Speed vans - Impressive camouflage

DubInTheWest

I have to say the the speed vans camouflage is outstanding lately. I used to be able to see them in the distance to a certain extent, but the last 2 times I was literally 10 metres away before I saw them and if you were over the limit, you were gone. I was under both time, I think/hope.

I was driving on a stretch of road today from Co Clare to Co Galway, just before the Crusheen exit. And right under a road sign but out of sight to the eye, there was the speed van. I think and hope the speed limit there is 120km, I was doing about 110km per hour.

markpb

They're painted to look reflective but the material isn't actually reflective, unlike the Garda speed vans (and regular vans). With the extended dusk hours, it's a lot harder to see them.

Hurrache

So you were 10 metres away before you saw a big van.

That's some pretty awful driving. Hopefully it'll happen to you a few times and you'll be off the road before long, making them a small bit safer for everyone else.

magicbastarder

i dunno, and i'm sure the OP will confirm, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the OP did not see it *as a speed van* until right on top of it.

DubInTheWest

Hurrache wrote: »

So you were 10 metres away before you saw a big van.

That's some pretty awful driving. Hopefully it'll happen to you a few times and you'll be off the road before long, making them a small bit safer for everyone else.

Stop being a clown. I'm driving over 20 years and not one penalty point.

Yes 10 metres, about 36 feet. Read the thread title about impressive camouflage. They have the vans positioned very well.

You really come across as a foolish person who can't read a thread properly.

GerardKeating

DubInTheWest wrote: »

but the last 2 times I was literally 10 metres away before I saw them and if you were over the limit, you were gone.

Is this not a good thing. There are less of a deterient if those over the limit had time to slow down when they seem them.

DubInTheWest

magicbastarder wrote: »

i dunno, and i'm sure the OP will confirm, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the OP did not see it *as a speed van* until right on top of it.

I didn't see it at all. The slight bend in the road and right under a sign. If anyone knows the stretch I'm talking about they will confirm.

DubInTheWest

GerardKeating wrote: »

Is this not a good thing. There are less of a deterient if those over the limit had time to slow down when they seem them.

I never said whether this was a good or bad thing. The thread was just how well they are camouflage/hiding the vans lately.

As I said, I'm driving over 20 years and not one point, so far. But I just thought there were supposed to be in full view, maybe I'm wrong on that.

Hurrache

DubInTheWest wrote: »

Stop being a clown. I'm driving over 20 years and not one penalty point.

Yes 10 metres, about 36 feet. Read the thread title about impressive camouflage. They have the vans positioned very well.

You really come across as a foolish person who can't read a thread properly.

I'd rather have issues with reading (which I don't), than having obvious issues with reading the road.

You saw both speed vans, knew they were speed vans when you saw them, you weren't speeding. So what's your issue?

endacl

Hurrache wrote: »

I'd rather have issues with reading (which I don't), than having obvious issues with reading the road.

Have a read of your opening post and try realise how stupid your complaint is.

Yeah. That one didn’t work out for you. You might as well stop digging.

Pkiernan

Are there roads in Ireland that have a 120 kmh limit that aren't motorways?

BarryD2

DubInTheWest wrote: »

But I just thought there were supposed to be in full view, maybe I'm wrong on that.

That was the speel/ spin put on it originally, a visual deterrent. But I suppose the way these things work is that figures are needed in order to justify the operation. And if you need to boost your figures then you have to be a bit more proactive?

RederthanRed

Hurrache wrote: »

So you were 10 metres away before you saw a big van.

That's some pretty awful driving. Hopefully it'll happen to you a few times and you'll be off the road before long, making them a small bit safer for everyone else.

WTF?

Gravelly

Pkiernan wrote: »

Are there roads in Ireland that have a 120 kmh limit that aren't motorways?

Yes, the N40 (south ring) in Cork springs to mind.

amcalester

Pkiernan wrote: »

Are there roads in Ireland that have a 120 kmh limit that aren't motorways?

N1 north of Dundalk is 120 kmh.

joeysoap

Pkiernan wrote: »

Are there roads in Ireland that have a 120 kmh limit that aren't motorways?

And there are roads that look and feels like motorways but with lower speeds limits
limerick to around bunratty (that stretch anyway)
The M1 to the airport north bound
and the n7?

magicbastarder

Pkiernan wrote: »

Are there roads in Ireland that have a 120 kmh limit that aren't motorways?

and a small stretch on the N2 just north of finglas, IIRC.

magicbastarder

BarryD2 wrote: »

That was the speel/ spin put on it originally, a visual deterrent. But I suppose the way these things work is that figures are needed in order to justify the operation. And if you need to boost your figures then you have to be a bit more proactive?

nothing to do with figures. speed vans are pretty bloody useless if people have plenty of warning to slow down.

