How do Mobile Police Speed vans work?

[Wheeler hogs]

I was driving onto the motorway today from a slip road and might or might not have been going over the ton when I saw a police van on the motorway bridge and slowed down immediately.

There were a lot of cars on the road ahead of me (about 1km), I would say about 10 cars in the fast lane (where I was) and another 22 in the other lanes before the bridge.

I would be interested to know whether there is actually a policeman operating a camera or laser out of these vans and if so, whether they are looking right into the distance (which is where I would have been for all of 2 seconds having come onto the motorway before slowing down) or whether they just look closer to them?

Bit gutted because meant to be picking up a new car tomorrow but think I could lose my clean license if pinged and considering holding off for 14 days

[matthias73]

Hypothetically, how much over a ton could you have been going, and how quickly would you have slowed down, once you had seen the police van.

Hypothetically, of course.

[streaky]

It will be denied (I'm sure) by 'the man with a thousand identities', but there is a belief that they simply point the camera at a point and clock every vehicle travelling faster than the 'trigger' speed (nominally 10% + 2).

You have a tad over two weeks to fret.

Streaky

PS - it need not be a police officer in the talivan - S

[Iain XR4i]

I asked for and received my pictures (expensive souvenirs!) The one with the speed recorded is shot from so far away that you can barely identify the model of car, never mind read the number plate.

The second pic is closer but, with the sunvisor down and them shooting from 40 feet up on a flyover with no sliproads on or off, the driver could, almost literally, be anyone.

I took the points and fine because I knew it was me, I just wanted to make them do something to "earn" the money.

[CDP]

Iain XR4i said:

I asked for and received my pictures (expensive souvenirs!) The one with the speed recorded is shot from so far away that you can barely identify the model of car, never mind read the number plate.

Interesting. If the camera is human operated it is supposed to confirm the user's judgement that a car is exceeding the limit, I believe that is the typical wording on the summons too. At that kind of distance it would be almost impossible to tell the difference between 70 and 80 mph. There are no white lines to confirm the camera's accuarcy.

I'm certain this will have been gone into plenty of times but surely the camera operators wouldn't be submitting inaccurate witness statements?

[Maximum Bobs]

streaky said:

'the man with a thousand identities'

Who's that then?

[1point7bar]

So laser not radar?

[mjb1]

Wheeler hogs said:

I was driving onto the motorway today from a slip road and might or might not have been going over the ton when I saw a police van on the motorway bridge and slowed down immediately.

There were a lot of cars on the road ahead of me (about 1km), I would say about 10 cars in the fast lane (where I was) and another 22 in the other lanes before the bridge.

I would be interested to know whether there is actually a policeman operating a camera or laser out of these vans and if so, whether they are looking right into the distance (which is where I would have been for all of 2 seconds having come onto the motorway before slowing down) or whether they just look closer to them?

Bit gutted because meant to be picking up a new car tomorrow but think I could lose my clean license if pinged and considering holding off for 14 days

So you were joining a motorway by doing 100+ on the slip road, and you were in the 'fast' lane at the same time??? Must have been some manoeuvre!

They usually 'aim' as far away as they can see, positioning themselves to catch speeders as they round a bend or cresta hill. Otherwise all the speeders would see them and slow down. It'd be a bit like going fishing, and announcing your presence to the fish by chucking a grenade in the lake.

The way they tend to work is by picking a car right in the distance (that they've already formed a prior opinion is speeding!), getting a lock with the laser and a speed reading (almost instant), and then tracking the vehicle as it continues to approach the scamera, so that they get a good close up of the front of the car (numberplate and hopefully the drivers face), before pulling back to repeat the process. So they probably only get one car in each roadful of potential targets, which means that depending on traffic conditions and you're position in the line of traffic, you have a reasonable chance of not being picked on. It'a bit like shooting fish in a barrel - but with a pistol rather than an uzi.

Sorry about all the fish analogies.

[Steve H]

Wouldn't the speed reading and photo have to be simultaneous? Surely they can't take a speed reading in the distance and then take the photo as you get closer?

[mjb1]

Steve H said:

Wouldn't the speed reading and photo have to be simultaneous? Surely they can't take a speed reading in the distance and then take the photo as you get closer?

It's a continuous video, they usually send you 2 stills from it - one where they are actually measuring your speed, the other when your vehicle is close enough to be clearly identified. If you want to see the video, you have to got to court.

[Mr GrimNasty]

mjb1 said:

It'd be a bit like going fishing, and announcing your presence to the fish by chucking a grenade in the lake.

What an inappropriate comparison - that way you'd catch every single fish at once - you really don't know much about fishing with explosives do you?

[StottyZr]

Iain XR4i said:

I asked for and received my pictures (expensive souvenirs!) The one with the speed recorded is shot from so far away that you can barely identify the model of car, never mind read the number plate.

I came over the brow of a hill yesterday doing an indicated 50 in a 40. I slowed down pretty quickly but didn't exactly slam on. The scamera van was about 200yards away and I figured he couldn't have caught me from that distance.

I am now worried.

[Iain XR4i]

CDP said:

Interesting. If the camera is human operated it is supposed to confirm the user's judgement that a car is exceeding the limit, I believe that is the typical wording on the summons too. At that kind of distance it would be almost impossible to tell the difference between 70 and 80 mph. There are no white lines to confirm the camera's accuarcy.

I'm certain this will have been gone into plenty of times but surely the camera operators wouldn't be submitting inaccurate witness statements?

He must have been a skilled and experienced operator that morning, because he had his job down to a fine art, spotting and zapping me at 80mph on a dry, clear motorway one bright morning, and proving to the naysayers that 10% +3 IS enough to be prosecuted.

Maybe the simple fact of overtaking a Transit dropside was enough to convince him I was in danger of suffocating at excess speed, and needed a letter in the post to revive me before I blacked out?

Still, it was over 5 years ago so really doesn't matter now but I'm afraid that I still and will continue to regard the location as a money-maker. Unless we now need to keep an eye on the sky for a Messerschmitt coming out of the sun, the flyover where the scamera van was parked presented no hazard to the traffic below. Even their own website shows only a couple of incidents (it's surely tough to crash on a straight motorway with no entrances or exits?) but falls back on the "history of speeding" to justify the location
And

[Guybrush]

Maximum Bobs said:

streaky said:

'the man with a thousand identities'

Who's that then?

I think it may be possibly a pretend BIB who posts on here almost continuously. It could be thought that 'he' may be more than one person, maybe even funded by vested interests. Who knows?

[daz3210]

Guybrush said:

Maximum Bobs said:

streaky said:

'the man with a thousand identities'

Who's that then?

I think it may be possibly a pretend BIB who posts on here almost continuously. It could be thought that 'he' may be more than one person, maybe even funded by vested interests. Who knows?

You mean the same one who failed to comment on a thread about himself last week?

[timbob]

StottyZr said:

I came over the brow of a hill yesterday doing an indicated 50 in a 40. I slowed down pretty quickly but didn't exactly slam on. The scamera van was about 200yards away and I figured he couldn't have caught me from that distance.

I am now worried.

Eek - I hear plenty of stories of vans pinging people up to (perhaps even more than) a kilometre away...