LED lights on poles facing cars? - M6 50mph average zone
Discussion
Can’t find anything out from Google so naturally I have turned to the collective minds of PH.
There is a very lengthy 10-15 mile 50mph average speed roadworks section on the M6, which I think is the one near Warrington. The one that feels like it’s been there for years.
On this stretch of road, every few hundred metres, on tall street light poles, there are banks of very bright LED lights which shine across all 3 lanes in a very well defined rectangular box pattern. But strangely, they point almost directly at the approaching traffic and shine though your front windscreen as you go past.
Very unusual, and also very annoying. They temporarily ruin your night vision each time you drive past a set as they practically shine into your face.
Anyone know what they are?
There is a very lengthy 10-15 mile 50mph average speed roadworks section on the M6, which I think is the one near Warrington. The one that feels like it’s been there for years.
On this stretch of road, every few hundred metres, on tall street light poles, there are banks of very bright LED lights which shine across all 3 lanes in a very well defined rectangular box pattern. But strangely, they point almost directly at the approaching traffic and shine though your front windscreen as you go past.
Very unusual, and also very annoying. They temporarily ruin your night vision each time you drive past a set as they practically shine into your face.
Anyone know what they are?
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 17th November 23:29
PorkInsider said:
I thought they did this on unlit stretches of average speed camera zones so that the cameras can read plates when it's dark, since those cameras don't flash.
As far as I know, and I'm sure someone might correct me, is that average speed cameras work using infra red lights, and you can see these IR lamps on the same poles as the cameras with a faint red glow. So I don't think these bright white LED's are for that purpose.Randomly, I found a few other people complaining about these 'shining in your face' lights on a UK truck drivers forum, and the suggestion is that they are to clearly illuminate the driver so that a photo of them can be submitted with any tickets so that the registered keeper can see who was driving at that time. This may also be complete nonsense though!
My personal theories are this might be either in part to do with the availability of "stealthplates" and other such devices designed to make VRNs unreadable under IR light and/ or due to the installations experiencing issues with reading VRNs of vehicles travelling at high speed, towards the cameras, across a massive amount of differing lighting conditions and several lanes worth of vehicle lighting, when using IR light.
What cameras see in IR can be much different to what cameras see in white light, to the point materials can appear opaque in white light but transparent in IR etc.
As far as I can remember they were deployed with IR first then the white light came later?
The (what look like Raytec) white light illuminators are what you'd expect for VRN illumination for CCTV/ ANPR, it is unusual them being white light though. CCTV illuminators aren't generally what you'd put in for illumination for safety or pedestrian/ worker, and the beam angle and shape seems very much designed for VRN illumination purposes when you look at the cameras vs. illuminator aiming.
Usually you see workers use the genset run mast floodlights (which also always seem to be helpfully aimed into the eyes of motorists!), which are much better suited for jobsite illumination.
CCTV/ ANPR is a tricky beast, even more at night, even more when using using IR.
What cameras see in IR can be much different to what cameras see in white light, to the point materials can appear opaque in white light but transparent in IR etc.
As far as I can remember they were deployed with IR first then the white light came later?
The (what look like Raytec) white light illuminators are what you'd expect for VRN illumination for CCTV/ ANPR, it is unusual them being white light though. CCTV illuminators aren't generally what you'd put in for illumination for safety or pedestrian/ worker, and the beam angle and shape seems very much designed for VRN illumination purposes when you look at the cameras vs. illuminator aiming.
Usually you see workers use the genset run mast floodlights (which also always seem to be helpfully aimed into the eyes of motorists!), which are much better suited for jobsite illumination.
CCTV/ ANPR is a tricky beast, even more at night, even more when using using IR.
Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 27th December 00:32
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