Speed camera mega-thread ***Read first post before posting***

ART6

Days 298 wrote: »

Guys, coming home today I left a National Road and when I got up the ramp, there were cameras everywhere. They were positioned like flood lights pointing down everywhere. All around the roundabout and pointing down the ramp and all other exits had multiple cameras directed at them. I literally had a camera pointed at me all the time and the next roundabout I meet when I went over the bridge over the N road to the next roundabout. Same story again. There was a van marked Data Collection something parked up near by.

Anybody know what they were doing? I presume they cant give out points.

Big Brother is watching you!

Days 298

ART6 wrote: »

Big Brother is watching you!

Thats what it felt like.:P

ironclaw

Days 298 wrote: »

Any idea what they can or will do with it?

Anything they want except issue a speed fine. Its merely data collection. Road usage and patterns. Its fairly common.

Iwannahurl

ART6 wrote: »

Big Brother is watching you!

Days 298 wrote: »

Thats what it felt like.:P

Nah, it was Big Brother's little brother. All show...

eringobragh

Down the east wall road again this evening in a different spot:

Truck pulling out



Tucked in by the wall

Iwannahurl

Report in the Irish Times business supplement, 17th January.

Speed camera group goes unlimited to maintain financial secrecy.

The company behind the GoSafe consortium has changed its ownership structure so that it is ultimately controlled by an "entity" in the Isle of Man. This has the effect of giving it a form of Limited liability in Ireland, even though it has Unlimited status here already. As a result it will no longer have to file detailed accounts. Other firms with large Government contracts have done the same, such as those providing accommodation for asylum seekers.

Fianna Fail's spokesperson on Justice, Niall Collins TD, said that companies who secure Government contracts should remain limited companies and file annual accounts in order to provide transparency to the public. He's right.

eringobragh

down near the point this evening - garda one as opposed to a gosafe

ironclaw

eringobragh wrote: »

down near the point this evening - garda one as opposed to a gosafe

I think we can all agree that road is an extremely dangerous, fast, twisty and brutal piece of roadway that should be policed to the hilt :rolleyes:

blackwhite

ironclaw wrote: »

I think we can all agree that road is an extremely dangerous, fast, twisty and brutal piece of roadway that should be policed to the hilt :rolleyes:

Not to mind the high pedestrian volumes coming from all the deserted warehouses and abandoned construction sites.

channelsurfer2

yes definetly with all those trucks speeding down it...oh wait didnt they ban them from using that road!

ironclaw

blackwhite wrote: »

Not to mind the high pedestrian volumes coming from all the deserted warehouses and abandoned construction sites.

To be fair, I don't really mind them enforcing the 30km/h from Westmoreland St to the Dublin Corp. offices, as it has a huge volume of pedestrian and cyclist traffic, especially in the Templebar Area. However, south of the Samuel Beckett on the northside between there and the O2, seriously lads. Granted you have a few apartments and the Conference centre, but they are at the lights there, and I doubt you could get up much speed given those lights and the general flow of traffic.

Absolute nonsense and a waste of time and resources.

runawaybishop

ironclaw wrote: »

Absolute nonsense and a waste of time and resources.

Them being seen to police in random areas isn't a waste of time imo.

Cantona's Collars

GoSafe van is becoming an almost permanent fixture outside the VEC in Enniscorthy at this stage,it's like shooting fish in a barrel as the limit drops from 60kph to 50kph just down the hill from where it's parked.It smacks of a revenue gathering exercise rather than actual road safety due to it's location.

ironclaw

runawaybishop wrote: »

Them being seen to police in random areas isn't a waste of time imo.

Its the equivalent of putting a huge number of resources in what is statistically a safe area and at the same time removing resources from what is statistically an area with high crime rates. Its a pointless exercise. To add, the probability of catching someone doing say 55km/h in a 50km/h section, is a lot higher than perhaps catching someone doing 100km/h on an 80km/h backroad. Which is the greater evil? Well, a 100km/h crash is going to be some mess compared to a 55km/h fender bender.

So it looks fantastic on the PR i.e. 'we caught 1000 drivers this week' forgetting to add that it was on a road that has low pedestrian volume, few accidents and is arrow straight. While the M50, less than 15 mins away, is a disaster with people unable to maintain lane discipline and generally driving like fools. Not to mention the host of other disasters in Irish motoring. If this van was doing No Tax, No Insurance operations as well, I'd actually be ok with it. But its not, its sitting a 50km/h zone just hoovering up the revenue.

