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Speed Camera detectors
30 Answers
Has anybody bought a camera/radar detector? How effective are they? I have been warned that even traffic lights set them off. Cameras are easier to spot but radar guns hiden away are a nightmare! Can anybody recommend a good detector? Thanks
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Traffic lights do set some of them off, but mainly it is ones with the cameras on top of the traffic lights. You can set them to city mode so that they dont detect uneccessairly stuff when your driving in built up areas. If they dont work going past a speed camera, then the camera doesnt work, thats how much you can trust them!
30 in a 30 is the absolute top end you should be doing. We're talking about some kid that'll be paralysed for life just because some guy thought he was Mr Schumacher. Besides, if you're buying a detector, it's to avoid speed cameras and police radar, and standard prosecution for speeding runs at the trigger point of (speedlimit+10%+2mph). So 34 would probably not trigger a 30mph camera. In fact they're probably set at about 37 to avoid picking too many people up.
Your machine will pick up gatsos and lasers when it's too late to respond anyhow.
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I have used a Snooper S4 for the past twelve months or so and it is absolutely first class. I did not bother with the radar extra, because by the time it picks up radar you have probably been booked anyway, and I also go to France now and again where radar is illegal but GPS (which is how the Snooper notifies of cameras) is not. You do get false alarms now and again, but you soon learn how to differentiate. I have mine set on 400 metres, which is more than enough. Buy one through an internet dealer, they are substantially cheaper. The Snooper plugs into the cigarette lighter, and we move it between 2 cars and a van!
I really get bored with the type of sanctimonius "if you speed you will kill or maim a child" type of answer to this sort of question. Speeding in built up areas is madness and the guilty deserve to be banned, however, speed cameras are more about making money for the cops than promoting road safety, thats why they are often hidden, and why they are to be found on clean, safe roads nowhere near built up areas or accident black-spots. The last time I got a speeding ticket was at three in the morning on a well lit, deserted dual carriage way. I was in the only car for miles. I was doing 70 on it, hardly a break neck speed in dry weather with good visability and a modern, well maintained car. The posted limit was 50, so the gatso got me, big deal! Another nasty criminal apprehended. After that I got a "road angel" wich is of the GPS variety, and generally works well, providing you remember to update it regularly. "radar" type detectors are rubbish, by the time you have spotted them, they have spotted you, and your nicked!
Kevin Lowe et al. Did you ever stop to thing for one teeny-weeny minute that the speed limits might just possibly be there for safety reasons? Not only that but if you can't see a speed camera it's for 1 of 3 reasons. Either you are going so fast you don't see it til you're past it OR you're not paying attention OR you're a moron. Either way you deserve to get caught. It's really, really simple. Whether you agree with the speed limit or not, its there. It's the law. If you decide the law doesn't apply to you & you choose to break it, that's up to you but please don't bloody whinge about it when you're caught. If you don't want those nasty money-grabbing policemen to nick poor innocent speeding motorists then don't go faster than the limit! Jeez, how complicated could it possibly be?! New Forester has provided some very excellent instructions for the hard-of-thinking. If you can't follow them you shouldn't be on the road.
Lots of "Holy Joes " writing answers to this question... wonder how many can put hand on heart and say" I NEVER EVER did do more than the speed limit...! not many I suspect...but very quick to point the finger...! there are SO many signs On and at the side of the road these days its easy to get caught by the carefully camourflarged (?) camera...We keep hearing of STEALTH TAX . the motorist will ALWAYS be easier to catch than a good thief....shop around for a good detector,... my mate saved his licence at least 3 times last week on a trip to Scotland... and we were not trying to break the sound barrier...
I really have to ask a question to all those who object to what appears to be a sanctimonious attitude. I did feel just the same way. Then I got to thinking...
What precisely is it in the arguments that you don't agree with? Speeding kills...it's been proven to be the largest single cause of road accidents. If 50 is posted, it's not a 70 for a reason. 'Dry, quiet road etc' is often taken into account by coppers, so I suspect that there were reasons why your speed made it dangerous, that you weren't aware of (I presume you don't work for the Transport Research Lab so don't know what the risks were on that road). There may well be a blind section or an inflow lane up ahead, and they do not get enough notice of you at 70.
