Moving speed camera car on M25?

[Greshamst]

Last week I was about to turn off the M25 when I noticed a vehicle driving in Lane1 with a speed camera on it, looked like a speed camera window on the back panel and possibly on the side, and a support vehicle travelling behind it with yellow & orange stripes.

Did I just see a speed camera travelling on its way to its destination with a support vehicle, or could it have been monitoring motorists on the move?

I had to turn off before I could get close to eee more detail.

[scorcher]

Sounds like a Highway Agency vehicle rather than anything to do with safety speed cameras

[Plymo]

It's certainly a thing in France, no support vehicle or anything like that needed!
This site has pictures of them https://radar-prive.fr/

[covboy]

I'm sure if we had mobile speed cameras roaming the country, we would have heard about ot on PH by now.

[Rushjob]

Plymo said:

It's certainly a thing in France, no support vehicle or anything like that needed!
This site has pictures of them https://radar-prive.fr/

It was a thing in the UK back in the late 80's. Notts Police had a couple of them, one ISTR was a Citroen BX!
They cruised the M1 pinging cars speeding past them using a camera head mounted on the front bumper / grille .
Used to be quite a common thing on the continent then they seemed to fade out of use but have definitely returned in France.

[Cyberprog]

Greshamst said:

Last week I was about to turn off the M25 when I noticed a vehicle driving in Lane1 with a speed camera on it, looked like a speed camera window on the back panel and possibly on the side, and a support vehicle travelling behind it with yellow & orange stripes.

Did I just see a speed camera travelling on its way to its destination with a support vehicle, or could it have been monitoring motorists on the move?

I had to turn off before I could get close to eee more detail.

Most likely the former. the vehicle behind might not even have been connected with it.

[Earthdweller]

Rushjob said:

Plymo said:

It's certainly a thing in France, no support vehicle or anything like that needed!
This site has pictures of them https://radar-prive.fr/

It was a thing in the UK back in the late 80's. Notts Police had a couple of them, one ISTR was a Citroen BX!
They cruised the M1 pinging cars speeding past them using a camera head mounted on the front bumper / grille .
Used to be quite a common thing on the continent then they seemed to fade out of use but have definitely returned in France.

It wasn’t really

Unmarked traffic “colour” cars have been used for eons

It will have been fitted with a system such as police Pilot or provida

ANPR didn’t exist then

Camera mounted on windscreen linked to a VHS tape recorder and a separate system to measure speed over a given distance

The police car having a calibrated speedo and following the target vehicle, matching speed being the other way

[Rushjob]

Earthdweller said:

It wasn’t really

Unmarked traffic “colour” cars have been used for eons

It will have been fitted with a system such as police Pilot or provida

ANPR didn’t exist then

Camera mounted on windscreen linked to a VHS tape recorder and a separate system to measure speed over a given distance

The police car having a calibrated speedo and following the target vehicle, matching speed being the other way

It most certainly was. Notts motorway unit had a Citroen BX and another car (the details of which fail me ) with a gatso developed bumper mounted car camera on the front in the early 90's. Two of my former colleagues drove the damn thing so I know it existed. IIRC the Citroen was featured in an article in either Bike or Superbike magazine back in the day. I recall one of my colleagues mentioning pinging about 5 or 6 cars in a row speeding past
him in a convoy on the M1, but the last car ( Dutch registered ) hit his brakes most likely seeing the flash reflected by the cars in front. They were used quite a bit in NL, home of the Gatso. It was an experiment that was superseded by fixed cameras as Notts were quite early users of speed and red light camera use.

