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Original poster

Speed Camera Related...

18 replies

BlueNeighbourhood · 07/03/2018 10:02

Can the police hide speed cameras in a vehicle? Genuine question!

I've had a speeding fine through the post for doing 57mph in a 50mph zone. I dispute this because I have cruise control set at 50mph on said road as I know how easy it is to go over.

The road is a long straight road with no static speed cameras. It has an ANPR camera on either side of the road, however....

...halfway up the long road is what looks like a gardening business' van. It's been parked there since before Christmas and has never been moved as grass is growing around it. I would've thought the police would have moved it by now as it's clearly abandoned.

Is it possible the police have hidden a camera in this van? Not that it makes a difference as I wasn't even speeding but can't prove it. It's just confusing me where this camera bloody was that apparently caught me!

OP posts:
bettinasofine · 07/03/2018 10:05

I didn't think they would be able to do that.

My neighbours were both done by a speed camera 20 minutes apart in the same
Car on the same road doing exactly the same speed. They know they only drove the road once that day and the van in front of them was going at the speed of light as they commented on how fast it was travelling. Now they've both ended up in court with points and fine. Even the magistrate was HmmConfused but fined them anyway. It's a bloody joke.

bridgetreilly · 07/03/2018 10:11

No, they can't disguise it as something else, though a mobile speed camera unit can park anywhere. It will still be obvious what it is.

CakeOfThePan · 07/03/2018 10:32

They aren't allowed to hide, but if your not really looking at the van and are paying attention to the road it just looks like a parked up police van with black windows.
Does your speedo read over or bang on? DH's reads absolutely spot on which is really really unusual, they mostly are about 5 over (although i did have a car that was nearly 10 over)

My DH's work had something odd recently where a speeding ticket came through for someone doing 85 in a 40, on a road it is highly highly unlikely you could get to 85 there is also often speed trap vans so its not somewhere you would risk it, it could only be three people and none of them are likely to have been doing that sort of way over. There were three vehicles in the picture all in a line at the time and the police have dropped the case, which given how much over it is i am guessing their machine was being off that day.

DGRossetti · 07/03/2018 10:52

(although i did have a car that was nearly 10 over)

You mean not road legal Hmm

Original poster
BlueNeighbourhood · 07/03/2018 11:06

My speedometer is about 2mph over from what I've previously checked, but because the road is long and straight and a dual carraigeway I have to put the cruise control on as otherwise I would go a lot quicker.

The road itself did go from 70 to 50 back to 70 but they changed it recently to all 50 hoping I guess to catch lots of people out.

I also know the place the mobile cameras park! So I know definitely I didn't pass one and I thought the only thing it could've been was this gardening van which is obviously abandoned and they're using it...

OP posts:
IllustriouslyIllogical · 07/03/2018 11:09

You mean not road legal

Speedos are allowed to read over, they're not allowed to read under.

Even changing the tyres on some cars can change the speedo readings so 10 over isn't unbelievable.

Our speedo didn't work for 5 years in one of our old cars, still passed its MOT every year because it's not part of the test...

CakeOfThePan · 07/03/2018 13:28

Completely road legal, DH's car is the only car i have ever come across (and believe me I've driven ALOT of different cars of varying ages) that has read spot on, the others read over admittedly 10 was a lot hence mentioning it.

You know when you order your new car and upgrade the wheels to the 18" lovely ones you like, that will change the speedo. Do they recalibrate your speedo at the dealership, no, no they don't.

PsychologicalSaline · 07/03/2018 13:38

How do you test how much your speedo is reading over/under by?

hotcrossbunsandtea · 07/03/2018 13:45

I also know the place the mobile cameras park!

They can park wherever they want, doesn't have to be the same spot each time.

IllustriouslyIllogical · 07/03/2018 14:01

How do you test how much your speedo is reading over/under by?

Stick it on cruise control at a certain speed & see how fast your GPS says your going.

Better off to just stick to what the speedo says though, I know that if I'm driving at 60 I'm actually going much slower so will never get caught by a 60MPH camera, whereas if I was driving at a real 60MPH it's easy to wander over a bit more....

IllustriouslyIllogical · 07/03/2018 14:02

They can park wherever they want, doesn't have to be the same spot each time.

They tend to though, mostly because they're "safety" cameras so have to be near areas that are considered a risk.....

JanDough · 07/03/2018 14:07

They can't hide but morally you don't have a leg to stand on.

Speeding = chance of being fined.

@PsychologicalSaline

MOT or compare it to a GPS. Changing tyres can lead to inaccurate readings as most speeds are read by sensors on the drive shaft or somewhere else on the drive train. You're unlikely to change tyres enough to make too much difference. Speedos need to be within 10% of the actual speed.

hotcrossbunsandtea · 07/03/2018 14:23

They tend to though, mostly because they're "safety" cameras so have to be near areas that are considered a risk.....

True - regardless, it doesn't matter where the camera is - you can't say "well, I didn't see it" as an excuse!

IllustriouslyIllogical · 07/03/2018 21:19

MOT or compare it to a GPS.

MOT doesn't check the speedo...

gingergenius · 07/03/2018 21:34

Pay the fee, doo the speed awareness course and perhaps click your speed in future.

reddington · 07/03/2018 21:47

You know when you order your new car and upgrade the wheels to the 18" lovely ones you like, that will change the speedo

Negligible. The manufacturer will have specced the wheel/tyre options appropriately.

RavenBrow · 07/03/2018 22:10

The police can't hide cameras in discrete vehicles, but they totally should be allowed to! Far more effective than kindly signposted cameras.
It's amazing the excuses people come out with as to why they couldn't possibly have been speeding.

CakeOfThePan · 08/03/2018 11:24

YEs negligible but noticeable at higher speeds. Still within a tolerance but still knocks it out slightly. Weights fall off alloys, tyres get damaged. All that has an affect. After all they are the only part of the car in contact with the road

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