Interesting development in speed cameras

[Lutin]

From Wemoto's February newsletter, of all places - Slow Down You Move To Fast, Got To Make The Morning Last

NEW EQUIPMENT TO SPOT RIDERS AND DRIVERS WHO BRAKE FOR THE SPEED CAMERAS ARE BEING TESTED IN SPAIN

In the spring of last year new speed cameras began to be trialled in Spain, which can detect, not only a vehicle's speed but also if a vehicle is braking sharply just before it passes the fixed speed camera, to give a false impression of its overall speed. This is an initiative designed to tackle the high mortality rates on Spanish roads, by slowing drivers down and preventing them from exceeding the speed limit between cameras, when they think no one is looking. Currently Spain uses a combination of fixed roadside cameras and mobile cameras attached to drones, to patrol the roads and spot speeders. Apart from the drones though, it is generally easy for riders to evade speed camera attention, by just slowing down when one is spotted in the distance and then speeding up again once they have passed the camera. Riders and drivers who regularly use the same roads, learn where the cameras are and slow down when they are approaching them.

The new devices being trialled consist of two cameras a short distance apart, which can see further down the road and cover a greater distance travelled, thus spotting behaviours like vehicles driving over the speed limit and just braking where the speed cameras are. They are basically behaving more like average speed cameras rather than fixed speed cameras. They are reputed to be able to detect if a vehicle gets back up to speed after passing the camera, as well as when they are approaching it.

It will be interesting to know the follow up to this trial and whether drivers and motorcyclists will actually be more likely to be caught speeding, or whether they will just learn the range and whereabouts of the new camera system, perhaps after a couple of tickets, and simply adjust their behaviour accordingly to avoid them.

Any thoughts on this one? Do you always stick religiously to the speed limit or are you guilty of slowing down for the cameras? Done any speed awareness courses lately?

[Druid]

I ignore the speed limits when I want to, but of course I slow down when I see a camera.

Speed awareness courses don't work - I've done 2

[Cousin Jack]

I treat speed limits as advice, based on someone else's opinion. Sometimes I accept that opinion, and stick to the limit, sometimes I think that opinion is daft and I use my common sense as to how fast is safe. If camera's or scammera vans are about I am a saint, and I have a pretty good memory for where I have seen cameras. So far it is zero points and zero speed awareness courses.

[The Spin Doctor]

I ignore the speed limits when I want to, but of course I slow down when I see a camera.

Speed awareness courses don't work - I've done 2

I'm sure they do... you must know you're speeding

[The Spin Doctor]

Slow down you move TOO fast...

What on earth do they teach the yoof of today???

But seriously... speed cameras to monitor speed cameras? Where does it stop?

I got a tip in Spain one year that they deploy speed cameras in adapted wheelie bins. No idea if it was true.

[Supermofo]

They'll need camera's to monitor the camera's, which then in turn will need more camera's to monitor those camera's and so on. People will just adapt their speeding/braking distance from the camera unless there is a full average camera coverage or everyone is limited some other way.

From what I've seen in Spain speeding seems less of an issue to giving enough room the gaps people leave are way too small. That and things like having dead stop junctions onto fast A roads