see they made the second story on the 9o'Clock news yesterday evening.

Fair play, I am 100% behind them..

80% of accidents on single carriageway rural roads,
probably about 2% of cameras on these same roads.

Road safety policy my ar$e

DonJose

What a pack of w@nkers, whats next, a section on the website where drink drivers can see where road blocks are setup.

rebel.ranter

I have not used the site yet but what's the harm in telling people where the gardai are setting up most frequently? If it's gets people to slow down in these areas then how is it a bad thing?
The Gardai can still, & DO still set up additional speed checks in other locations, so if people think that this is a way of avoiding getting caught they would be sorely mistaken.

EDIT: Tried to open the website here at work & it's a restricted page in here due "illegal" material! We are not as restricted in internet use as some companies are.

prospect

DonJose wrote:

What a pack of w@nkers, whats next, a section on the website where drink drivers can see where road blocks are setup.

Thats a different ballgame,

Knowing where speed traps are means that drivers will obey the limit as they pass them, hence they have served their purpose and kept drivers at the 'safe' limit.

So, the obvious thing to do is to put speed cameras on the most dangerous stretches of road (as deemed by accident statistics, and not by a bunch of elected half-wits) and advertise them. The result? People maintain safe speeds at these dangerous spots, and there is most likely an immediate drop in road deaths.

This begs the follow on question, why are these spots dangerous? Road surface, signage, design, bad junctions etc. So surely it is obvious that a lack of interest by the government and the roads authority for figuring out exactly why black spots, are black spots, that they are not really committed to road safety. It is easier to blanket blame 'speeding'.

Nuttzz

Considering one of the rules on the motorway is no stopping, how legal is this?

lightening

If someone dies on a stretch of road or on a bend, they should put a camera there, name it after the dead person even.

jjbrien

irishspeedtraps.com i have found thier website to be unreilable at times escpecially when your trying to add a camea locatio like i did this mouring but get a message service unavailable.

Rovi

Tom McGurk is going to cover the subject on the Today show this morning, RTE Radio 1, right now.

Stephen

They probably exceeded their webhost's traffic limit because of the news exposure.

I.S.T.

Hi Guys,

We are having a lot of problems with the site, the hosting company are looking into it.

jjbrien, it is up now if you would like to try again.

Thanks

jjbrien

IrishSpeedTraps wrote:

Hi Guys,

We are having a lot of problems with the site, the hosting company are looking into it.

jjbrien, it is up now if you would like to try again.

Thanks

got it in now another gasto van on the n2

Anan1

Nuttzz wrote:

Considering one of the rules on the motorway is no stopping, how legal is this?

Isn't it a Garda vehicle?

Rovi

Here's the item from this morning's Morning Ireland-
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0720/morningireland_av.html?2271170,242,209

Keith C

DonJose wrote:

What a pack of w@nkers, whats next, a section on the website where drink drivers can see where road blocks are setup.

Whats your problem with it? If everyone knows where speed cameras are located, everyone will take better care with their speed & help reduce road deaths.
Fair play to the lads for taking the time to set it up, the RSA thinks its a good idea.

Anan1

Keith C wrote:

Whats your problem with it? If everyone knows where speed cameras are located, everyone will take better care with their speed & help reduce road deaths.
Fair play to the lads for taking the time to set it up, the RSA thinks its a good idea.

Everyone won't know though, will they? Let's be honest here, the site is only of interest to those of us who intend on breaking the speed limit.

Rovi

Anan1 wrote:

Isn't it a Garda vehicle?

Almost certainly, but without high visibility reflectors and strobe lights it's in as much danger and poses as much danger to other road users as any other vehicle parked up on the hard shoulder.

Anan1

Rovi wrote:

Almost certainly, but without high visibility reflectors and strobe lights it's in as much danger and poses as much danger to other road users as any other vehicle parked up on the hard shoulder.

But it's not even on the hard shoulder?

fletch

Anan1 wrote:

Everyone won't know though, will they? Let's be honest here, the site is only of interest to those of us who intend on breaking the speed limit.

