Gatso's

Can you set the standard back facing gatso's off while travelling towards them?

I didn't think you could but I was travelling home from SteetBike with my nice new grab rail that Suzuki decided to replace under warranty (paint wasn't finished on the old one properly and just flaked off) there was a camera on the other side of the road and as I got closer it flashed, the last car to go past it on that side of the road had left the bit with the lines on a few seconds before.

If it did flash because of me what will happen? I was going 40 and the road is a 30 that I’m sure till fairly recently had less speed cameras and was a 40.

I think you'ld best get the push bike out and prepare for a long ban....











If it was facing towards you it wouldn;t have got your number plate on the bike. Else you can set them off but as you were going in the other direction the lines on the road aren't calibrated for your direction.

I'm convinced that you can set them off. They only flash once and can't actually catch you. I think that it's either a deliberate warning flash or a bug where the camera gets confused and flashes when it shouldn't.

There's one on the North Circular near Chiswick roundabout that is often set off by vehicles travelling in the other direction.

I've set them off going the other direction also - got a double flash. The direction shouldn't matter in terms of calibration, so I don't see why they couldn't get you if you're in the car at the time.

I know they wouldn't have got my reg, I was just suprised it flashed to be honest.

It's happened to me, on a section of road where there are no markings on the oncoming road. I think it's just a malfunction. They can't do you as they don't have your reg.

Yep - they can be set off when travelling towards them on the opposite side of the road.

I've done it loads of times on the bike and once in the car. Didn't get a ticket for the car one.

Good fun scaring the wits out of those "in the zone" on the other side of the road

Just make sure you don't get confused with a truvelo when trying this in the cage

I used to go out of my way to speed up above the limit purely to set them off while facing them... stopped doin' it tho after a police car stopped me and took pictures of me with my gear on and off which he said would be used incase i set off a forward facing camera. dunno if he was serious or not tho. sounds like a lot of efort for the sake of 5 mph. Guess it might be worth it if i was going 150 in a 30 zone tho.

Yeah, I've done that (42 in a 30). Friends used to do it and give a thumbs-up, just to waste the film (when they had film...) and pee off the people looking at photos.

I've heard are that gatsos are only designed to get someone from the back, so going towards them even in a car, in theory (not tried it!) shouldn't get you in trouble anyway... they're only meant to cover both sides of the road in case someone gets clever and tries to go onto the other side of the road to avoid it...

I've also heard that if they flash going towards you it means they're a dummy, as the real one would only pick up an object moving away from it... I don't believe that one though!