Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Hey all

Quick question about forward facing avg speed cameras .... Can they catch us bikes? I was thinking about it on a ride home the other day as someone came filing past me doing about 60 in the 50... The obvious answer is of course no, but is it possible for the cameras from the other side of the motorway / a road to catch our back plates ? I only ask because if they cant, how do they monitor people in the contraflow lanes?!

Cheers

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

No the ones on the opposite carriageway can't get you. On contraflow they have seperate cameras set up pointing at the front of each lane's cars.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

The new Software for average speed cameras can get bike. Like the ones on the cat and fiddle. The cameras look EXACTLY the same.

It's a risky game now, and there's no way to tell the difference.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

so they catch the bike, but how can they trace you with no plate visible?

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Eh? I'm pretty sure they'll be a way to record the plate number. They're not that stupid! :p

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

CCTV in the roadworks that picks up breakdowns can also monitor moving traffic, and they know that between point X and point Y, something without a front number plate was moving through this area. If you annoy them enough, there may well be one pointing in the right direction (or a traffic car up ahead) the next time you go through.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

not stupid ! can i refur you to this thread ;) http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=150503


thought as much, i got average cameras on the the way to and from work, aways take it easy just i case :smt108

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Average speed cameras work on ANPR technology. They read your number plate at one point, and then again at another, and work out the average speed between the two locations. It follows that if they can't read your number plate they won't even know you were there, let alone how fast you were going. With regard to reading across the carriageway, in short no they won't. The cameras are set up with a very specific field of view and focal length so unless it is specifically adjusted to read the opposite carriageway (for example in a contraflow) then it won't routinely read anything there.
Average speed cameras are effective because the majority of drivers comply with them, which actually makes it quite hard for someone else to speed, unless they are on a motorbike or prepared to weave in and out of the traffic. If they do this they tend to stand out, which makes them very easy prey for an unmarked car. As has been mentioned if you also do it regularly along a particular stretch the public tend to complain, (nothing like a feeling of injustice to motivate some people) and then someone gets tasked to specifically go there and wait for you.

My advice is to try and stick to the average speed limits, you really are easy pickings if you don't.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Does anyone know of anyone actually being fined from an average speed camera? I've not heard of anyone yet.

C

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Had an attempt on a night time one but they forgot to stand the speed limit signs up and even then they were wrong size and position.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

I gotta be honest i dont worry too much about them when on my bike, its difficult in traffic to get any real speed up anyway, i do weave in the traffic if i want to make some time up but not too much.
Wouldnt try and filter though in narrow lanes, i aint that brave.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Okay, not an average speed camera, but they took the time to trace down this guy http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-...gatso/791.html

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Still cannot see how they could convict where they prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was him, he fessed up im sure.
Complete denial or its just circumstantial surely.
I have waved at the cameras before #-o

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Lots of myth about isn't there! Nope, as per RH's post, if they can't read your plate, they don't even record your speed or register the fact your vehicle has passed though. I haven't seen the Cat & Fiddle ones, but the MCN article the day they went in said they were rear facing.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Software? How does that help when the cameras are pointing the other way?

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Because all they need to do is turn them around... They can even re position cameras on the opposite side of the carriage way. So you now never know, making it not worth the risk.

You would be very suprised at what theycan do with them. Got them installed on quite a few of my projects at the moment.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Not really a software aspect then if they just turn them around! :p

I thought they could already read fine even if traffic was going away from the camera location, rather than approaching...

I've only ever used them for O-D surveys, and when I say use, I 'supervise' (watch) whilst another company puts them on masts.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

I don't know the ins and out, I just know the people we use now say they can get bikes very easily. They can do literally anything with them now, in any sequence or order.

They have always been 100% honest with me about ways around them right from the start when we first started using them on major road projects when you could just switch lanes to avoid them.

Theres no way to avoid them known at the moment :(, sometimes they are not always fully installed and just a visual thing on temporary roadworks of short duration as the cost is not worth and they are just as effective anyway.

