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

ironclaw

tmcw wrote: »

Besides, are there any laws against flashing your lights or gesturing whilst driving?

I think (And I'm open to correction) it comes under "Obstructing the course of justice" or something like that. I've seen people pulled by the Gardai for doing it, whether it went any further than a telling off, I don't know.

Also your not suppose to "flash" your lights in the normal course of driving or use your horn (Except in an emergency) or gesture (Except the turn signals etc) All of the above would fail you on a driving test, so I'd imagine they are covered under some road legislation.

For the record, this is a GARDA VAN on the M50 (CherryWood Exit)

Map Link: Google

dr.fuzzenstein

tmcw wrote: »

It's a good idea to warn motorists that there's a camera van up ahead, it'll help sharpen them up for any obstacle up ahead (whether van, pedestrians, cyclists, animals, a rock or lump of muck on the road), and prevent any slamming on brakes when they eventually come to the obstacle.

Even if they are safely below the speed limit, it's a good idea to warn them that there may be something ahead that may require corrective action.

Besides, are there any laws against flashing your lights or gesturing whilst driving?

It's one of those "it's against the law, but everyone's doing it anyway" things.
Even in Germany my hide was saved a few times by friendly motorists warning me of speed trap ahead (in my younger and more reckless days)

Mycroft H

tmcw wrote: »

It's a good idea to warn motorists that there's a camera van up ahead, it'll help sharpen them up for any obstacle up ahead (whether van, pedestrians, cyclists, animals, a rock or lump of muck on the road), and prevent any slamming on brakes when they eventually come to the obstacle.

Even if they are safely below the speed limit, it's a good idea to warn them that there may be something ahead that may require corrective action.

Besides, are there any laws against flashing your lights or gesturing whilst driving?

Depends on my mood whether i flash or not. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Depends on what car there driving too :pac:

gman2k

tmcw wrote: »

Besides, are there any laws against flashing your lights or gesturing whilst driving?

A few years back the cops in Maynooth set up a trap to catch the flashers.
All got prosecuted and fined by the local wild west judge in Kilcock.
Excuses such as I was flashing to a friend of mine as a greeting etc were not accepted.
I don't know what legislation was used, I presume it was for some sort of obstruction of a Garda's duty etc...

tmcw

ironclaw wrote: »

I think (And I'm open to correction) it comes under "Obstructing the course of justice" or something like that. I've seen people pulled by the Gardai for doing it, whether it went any further than a telling off, I don't know.

I've seen that cited before, but surely an offense must have been committed before a course of justice is to be persued?

ironclaw

tmcw wrote: »

I've seen that cited before, but surely an offense must have been committed before a course of justice is to be persued?

I'm not a lawyer or in any way versed in law, but I'd imagine it would be something like this:

If you had not flashed, it could be reasonable to assume the driver may or may not have been caught, as they would have been unaware of the trap. By flashing the chances of the driver being caught where drastically reduced. You alerted them to an on going Garda / GoSafe operation. When you flashed your lights, you potentially perverted the course of justice. I suppose it would be like alerting a drug dealer to a Garda presence, your actions drastically reduced the chances of the person being caught.

Like I said, I have no grounding in law, so I'll leave it up to the legal forum

mondeo

Belgard Rd heading away from tallaght just as your going into the rd works there's a nicely blended camera van @13:50, I honestly think I got caught but not 100% sure.... Be careful!

yoshytoshy

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

The signage ont he M50 is fine, There are signs at the junctions, just like on motorways in all other countries. But these are just repeats of the other signs further back.

I thought from your reply I was imagining things the other night ,but just this morning I came across the pure genius on the M50 again.

Heading south and taking the blanchardstown exit ,the main off ramp sign has both directions written one on top of the other.
Then at the actual verge it tells you to get into the left lane if heading for blanchardstown on the right
This wouldn't be so bad if all junctions on the M50 were the same ,but they're not. I know there are other examples ,but the shocks of the bad signage is clearer in my mind.

polyfusion

mondeo wrote: »

Belgard Rd heading away from tallaght just as your going into the rd works there's a nicely blended camera van @13:50, I honestly think I got caught but not 100% sure.... Be careful!

