Have you seen any "Safety Camera Vans" when its dark?

[puggit]

And how can a civvy in a van use his piece of equipment to correborate his prior opinion of speeding in the dark...

[bryan35]

seen Humberside SCp out and about at night. Talk about covert!
usually on the 40MPH dual carriageway bit from about 8pm onward in the winter. What an earner!
When humberside forst went into being a SCP, they were VERY greedy, and as a result just about all traffic crawls about around their speed vans. Bad news for earnings. They tried to make it up by making the M62 50MPH well before any road works got there and sitting their vans on the bridges catching people who don't know how greedy they are still going 70+. This is on a quiet - fair completely clear motorway with no hint of roadworks except the 50MPH signs remember!
NOw they're doing the night time thing.

One thing that I've learned. If you're on a road and the speed limit is stupidly slow, go 5MPH less, or stick the cruise control on, cos they'll be there, blatting you with infra red!

[gafferjim]

We don't seem to get the safety camera vans around our local area, but what we do get is the local BiB with either a people carrier parked with the boot up, and the camera mounted inside, or them set up with the hairdryer on a tripod and a couple of "Chips" waiting further down the road.
I've seen this set-up at 11-30pm at the end of the village, about ½ mile before it goes back to national speed limit. they also set up just in front of an illuminated bus shelter that has a number of posters that have lots of yellow items on them, thus they are somewhat camouflaged even in their high vis clobber.

[andyb_mr2]

Couple of months ago, at the end of national speed limit bypass near me the BiB parked a scamra van in a layby ever sunday/saturday night for a month. If its an infra red image don't see why they couldn't be used at night.

[ashes]

South Yorks Scams active at night around Oughtibridge and Deepcar regularly - luckily Mrs A was behind numpties both times!

Parked with nose forward - no markings showing and using a little black box gatso so v difficult to see

[maxed]

Often outside my gate at night
10.30pm on a Friday night not unusual

[CaptMarcoRamius]

'HAVE YOU SEEN ANY "SAFETY CAMERA VANS" WHEN ITS DARK?'

LOL most people don't see them when its light!!

The windscreen is for looking through - not at.

[yellow peril]

They don't operate in the dark cos they can't see to read their papers!

YP

>> Edited by yellow peril on Wednesday 4th January 08:10

[peter pan]

In Essex the mobile scamera vans operate at night. The last one I saw was at the bottom of a steep valley so that in many cases motorists are likely to be travelling above the 30mph limit, even in overun 3rd gear. Either side of said valley the limit is 40 mph only switching to 30 mph for the short sections of road into and out of the valley. Am I being cynical in suggesting that the limit has been placed there to provide a surefire revenue zone. Been in the area for around 16 years and I am unaware of any issues regarding accidents on this small section of road.

[Mr Whippy]

8Pack said:

ledfoot said: Got mine free with petrol But is only 1,000,000 candle power nice lamp though £20 in Maplins Hope you've located them correctly......just either side of the number plate!

Is it not better to have some lamps shine ONTO the plate, and in dark conditions thus over-exposing it?

Could even have an IR one too, so that any night vision gear would see just an over-exposed blob?!

Dave

>> Edited by Mr Whippy on Wednesday 4th January 11:52

[smeggy]

Mr Whippy said:

Is it not better to have some lamps shine ONTO the plate, and in dark conditions thus over-exposing it?

Due to the retro-reflective properties of a VRM, the light from a lamp shining onto it would be reflected directly back to the lamp, nowhere else.

Mr Whippy said:

Could even have an IR one too, so that any night vision gear would see just an over-exposed blob?!

Incandescent lamps (filament bulbs) pump out a lot of IR, more than visible wavelengths (which is why they are so inefficient). Dedicated IR sources (LEDs and such) can be made to be as powerful as you wish without anyone noticing, but they can be expensive.