I disagree....it would be very handy for those moments when you slip a few kph above the speed limit and you get done.

Anan1

fletch wrote:

I disagree....it would be very handy for those moments when you slip a few kph above the speed limit and you get done.

Would most people go to the trouble of regularly checking the site on the off-chance that they might accidentally slip a few km/h over the limit?

Rovi

Anan1 wrote:

But it's not even on the hard shoulder?

I suppose that makes it okay then.
In civilised places with proper motorway police, parking/stopping like that will result in short order in a police vehicle lit up like a Christmas tree parked behind you and a member of the constabulary in a high-vis jacket enquiring as to the nature of your emergency. And it had better be something of a very serious medical/mechanical nature, or there'll be hell to pay.

fletch

Anan1 wrote:

Would most people go to the trouble of regularly checking the site on the off-chance that they might accidentally slip a few km/h over the limit?

I doubt....but I still wouldn't mind uploading all of the locations on to my sat nav and setting an alarm to alert me when I'm approaching a camera...Also the site could include an updates section, where each time a new camera is added, a news item (or something to that effect) is added.

Anan1

fletch wrote:

I doubt....but I still wouldn't mind uploading all of the locations on to my sat nav and setting an alarm to alert me when I'm approaching a camera...Also the site could include an updates section, where each time a new camera is added, a news item (or something to that effect) is added.

Now that would be handy. Thing is, most of out patrols are currently mobile and therefore hard to predict. I know they have fairly set habits, but they only have to be lucky once..

Anan1

Rovi wrote:

I suppose that makes it okay then.
In civilised places with proper motorway police, parking/stopping like that will result in short order in a police vehicle lit up like a Christmas tree parked behind you and a member of the constabulary in a high-vis jacket enquiring as to the nature of your emergency. And it had better be something of a very serious medical/mechanical nature, or there'll be hell to pay.

Take a few deep breaths, Rovi. I know it's early, but i'm merely pointing out that it's not on or blocking the hard shoulder.

Rovi

Rovi wrote:

Here's the item from this morning's Morning Ireland-
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0720/morningireland_av.html?2271170,242,209

On right now (11:13am).

Rovi

Anan1 wrote:

Take a few deep breaths, Rovi. I know it's early, but i'm merely pointing out that it's not on or blocking the hard shoulder.

Thank you for your condescension, I'm merely pointing out that managing to get a vehicle onto a patch of gravel that's not the actual asphalt surface of the main carriageway or the hard shoulder is merely a technicality wouldn't cut much ice with motorway police anywhere.

Anan1

Rovi wrote:

Thank you for your condescension, I'm merely pointing out that managing to get a vehicle onto a patch of gravel that's not the actual asphalt surface of the main carriageway or the hard shoulder is merely a technicality wouldn't cut much ice with motorway police anywhere.

Honestly Rovi, it's a Garda camera van. Contrary to your earlier assertion, it's not on either the road or the hard shoulder, and is causing no obstruction to traffic. What exactly are you giving out about here?

Rovi

Anan1 wrote:

Honestly Rovi, it's a Garda camera van. Contrary to your earlier assertion, it's not on either the road or the hard shoulder, and is causing no obstruction to traffic. What exactly are you giving out about here?

Being a Garda vehicle doesn't exclude it from the laws of physics should a mechanical failure or driver error send another vehicle off the main carriageway and into/across the hard shoulder.
Motorway bridge columns, emergency phones, signposts, purpose built Garda 'parking' facilities, etc, are all (in my experience and as far as I can recollect) protected behind earth banks and/or barriers, does this not say something about stopping in an unprotected position beside one of these roads?
Are you seriously suggesting that it's okay to park up on a motorway, provided you can get your wheels off the actual asphalt part?
There's often a good bit of space on the central median where a vehicle would fit, would that be okay too?

Seth Brundle

Rovi wrote:

There's often a good bit of space on the central median where a vehicle would fit, would that be okay too?

It used to work for the lads down on the Portlaoise bypass!
H&S presumably put a stop to that though!

