Truvelo cameras...how do they work?
Truvelo cameras...how do they work?
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mcgandalf

Original Poster:

666 posts

184 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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Can anyone clarify how these Truvelo speed cameras work?

The camera points towards you as you drive towards it (i.e. it is rear facing). I appreciate that this is so it can take a photo of the driver.

Does it measure your speed at a point before you pass the camera, or after you pass the camera (as per a Gatso)?

Moreover - in the specific example I'm thinking off - there are no white lines painted on the road surface, normally used to designate the speed camera's enforcement range. Are these white lines a legal requirement for speed enforcement, or are they (as I would expect) merely guidance?

Thanks.

anonymous-user

83 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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They're front facing not rear. They measure as you approach it, no use and not possible to measure your speed after passing it, would be too late to take a photo too. All the ones I have seen have 2/3 lines going across the road (full width).

mcgandalf

Original Poster:

666 posts

184 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
quotequote all
Thanks.

If there are no white lines painted on the road surface, how close to the camera are the induction coils in the road surface where I understand speed is monitored?

Dairymilk

104 posts

149 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
quotequote all
Truvelo cameras can work either front or rear facing. In front facing they have 3 lines closely spaced on the road. In rear facing they have ladder marks similar to a Gatso.
The sensors are buried in the road surface a few metres before or after the camera for front and rear facing respectively.

covboy

2,593 posts

203 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
quotequote all
Dairymilk said:
Truvelo cameras can work either front or rear facing. In front facing they have 3 lines closely spaced on the road. In rear facing they have ladder marks similar to a Gatso.
The sensors are buried in the road surface a few metres before or after the camera for front and rear facing respectively.
Does that mean if they are rear facing without the ladder markings they aren't legal (in that configuration)?

Dairymilk

104 posts

149 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
quotequote all
covboy said:
Dairymilk said:
Truvelo cameras can work either front or rear facing. In front facing they have 3 lines closely spaced on the road. In rear facing they have ladder marks similar to a Gatso.
The sensors are buried in the road surface a few metres before or after the camera for front and rear facing respectively.
Does that mean if they are rear facing without the ladder markings they aren't legal (in that configuration)?
no

Dave Hedgehog

16,315 posts

233 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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you can see them flash when they go off as well, its a purple/red flash and very dim compared to a gatso unit


mph1977

12,467 posts

197 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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Ladder marks are not required it just makes it easier for the hard of u derstanding , whether on the bench or in the dock.

Chlamydia

1,082 posts

156 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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mph1977 said:
Ladder marks are not required it just makes it easier for the hard of u derstanding , whether on the bench or in the dock.
I thought they were a legal requirement as a backup, confirmable measurement? A couple of years ago on the North Circular in London one of the cameras in a 50 zone was flashing every car that went past it, including me and I was dawdling at under 40mph. I called a Highways Agency number the non-emergency police number had forwarded me to and they said not to worry as it was a requirement to double check with the road markings as cameras/radars/lasers do fail and give spurious readings.

Puddenchucker

5,818 posts

247 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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Puddenchucker

5,818 posts

247 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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Chlamydia said:
mph1977 said:
Ladder marks are not required it just makes it easier for the hard of u derstanding , whether on the bench or in the dock.
I thought they were a legal requirement as a backup, confirmable measurement?
The law states that there must be a secondary check (accurate to within 10% if I recall correctly).
It does not state what that secondary check should be. Lines painted on the road are simply one method and also the easiest to check but other methods can be used.

Dairymilk

104 posts

149 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
quotequote all
Puddenchucker said:
Chlamydia said:
mph1977 said:
Ladder marks are not required it just makes it easier for the hard of u derstanding , whether on the bench or in the dock.
I thought they were a legal requirement as a backup, confirmable measurement?
The law states that there must be a secondary check (accurate to within 10% if I recall correctly).
It does not state what that secondary check should be. Lines painted on the road are simply one method and also the easiest to check but other methods can be used.
Only the law in the Road Traffic Offenders' Act 1988 section 20 requires a secondary check if the evidence is to be certified under that Act. That isn't the only way to adduce evidence from a Truvelo camera so the law doesn't exclude evidence if no secondary check was done.
You shouldn't get bogged down in the belief that a speed measuring device must be Type Approved before it can be used to measure speed.

Who me ?

7,455 posts

241 months

Thursday 3rd July 2014
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Then why are gatso's not used in forward facing mode .BECAUSE (as we all chorus ) THEY ARE ONLY TYPE APPROVED TO BE USED IN REAR FACING MODE. Do I smell a whiff of PMB, aka the ancient submariner. Should you ever find a Gatso flashing in your face,report it to the police ans watch the speed of the response of the camera tech .

ATM

21,324 posts

248 months

Tuesday 24th May 2022
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Puddenchucker said:
Link no work

I passed one of these the other day. I was NOT speeding obviously and even if I was I would never admit to that on a public internet forum. But I never speed anyway so that's a mute point.

So as I approached the camera I noticed another vehicle - not mine - speeding a little and then it braked hard probably as the driver noticed the camera a little late - that's just a guess because I dont know what the driver was thinking as it was not Me. Anyway I saw no flashes or anything like that.

It has left me wandering. Where does the camera measure the vehicle's speed. I think there was a white line across the road around 5 to 10 feet before the camera. Is that where it measures the speed alone or is there another line where is measures the speed from and the line I saw is where it measures the speed to - so from and to?

SS2.

14,709 posts

267 months

Tuesday 24th May 2022
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ATM said:
Where does the camera measure the vehicle's speed. I think there was a white line across the road around 5 to 10 feet before the camera. Is that where it measures the speed alone or is there another line where is measures the speed from and the line I saw is where it measures the speed to - so from and to?
There are sensors embedded in the road surface a short distance before the white timing lines. These calculate the speed of passing vehicles.

The timing lines you refer to provide the secondary check for vehicles detected travelling in excess of the trigger speed.

Cat

3,134 posts

298 months

Tuesday 24th May 2022
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The secondary check for Truvelo cameras is the white painted lines. The speed is measured when the vehicle passes over sensors embedded in the road surface. The system then carries out a calculation based on the measured speed so that the photo is taken as the vehicle's wheel is in line with the paint marks

https://www.speedcamerasuk.com/truvelo.htm

Cat

Puddenchucker

5,818 posts

247 months

Tuesday 24th May 2022
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ATM said:
Puddenchucker said:
Link no work
Probably because this thread is over 7 years old....
.

wa16

2,423 posts

250 months

Tuesday 24th May 2022
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CaptainMorgan said:
They're front facing not rear. They measure as you approach it, no use and not possible to measure your speed after passing it, would be too late to take a photo too. All the ones I have seen have 2/3 lines going across the road (full width).
some of them are bi-directional

like this one in Huddersfield becasue i got knicked by it driving away from it not towards it

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.6292275,-1.7979131...


ATM

21,324 posts

248 months

Tuesday 24th May 2022
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Island Hermit said:
Useful thanks

So in this pic we see the white lines

These looked like one line to me as I drove by

It reads to me like the sensors could be anywhere in the road

So if the speeding car slowed down just before hitting these lines then it would have not been speeding through those lines and therefore the camera would have no reason to photograph it, maybe