Mefistofelino

Gravelly wrote: »

Yes, the N40 (south ring) in Cork springs to mind.

The only section of the N40 that has a 120 km/h limit is the bit between the Curraheen and Poulavone junctions - after that it becomes the N22 heading West.

The N25 is 120 km/h from Dunkettle to Carrigtohill

TheChizler

Yes. Camoflauge.

DubInTheWest

bualadh bos to TheChizler, he knows how to post a picture on boards lol

BarryD2

magicbastarder wrote: »

nothing to do with figures. speed vans are pretty bloody useless if people have plenty of warning to slow down.

?Really? I distinctly recall when speed vans and signage were first installed that the RSA and Gardai were at pains to say that the objective was primarily to be a visual deterrent.

amcalester

TheChizler wrote: »

Yes. Camoflauge.

Why did you post a picture of an empty road?

magicbastarder

BarryD2 wrote: »

?Really? I distinctly recall when speed vans and signage were first installed that the RSA and Gardai were at pains to say that the objective was primarily to be a visual deterrent.

as i said, pretty bloody useless.
all that means that if you can't see them, it's safe to speed.

McCrack

To be fair - if you are watching out for them they are easy to spot well in advance - day or night

Del2005

magicbastarder wrote: »

nothing to do with figures. speed vans are pretty bloody useless if people have plenty of warning to slow down.

If they are in a dangerous location would it not be safer if they are highly visible and catch zero people, therefore reducing the risk at the location, instead of having people going too fast and catching loads. Wouldn't a speed trap that catches zero offenders be more effective than one that catches loads of people speeding?

Dravokivich

Del2005 wrote: »

If they are in a dangerous location would it not be safer if they are highly visible and catch zero people, therefore reducing the risk at the location, instead of having people going too fast and catching loads. Wouldn't a speed trap that catches zero offenders be more effective than one that catches loads of people speeding?

I think people need to own their actions. It wasnt the camera, whether or not you see it, that had the throttle down in the first place.

laotg

magicbastarder wrote:

and a small stretch on the N2 just north of finglas, IIRC.

Nope. The 120 kmh signs mark the beginning of the motorway M2.

Lumen

McCrack wrote: »

To be fair - if you are watching out for them they are easy to spot well in advance - day or night

There was one on the M50 southbound on the 120kph bit over the weekend that was only visible when you were within a couple of seconds of it.

Not a concern as I was under the speed limit, but there was absolutely no way you'd be able to lose 20kph before getting blipped.

I don't speed these days, but when I was caught about 15 years ago in the UK doing 99mph in a 60mph limit I was got by an officer with a laser tripod from 480m away. You'd need to be superman to spot that.

Isambard

they don't park them so as they are hard to see, in actual fact they find it hard to find locations that fit the criteria where they can park

McCrack

Lumen wrote: »

There was one on the M50 southbound on the 120kph bit over the weekend that was only visible when you were within a couple of seconds of it.

Not a concern as I was under the speed limit, but there was absolutely no way you'd be able to lose 20kph before getting blipped.

I don't speed these days, but when I was caught about 15 years ago in the UK doing 99mph in a 60mph limit I was got by an officer with a laser tripod from 480m away. You'd need to be superman to spot that.

They are not magical apparitions

They are vans with very distinctive and reflective markings parked at the side of the road

If you keep your eye focused along and far down the left side of the road you will spot them well in advance

DubInTheWest

McCrack wrote: »

They are not magical apparitions

They are vans with very distinctive and reflective markings parked at the side of the road

If you keep your eye focused along and far down the left side of the road you will spot them well in advance

You're one of those people that just is awkward. If I told you a colour is black you'd say it's grey. If I said it was dark grey you'd say it was black.

We know what the vans look like but as the poster said, they are well hidden and just appear within seconds. They are strategically very well placed to pull in as much cash as possible.

ridonkulous

Lumen wrote: »

There was one on the M50 southbound on the
120kph bit over the weekend that was only visible when you were within a couple of seconds of it.

Not a concern as I was under the speed limit, but there was absolutely no way you'd be able to lose 20kph before getting blipped.

I don't speed these days, but when I was caught about 15 years ago in the UK doing 99mph in a 60mph limit I was got by an officer with a laser tripod from 480m away. You'd need to be superman to spot that.

A speed van on the motorway? Where exactly? I thought it was illegal for them to be on motorways as it is a parked vehicle. Sounds pretty dangerous to have one on the motorway anyway.

McCrack

DubInTheWest wrote: »

You're one of those people that just is awkward. If I told you a colour is black you'd say it's grey. If I said it was dark grey you'd say it was black.

We know what the vans look like but as the poster said, they are well hidden and just appear within seconds. They are strategically very well placed to pull in as much cash as possible.

They are not well hidden nor are gosafe vans intended to be hidden

There are safety and operational requirements as to where they are positioned and they need a specific line of sight which means they don't park behind trees etc

They are parked on road side and quite conspicuous from a distance to anyone that is observent

turdball

McCrack wrote: »

They are not magical apparitions

They are vans with very distinctive and reflective markings parked at the side of the road

If you keep your eye focused along and far down the left side of the road you will spot them well in advance

Haha, you must think every speed van parks on a straight road or something. The way some of them park you wouldn't see the speed van till there 20 metres away.

HeidiHeidi

turdball wrote: »

Haha, you must think every speed van parks on a straight road or something. The way some of them park you wouldn't see the speed van till there 20 metres away.

When they park on a straight road, they're shooting fish in a barrel. (Yet they still seem to catch plenty cars speeding, if all the howls of protest are to be believed)

When they park on a bend, they're camouflaged and hiding from the poor speeding motorists, and it's not fair.

Seriously?

turdball

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

When they park on a straight road, they're shooting fish in a barrel. (Yet they still seem to catch plenty cars speeding, if all the howls of protest are to be believed)

When they park on a bend, they're camouflaged and hiding from the poor speeding motorists, and it's not fair.

Seriously?

When did I once mention it's not fair? I agree with them parking in areas hard to see. All I'm saying is that people are saying you can see them well in advance but with some of the places there parking now you cant until the last 5 seconds.

DubInTheWest

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

When they park on a straight road, they're shooting fish in a barrel. (Yet they still seem to catch plenty cars speeding, if all the howls of protest are to be believed)

When they park on a bend, they're camouflaged and hiding from the poor speeding motorists, and it's not fair.

Seriously?

I think one of the main issues is, they claim to have the speed vans to prevent accidents, when in fact their modus operandi is to get as much money in as possible and couldn't give 2 hoots about accidents etc...

If they put them in the 'open,' then motorists have no one to blame but themselves if they are speeding and caught, but they have them on certain stretches of motorway where one minute it's 120 and the next is 100kmph and also hidden everywhere they can hide them. Sneaky

FishOnABike

Pkiernan wrote: »

Are there roads in Ireland that have a 120 kmh limit that aren't motorways?

Several stretches of high quality dual carriageway have 120kmh limits.

donspeekinglesh

ridonkulous wrote: »

A speed van on the motorway? Where exactly? I thought it was illegal for them to be on motorways as it is a parked vehicle. Sounds pretty dangerous to have one on the motorway anyway.

They usually park on the sections marked For Garda/service vehicles only. Not uncommon to see the van on the M3 been Dunboyne and Clonee.

Dravokivich

DubInTheWest wrote: »

I think one of the main issues is, they claim to have the speed vans to prevent accidents, when in fact their modus operandi is to get as much money in as possible and couldn't give 2 hoots about accidents etc...

If they put them in the 'open,' then motorists have no one to blame but themselves if they are speeding and caught, but they have them on certain stretches of motorway where one minute it's 120 and the next is 100kmph and also hidden everywhere they can hide them. Sneaky

Gosafe don't make money based on tickets issued. The cost for them operating is the same regardless of any fines.

DubInTheWest

Dravokivich wrote: »

Gosafe don't make money based on tickets issued. The cost for them operating is the same regardless of any fines.

Gosafe never even entered my head, it's the government who will surely benefit.

If they were positioned at accident black-spots I 100% agree with them being there. But I've seen the dirty tactics by the gardai too. People here will surely remember the Belgard road in Tallaght going back some years, it was 60kmph or was it less and it was tedious driving down that road at such slow speeds, but low and behold the gardai would be hiding at the wall trying to catch people going over. The road is now 80kmph I think which is much better and now the gardai are not there as much ?!

rapul

A question as it was stated above, since the vans are independent of the gardai and can catch the gardai speeding aswell from what I've gathered, but my question surely no one but gardai can park in the spots on the dual carriageways or motorways? Sign says gardai only, gardai amhain

Dravokivich

DubInTheWest wrote: »

Gosafe never even entered my head, it's the government who will surely benefit.

If they were positioned at accident black-spots I 100% agree with them being there. But I've seen the dirty tactics by the gardai too. People here will surely remember the Belgard road in Tallaght going back some years, it was 60kmph or was it less and it was tedious driving down that road at such slow speeds, but low and behold the gardai would be hiding at the wall trying to catch people going over. The road is now 80kmph I think which is much better and now the gardai are not there as much ?!