Anan1

Rovi wrote:

Being a Garda vehicle doesn't exclude it from the laws of physics should a mechanical failure or driver error send another vehicle off the main carriageway and into/across the hard shoulder.
Motorway bridge columns, emergency phones, signposts, purpose built Garda 'parking' facilities, etc, are all (in my experience and as far as I can recollect) protected behind earth banks and/or barriers, does this not say something about stopping in an unprotected position beside one of these roads?
Are you seriously suggesting that it's okay to park up on a motorway, provided you can get your wheels off the actual asphalt part?
There's often a good bit of space on the central median where a vehicle would fit, would that be okay too?

Perhaps you should write a letter to someone, outlining your concerns? Who knows, it may well be feasible to build an earth bank or some other type of barrier around the van.

Rovi

Anan1 wrote:

Perhaps you should write a letter to someone, outlining your concerns? Who knows, it may well be feasible to build an earth bank or some other type of barrier around the van.

Fair enough, you win. Have a nice day.

Keith C

Was recently in Edinburgh where they're seemed to be fixed speed cameras every 100m & the taxi driver saying they're well used to it etc.... I told him about the recent "sneaky cop" thread & he said they're would be uproar if police in scotland started hiding behind lamposts with hand held guns or being parked at side of motorway in unmarked car. Over there all speed checks are Hi-vis & blatantly stand out whether it be handheld or fixed.
His first reply to our methods over here was money making racket rather than safety awareness.

Anan1

Keith C wrote:

Was recently in Edinburgh where they're seemed to be fixed speed cameras every 100m & the taxi driver saying they're well used to it etc.... I told him about the recent "sneaky cop" thread & he said they're would be uproar if police in scotland started hiding behind lamposts with hand held guns or being parked at side of motorway in unmarked car. Over there all speed checks are Hi-vis & blatantly stand out whether it be handheld or fixed.

I don't know about that. I drove 1,000 miles around Scotland last month, including 3 days in Edinburgh. I had a Garmin sat nav with me which has a speed camera database. The thing gave me a lot of warnings, particularly around Edinburgh. Perhaps 80% of the time there were no signs, no visible cameras, just the sat nav warning. Hardly conclusive evidence I know, but my experience nonetheless.

Nuttzz

Anan1 wrote:

But it's not even on the hard shoulder?

mmmmm

http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/8342-0.pdf

page 76

The Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking Regulations) 1997 deals with driving on motorways. Briefly, these Regulations

• require motorists to drive only in the direction of traffic flow;
• prohibit the driving on or across any part of the motorway which is not a carriageway;
• prohibit stopping or parking on any part of the motorway;

that van looked stopped on the motorway to me....

OKenora

Over there all speed checks are Hi-vis & blatantly stand out whether it be handheld or fixed.

Not only are they all like that but they legally have to be. If you were caught speeding by an un-marked van or at an un-publicised location you will get off with the speeding charge. Good example of this is in the UK's Police show, a handheld gun used by a Policeman is doing speed checks at a random placement for a special event but only is issuing warnings, because he knows the ticket will be thrown out of court as he is at an un-publicised location.

Also the criteria for placement of cameras is based on accident statistics. If a particular area is showing accidents due to speed a camera appears. The effect ? Everyone slows down, accidents due to speed drop. In Ireland a speeding cameras effectiveness is judged by how many tickets it issues. In most of the rest of Europe camera success is judged by the reduction in accidents in an area due to the camera and ideally a well placed camera in an accident blackspot will issue 0 tickets.

I have nothing against speed cameras and rarely have any need to worry about one but I do object to the flawed thinking involved in their placement if their primary purpose is to reduce road deaths.

Gardai would not run a drink driving checkpoint outside the HQ of the Irish Pioneers association, they setup outside or near pubs instead, makes sense to me. So why run the majority of speed cameras on roads where less than 2% of fatalities occur.

RobAMerc

Keith C wrote:

His first reply to our methods over here was money making racket rather than safety awareness.

Thats because thats what it is.
Why can't the government see that the covert cameras don't work and prove to only piss drivers off, cause stupid dangerous breaking maneuvers and fail to stop people speeding. Oh yea - they generate revenue thats why.