Edited by Rushjob on Monday 16th October 18:55

[Earthdweller]

Rushjob said:

Earthdweller said:

It wasn’t really

Unmarked traffic “colour” cars have been used for eons

It will have been fitted with a system such as police Pilot or provida

ANPR didn’t exist then

Camera mounted on windscreen linked to a VHS tape recorder and a separate system to measure speed over a given distance

The police car having a calibrated speedo and following the target vehicle, matching speed being the other way

It most certainly was. Notts motorway unit had a Citroen BX and another car (the details of which fail me ) with a gatso developed bumper mounted car camera on the front in the early 90's. Two of my former colleagues drove the damn thing so I know it existed. IIRC the Citroen was featured in an article in either Bike or Superbike magazine back in the day. I recall one of my colleagues mentioning pinging about 5 or 6 cars in a row speeding past
him in a convoy on the M1, but the last car ( Dutch registered ) hit his brakes most likely seeing the flash reflected by the cars in front. They were used quite a bit in NL, home of the Gatso. It was an experiment that was superseded by fixed cameras as Notts were quite early users of speed and red light camera use.

Edited by Rushjob on Monday 16th October 18:55

You said it was a thing in the late 80’s .. it really wasn’t

The first Gatso speed camera in the U.K. went active in 1992, a static speed camera on Twickenham Bridge and they weren’t widespread for several years later

Funnily enough it was in October 1992, after an amendment to the Road Traffic Act made photographic evidence admissible solely for speeding offences

Prior to Oct 1992 they were only used in trials and not prosecutions.

The only operational ones before that were trial RED light cameras in London at Hanger Lane and Marylebone Rd in 1989

[NFT]

Rushjob said:

Used to be quite a common thing on the continent then they seemed to fade out of use but have definitely returned in France.

Reaction to French burning speed cameras? god bless them, even today with a serious level of protection they manage to bung bin liners and spray low level poles.

[Rushjob]

Earthdweller said:

Rushjob said:

Earthdweller said:

It wasn’t really

Unmarked traffic “colour” cars have been used for eons

It will have been fitted with a system such as police Pilot or provida

ANPR didn’t exist then

Camera mounted on windscreen linked to a VHS tape recorder and a separate system to measure speed over a given distance

The police car having a calibrated speedo and following the target vehicle, matching speed being the other way

It most certainly was. Notts motorway unit had a Citroen BX and another car (the details of which fail me ) with a gatso developed bumper mounted car camera on the front in the early 90's. Two of my former colleagues drove the damn thing so I know it existed. IIRC the Citroen was featured in an article in either Bike or Superbike magazine back in the day. I recall one of my colleagues mentioning pinging about 5 or 6 cars in a row speeding past
him in a convoy on the M1, but the last car ( Dutch registered ) hit his brakes most likely seeing the flash reflected by the cars in front. They were used quite a bit in NL, home of the Gatso. It was an experiment that was superseded by fixed cameras as Notts were quite early users of speed and red light camera use.

Edited by Rushjob on Monday 16th October 18:55

You said it was a thing in the late 80’s .. it really wasn’t

The first Gatso speed camera in the U.K. went active in 1992, a static speed camera on Twickenham Bridge and they weren’t widespread for several years later

Funnily enough it was in October 1992, after an amendment to the Road Traffic Act made photographic evidence admissible solely for speeding offences

Prior to Oct 1992 they were only used in trials and not prosecutions.

The only operational ones before that were trial RED light cameras in London at Hanger Lane and Marylebone Rd in 1989

OK, I wasn't relying on google, solely my memories from the first years that I was in the job so for that please accept my abject apologies - it's an age related thing, although, if you really want to be correct the first TLVC's in the UK were actually installed and operational in Nottingham in 1987........ The Met don't get to do everything first.......

[vikingaero]

There are also things such as private speed camera vans to catch those speeding in construction zones:

https://www.carnellgroup.co.uk/innovations/safetyc...

[Pip1968]

I think the roadworks people sometimes have them. I am unsure whether it is for their traffic or members of the public passing through road works.

Maybe one of those - ?

Pip

[rdjohn]

It could also have been a Highways Agency Consultant logging the Motorway infrastructure and its condition.

I doubt a mobile speed camera would be out and about without very clear advanced markings, as generally required by ACPO. Slow moving and an accompanied by a van hardly sounds the covert operation the OP believes is about to be unleashed on the poor unsuspecting PH massive.