Any idea why?

[rapid rental]

Driving on the M4 near Bristol i got flashed by those temporary scameras on the roadworks section last night. Its signposted 50 and i was probably doing 65. The question is why didnt my Snooper S5 alert me? i know it works well enough?. Surely there must be a radar beam in order for it to work out your speed to trigger the flash?, any pointers much appreciated please.

[havoc]

If it was at night, and there was no-one in front of you, then there was probably nothing to reflect the radar beams back at your Snooper...the radar points away from the camera down the road, needs to reflect off something in order for a detector to pick up the beams.

[GlenMH]

Those cameras are not radar operated. They are digital ones that have 3 strips in the road to measure your speed.

Suggest you need a Road Angel as well as the Snooper...

Good luck - hopefully you were not travelling fast enough to get the paperwork.

Glen

[nobleguy]

havoc said:

If it was at night, and there was no-one in front of you, then there was probably nothing to reflect the radar beams back at your Snooper...the radar points away from the camera down the road, needs to reflect off something in order for a detector to pick up the beams.

If you aren't lucky enough to get a reflection those radar detectors are as good as useless. They're quite good at telling you after you've gone past the camera though....

[jvaughan]

I pass these 4 times a week. I dont have a detector of any kind ... its easy .. look on the side of the road for the Yellow Camera, the white markings in the middle of the lane, and.. Ill give you a Huge hint here .... You drive past 2x 50mph signs that are almost 4ft in diameter !!! I could sympathise if your cruising at about 55mph and not one of the plonkers who insist on stabbing at the brakes when they see the camera markings .... but 65 in a clearly marked 50 .... Hmmmmm

[havoc]

jvaughan said:

I pass these 4 times a week. I dont have a detector of any kind ... its easy .. look on the side of the road for the Yellow Camera, the white markings in the middle of the lane, and.. Ill give you a Huge hint here .... You drive past 2x 50mph signs that are almost 4ft in diameter !!! I could sympathise if your cruising at about 55mph and not one of the plonkers who insist on stabbing at the brakes when they see the camera markings .... but 65 in a clearly marked 50 .... Hmmmmm

I've some sympathy with that point-of-view, esp. as the OP knows there's cameras there. But it's only a short step from that p-o-v to making the same point about ANY speeding. And roadworks at night hardly warrant the 40/50 that they still have enforced.

I don't own a detector of any kind, and have just relied up-to-now on the Mk1 eyeball and God's good graces...but it's getting harder and harder out there to keep a clean license.

[J500ANT]

Anyone notice if the strips are in all lanes though? The ones I saw were only in the outer 2 lanes (as were the ones just south of the Avonmouth Bridge on the M5 when they had all the roadworks in place, I used to fly along in lane 1 and no camera flash, everyone else did the same in lanes 2 & 3 and got caught. Oh what a jolly wheeze!)

Edited by J500ANT on Monday 8th January 15:13

[nobleguy]

jvaughan said:

I pass these 4 times a week. I dont have a detector of any kind ... its easy .. look on the side of the road for the Yellow Camera, the white markings in the middle of the lane, and.. Ill give you a Huge hint here .... You drive past 2x 50mph signs that are almost 4ft in diameter !!! I could sympathise if your cruising at about 55mph and not one of the plonkers who insist on stabbing at the brakes when they see the camera markings .... but 65 in a clearly marked 50 .... Hmmmmm

He does have a point....but you have my sympathy anyway!

[J500ANT]

nobleguy said:

jvaughan said:

I pass these 4 times a week. I dont have a detector of any kind ... its easy .. look on the side of the road for the Yellow Camera, the white markings in the middle of the lane, and.. Ill give you a Huge hint here .... You drive past 2x 50mph signs that are almost 4ft in diameter !!! I could sympathise if your cruising at about 55mph and not one of the plonkers who insist on stabbing at the brakes when they see the camera markings .... but 65 in a clearly marked 50 .... Hmmmmm

He does have a point....but you have my sympathy anyway!

In addition, those cameras are just about the only ones in the Avon & Somerset area that are reflective yellow.

[jvaughan]

I do sympathise though. I also noticed the timing marks are only on lanes 2 & 3. Also, they appear to be microwave linked to a base station ... next to each camers is a dish and I dont think its for the workmen to have sky TV!

[Fidgits]

nobleguy said:

jvaughan said:

I pass these 4 times a week. I dont have a detector of any kind ... its easy .. look on the side of the road for the Yellow Camera, the white markings in the middle of the lane, and.. Ill give you a Huge hint here .... You drive past 2x 50mph signs that are almost 4ft in diameter !!! I could sympathise if your cruising at about 55mph and not one of the plonkers who insist on stabbing at the brakes when they see the camera markings .... but 65 in a clearly marked 50 .... Hmmmmm

He does have a point....but you have my sympathy anyway!

yeah, they are pretty obvious...

[rapid rental]

glenMH

Thanks for that, at least i now understand why it didnt pick it up, think i may get a road angel as well.

jvaughan
I know why its 50mph thanks, its primarily to protect the workmen etc and funnily enough there were not any working on sunday eve and dont presume we all drive like you obviously do with that "stabbing of the brakes" comment.

Edited by rapid rental on Monday 8th January 18:46

[GlenMH]

Can thoroughly recommend the RA plus - battery operated and tells you the limit as you approach a camera.

Glen

[Major Bloodnok]

rapid rental said:

I know why its 50mph thanks, its primarily to protect the workmen etc and funnily enough there were not any working on sunday eve

No workmen, maybe, but the roadworks are still there. Possible crud on the road, loose gravel, a cone that's been knocked over by another motorist (lying down with its base toward you, so you can't see the reflective bits). IOW, potentially riskier prevailing conditions than elsewhere on that road. That 15 mph might just be the difference between a bent bonnet and a bent neck.

Just sayin'...

[odyssey2200]

but why do these cameras have Sat dishes on them?

The Scamera nazis too bloody lazy to go and get the film now?

Still a slight twist of the dish and they don't point at the sat any more!

[deeps]

rapid rental said:

glenMH

Thanks for that, at least i now understand why it didnt pick it up, think i may get a road angel as well.

jvaughan
I know why its 50mph thanks, its primarily to protect the workmen etc and funnily enough there were not any working on sunday eve and dont presume we all drive like you obviously do with that "stabbing of the brakes" comment.

They actually move those cameras about a bit, so a GPS detector isn't guaranteed to always pick them up if it's database isn't bang up to date. The average speed through that stretch is around 65 - 70, then braking for the camera, then back to about 60 untill NSL resumes. The average speeds are higher than most roadworks because nothing ever appears to happen, and it's been going on for so long that drivers are ignoring the 50 limit.

The cameras are also cleverly mingled in with the large yellow road signs, so they do catch a fair few drivers out, hence all the stabbing brakes.

PS. If you're looking for a less expensive GPS detector, I can recommend a 'Talex', does the job for half the price. Should be some on Ebay (and no I'm not connected, simply trying to help!).