Police cars on motorways again!
Discussion
This time marked!
After my post yesterday I encountered a marked police car on the way home from work and one again this morning!
Now whilst i know the speed limit I will admit to going over that slightly on a motorway where its safe (dont flame me!)
Obviosuly if the police car is directly behind me he can use the equipment on board to tell my speed, but what if he is a car behind me, or im in the right hand land and he is in the middle lane?
Also how far behind me can he be and still succesfully record my speed?
I passed both these cars at over 70mph, prob at 75ish. They werent interested in me as i suppose it was rush hour and ive no doubt they were just making sure no-one was playing stupidly and the was plenty of space between me and the car in front.
anyway im rambling, where does Mr policeman need to be to nick me?
After my post yesterday I encountered a marked police car on the way home from work and one again this morning!
Now whilst i know the speed limit I will admit to going over that slightly on a motorway where its safe (dont flame me!)
Obviosuly if the police car is directly behind me he can use the equipment on board to tell my speed, but what if he is a car behind me, or im in the right hand land and he is in the middle lane?
Also how far behind me can he be and still succesfully record my speed?
I passed both these cars at over 70mph, prob at 75ish. They werent interested in me as i suppose it was rush hour and ive no doubt they were just making sure no-one was playing stupidly and the was plenty of space between me and the car in front.
anyway im rambling, where does Mr policeman need to be to nick me?
Agree with Ted...chrisgr31 said:
My understanding from reading Madcops, and others, posts is that they can do you from wherever they can see you, whether thats behind or in front.
Using VASCAR they can record your speed between any two points where they can see your car, even if they lose track of it between those two points.
The BIB's don't even need to use equipement to corroborate your speed if there is more than one office, they can simply use their "expert" judgment which is sufficient to prosecute you. Been there...bought the three points. (and they were driving in the opposite direction in the middle of the night!)
>> Edited by Mr2Mike on Thursday 11th September 10:10
>> Edited by Mr2Mike on Thursday 11th September 10:46
As long as the Policeman can see your car and the road surface/or road bridge shadow etc etc at both the start and finish of the check then the distance in between is irrelavent.
Dont forget that he can still do a check on you when you are behind him too....just a reverse of the forward check.
Bread and Butter stuff to a Trafpol.
Dont forget that he can still do a check on you when you are behind him too....just a reverse of the forward check.
Bread and Butter stuff to a Trafpol.
tonyrec said:
As long as the Policeman can see your car and the road surface/or road bridge shadow etc etc at both the start and finish of the check then the distance in between is irrelavent.
Dont forget that he can still do a check on you when you are behind him too....just a reverse of the forward check.
Bread and Butter stuff to a Trafpol.
How easy is it to see someone behind you though? Presumably they have to be going fast enough to attract your attention in the first place. How far away from you are they sufficently close for you to be able to do the bridge, shadow check? Presumably this has to be done by the non driver as he would have to look out the rear window when pressing buttons tather than be looking in a rear view mirror.
Come to that why is the distance between the start and finish points irrelevant? Surely you need distance in order to work out the average speed? Or on reflection did you mean the distance between you and the car you are checking?
Despite reading countless explanations I am not sure how Vascar works other than by iming a car between 2 points. However presumably you need to know the distance between the points? Therefore I assume you pass a a bridge hit a button and that starts the distance calculator, the suspect vehicle passes the same point you start the timer, you pass another bridge and stop the distance calculator, the suspect vehicle passes the second bridge and you stop the timer. Therefore you have his time taken to cover a distance and can calculate the average. Obviously these actions can be in any order, whether the suspect vehicle is in front of you, behind you, or passes you, or you pass it during the measuring procedure?
No,its easy to operate with one person.
The Vascar/Police Pilot has a built in Distance meter....for want of a better phrase, its a time and distance machine, thats how it works out your average speed.
When i said that the distance didnt matter, i meant that once the check has started, the machine automatically records the distance and its this bit that needs the recalibration every 7 days.
I along with most other people re calibrate the machine before using it as it only takes a few mins to run down a measured mile and this stops anyone whinging that the machine wasnt calibrated when they are caught.
Madcop recently explained the whole workings of this very simple to use device so i wont bother to go into it again and cover old ground.
However your last paragraph is mainly correct,as there are several checks you can do with the device.
1) Static checks where you have measured the distance beforehand (between shadows etc ) or you are using Pilot marks on the road surface (white painted squares put down by the Highways agency for our use).
2)Moving checks over unknown distances on target vehicles as they either overtake you, are in front of you or behind you.
3)By maintaining a constant distance behind the Target vehicle whilst using a pre-fed distance of say....0.300 of a mile.
All in all its a very versatile piece of kit whether its a Police Pilot or Vascar version.
But remember, it only records your Average speed....not your fastest or slowest.
Hope that this explanation satisfies your curiosity.
>> Edited by tonyrec on Thursday 11th September 12:02
The Vascar/Police Pilot has a built in Distance meter....for want of a better phrase, its a time and distance machine, thats how it works out your average speed.
