Gatso Speed Cameras

[Banus]

Do these wretched things only flash at night or when the levels drop to a certain level - or do they flash even in the day whenever the camera is activated.
What I'm trying to say is - if I didn't notice a flash in my rear view mirror I can assume that I didn't activate the camers.
Cheers all
:)

[GregK2]

I've been flashed in the daytime in the cage, so I have assumed they flash both day and night (camera must have been out of film as I never got any penalty...phew).

This was a couple of years ago though.

[medwaysv]

not sure how true this is but ive heard many people say if the camera flashes once
your fine its when it flashes twice that your in trouble
weather this is the stuff of urban legends or not i do not know

[SVeeedy Gonzales]

All Gatsos flash at all times of the day (though lots of rear facing truvelo cams now, which look similar but have a big round lens rather than the square thing in the gatso) so you should be fine.

The first flash is meant to be enough, the second flash is to check the calibration of the camera on the lines painted on the road/the vehicle distance moved in a given time period, as a double-check so it'll stand up better in a court. In theory if there's only one flash/no lines on the road to do the second check then they could still do you but in theory they'd have a harder time making it stand up.

Mind you, I was double-flashed by a gatso in my car ages ago and heard nothing and it's said that a lot of them are dummies (meant to be able to tell by the back - two plain grey circles is a dummy, but if there's metal studding coming through the circles, it's real. Dummy ones flash but have a cheaper and not as accurate sensor, so will flash people with a higher error rate.

And gatsos only work from the rear (a vehicle moving away from it) so if you get flashed driving over the limit towards it (it'll still flash) it's not possible to use that against you. They only paint lines on both sides of the road for one camera to catch people swerving onto the wrong side in a bid to avoid it.

I'm not a gatso obssessive. Honest!

[GSXR Carlos]

They only paint lines on both sides of the road for one camera to catch people swerving onto the wrong side in a bid to avoid it.

didn't know that :thumbsup:

[K]

I thought Truvelos were only forward facing in the same way that Gatsos are only rear facing.

Well, that's what I was told by the camera safety team anyways. We seem to have a preference for Truvelos rather than Gatsos in Northamptonshire (which is nice for bikes) but often (mostly in rural areas) there is only one - mounted on one side of the road - that will often be turned found to catch traffic coming the other way on the other side of the road.

Um, kinda...

<< camera
caught speeding>
<not caught

camera>>
not caught >
<caught speeding


Er, does that make any sense? :oops:

[Jelster]

I thought Truvelos were only forward facing in the same way that Gatsos are only rear facing.

That's what I thought...

And Northampton is the place for Truvelo's... The one I always remember is the one on the A43 heading towards Northampton from Brackley.... Only because I almost ignored while in the car, just remembered in time... Glad there was nobody behind me :lol: :roll:

.

[hoodlum]

If a camera (Gatso) flashes you once it's either out of film, or not loaded. It basically means, you're over the speed limit sonny, but you got away with it.

A double flash is filmed. It flashes twice with exact timing between the flashes and the photos are compared. Using the lines up the side of the road (evenly spaced) they measure how far you travelled in the time it took the camera to picture you twice. The little marks are examined, and your speed determined from a simple Time, Speed, Distance calulation; i.e that in the time it took the camera to flash, you went x lines distance thereby making your speed to be whatever it was over the limit....

It's nothing more complex than that.

Most cameras are set to 10% plus 2 miles, so a 30mph limited area witha camera in it will give you leeway of 10% (3mph) plus 2 mph for 35mph. That at least is the home office guideline.

Given that most speedos overread (they aren't allowed by law to underread) the speed you're traveling at, going past a 30mph limit camera at an indicated 35mph shouldn't trigger it. But it might.......

[Gnan]

aye, they're "supposed" to compare the secondary evidence, most don't and send the NIP through anyway.. there have been numerous cases when people haven't been speeding and they have had to prove their innocence using the lines in the road

[SVeeedy Gonzales]

Truvelos are capable of being used either way round. They prefer to use them from the front as they don't flash so can be used to get a picture of the drivers face so they can't claim it was their long lost cousin from Botswana who was driving the car at the time. They mount them the other way round (taking shots from behind) to catch bikers though.