Gatso question..

MarkN

I've noticed the white Gatso all over the Navan rd this week.

My question is, does a van take a reading from a distance like a guard with a gun or do you need to be alongside the van (similar to a fixed camera)?

Cheers lads..

Anan1

AFAIK, both fixed cameras and vans take a reading from a distance and then take the photo when you're closer. They can't see you when you're alongside them.;)

MarkN

Well I didn't mean completely alongside but almost in front of the rear of the van.

I'm a little worried about last Sunday, I normally see him a mile off but it was going into town for a change and the van was hidden right behind a big road sign where they are building the new railway station.

It changes from 80 kms to 50 kms very quickly and I would hate to be caught somewhere I am normally so careful!

Anan1

I guess you'll have the answer to your question soon enough so!;) Seriously though, there's no point worrying at this stage. You never know, he mightn't have clocked you speeding, or the camera mightn't have been in operation.

Del2005

Once you see the van or Garda they will already have gotten your speed, assuming no other traffic. Thats why the laser warning devices aren't any use, as by the time you react to the warning they'll have already clocked you.

Seth Brundle

I passed the van on the Kilcullen side of Naas town on Sunday. Unfortunately Im fairly sure he got me (finally losing my points virginity ).
Yesterday evening as I was on my way into Dublin's city centre via the N4, I stopped at the lights at Palmerstown (the ones just before the slip road for Chapelizod). The white van turned out of the Stewarts Hospital road and turned to his left towards town and then pulled up on the grass verge just before the Chapelizod slip road!

TomMc

While I'm subject to correction I would be confident that the mobile van units are using radar rather than laser technology. My BEL550 (when I use to be a naughty boy) my reasoning for same. (I'm reformed now, so the PC crowd need not bother). It use to go off when the van was barely in sight and when my car was hidden in traffic which would suggest radar - which is what gatso works on anyway.

As you drive-by very slowly (which feels like driving miss daisy) you can actually see the camera lens (through the clear glass hole in the darkened window) follow in your direction ... like someones eyes in a painting. This seems to be the case even when well below the limit which would suggest to me that you would need to be very close to get tumbled.

Hope you slowed down in time. A nice blue S3 would have caught the eye.

Seth Brundle

According to a garda friend they have a range of about 50 feet

ciarsd

There was another parked up on the grass verge west bound on the N4 just after the Foxhunter last week - totally hidden from view - in the hedging! No sign of any high-vis side markings on the van at all.
Thankfully I was sitting a bit behind an oul dear in a CLK

antodeco

kbannon wrote:

According to a garda friend they have a range of about 50 feet

Is that for the detection or the photo?

Also, if the van uses laser and has to wait for you to get closer before it can take a photo, assuming it uses laser, if you simply changed lanes, would it still be able to "know who you are"?

Seth Brundle

I believe that its for both. You pass the camera at a certain speed and it takes your photo.

Anan1

So jamming on the brakes (assuming of course that it's safe to do so) should work for vans?

C_Breeze

where exactly is this van on the navan road??

Terrontress

They say that when you notice the van, it already knows you are speeding. Has it taken the photo of your numberplate by that stage? What would happen if you pull your car over and park once you see it or else turn your car in the road?

MarkN

That's what has me worried, I don't speed on that road (this is where it changes from 80 to 50 that I am just wondering did I slow it right down in time) and my car had been washed that afternoon (and it's bright bloody blue :rolleyes:) and there was just one car in front of me that went TEARING past so I've no doubt the guard got him but hopefully he was too busy dealing with him to notice me copping him in time, I was doing 50 kms before I went past the van for AGES so fingers crossed.

To answer the question, where is the van.

Away from town I have seen it in the first place you could pull in on the path AFTER you go past the entrance to the Phoenix Park Racecourse apartments and also further up the road just before Esso parked IN THE BUS LANE

Then on the way into town, after Esso, just before there is a works entrance for the new railway station, there's a few construction signs and they hide the van right behind one of those signs making only the most aware driver seeing it in time.

Gwynston

ciarsd wrote:

There was another parked up on the grass verge west bound on the N4 just after the Foxhunter last week - totally hidden from view - in the hedging! No sign of any high-vis side markings on the van at all.