When i said that the distance didnt matter, i meant that once the check has started, the machine automatically records the distance and its this bit that needs the recalibration every 7 days.
I along with most other people re calibrate the machine before using it as it only takes a few mins to run down a measured mile and this stops anyone whinging that the machine wasnt calibrated when they are caught.
Madcop recently explained the whole workings of this very simple to use device so i wont bother to go into it again and cover old ground.
However your last paragraph is mainly correct,as there are several checks you can do with the device.
1) Static checks where you have measured the distance beforehand (between shadows etc ) or you are using Pilot marks on the road surface (white painted squares put down by the Highways agency for our use).
2)Moving checks over unknown distances on target vehicles as they either overtake you, are in front of you or behind you.
3)By maintaining a constant distance behind the Target vehicle whilst using a pre-fed distance of say....0.300 of a mile.
All in all its a very versatile piece of kit whether its a Police Pilot or Vascar version.
But remember, it only records your Average speed....not your fastest or slowest.
Hope that this explanation satisfies your curiosity.
>> Edited by tonyrec on Thursday 11th September 12:02
When I was last in the States, a friend whose father is a cop over there got us a ride in his Dad's cruiser. Had much fun playing with all the gadgets but, the reason I bring this up is that one of the gadgets was a dash mounted radar speed gun which would give you the speed of whichever car you pointed it at.
It was linked into the car and automatically took into account the cruisers speed deducting or adding this as necessary to give a reading on any other car, whether coming towards or heading away from the cruiser.
Not for a minute suggesting that our police should get these (perish the thought) but I am quite surprised they don't have them. Could anyone enlighten me as to why they're not over here?
Or are they........
It was linked into the car and automatically took into account the cruisers speed deducting or adding this as necessary to give a reading on any other car, whether coming towards or heading away from the cruiser.
Not for a minute suggesting that our police should get these (perish the thought) but I am quite surprised they don't have them. Could anyone enlighten me as to why they're not over here?
Or are they........
gavyn said:
When I was last in the States, a friend whose father is a cop over there got us a ride in his Dad's cruiser. Had much fun playing with all the gadgets but, the reason I bring this up is that one of the gadgets was a dash mounted radar speed gun which would give you the speed of whichever car you pointed it at.
It was linked into the car and automatically took into account the cruisers speed deducting or adding this as necessary to give a reading on any other car, whether coming towards or heading away from the cruiser.
Not for a minute suggesting that our police should get these (perish the thought) but I am quite surprised they don't have them. Could anyone enlighten me as to why they're not over here?
Or are they........
Its somthing to do with not getting home office approval for move radar guns or somthing.
a year ago, i was pushing 95 on the M20. a car came barrelling up behind me, i moved over for it but it followed me, into the middle lane.
pulled out to overtake and i noticed the blue lights on top and coppers in the front. they just gave me a cheery wave and drove off.
drove all the way home bricking it and spent the next few weeks dreading the brown envelope of doom. but nothing happened about it.
shit me up big time though
pulled out to overtake and i noticed the blue lights on top and coppers in the front. they just gave me a cheery wave and drove off.
drove all the way home bricking it and spent the next few weeks dreading the brown envelope of doom. but nothing happened about it.
shit me up big time though
Just went up to stafford (up north) to Autovouge and spent lots of money. £2200 Doh . anyway went up the m25 no cop cars about then up the m40 and m42 still no cops about and then on the m6 i saw one marked pug 306. That was the only police presence i saw all day . I was a good boy and didnt exceed the speed limit all day 
. Surely if the goverment truely wants to cut speeding and BAD driving it should spend its money on making the polices presence felt on the road because your not going to be naughty it your being watched. 
Dan
. Surely if the goverment truely wants to cut speeding and BAD driving it should spend its money on making the polices presence felt on the road because your not going to be naughty it your being watched. Dan rospa said:
Hi Tonyrec
I'm sure I read somewhere that if there is another vehicle between the police car and target vehicle at any time during the time the target vehicle is being monitored, then the speed check should be abandonded?
No, not at all.
On the Motorways etc there are often cars in between the Target and yourself. You just have to be honest and accurate when both starting and completing the check.
Most/all of this depends on the honesty of the Police Officer but you can rest assured that if one gets away because you had to abort a check etc then you dont ahve to wait too long for another. In this respect you can be assured of the integrity of the Officer.
The only time a speed check could be abandoned is say.....when youre doing a check from a fixed point and you set off in pursuit of the vehicle concerned and you lose him/he goes out of sight etc.
Unless of course you got the index or some other distinctive mark on the vehicle and you are in no doubt that it was the Target vehicle etc etc.
tonyrec said:
If youre ever near Wembley, give me a shout.
Ah so you're a wembley BIB. What happened to the cop shop on Preston Hill then? I used to live round there but haven't been down that stretch for a while. I was surprised to see washing lines and laundry hanging out of what was once a bustling CID floor.
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