The UK police have admitted that covert cameras don't work and are trying to move away from them - however over there the revenue goes to the local council who couldn't give a flying f*ck about safety.

What can the Paddies gov't learn from that - ching ching - They too don't give a f*ck about your safety they care about you cash.

I have said it before and I will say it again - the "Speed Kills" mantra is propaganda - so tulips will believe that they deserve to be taxed for going 10kms over the limit on the M1 when the reality is poor driver ed and bad roads are causing deaths NOT speed.

We motoring enthusiasts must wholeheartedly support this site.

plissken

Nuttzz wrote:

mmmmm

http://www.transport.ie/upload/general/8342-0.pdf

page 76



that van looked stopped on the motorway to me....

For god sake its a garda van it can stop at the side of the hard shoulder if it wants to simple as, its not causing an obstruction so what are the people who are moaning trying to say ? That its not acceptable for any vehicle to stop on a motorway how about ambulances should they attend to an emergency by driving slowly passed a crash and try to drag any persons needing attention into the ambulance

shrapnel222

OKenora wrote:

Not only are they all like that but they legally have to be. If you were caught speeding by an un-marked van or at an un-publicised location you will get off with the speeding charge.

is this the case here too? just wondering cause i got caught by one of those the other day, just where the N1 becomes the M1. a van was parked under the bridge and I was doing 90 instead of 80 as i was accelarating towards the start of the M1 about 200 yards further

dulpit

RobAMerc wrote:

I have said it before and I will say it again - the "Speed Kills" mantra is propaganda - so tulips will believe that they deserve to be taxed for going 10kms over the limit on the M1 when the reality is poor driver ed and bad roads are causing deaths NOT speed.

Now there's a boy racer attitude if i've ever seen one... So you're saying that by flying along the road at top speed you'll be perfectly safe, it's only if you're driving on a bad road or have little experience driving that you'll ever be in danger in a car?

Come off it, its obvious if you're burning down any road at high speeds you're gonna be a danger to yourself and more importantly others. What if something unexpected happens? If you're going at speed you'll be in trouble straight away...

While i agree (somewhat) that the speed camera setup is wrong (there should be more done on those windy back roads where Johnny & PJ race their Nova's) I disagree whole heartedly with you saying that speed doesn't kill.

Get your head out of your ass and grow up will you?

prospect

plissken wrote:

For god sake its a garda van it can stop at the side of the hard shoulder if it wants to simple as, its not causing an obstruction so what are the people who are moaning trying to say ? That its not acceptable for any vehicle to stop on a motorway how about ambulances should they attend to an emergency by driving slowly passed a crash and try to drag any persons needing attention into the ambulance

So, by your rationale it would be okay for myself and my wife to stop there and have a picnic!
Perfect, that bridge will keep the rain off.

Seth Brundle

dulpit wrote:

Now there's a boy racer attitude if i've ever seen one... So you're saying that by flying along the road at top speed you'll be perfectly safe, it's only if you're driving on a bad road or have little experience driving that you'll ever be in danger in a car?

I believe that their point was that the constant mantra of 'Speed Kills' is inaccurate. It should be 'Inappropriate Speed Kills'. Driving 10, 20 or 50 km/h over the limit will not suddently kill someone. Am I as liable to kill someone on the M1 at 3am if I drive at 16km/h as I am at driving at 49km/h outside a school at 4pm? One is under the limit whilst the other is over the limit.
Our road network is quite poor. Compund this with our inclement weather and poor driving standards driving
can be dangerous both over and under the speed limit. However, blaming all incidents on one factor is wrong. Hence why the word 'inappropriate' should be actively used!

RobAMerc

dulpit wrote:

Now there's a boy racer attitude if i've ever seen one... So you're saying that by flying along the road at top speed you'll be perfectly safe, it's only if you're driving on a bad road or have little experience driving that you'll ever be in danger in a car?

Don't be ridiculous thats not what I am saying and you are surely clever enough to know it.

dulpit wrote:

Come off it, its obvious if you're burning down any road at high speeds you're gonna be a danger to yourself and more importantly others. What if something unexpected happens? If you're going at speed you'll be in trouble straight away...