Why do they do this? It's very underhand IMO to 'hide' and pick speeders off unawares. :mad: I know anyone speeding only has themselves to blame, but surely if the van was hi-vis and out in the open, it might actually encourage people to observe the speed limit. Capturing hundreds of people without them knowing isn't going to make that stretch of road any safer is it?

Of course, the cynical POV is that by hiding they can catch a lot more speeders, increase their stats and make more money from fines.... :rolleyes:

Anan1

Gwynston wrote:

Why do they do this? It's very underhand IMO to 'hide' and pick speeders off unawares. :mad: I know anyone speeding only has themselves to blame, but surely if the van was hi-vis and out in the open, it might actually encourage people to observe the speed limit. Capturing hundreds of people without them knowing isn't going to make that stretch of road any safer is it?

Of course, the cynical POV is that by hiding they can catch a lot more speeders, increase their stats and make more money from fines.... :rolleyes:

I think there are two sides to this argument. On the one hand, there's the point you just made. On the other hand, if traps were clearly visible in advance then people could just slow down when they saw one, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't be caught for speeding elsewhere. The same principle as for drink-driving checkpoints, really.

Gwynston

Anan1 wrote:

On the other hand, if traps were clearly visible in advance then people could just slow down when they saw one, safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't be caught for speeding elsewhere. The same principle as for drink-driving checkpoints, really.

Yes, I suppose that can be the case, which is why they keep increasing the number of fixed cameras in the UK. If there are enough visible cameras around, people will obey the speed limit more of the time.

I stand by my point though, that a hidden mobile camera unit like that van is doing absolutely nothing to improve the safety on the stretches of roads where it's catching people.

Anan1

Gwynston wrote:

I stand by my point though, that a hidden mobile camera unit like that van is doing absolutely nothing to improve the safety on the stretches of roads where it's catching people.

Agreed. That said, a ticket in the post will tend to make most people drive more slowly in general.

Gwynston

Funny you should say that!
I had two endorsements on my license in the UK before I moved here. That was 6 points out of a possible 12, and it sure made me obey speed limits! The habit stuck with me for a while after I moved to Galway - there I was driving round stoically at 30mph with bigs lines of traffic behind me...

Until the day that along a stretch of road a transit van got impatient and passed me out by barrelling down a solid-bordered chevron section with cars coming the other way. :eek:

From that day on I decided I was actually less of a hazard to other cars if I just went along at the same speed they all did.... :rolleyes:

Marcus.Aurelius

kbannon wrote:

According to a garda friend they have a range of about 50 feet

New GATSOs are well in excess of 200 metres, according to source in DMR Traffic

Marcus.Aurelius

MarkN wrote:

That's what has me worried, I don't speed on that road (this is where it changes from 80 to 50 that I am just wondering did I slow it right down in time) and my car had been washed that afternoon (and it's bright bloody blue :rolleyes:) and there was just one car in front of me that went TEARING past so I've no doubt the guard got him but hopefully he was too busy dealing with him to notice me copping him in time, I was doing 50 kms before I went past the van for AGES so fingers crossed.

To answer the question, where is the van.

Away from town I have seen it in the first place you could pull in on the path AFTER you go past the entrance to the Phoenix Park Racecourse apartments and also further up the road just before Esso parked IN THE BUS LANE

Then on the way into town, after Esso, just before there is a works entrance for the new railway station, there's a few construction signs and they hide the van right behind one of those signs making only the most aware driver seeing it in time.

Have been inside the van, its unmanned and takes the pictures etc itself, I remember it taking pictures very quickly. you just set the zoom, the angle and set the speed limit, it does the rest by itself. At the end of the day you print the pictures and print the reports. You could still have very well been caught. Sorry

eusap

I think i also got caught doing 60km in the 50km zone on the navan road beside the train station, i was too busy talking to notice the van, but i did notice them on the road a few time this weeks, (Shooting fish in a barrel), On another point i noticed from times they showed the van on news reports etc it seems to clock cars quite close to van so i would also agree with the 50ft range, the camera seems to work the opposite way round to fixed cameras, does anybody know if the camera takes the speed of both lanes or just one lane as i was in the inside lane at the time.