Secondly, Kev, I would point out some false assumptions in your posting.
1) Speeding in built up areas is often caused by the relative perception of speed caused by having been speeding on a motorway. It is neither built up areas nor motorways that have most fatal accidents, it is 'A' roads.
2) Fact: All speed camera revenue in the UK gets ploughed back into road safety, the argument that they're for making money for coppers is false. .
3) They're not hidden, all GATSOS in the UK now have fluorescent backing to give the nutters a chance.
4) "why they are to be found on clean, safe roads nowhere near built up areas or accident black-spots." FACT: All speed cameras of any description in the UK can only be mounted where there has already been an accident.
If you do appear in court over a more serious speeding offence, the fact that you did get caught speeding before and responded to it by simply trying to dodge the law with a wee machine will of course not do you any favours, especially if the judge is examining a 'causing death by dangerous driving' charge,where you're probably looking at life behind bars. Where gatsos don't work. Maybe in the showers...
slimfandango's figures are a generalisation and an unjustifiable one at that. I recently had to verify the facts of a case of speeding. A taxi driver returning home with no fare (having delivered a fare to a destnation very many miles away) was caught by a camera near a school at 33mph and was given three points. In normal circumstances this may be justified when children are around. It was at 3am on a wide and deserted straight road. The effect of this was devastating because some time later he picked up four points (possibly justified, I don't know the full facts) for a speeding offence at motorway roadworks. The local authority has a policy that the case of any hackney driver with more than six points must be reviewed by Committee, and the Committee revoked his hackney licence and thereby took away his livelihood. Magistrates rejected his appeal and it is now going higher.
The point I'm labouring to make is that the problem speed limits attempt to address is driving at inappropriate speed in the circumstances. They are a very blunt tool for this purpose. I don't think this driver's speed, while marginally above the limit, was inappropriate in the prevailing circumstances. Someone is going to say "OK, so what do you propose?" I leave that to the more technically gifted, but we have variable limits on the M25. The technology is there to use them elsewhere (albeit at a cost).
I was tonight overtaken by two sports cars on a motorway. They were obviously racing and at speeds well in excess of 100mph. These are the people who should have the book thrown at them (oh, and also boy racers with screeching tyres and stereos that can be heard half a mile away!).
Speed detectors, by the way are illegal in Scotland, where we tend to apply liberal doses of common sense. If you come up speeding our way some time again I hope we manage to catch you. You might even get done for your wee speed detector. You shouldn't really be suggesting it on the site either, it's technically incitement to cause a crime.
Toffee, I'm really glad cab drivers are getting done in this way, speeding on your own is bad enough, but putting the lives of passengers at risk also is appalling. Well done that council!
Speed cameras save lives and deter speeding. There is no other way at present to so efficiently deter the nutters who think they know better. There is NO GOOD REASON TO SPEED! What did he gain by doing 33 instead of 30? Got home 10 minutes earlier? All that increased risk and stress just to save 10 minutes?
Your argument about the M25 variable limit is fallacious. It does not exist because of differentials in appropriate maximum speeds on the M25, but as a result of research that showed that if everyone is made to drive a bit slower than the normal maximums, then EVERYONE gets to their destination faster. It is going too fast in congestion that results in the 'waves' of sudden braking that cause traffic jams.
Drive safe everyone! And just remember SPEEDING KILLS!
toffee - if that poor cab driver was such a good, safe driver, what did he get the other points for? besides what was the speed limit where he was driving? If he was doing 33mph it would not have registered on a speed camera in a 30mph limit. Wouldn't have been a 20mph limit by any chance would it..?
slimfandango, you will realise that my post was in response to your first post - I hadn't seen your second. I agree with some of what you say. But I disagree if you think that all cameras are unconcealed and all are colored fluorescent yellow. I can think of one windscreen facing camera (which admittedly I have not driven past for some time) which is neither. There is also one on the A2 into London which is yellow but neatly concealed in a recess in the retaining wall.
I am totally against any driver driving at inappropriate speed. I know of some 30 mph limits where I wouldn't dream of driving above 20, and others where I wouldn't drive above about 10.
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