I never said I encouraged speeding of any type did I ?
What I said was the "Speed Kills" catch phrase is just that a catch phrase and its wrong because thats not whats causing accidents.
Yea it is a factor in every accident because theres no good speed to hit another object but its not the cause of accidents - Inappropriate speed is.
People thinking "Speed Kills" often happily kill themselves at 80kph because they think they're safely below the speed limit.

dulpit wrote:

Get your head out of your ass and grow up will you?

Thats the best part of your post - But luckily with it up there I don't have to listen to anyone elses crap.

markpb

prospect wrote:

So, by your rationale it would be okay for myself and my wife to stop there and have a picnic!
Perfect, that bridge will keep the rain off.

Nope, he meant the Gardai (unlike you and your wife) are not subject to the Road Traffic Act(s) when performing their duties. They are legally allowed to be there. Whether they _should_ be there or not is a different matter.

OKenora

is this the case here too? just wondering cause i got caught by one of those the other day, just where the N1 becomes the M1. a van was parked under the bridge and I was doing 90 instead of 80 as i was accelarating towards the start of the M1 about 200 yards further

Nope UK and Irish law are totally different on this. UK law promotes the usage of cameras TO REDUCE SPEEDS. Irish law promotes the usage of cameras to generate large amount of speeding tickets but other than that have no evidence to indicate that a camera has actually saved a single life yet. Having said that the legal requirement for liveried vans and signs for cameras has been reduced to a recommendation in recent years as it was being abused as a method of avoiding fines, however all cameras and vans, even new ones, remain liveried to this day.

Good example of a revenue camera, Carnaross, small collection of a shop, pub and a few houses on the main Cavan/Dublin road. The village is a 50kph zone reducing from the 100kph outside. Number of fatalities in last 10 years, 0. number of serious injuries in last 10 years, 0 (from NRA stats). So why is this a regular haunt of the Gardai now with mobile cameras ? What accidents are they stopping ? What road safety will they improve ? Improving on a 0 rate is pretty hard, but they do get a lot of drivers doing 55-60kph in a 50kph there......anyone want to guess at the reasons for them checking speed there then ?

mike65

Tom McGurk was interviewing the PR chappie at the Road Safety Authority, it was a rather fruitless encounter with Mr PR doing his job perfectly ie giving not an inch to McGurks arguments. Then the Friday Panel assembled and the three all agreed the attitude of the RSA was completely at odds with what they claim to be setting out to achive.

When the Gardai are not perched on ramps on motorways and dual carraigways and can be seen on rural link roads and outside schools and shopping centres then I'll belive they are doing it for the right reasons.

Mike.

RobAMerc

The Ozzies see a funny side as usual

Seth Brundle

OKenora wrote:

Nope UK and Irish law are totally different on this. UK law promotes the usage of cameras TO REDUCE SPEEDS. Irish law promotes the usage of cameras to generate large amount of speeding tickets but other than that have no evidence to indicate that a camera has actually saved a single life yet.

Isn't it strange to find that the UK have one of the lowest fatality rates in Europe whilst we have one of the highest?

OKenora wrote:

Good example of a revenue camera, Carnaross, small collection of a shop, pub and a few houses on the main Cavan/Dublin road. The village is a 50kph zone reducing from the 100kph outside. Number of fatalities in last 10 years, 0. number of serious injuries in last 10 years, 0 (from NRA stats). So why is this a regular haunt of the Gardai now with mobile cameras ? What accidents are they stopping ? What road safety will they improve ? Improving on a 0 rate is pretty hard, but they do get a lot of drivers doing 55-60kph in a 50kph there......anyone want to guess at the reasons for them checking speed there then ?

I mentioned on here before about how I drove from Virginia to Carnaross with a squad car about 1/2 mile ahead of me. He was doing about 80mph as was I. When I turned the left turn that leads you into carnaross, there he was setting up his speed trap!

Cyrus

the outsourcing of speed cameras will happen soon and the objective is to monitor roads with a history of accidents, revenue collection isnt an objective at all