I wouldn't risk it now and I always used too lol

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Thanks for the info guys - ive never taken the chance myself, just observed a few people that did and a few people that didnt, general consensus seems its not really worth the risk if theres even a slim chance you could get done.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

M62 has had these on for months now, maybe coming close to a year with the restricted 50mph limit.
As someone abova said, where the lanes narrow for the road works I tend not to filter, but the rest of it is a doddle. Frequently do 70 if traffic allows it and once after the final camera before my turn off I always speed back up there, not to say I wont get caught but as yet I've been lucky. (just try not to take the pi55 boris)

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Yes Berlin, a mate of mine received a fine and points for an average speed camera set up a while back near Runcorn roadworks on the M53. Up until then I had my doubts...not any more though!

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

We've had some fancy new average speed cameras under test on the Redditch to Bromsgrove A448 Road for some time now. However, in the last two weeks they have turned them around 180 degrees and they now read the rear number plate rather than the front. Could be the shape of things to come??

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Wasnt the reason for hte forward facing ones, that people were able to argue out of a claim due to lack of proof of a driver. You revert back to rear facing cameras and you bring back this excuse loophole. (doesnt effect bikers either way as we've got lids obviously.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Didn't they change the law to get around this? Something like it's now the owner's duty to identify the driver otherwise they'll be the one who gets stuck with the fine and points.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Hmm, interesting, need to be careful on that road then.

Probably is the shape of things to come unfortunately.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Eh no....the shape of things to come is an electronic bug in every vehicle and a reader on every lampost.........or am I being paranoid? (or wishful thinking depending on which hat I'm wearing at the moment!)

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

My understanding is once they send an intention to prosecute you are legally bound to declare who the driver is. If you don't they just do the registered keeper for not owning up.

Don't worry about these cameras just yet as they seem to be a test site with big signs advising just testing. They've had some real wierd gear on site including additional cameras a few yards down the road from the main SPECS cameras over the carriageway to satellite dishes (hot line to DVLA??) and floodlights.

If they ever turn them on for real they'll catch me that same day as like most of the regulars on this road we ignore them.

Give it a couple more years and the speed limit will be 50mph on the majority of rural A roads in the country as they are in most of Warwickshire.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Whats worrying is that I'm sure that was the aim of the chipped number plates that were canned not too long ago... but I openly admit to my paranoia :p

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

The shape of things to come (I reckon) is a GPS box in every vehicle to facilitate 'pay-per-mile' road tax. As a convenient side effect, your location and max speed / average speed will be recorded by big brother and fines generated automatically. Won't happen in the next 10 years I reckon... but eventually.

Norwich Union... err, Aviva, already offer this to customers looking to be part of their pilot, although they do it under the guise of 'pay-per-mile' insurance.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

the day they bring that in or the tag in every lampost is the day i go and buy a lead sheet and bend it over what ever device on my bike is clocking me.
just take it off now and then and go for an easy ride :p

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

Given how weak the GPS signals are I'd imagine a sheet of aluminium foil would be more than adequate. No point carrying lead around with you.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

They'll probably do it using a visibly mounted shark fin type antenna mounted on the roof of cars or the fairings of bikes, so police can see if there's anything covering it.

Actually scratch that, it'll be CCTV, road policing will have disappeared entirely through lack of funding and replacement with technology, it almost has already due to the speed camera. The government are not interested in drink driving it seems, so long as they can slow the drunk ones down.

The day they introduce GPS tracking units, will be the day a lot of normally law abiding citizens start riding around on illegal bikes that are not fitted with them and blatantly put two fingers up to the state. I'll be one of them, arrest me if you want, my house will be up for sale the next day and I'll finally be perusing that dream of a villa in the sun seriously.

Re: Forward facing average speed cameras
 

surely, the police, taking it to these extremes is invasion of privacy!
I recon several coats of a metallic spray over the fin and then a few coats of whatever colour the fin was originally should do the trick... looks the same but no signal