Is that at the gravestone makers place? I've seen a van parked up there a few times this year.

mondeo

polyfusion wrote: »

Is that at the gravestone makers place? I've seen a van parked up there a few times this year.

Just passed the halfords junction. You can see it from the traffic lights however I thought it was a Road works van. I didn't see it flash so I'm probably ok. I was a tad over the limit I admit .

ronan45

Mobile Speed trap allways up at the new road back of ballycoolin Ind estate.
Also saw Guarda manned speed trap outside Panda Waste on the back road to Ballycoolin...
No kids here,.... feck all houses..... Feck all traffice...... never saw an accident on these roads in my life!!!

It BeeMee

ironclaw wrote: »

I think I should just spell it out to stop any mad theories:

Your car approaches the van
The speed is read (Instantaneously) at about 20m or so from the van (Whenever your break the radar beam emitted at about 20 degree's from the van)
If you are over the limit, a picture is immediately taken.

Your car isn't "tracked"
Your speed isn't read and 200m later (Or whatever) your picture taken. The speed is read and picture taken at the same time. Think about the legality of that and you'll see why it makes sense to read and snap at the same time.

If you see one, in good time (i.e. 150-200m away), you will have time to slow down.

I'm sceptical about this, tbh.
A car breaking the limit in a 100km/h zone will be travelling at over 28 metres per second, therefore gets caught within a second before passing the van.

Given that most vans seem to be placed on good open roads with long sight lines, then anyone who gets caught is either very blind unobservant or very stupid to not slow down.

mooman wrote: »

Nope I was doing an indicated 110, like I said I was in a group of cars just pottering nicely along, I didn't give the van a second thought until I got the letter.

Caught for 109with an indicated 110?
This post debunks the "your speedo is out by 10%" myth and should be made a sticky...

mooman

It BeeMee wrote: »

Caught for 109with an indicated 110?
This post debunks the "your speedo is out by 10%" myth and should be made a sticky...

Thats a rough 110, i dont drive with my eyes stuck on the speedo, I have more important things to be watching while I'm driving, but definitely not far off it wouldn't have been close to 120 anyway.

ironclaw

It BeeMee wrote: »

I'm sceptical about this, tbh.
A car breaking the limit in a 100km/h zone will be travelling at over 28 metres per second, therefore gets caught within a second before passing the van.

Given that most vans seem to be placed on good open roads with long sight lines, then anyone who gets caught is either very blind unobservant or very stupid to not slow down.

Its getting really tiring to come on here and have to explain this.

The radar can read your speed 195 times PER SECOND. So you would probably have to be doing in excess of 700km/h, which is a good way towards the speed of sound to beat it. Even at 200km/h you'd still be caught.

The reading and the picture are taken at the same time. The camera in these vans are serious pieces of kit. Capable of extremely quick, automatic compensation due to headlights etc. These are not cheap and cheerful, its serious gear.

This post has a video from RedFlex themselves: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=72942199&postcount=1834

But you are quite right, if its a long straight road, you should see them. The problem is, every time I've come across one, its been hidden to some degree. i.e. Around a corner, off the road in a gateway. This is obvious:



But its a Garda van at the same time which I generally find are far more visible.

channelsurfer2

ronan45 wrote: »

Mobile Speed trap allways up at the new road back of ballycoolin Ind estate.
Also saw Guarda manned speed trap outside Panda Waste on the back road to Ballycoolin...
No kids here,.... feck all houses..... Feck all traffice...... never saw an accident on these roads in my life!!!

the funny thing is last week I was just at the roundabout at the end of the ballycoolin road heading towards coca cola bottlers doing about 55 to 60kph..(50kph limit all the way) and a garda car lost patience with me and flew past doing around 80 to 90kph... no sirens they just couldnt wait to pass me...

channelsurfer2

mooman wrote: »

Thats a rough 110, i dont drive with my eyes stuck on the speedo, I have more important things to be watching while I'm driving, but definitely not far off it wouldn't have been close to 120 anyway.

depends on the speedo.. the digital speedos are accurate enough while the old analogue ones are slightly off by a few kms according to previous posts of people in the know..

Melmar

There was one on the N4 this morning, just on the bridge. Not really hidden, but I hope catching the morning speeders.

It BeeMee

ironclaw wrote: »

Its getting really tiring to come on here and have to explain this.

The radar can read your speed 195 times PER SECOND. So you would probably have to be doing in excess of 700km/h, which is a good way towards the speed of sound to beat it. Even at 200km/h you'd still be caught.

The reading and the picture are taken at the same time. The camera in these vans are serious pieces of kit. Capable of extremely quick, automatic compensation due to headlights etc. These are not cheap and cheerful, its serious gear.

This post has a video from RedFlex themselves: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=72942199&postcount=1834

But you are quite right, if its a long straight road, you should see them. The problem is, every time I've come across one, its been hidden to some degree. i.e. Around a corner, off the road in a gateway. This is obvious:



But its a Garda van at the same time which I generally find are far more visible.

I'm not doubting your knowledge in this area. It's not about the capabilities of the kit, I'm sceptical about the 20 metres distance. It seems very short range for such high tech equipment in this day and age.

Grimreaper666

i've seen a white unmarked Transit camera van parked around the place at a few locations lately, just wondering what the story is with it, is it a regular camera van or just monitoring traffic? I thought all "safety vans" were high viability?

Fey!

I saw one on Tuesday at 13:55 near the Leixlip exit on the M4. It was a white Renault Traffic with a red stripe; I think it was a camera van, but it may just have been someone stopped.

Regardless, it shouldn't have been parked on the hard shoulder where it was.

murphhy

It was more than likely a garda speed van from there speed detection unit, not a gosafe van

pa990

It BeeMee wrote: »

I'm not doubting your knowledge in this area. It's not about the capabilities of the kit, I'm sceptical about the 20 metres distance. It seems very short range for such high tech equipment in this day and age.

The short distance is required, as the photo has to be taken at the same time ad the speed reading.

Any longer distance would result in other vehicles etc being in the wayof the camera.
You must remember that these systems can record numerous speeding offences in very quick succession.

savagecabbages

I think the Garda ones are either fully as Garda vehicles or fully unmarked, the red stripe might make it a traffic monitoring vehicle of sorts, or just someones van pulled up...

The gosafe vans aren't all high visibility either though, contrary to popular belief:rolleyes: A certain percentage don't have all the reflective stickers.

Kojak

savagecabbages wrote: »

The gosafe vans aren't all high visibility either though, contrary to popular belief:rolleyes: A certain percentage don't have all the reflective stickers.

In reality I'd say they don't want to be highly visible as it would mean that they could loose out on potential victims (or numbers, whatever they want to call them). I notice they only park at the entry points to the "camera area" hoping to catch people out in order to validate their existance. :mad:

savagecabbages

Well the contract put out only asked for x% (IIRC something like 80%??) to be marked up, with the rest unmarked.

Surely by only parking at the entry points to Camera zones thats fairer as each zone is marked by a big 'camera zone' sign?? Would you prefer them to park ANYWHERE along the sometimes several km long zones? I wouldn't!

cyclopath2001

ironclaw wrote: »

The problem is, every time I've come across one, its been hidden to some degree. i.e. Around a corner, off the road in a gateway. This is obvious:

You mean, parked in a safe location on bend where people might go too fast?

-Corkie-

murphhy wrote: »

It was more than likely a garda speed van from there speed detection unit, not a gosafe van

Yes that is a Garda van and they do not have markings. The go safe fleet dont have Transits AFAIK.

Vicxas

Yeah noticed these aswell, they're the Garda traffic ones i think, the gosafe ones are usually them Renault ones.

RandomAccess

Yep, I saw a Navy Ford Transit in Donegal with the same camera setup as the gosafe ones. I had heard the Gardai had got some but had not seen any myself until then. I expect the transits would be used for more focused policing wheras the goSafe vans are a bit more random.

Grimreaper666

And do they catch you going both ways if you're over the limit or just as you a approach the rear of the van? I noticed there's a camera at the front of it as well.