To boot, people do realise how much the systems in these vans cost right? Would easily pay for a few more Traffic Corp hours per year, many times over.

runawaybishop

ironclaw wrote: »

Its the equivalent of putting a huge number of resources in what is statistically a safe area and at the same time removing resources from what is statistically an area with high crime rates. Its a pointless exercise. To add, the probability of catching someone doing say 55km/h in a 50km/h section, is a lot higher than perhaps catching someone doing 100km/h on an 80km/h backroad. Which is the greater evil? Well, a 100km/h crash is going to be some mess compared to a 55km/h fender bender.

I disagree. The main point of these types of checkpoints isn't to catch people, its to show visibility of garda checkpoints. There are not "huge number of resources in what is statistically a safe area" - most checkpoints are in areas that legitimately require checkpoints. A small number are put in visible places or places that have no seen a checkpoint in some time to show people that cannot predict where checkpoints will be.

ironclaw

runawaybishop wrote: »

I disagree. The main point of these types of checkpoints isn't to catch people, its to show visibility of garda checkpoints. There are not "huge number of resources in what is statistically a safe area" - most checkpoints are in areas that legitimately require checkpoints. A small number are put in visible places or places that have no seen a checkpoint in some time to show people that cannot predict where checkpoints will be.

Are you from Dublin? And do you know where this road is?

Its here: http://goo.gl/maps/B0UOQ And as is fairly obvious, even though its an older image, is that its an industrial area with limited pedestrian traffic. In contrast to this stretch (Another van hotspot): http://goo.gl/maps/oOBOK which has massive amounts of cyclist and pedestrian traffic, where this form of monitoring might actually do some good. And at the time of evening that photo was taken, would have been ideal. I'd have zero issue with it. But nope, other end of the quays doing absolutely no good whats so ever.

And why are you using the word checkpoint? Its an officer, in a van, doing a speed check. Nothing more. A static camera would do the same job. I'd have absolutely no issue if it was a pair of Traffic Corp officers stopping traffic, doing tax and insurance and generally keeping an eye. But its not. Its an entirely automated speed check.

runawaybishop

ironclaw wrote: »

Are you from Dublin? And do you know where this road is?

Its here: http://goo.gl/maps/B0UOQ And as is fairly obvious, even though its an older image, is that its an industrial area with limited pedestrian traffic. In contrast to this stretch (Another van hotspot): http://goo.gl/maps/oOBOK which has massive amounts of cyclist and pedestrian traffic, where this form of monitoring might actually do some good. And at the time of evening that photo was taken, would have been ideal. I'd have zero issue with it. But nope, other end of the quays doing absolutely no good whats so ever.

And why are you using the word checkpoint? Its an officer, in a van, doing a speed check. Nothing more. A static camera would do the same job. I'd have absolutely no issue if it was a pair of Traffic Corp officers stopping traffic, doing tax and insurance and generally keeping an eye. But its not. Its an entirely automated speed check.

You are missing the point. Its not about catching people, its about visibility.

dr.fuzzenstein

runawaybishop wrote: »

I disagree. The main point of these types of checkpoints isn't to catch people, its to show visibility of garda checkpoints. There are not "huge number of resources in what is statistically a safe area" - most checkpoints are in areas that legitimately require checkpoints. A small number are put in visible places or places that have no seen a checkpoint in some time to show people that cannot predict where checkpoints will be.

The Go Safe vans to me signal the fact that they check in a handful of locations that are well known to me, so I will slow down if I see a van and put the foot down once I passed it. Anywhere else the top speed is either how fast are you willing to go or what is the top speed of your vehicle.
On my way from Ennis to Limerick I know I can safely do 140 km/h+ pretty much all the way, I just have to watch out just before the Caherdavin exit, where the Flash4Cash inevitably sits.
I have been commuting this way into Limerick since the introduction of the speedvans quite safely and without picking up a single point.
Before the vans, the Gards would check for speed on the motorway, they where hard to predict and sometimes impossible to spot, since they would sit on the on-ramp, by the time you saw them, it was too late.

amadain

On my way to Cork later........any to watch out for on the way from Tralee ? Ta.

blackwhite

ironclaw wrote: »

To be fair, I don't really mind them enforcing the 30km/h from Westmoreland St to the Dublin Corp. offices, as it has a huge volume of pedestrian and cyclist traffic, especially in the Templebar Area. However, south of the Samuel Beckett on the northside between there and the O2, seriously lads. Granted you have a few apartments and the Conference centre, but they are at the lights there, and I doubt you could get up much speed given those lights and the general flow of traffic.