The government spend more on it, than they get back. Gets posted regularly on the motors forum.

So what if the road was 60 in the opposite direction? It wasn't a mistake. Theres plenty of eoads where the speed limit differs by direction. N7 and n4 have stretches of that nearby. I'd expect they brought that up to 80 due to excessive speeding there. But guess what, they still have to post speed vans there. There a lot of accesses on the road, especially with a fire station. It should be lower.

markpb

DubInTheWest wrote: »

People here will surely remember the Belgard road in Tallaght going back some years, it was 60kmph or was it less and it was tedious driving down that road at such slow speeds

You realise that speed limits are there not there for the entertainment of motorists, right? They're there because motorists pose a risk to other people (and, quite often, to themselvers).

DubInTheWest

markpb wrote: »

You realise that speed limits are there not there for the entertainment of motorists, right? They're there because motorists pose a risk to other people (and, quite often, to themselvers).

I take it you never drove down that road then. If you did you'd realize there is no threat to any people even now it's changed to 80kmph up from 60.

It's often the case that dozy slow drivers pose more of a risk on the roads, you don't have to be driving fast to kill.

Dravokivich

DubInTheWest wrote: »

I take it you never drove down that road then. If you did you'd realize there is no threat to any people even now it's changed to 80kmph up from 60.

It's often the case that dozy slow drivers pose more of a risk on the roads, you don't have to be driving fast to kill.

It's an extremely short stretch to be even worth going up to 80. I don't know why you are arguing it, as it was clearly sign posted even when it varied.

Infini

markpb wrote: »

You realise that speed limits are there not there for the entertainment of motorists, right? They're there because motorists pose a risk to other people (and, quite often, to themselvers).

The problem is usually with speed limits is how haphazardly they are applied in some places or at set inconstently (ie single lane road down the country having Higher speed limits than multilane roads in Dublin).

What makes it worse is that the justification behind these speed vans is to slow people down and prevent accidents but theyre nearly always located in places where accidents never occur not near blackspots where they actually might save lives.

This gives the impression that this is nothing more than a gacha operation to catch people out for money not for safety because its applied in a cynical way.

markpb

Infini wrote: »

The problem is usually with speed limits is how haphazardly they are applied in some places or at set inconstently (ie single lane road down the country having Higher speed limits than multilane roads in Dublin).

That's certainly a problem but not one that makes it hard to stick to them.

What makes it worse is that the justification behind these speed vans is to slow people down and prevent accidents but theyre nearly always located in places where accidents never occur not near blackspots where they actually might save lives.

Blackspots are traditionally only places where crashes tend to happen, places with bad corners or limited visibility. They do not take into account places where a motorist might hit another road user without leaving the road. That can happen on a straight road with great visibility.

magicbastarder

Infini wrote: »

The problem is usually with speed limits is how haphazardly they are applied in some places or at set inconstently (ie single lane road down the country having Higher speed limits than multilane roads in Dublin).

i've always assumed that this situation is as a result of someone actually needing to make a decision on a heavily used road in an urban area, but with rural backroads, no-one actually does anything other than apply a default 80km/h limit.
so the process is consistent in how it is applied, but leading to inconsistent 'user experience'.

it also begs the question as to whether if a road is properly assessed for speed limits, would it undergo a full assessment, resulting in boreens being festooned with 'bad bends ahead' and '90 degree bend ahead' signs, when anyone who is generally on it is local anyway so the investment in manpower in the assessment would be wasted?

amcalester

magicbastarder wrote: »

i've always assumed that this situation is as a result of someone actually needing to make a decision on a heavily used road in an urban area, but with rural backroads, no-one actually does anything other than apply a default 80km/h limit.
so the process is consistent in how it is applied, but leading to inconsistent 'user experience'.

it also begs the question as to whether if a road is properly assessed for speed limits, would it undergo a full assessment, resulting in boreens being festooned with 'bad bends ahead' and '90 degree bend ahead' signs, when anyone who is generally on it is local anyway so the investment in manpower in the assessment would be wasted?

Conor Faughnan was on Newstalk or the Last Word last week talking about inconsistent speed limits and pretty much put the blame on local councils as it is they who decide speed limits (with certain exceptions).

He said there was a working group created that suggested measures to allow a peer review/appeals process where road users could appeal a speed limit if they felt it was inappropriate or didn't follow the approved guidelines.

I think he said as well that they recommended that the default limit on boreens which weren't properly assessed would be 50 kmh not 80 kmh.