Speed cameras in Ireland - a guide

shar01 · 12-08-2012 3:25pm

Rich11 wrote: »

well the survey van does look like the unmarked garda speed van, so they are just being sure

I've wondered sometimes is it a touch of paranoia? There's so little "official" information about the cameras and the tolerances that drivers will drop down to 80 rather than continue at their legal 95/100.

Anyway, it's another spot to watch out for....

Chris_Heilong · 12-08-2012 4:50pm

shar01 wrote: »

Last week a Go-safe survey van was parked on the N11 going northbound, just before off-slip to Glenview.

It's a 100 km/hr stretch but from the reaction of drivers to the survey van - sudden breaking despite being under the limit - I wonder will a speed detector van be more of the hinderance than a help?

I remember seeing one of those UK traffic police programs on tv, they had a speed camera van marked on a motorway and wanted to show how people reacted to it, I cant remember clearly but I think 1 or 2 accidents were caused from people jumping on the brakes, sometimes they can do more harm than good.

Speed vans should only be put in Dangerous at risk locations and not dotted all over the country. No government can totally control what speeds people drive at and never will, but this has been discussed here many times already.

Reg'stoy · 12-08-2012 6:27pm

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I remember seeing one of those UK traffic police programs on tv, they had a speed camera van marked on a motorway and wanted to show how people reacted to it, I cant remember clearly but I think 1 or 2 accidents were caused from people jumping on the brakes, sometimes they can do more harm than good.

Speed vans should only be put in Dangerous at risk locations and not dotted all over the country. No government can totally control what speeds people drive at and never will, but this has been discussed here many times already.

Do you not see the irony in what you have said above, if you really want what you speak of avoided, then make them completely unmarked. By this I mean you could disguise them as other countries have done, but then some people would play the old shooting fish in a barrel card.

The idea of placing them at the most dangerous places while is great in theory is impractable in operation. The person who is likely to speed in these 'black spots' is also as likely if not more so, to speed at other locations than a 'safer' driver. With all the information available about these locations, there is no valid reason to being annoyed about been caught.

The lazy arguement of shooting fish in a barrel, is often put forward by those who feel agrieved that the have to temper their driving. As I have said before, just because you disagree with a law or speed limit doesn't give a carte blanche to breaking it.

Our man in Havana · 12-08-2012 6:30pm

We are not going to have another circular argument about speed.

opti0nal · 12-08-2012 9:40pm

Drove through Clontarf, along the sea front, this evening, it's a 50kph zone as far as Mount Prospect. But this speed limit is widely ignored and drivers will undertake in the bus lane to get past anyone who is driving at 50.

My Garmin showed the limit in that area as 60kph but it simultaneously displayed safety camera warnings labelled '50kph'.

Could this error in the Gamin GPS explain the speeding on that road?

colm_mcm · 12-08-2012 10:14pm

opti0nal wrote: »

Could this error in the Gamin GPS explain the speeding on that road?

You'd have to take a guess at the percentage of people who would need to use a gps on that road, then guess what percentage of them use garmin, then what percentage of that percentage ignore the signs on the roadside and choose to believe the satnav.

My guess is that you're left with a minuscule percentage that exceed the limit because of a Garmin error.

The Royal Scam · 12-08-2012 10:24pm

whowantstwoknow wrote: »

Sorry forgot to mention the biker cop had the gun out and was pointing north on the N7...

I've seen this biker on a few occasions on this slip and seen him taking off on one occasion , he is checking cars heading north.
To be honest the only time I have seen Traffic cars checking speed with the gun recently has been on on ramp on the motorways. It ensures nobody heading the opposite direction can flash anyone to pre-warn them. In fairness there is some clowns using our motorway networks and are alway about 20 to 30k /h or more over the limit and it's always execs in big exec saloons.

Tommy Dillon · 13-08-2012 12:50am

hi just a quick question. the unmarked white speed vans.... do they flash if they get you or are you in the clear if you dont see the flash? sorry if it was asked already.

Our man in Havana · 13-08-2012 12:52am

They use an Infra Red flash which is invisible.

Tommy Dillon · 13-08-2012 12:58am

how long does it take for the ticket to come out in the post or how does it work?

goz83 · 13-08-2012 1:18am

Tommy Dillon wrote: »

how long does it take for the ticket to come out in the post or how does it work?

Don't worry Tommy. You'll get your ticket soon enough. Can be a few days, or a few weeks, but you'll get that ticket.

Rich11 · 13-08-2012 2:16am

shar01 wrote: »

I've wondered sometimes is it a touch of paranoia? There's so little "official" information about the cameras and the tolerances that drivers will drop down to 80 rather than continue at their legal 95/100.

Anyway, it's another spot to watch out for....

its paranoia, iv been in a car with someone else driving and iv also done this myself, i see a white van parked on the side of a road, facing the opposite way, and il slow down under the speed limit and its just a van:o

Padkir · 14-08-2012 4:48pm

Might seem like a stupid question, but are you definitely going to be done for speeding if you're flashed by the van as you go by? Or is it after that they look and see if it's only a few kph over the limit and if it is they don't bother?

Was driving in from Crumlin side around Cork Street yesterday evening late on and saw a flash from a white van as I went past. To be honest I think even taking into account the speedo registering higher than the actual speed, I was still over the limit, think I was registering 60kph+... Most annoying thing was I wasn't even meant to be on that road, turned up it by accident and then decided to keep going instead of turning around...:(

Think it was a Garda van as it had no markings on it, although it was in a location very close to where it says the GoSafe vans can be. I know the GoSafe ones get the points and fine out quickly (within 2 weeks I'm told), but does anyone have any recent experience of how long a Garda fine will take?

And will 2 points have any effect on my insurance? I'm a 22yo man and insurance up for renewal soon...:(

AntFitz · 15-08-2012 3:12pm

Was driving up Phillipsburg Ave late in the evening. It was dark. Stopped at traffic lights waiting to turn right on to Griffith Ave. A garda car was also stopped at the lights in front of me. While waiting I spotted a White Van parked up ahead on Griffith Ave beside the school in their usual spot. They seem to be there a lot these days. Not sure what type of van it was.

Anyway when the lights turned green the garda car took off at a fast pace but I set off at a slow pace. I was a bit unsure if the speed limit was 30kph or 50kph, so to be on the safe side I hovered around 30kph. Was constantly checking the speedo.

Then from a distance the van flashed. I initially thought they must be automatically flashing the Garda car, however when I got very close to the van it flashed again, almost blinding me. I was like, WFT, that can't be for me. Jesus! I also thought it was a dangerous thing to be flashing drivers at close distance! I thought these things used inferred. Anyway it got me worried. So when I got home I checked the speed limits for Marino using the DCC website. It has a nice PDF showing all the speed limits for the city, and sure enough the limit was 50kph on Griffith Ave, and 30kph around the inner park circles. I was well under the 50kph limit.

So I forgot about it until a few weeks later received a letter in the post with a picture of my number plate on it! I was so pissed off!

Anyhow, I rang the customer number on the summons, got through to a nice lady, she just said I had to write in to the Superintendent and gave me the address, which I did.

A few days later I got a letter to say it was cleared.

Just goes to show that if you are unsure then its best to question it. I wonder what went wrong here. Either they picked up the Gardar car's speed and took a photo of my car instead, or else it was not calibrated correctly.

So mistakes do happen and will be corrected efficiently if they turn out to be false positives.

kellyj77 · 21-10-2012 6:26pm

Hi Quick query,

Was going along the malahide road today just past donnycarney church coming up to mount temple school, its a 50kmph zone. There is a slight decline on the road there and i noticed myself speeding up, i looked at the speedometer and i was going somewhere between 50 and 55 so immediately slowed down (i always look to drive a few kmh below limits), also when i looked up i was driving past a garda who was holding a hand held speed camera.

Three questions: I have heard that unless the handheld unit is the type based on a tripod it cant take a picture of you and the only way you would be prosecuted would be if you they stopped you, is this true?

secondly i have heard that even though my speedometer read somewhere between 50 and 55 the true speed may be less than this is this true?

thirdly how far away do they measure your speed as i was definitely speeding up to the speed i mentioned so may have been below this when they took their reading?

pa990 · 21-10-2012 6:32pm

kellyj77 wrote: »

Hi Quick query,

Was going along the malahide road today just past donnycarney church coming up to mount temple school, its a 50kmph zone. There is a slight decline on the road there and i noticed myself speeding up, i looked at the speedometer and i was going somewhere between 50 and 55 so immediately slowed down (i always look to drive a few kmh below limits), also when i looked up i was driving past a garda who was holding a hand held speed camera.

Three questions: I have heard that unless the handheld unit is the type based on a tripod it cant take a picture of you and the only way you would be prosecuted would be if you they stopped you, is this true?

secondly i have heard that even though my speedometer read somewhere between 50 and 55 the true speed may be less than this is this true?

thirdly how far away do they measure your speed as i was definitely speeding up to the speed i mentioned so may have been below this when they took their reading?

Correct

Correct

10m to 600m

kellyj77 · 21-10-2012 6:54pm

pa990 wrote: »

Correct

Correct

10m to 600m

cheers thanks very much. Ontop of the difference between what the speedometer states and the true speed do the guards allow minor deviations eg say i was indeed travelling at 55 per my speedometer however my true speed was 51 or 52 kmph would the guards clock me at this or is the a margin of error which they allow for?

pa990 · 21-10-2012 7:15pm

The speed gun will give an accurate reading, the garda will usually allow a bit over.
But It all depends on the garda.

Long and short of it. Don't worry

kellyj77 · 21-10-2012 10:30pm

is it 100% fact that the hand held units can only monitor your speed and cant take your details?? if so what is the point in having them??

AltAccount · 21-10-2012 10:32pm

It allows the Garda to decide whether to pull you over for speeding....

kellyj77 · 21-10-2012 10:37pm

i could understand their use if that was the case in the country however a busy dublin road, would some people be able to go fast enough to justify them following you?

AltAccount · 21-10-2012 10:39pm

Yes, of course they can. You might need a long straight road to hit 200+Kmph in your Focus, but if you're doing 100Kmph on a dark residential road (entirely do-able) then they'll pull you with extreme prejudice.

kellyj77 · 21-10-2012 10:49pm

if their machines cant record your data why cant they take down the reg of anyone going over the limit and follow up later?

AltAccount · 21-10-2012 10:51pm

I'm sure they can, but if you were a Garda at the side of the road and someone came past you at a speed that was appropriately high to be worthy of punishment, wouldn't you want to stop them from continuing at that speed?

kellyj77 · 21-10-2012 11:12pm

yea i suppose. i hope you're right. sure i will find out soon enough although i feel it would be very unlucky

traveller12 · 23-10-2012 8:28pm

ironclaw,or anyone who might know, if snapped by a garda in unmarked car and you get fine in post 2 weeks later showing picture of car reg, does he take a full pic to show driver so someone else could take the 2 penalty points

ironclaw · 23-10-2012 10:22pm

traveller12 wrote: »

ironclaw,or anyone who might know, if snapped by a garda in unmarked car and you get fine in post 2 weeks later showing picture of car reg, does he take a full pic to show driver so someone else could take the 2 penalty points

Unmarked cars don't issue speeding fines by photo. Vans do.

Have you got a letter yet? Because if it was a car, your ok straight away.

They send you a photo of the plate, and you can request one of the whole car.

To my knowledge, you sign the ticket / order with whoever wants to take the points. It's to allow for eg your wife driving a car in your name etc

younge · 25-10-2012 6:00pm

Sorry, this has probably been answered but I can't find it;

I was driving towards the front of one earlier over the speed limit and slowed down just before I was in line with the van approaching the rear of the van, can they 'catch you' from the front or is it all geared towards the rear?

Thanks

Our man in Havana · 25-10-2012 6:04pm

They only catch you approaching them from the rear. I.e. they photo the front of your car.

pa990 · 25-10-2012 6:31pm

Our man in Havana wrote: »

They only catch you approaching them from the rear. I.e. they photo the front of your car.

and they can take a photo from the rear of the van.. of the rear of traffic that has just passed it

Our man in Havana · 25-10-2012 6:37pm

Not heard of that happening. Not that a give a hoot either ways.

pa990 · 25-10-2012 6:44pm

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Not heard of that happening. Not that a give a hoot either ways.

ask mooman
he posted a pic of the rear of his car caught by camera on the N22.

The OLD gatso vans could register speed approaching and receding.. but not at the same time. it had to be set to one or the other.

The New garda speed vans and the gosafe vans can do multiple lanes in multiple directions all at once

ToonyLoon · 27-10-2012 3:11pm

Hi! Hoping some of you can give me some reliable information. Last night I drove through a small village with a 50km speed limit. I was doing about 55 - 40 km and there was a Garda car along the side of the road . I think it was a traffic corps one as it was a jeep. There was no Garda out of the car and I couldn't see any speed gun but it was dark. Can gardai do speed checks from inside their cars and could I have been done? I wasn't stopped so I don't know.
Thanks in advance for any reliable info.

Our man in Havana · 27-10-2012 4:30pm

Relax!

Sobanek · 27-10-2012 8:00pm

Are the GoSafe Vans always taking pictures, or not? It's been 10 days, I was going 90kph past a GS Van on an 80kph zone, and I still didn't get a ticket. I'm puzzled.

flyguy · 27-10-2012 9:12pm

Was that 90kph on your speedo? Depending on how accurate that is (probably not very) you might be lucky. As you can read a couple of pages back a ticket would be issued from 85kph and up.
So if your speedo read 90kph but your real speed was 84kph or less you wont get a ticket.

@toonyLoon: You were doing 40-55kph in a 50 really? and you passed a random garda car? I think you can relax, unlikely it was a speed check and like above you would only get a ticket if your speed was upwards of 54kph (again actual speed, not what your speedo says).

Sobanek · 27-10-2012 9:15pm

flyguy wrote: »

Was that 90kph on your speedo? Depending on how accurate that is (probably not very) you might be lucky. As you can read a couple of pages back a ticket would be issue from 85kph and up.
So if your speedo read 90kph but your real speed was 84kph or less you wont get a ticket.

Yeah, 90kph on my speedo. Let's hope that it was 84!

ironclaw · 28-10-2012 9:38pm

Sobanek wrote: »

Yeah, 90kph on my speedo. Let's hope that it was 84!

Probably closer to 81km/h I'd say. My car is only doing 120km/h at 128km/h by speedo.

ToonyLoon wrote: »

Hi! Hoping some of you can give me some reliable information. Last night I drove through a small village with a 50km speed limit. I was doing about 55 - 40 km and there was a Garda car along the side of the road . I think it was a traffic corps one as it was a jeep. There was no Garda out of the car and I couldn't see any speed gun but it was dark. Can gardai do speed checks from inside their cars and could I have been done? I wasn't stopped so I don't know.
Thanks in advance for any reliable info.

Garda will in 99.9% of cases stop you if your speeding. End of.

Our man in Havana · 28-10-2012 10:43pm

It is amazing how paranoid people are.

Supergurrier · 28-10-2012 10:45pm

What WHt ??? The voices are all around me and the Go Safe flashes, im not gonna make it home without them catching me ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

(i made it home)

antodeco · 01-11-2012 9:42am

ironclaw wrote: »

Probably closer to 81km/h I'd say. My car is only doing 120km/h at 128km/h by speedo.

I ran a few tests on my speedo versus my actual speed. This was over a few weeks, in different areas. I always noticed when going the speed limit, I was passing by all the other cars. Found out the reason! When my speedo says Im travelling at 60kmh Im actually doing 72kmh. When its says 100kmh, Im actually doing roughly 115kmh. When It says 120kmh, Im actually travelling at 146kmh!