Absolute nonsense and a waste of time and resources.

Exactly my point. There's hundreds of spots around the city that would make an awful lot more sense than down there.

I used to work on North Wall Quay and it wasn't unusual to see them there in the evenings after 7pm (when the tunnel becomes cheap).

ironclaw

Not really sure what benefit this has at 8pm on a Tuesday evening at the end of an arrow straight 80km/h road about 400m from a set of lights. Was watching for a few minutes and everyone was just hitting the brakes, then business as usual once they got past.

http://goo.gl/maps/AyLZh

jack presley

ironclaw wrote: »

Not really sure what benefit this has at 8pm on a Tuesday evening at the end of an arrow straight 80km/h road about 400m from a set of lights. Was watching for a few minutes and everyone was just hitting the brakes, then business as usual once they got past.

http://goo.gl/maps/AyLZh

Isn't the limit down to 60 at that point though? Easy money!

ironclaw

jack presley wrote: »

Isn't the limit down to 60 at that point though? Easy money!

Yeah, it drops just after the overpass, about 200m before this. Crazy carry on.

Iwannahurl

ironclaw wrote: »

Not really sure what benefit this has at 8pm on a Tuesday evening at the end of an arrow straight 80km/h road about 400m from a set of lights. Was watching for a few minutes and everyone was just hitting the brakes, then business as usual once they got past.

Fast divers = slow learners, maybe? Perhaps the only way to put an end to "business as usual" is to keep applying penalty points until they see sense. It'll take time of course. In fact, it's a never-ending process.

ART6

I was under the impression that the camera vans were to be placed in areas where there was an accident record, yet here in Waterford we have two roads where, to the best of my knowledge, there have never been any accidents. One van placing lately is on the Dunmore Road near the Brasscock pub, at the bottom of a hill on a bend. The other is on the Grants town road, again at the bottom of a hill where the van can't be seen until it's too late. The latter road was completely realigned and rebuilt following new housing estates a few years ago, is entirely residential but wide with good eye lines, and both roads carry little traffic outside of rush hours.

Both of those roads do, of course, provide a good hunting opportunity because of the hills -- most drivers that I have seen keep pretty close to the limits, but the unwary allowing their vehicle to slip a bit above it on the hills are fair game. The moral of the story seems to be that one should drive with both eyes fixed firmly on the speedometer and ignore whatever is going on nearby, thus avoiding fines but being prepared to pay for suspension repairs caused by potholes, and insurance claims due to lack of attention to other traffic.

dr.fuzzenstein

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

dr.fuzzenstein

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Queue Iwannahurl, drumroll please...

ironclaw

OSI wrote: »

Plenty of accidents on the Dunmore Road according to the RSA map:



And that's only from 2005-2011. Seems like an ideal candidate for a speed van in my book.

Unfortunately they don't set up anywhere near those points. There is also a lot of lights, roundabouts and a good deal of traffic in that area. Low speed impacts. Fatalities? None that I can see. All 'minor' according to the RSA map. They camp far further out the road towards Dunmore, wheres its open and fast (And by the RSA's own data, has significantly less accidents)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=71865014&postcount=1560

blackwhite

OSI wrote: »

Fatality near that crossroads in 2011.

Neither that, not the other map shown, are where the camera normally sits on the Dunmore Rd.

https://www.google.ie/maps/@52.237777,-7.062579,3a,75y,130.14h,68.22t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sXFs8_jfVaLxJS2S1wry-3A!2e0

It normally sits between Becketts and Woodlands where, according to the RSA, there has been one accident (which the RSA classed as a minor collision) between 2005 & 2011.
Heading towards the city there is a roundabout at roughly 0.5km, and no accidents on this stretch at all. Heading towards Dunmore, there've been two accidents at the Passage cross roads, about 1km along the road, again both minor incidents (according to RSA).

Good to see them targetting accident blackspots as always :rolleyes: