Would this work??

[andytk]

I have a cunning plan.

I’m assuming that all Talivans are held in the same location overnight for a particular region (eg North Wales). Would it be beyond the wit of a small organisation of bikers to sit early Saturday/Sunday morning and wait for the Talivans to leave for “work”. Since the Talivans are civilian operated I’m assuming that they follow a regular shift pattern and won’t start until 8am ish on a weekend morning.
The bikers would then follow the Talivans to their set up location and report back the exact location (GPS or reference points from junctions on roads) that the vans set up shop. The report would be back to a central info centre. Then the info could be distributed by email/text message/website so that before you set off you could check the current locations of the Talivan. Possibly a small fee for his info.
There would have to be a large volunteer pool for such an operation so that you would only be called once every 6 months to carry out shadowing duty. The money made from distributing such info would then be used to reimburse riders petrol money.

The key factors are:
Could you organise a large enough volunteer force for shadowing?
Could you charge money for distributing the info?
Would anyone want the info? (after all some forces put the location of their vans on the net already but few people check, as the info is widely regarded as useless)

What I’m getting at here is a real time location system for the dreaded Talivan.

Of course what would be even more entertaining is if said riders carried small collapsible road signs that they could deploy a mile ahead of Talivans with something along the lines of “Live Speed Trap Ahead” written on them.

Andy

[deltaf]

Why bother? Just lobb a "gift" over the compound and toast the bloody lot of em. No more talivans and no more revenues.

[kenny320]

Deltaf, have you been playing Vice City? Good idea tho, leaving them a 'gift'

[gavyn]

I like the idea of the collapsible signs. If you could make these cheap enough you could make them available to whoever wants them. Then joe public could buy a stack and set one up wherever they come across a speed trap.

Of course, joe public would have to be responsible enough to remove his sign again when the trap has filled its coffers and moved on, or there would be signs everywhere!

[puggit]

Cardboard and paint is cheap enough

[jon h]

In Warwickshire, they publish the location of all vans on the web each day.

Jon H

[Devils Advocate]

Nicked this from another car forum. If you replace "confetti" with "collapsible signs" not much changes in 100 years!

The Uckfield Weekly News in March 1905 commented on "the constabulary's traps designed to catch drivers exceeding the 20mph speed limit" and quoted a correspondent who wrote to Autocar magazine as follows:

"I think it is imperative that motorists should seek to protect themselves.
I have a suggestion which is simple and efficacious and which I think the Police cannot circumvent or prohibit. I suggest that the motor union should adopt a form of confetti distictive as to shape or combination of colour, this to be supplied to motorists either gratis or at a small cost. When one is aware of the existence of a trap he should 'lay a trail' in the road for half a mile after passing the trap.
This would warn motorists coming in the opposite direction, and I for one would be well pleased to to run back a mile and protect the approach from that direction also if necessary".

The records of Uckfield district council of the time discussed a proposal to: "request the county council do everything in their power to regulate the speed of motor cars passing through the district".
In commenting on the proposal Sir Francis Osborne did not think that a reduction of danger to the general public would be attained by setting traps all over the country.
"They should not be set for the careful and considerate man.
The inconsiderate and reckless person who had no gentlemanly instinctswas sometimes more dangerous at 10mph than the other class at 30mph".

Sir Francis said his opposition to the resolution was not due to the fact that he owned a motor car. He spoke from experience and many things had to be considered in the handling of the car. It was not speed that caused the trouble.

Not much changes 98 years on

[cptsideways]

Perhaps we could stick a discrete GPS locator on each one & track them. Get the Americans to practice laser wars from outer space, now that'd be cool.

[ledfoot]

jon h said:

In Warwickshire, they publish the location of all vans on the web each day. Jon H

The vans are never where they say are going to be.

Do you really think they are going to tell you where they are ?

Of course not otherwise they will lose revenue.

[JMGS4]

Get the local radio stations on your side; they'll put through the locations when reported by motorists. This is done effectively by radio stations here. The authorities tried to stop them, but as speed traps are in "dangerous" locations all they were doing was informing of "possible danger"!!! well ed!

[Mrs Fish]

ledfoot said:

jon h said: In Warwickshire, they publish the location of all vans on the web each day. Jon H The vans are never where they say are going to be. Do you really think they are going to tell you where they are ? Of course not otherwise they will lose revenue.

Derbyshire police also publish where they are going to be on a weekly basis

[bobthebench]

Chosen venues must meet KSI stats, so are regular as clockwork. From my days in a court office, it is amazing just how routine plod is. You can predict with incredible regularity where they sit, what days they do it, and what time they bunk off for doughnuts. This might be a tad easier than shadowing every talivan.

[andytk]

cptsideways said:

Perhaps we could stick a discrete GPS locator on each one & track them. Get the Americans to practice laser wars from outer space, now that'd be cool.

Belive it or not I thought of that too. I dissmissed it as too complex and expensive.

I like the confetti idea too, something simple and obvious.

Andy

[julianhj]

Sussex Scamera Partnership publish their locations for the day on local radio. I'm all in favour of a slash & burn policy where Talivans are concerned