Safe to say, I now travel slower than what my speedo says

joujoujou · 01-11-2012 10:45am

Do you have oversized wheels/tyres or faulty speedo?

AFAIK no regulation allows speedo to show less than real speed is. :]

antodeco · 01-11-2012 1:35pm

joujoujou wrote: »

Do you have oversized wheels/tyres or faulty speedo?

AFAIK no regulation allows speedo to show less than real speed is. :]

Faulty speedo I reckon! Saying that, how long have the regulations been in place?

joujoujou · 01-11-2012 1:51pm

antodeco wrote: »

[...] how long have the regulations been in place?

Years.

Actually, some European regulation (don't remember exactly now) says speedo can show exact speed or higher than real speed up to 10 (or 15) %. So, in fact, you cannot be deceived by your speedo, in terms "mr. officer, my speedo showed 100km/h, I didn't realize go 110 really" if you know what I mean.

In other words - real speed must always be lower (or equal) to the one showed by speedo.

Now, why manufacturers do so?

2 factors:

- safety (obviously),

- to avoid complaints. Imagine you bought brand new car and you read in manual it can go at 250km/h. So, you try to. If speedo is 100% accurate, you may not achieve it (weather conditions like wind, tyres, road conditions, etc.). If speedo lies up to 10% (mine lies 10%), it's less likely you will complain.

antodeco · 01-11-2012 1:55pm

Car is over 30 years old, so I wonder was this pre-regulation. It could just be a faulty speedo. Same size wheels and tyres as original anyway!

joujoujou · 01-11-2012 1:58pm

Yep, more than likely just faulty speedo.

The most important is, you're aware of that, so you can avoid points for speeding.

gstack166 · 20-03-2013 11:13pm

Tonight I think I got caught by one of the b*stards! I was going through a very very rural crossing where there is just a garage on the road just before a slight turn, the speed limit was 40 I suppose I was easily doing 50, I say suppose because I didn't get a chance to look for as I turned the bend there was my friends in the van with the rear to me facing me, I slammed the brakes and kept watch for a light on the van, I sure I saw a very dim Orange light just above the back doors but I can't be sure if this was the light to catch me or a reflection off the van from a car behind me, as I said, it was a dark very dim OrNge light I saw. Am I being paranoid or am I caught?

ironclaw · 20-03-2013 11:22pm

gstack166 wrote: »

Tonight I think I got caught by one of the b*stards! I was going through a very very rural crossing where there is just a garage on the road just before a slight turn, the speed limit was 40 I suppose I was easily doing 50, I say suppose because I didn't get a chance to look for as I turned the bend there was my friends in the van with the rear to me facing me, I slammed the brakes and kept watch for a light on the van, I sure I saw a very dim Orange light just above the back doors but I can't be sure if this was the light to catch me or a reflection off the van from a car behind me, as I said, it was a dark very dim OrNge light I saw. Am I being paranoid or am I caught?

Where in Ireland is there a speed limit of 40? I presume you mean 40mph and 60km/h respectively?

If you were doing 50mph in a 60km/h zone you probably we're done as you would have been close to or over 80km/h at that speed.

gstack166 · 20-03-2013 11:30pm

Yeah 60km sorry mate. To guess I'd say I was doing 45mph again can't be sure but wasn't going much more than that. Question really I'm asking is, should I have been able to see this light flashing? Also, I've only had the car since last Friday (it's second hand) so isn't there still a good chance if I was caught ill get away with it? I bought the car out of a garage, he said he only had it there 2 weeks so I imagine its still registered to the previous owner as I haven't received the log book yet

Esel · 20-03-2013 11:39pm

gstack166 wrote: »

Also, I've only had the car since last Friday (it's second hand) so isn't there still a good chance if I was caught ill get away with it? I bought the car out of a garage, he said he only had it there 2 weeks so I imagine its still registered to the previous owner as I haven't received the log book yet

Nice of you to think like that... not.

If the previous owner gets a letter about speeding points, you can be sure he/she will be getting on to the garage for your details (or referring the authorities to the garage).

Speed cameras in Ireland - a guide

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