Tuesday 9th March 2004

RoadCheck

Speed trap warnings from your mobile phone

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RoadCheck, a Dutch firm, has introduced a new speed trap warning system for UK motorist s.

This system is a bit different however. The idea is that you subscribe to the service and receive alerts via your mobile phone.

Subscribing is easy enough, and can be done by sending the text message ROAD <region> ON to 83155. You can subscribe to a motorway or a county.

Subscribers to the RoadCheck then receive messages with the location of speed traps. Each message costs 20p and the service is "discretely billed" by the mobile phone provider. Commuters can add multiple regions and roads to their "profile" ensuring they receive all reports on their regular commute. .

Roadcheck's motto is "Our eyes, your road". We recommend you don't mothball your eyes just yet though...

The system was first introduced in the Netherlands in December 2001, currently with well over 100,000 subscribers to the service and an aggressive European expansion is planned for 2004. RoadCheck is the sole provider of speed trap information to several major Dutch cellular operators, Internet service providers and radio stations. The "driving force" behind RoadCheck is Roods/PlatformOne, active in interactive services since 1994.

What we're really waiting for though is the phones to be communicating their position back to give location specific warnings when you're on the move. When that sort of technology kicks in phones will take on all sorts of new roles.

Link : www.roadcheck.info

[DustyC]

I was thinking of just this idea the other day.

If we had a button in our car that when we passed a mobile speed camera/scamera van we pressed an it stored our exact location and direction of travel on a central database. Then when any of the other users came into the area it alerted them of the speed camera.

the only problem would be the numpties that pressed the button too much when there were no cameras and ruined it for everyone

BUT....to get rid of them they could get banned if they report 2 or more hoaxes in a year.

brilliant idea!
Some one make it and give one to me, subscription free please!

[PetrolTed]

They already did. It's called Geodesy

[DustyC]

googling....

[DustyC]

nah, it doesnt have the button to press to warn everyone else there is a mobile camera there on that day.

Origin B2 still sounds like the best buy to me.

[DustyC]

nah, it doesnt have the button to press to warn everyone else there is a mobile camera there on that day.

Origin B2 still sounds like the best buy to me.
Especially when as a package with the LRC200.

[streaky]

DustyC said:

nah, it doesnt have the button to press to warn everyone else there is a mobile camera there on that day. Origin B2 still sounds like the best buy to me.

The Origin database does not store the reported locations of mobile scameras. Neither is the Origin database (and AFAIK the databases of all the other GPS-based systems) updated immediately with reportedly "new" static scamera locations. The are all (they say) checked out before being entered on the database - Streaky

[rodsmith]

One day all that you will need is your mobile phone...


And a lot of telephone numbers

[tvrinbfg]

Sounds good, but on a 300 metre stretch of clear straight A-road from Shipley into Leeds, near where I live, there are six speed cameras. So it would cost £1.20 to do that short bit of distance.

[tekta]

DustyC said:

I was thinking of just this idea the other day. If we had a button in our car that when we passed a mobile speed camera/scamera van we pressed an it stored our exact location and direction of travel on a central database. Then when any of the other users came into the area it alerted them of the speed camera. the only problem would be the numpties that pressed the button too much when there were no cameras and ruined it for everyone BUT....to get rid of them they could get banned if they report 2 or more hoaxes in a year. brilliant idea! Some one make it and give one to me, subscription free please!

hmmm..
Sounds like you want this then

www.pocketgpsworld.com/uksafetycameras.php

I'm sure the good people here at Pistonheads would do their bit to keep it up to date, we are only helping each other non?!

Will have this on my in car PC once my GPS receiver turns up, somewhat cheaper than Road Angel etc.

[Peter Ward]

tvrinbfg said:

Sounds good, but on a 300 metre stretch of clear straight A-road from Shipley into Leeds, near where I live, there are six speed cameras. So it would cost £1.20 to do that short bit of distance.

Now that would be a toll road!

[ScottC]

tvrinbfg said:

Sounds good, but on a 300 metre stretch of clear straight A-road from Shipley into Leeds, near where I live, there are six speed cameras. So it would cost £1.20 to do that short bit of distance.

We are not THAT evil

We will always try and put as many reports in each message as possible.

[DustyC]

ScottC, have you thought of a system where users could report the scameras? (as i mentioned at the beginning of this thread)

[ScottC]

Yes, we are working closely with some operators to combine GSM Location based services with either a WAP or SMS based reporting tool. We want to make the reporting tool as cheap as possible for people to use, but also rule out people misusing it.

With GSM Location based we would receive the location of the person and our systems will add that location to the database.

Sadly the world of the GSM operator is a slow one so I don't expect anything in the coming months but we are certainly not standing still.

[DustyC]

Did you read my early comments on how to stamp out miss use?

It basically says that if someone hoaxes 3 times they are banned for a year.

[ScottC]

DustyC said:

Did you read my early comments on how to stamp out miss use? It basically says that if someone hoaxes 3 times they are banned for a year.

Sorry for missing that one...

I can't tell you exactly how we keep track but I can tell you that we have a system in place to get rid of hoaxers. We've had 3 years in Holland to perfect it

Of course we will never be able to fully stop them, but we can get pretty close.

[misternomer]

Take a look at this - like Origin but for mobile phones.

www.trafcam.com