What are 'Mobile Cameras'?
Discussion
This might seem a silly question, but in the neck of the woods where I live our tree-huggy idiot highway authority has planted forests of road signs proclaiming 'mobile cameras'.
But what do these things look like? Are they required to be high-visibility? A van parked in a lay-by with some official logo? Or are we talking about something camouflaged and hidden in the hedgerows?
Whilst I'm definitely not a supporter of speeding in general, the danger posed by people who overtake at 59.99999 mph on single lane roads is very worrying. Let's say that you happen to become stuck behind a beige Allegro toddling along at 45 mph on a 60 mph limited road. Before the camera threat, it was 'Mirror - signal - manoeuvre', overtake as briskly as possible to minimise exposure on the 'wrong' side of the road, then adjust back to 60 mph when safely past. If that meant doing 70 mph briefly, then that was no real worry provided the road conditions were safe. But nowadays you get people who will only overtake at 60; in many cases this increases their passing time very considerably - because they're more worried about collecting points on their licence for overtaking safely and being nobbled by some mysterious 'mobile camera' than they are about putting themselves at risk by prolonging an overtaking manoeuvre.
But what do these things look like? Are they required to be high-visibility? A van parked in a lay-by with some official logo? Or are we talking about something camouflaged and hidden in the hedgerows?
Whilst I'm definitely not a supporter of speeding in general, the danger posed by people who overtake at 59.99999 mph on single lane roads is very worrying. Let's say that you happen to become stuck behind a beige Allegro toddling along at 45 mph on a 60 mph limited road. Before the camera threat, it was 'Mirror - signal - manoeuvre', overtake as briskly as possible to minimise exposure on the 'wrong' side of the road, then adjust back to 60 mph when safely past. If that meant doing 70 mph briefly, then that was no real worry provided the road conditions were safe. But nowadays you get people who will only overtake at 60; in many cases this increases their passing time very considerably - because they're more worried about collecting points on their licence for overtaking safely and being nobbled by some mysterious 'mobile camera' than they are about putting themselves at risk by prolonging an overtaking manoeuvre.
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