m40: police transit van with speed camera parked on bridge
Discussion
To avoid unnecessary clenching, the bottom line (pardon the pun), watch the road ahead and not the car in front.
I was following a little way behind, a line of cars on a local motorway who were all driving safely but above the limit, and if not a little too close to each other. I saw ahead at the brow of a hill where there happens to be a bridge over the other side, their brake lights come on in a hurry. To my mind it was either some idiot pulling off a silly stunt, or a speed trap so I took caution, and as I rounded the top of the hill there was a filthy little scoundrel perched on the bridge, in his "safety camera" van, aiming a camera down the road at me.
I was following a little way behind, a line of cars on a local motorway who were all driving safely but above the limit, and if not a little too close to each other. I saw ahead at the brow of a hill where there happens to be a bridge over the other side, their brake lights come on in a hurry. To my mind it was either some idiot pulling off a silly stunt, or a speed trap so I took caution, and as I rounded the top of the hill there was a filthy little scoundrel perched on the bridge, in his "safety camera" van, aiming a camera down the road at me.
Carl_Manchester said:
thought it was a builder having a cup of tea and a sandwich.
I may have been going at a speed starting with a 1 once on the M6 Toll when I rounded a bend and there was a f
king white van with windows parked on an overpass. Serious fking brown pants moment. Turned out to be a builders van. I'm sure he parked it there to get people worked up. 
They're rather fond of using the ones in the vicinity of J2 or at J2 itself - their latest trick with those ones is to now park up on the one furthest away from you as you head towards the junction, so your view of it is completely obscured by the nearer bridge - if you then think the coast is clear and start your climb back up to normal M40 cruising speeds, you'll probably be comfortably over the threshold by the time the van hoves into view from behind the first bridge... It does rather make me wonder however how, from that concealed location, they're able to form a prior opinion of speeding and still have time to get a reliable reading from the laser 
twister said:
They're rather fond of using the ones in the vicinity of J2 or at J2 itself - their latest trick with those ones is to now park up on the one furthest away from you as you head towards the junction, so your view of it is completely obscured by the nearer bridge - if you then think the coast is clear and start your climb back up to normal M40 cruising speeds, you'll probably be comfortably over the threshold by the time the van hoves into view from behind the first bridge... It does rather make me wonder however how, from that concealed location, they're able to form a prior opinion of speeding and still have time to get a reliable reading from the laser
If you look hard at the bridges as soon as they come into sight once you've crested the hill out of the Wycombe valley you can see the top of both bridges clearly enough to see if a van is there.A taxi driver told me a couple of weeks ago on the way to Heathrow that they have started to hang out right on the edge of the bridge further down near the end of the long straight London bound after the Beaconsfield junction. A straight which sees many cars well in excess of the limit, which for all the nannies on this petrol heads forum is clearly reprehensible behaviour.
Beggarall said:
Which bridge? - I have seen them on bridges near the Oxford turn off (J8 and 8a) several times. Good luck - fingers crossed!
I've seen them often around there on the M40 and the A34 down to Oxford. Going North on M40 approaching to Oxford turn-offs there's a long right bend and they sit off to the right of a bridge in that area. It's all very well saying look out for them, but they're way out of your normal line of sight.The other thing is they can do you at 1km - I got caught like that in Cheshire - so don't think you've got time to let your speed ease off.
Carl_Manchester said:
Van was parked observing south-bound traffic somewhere in the vicinity of Oxford, I have had a look at google maps, it may have been in the region of wheatley services.
Sorry I can't be more prescriptive but its the section well before you hit the gorge/valley on the M40.
Junction 7 I imagine. I join the M40 there and there's a van facing one way or t'other at least once a week.Sorry I can't be more prescriptive but its the section well before you hit the gorge/valley on the M40.
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