New type of speed detection?

I was riding on the stratford banbury road today (sat 24) when i passed a blue transit van that looked like it had some type of monitioring equiment above the drivers door never seen anything quite like it before. The van was very clean and free of dents etc, was well maintained.

I know from australia where they have speed cameras mounted on the drivers side of the police cars that can catch you speeding whilst the police car is driving.

Has this techonlogy been introduced into the UK and if so will it take pics from the back of the van as evidence.

I was going to quick to get a good look at the back windows to look for camera slots etc but there was nothing on the side, the driver was not wearning a uniform ethier

[admin]

Not familiar with that one. DVLA also do license plate checks.

Seen em on the telly in unmarked cars with the NPR (number late recognition) system. Reads the plate, communicates with DVLA and rings a warning if there is no insurance indicated - all in about half a second.

Sorry i should point out that the van was moving

could it have just been filming the road/traffic for the telly? they must do it somehow!

If your suspicions are correct, that was a feasability study.

Local councils are starting to look at the possibility of using the Australian system here, but then, it's been on the shelf for a number of years.

Look out for cars with 2 drivers wing mirrors too

Basic method, radar type detection, you get a field of "vision" & you know how quickly an object is approaching, subtract your own speed, and bingo, you have the speed on the oncomer.

Most van type studies that I'm aware of have used a gimbal. So maybe that's what you saw. This setup is more expensive, but more capable because it can be "targetted".

Couple all this with a camera, and you'd better be careful. Of course, bikes are better off with a camera, and an unmarked car isn't always guranteed to turn around after you, that's a safety judgement.

P.S. It's radar, not laser that's been used (so far, to my knowledge). Which makes for fun modifications to your fairing. Not that I'm advocating anything, naturally.

i think i know what this is.

several companies are producing GIS systems for local authorities, they film the carriageway from several different angles, and then sync it all back to a chainage and a os plan, this allows highway authorities to do inventory and maintenance fault reporting stuff using the shots, they just send a guy out on site with a transponder and he takes photos, logs the problem and it gets put onto the plans straight away, its pretty cool, The highways agency have the majority of trunk roads already filmed, and get them re run every 2 years, then if a sign gets hit or something like that, you can check on the software exactly what was there before it got hit. A lot of local authorities are buying into this too, and some of the suppliers are filming the runs in advance and then trying to sell them on.