Safe Speed Forums

Bit worried here...

Was driving home from work, came to a crossroads....was aproaching at about 10-20mph, so not speeding, the lights changed from Red to Red/Amber and I seemed to just roll through it a second or so too early...

I was turning right, the camera is on the right but facing traffic coming straight across...I was wondering if there's anyway it would have caught me from the side?

I seemed to notice a flash...although this could have been anything given it was dark...and my paranoia on speed cameras makes me think I get flashed everytime I see a light

Probably a better way of asking is...can a single camera catch people going straight ahead, say heading west, and another heading eastbound coming from the south?

Even though the camera is at a bit of a height I imagine it can't get a picture from the side view? ie of registration plate.

Bricking it...the annoying thing is is that I don't speed...I just anticipated the light change a second or so early.

Hi!

Basic answer, no.

The camera has to be behind to get two photos of the vehicle crossing the line and of the lights to show that they were actually red.

Also as you suggest it would have issues with the registration number too.

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Andrew.

Really? Never?

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Paul Smith: a legend.

"The freedom provided by the motor vehicle is not universally applauded, however: there are those who resent the loss of state control over individual choice that the car represents. Such people rarely admit their prejudices openly; instead, they make false or exaggerated claims about the adverse effects of road transport in order to justify calls for higher taxation or restrictions on mobility." (Conservative Way Forward: Stop The War Against Drivers)

You've saved me 14 days of worry

Nope

Just stayed in a good habbit of sticking to limits...I can gluide along at 30 now without checking what speed I'm doing...just used to the car probably. I did 70 on a 50 a few times during the night, when there was nothing around...until I saw a police van on the top of a bridge...needless to say I crapped myself and from then on thought 'it's not worth my licence...or 14 days panic waiting for the post'

Only time I ever speed is if there's merging traffic, and you could help them over if you speed up a bit to create a gap....although I'd look at moving over or if possible slowing down beforehand...

Ah-ha! So you are a criminal! Just like everyone else...

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Andrew.

To be fair when I do speed up for merging traffic I always think I've probably been caught, such is the utter mental disarray speed cameras cause me at times

Yeah, it's just not healthy is it? All this worry about being caught doing something the government thing you shouldn't do, all the worry about "why am I being spied on?" I want to know what I have done wrong that I have to be under surveillance on part of the journey to work?
But fortunately there is only one road on the journey which will ever have any speed limit enforcement (although I avoid the fixed camera by using back roads) and there's no traffic lights at all.
Just have to look out for the tractors, lorries and horse & carriages.

If you look by the white line at a traffic light camera you will be able to see the sensors, two pairs of piezo strips cut into the road. Very close to the line usually, not to be confused with sensors further back which are for the signals rather than the camera. They don't always install sensors over every lane. You'll always find the most profitable lane will have sensors though. Strange that.

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Andrew.

The most profitable one presumably being the one where idiots are more likely to try and jump the lights. There would be no 'profits' if drivers would just obey the lights. Strange that.

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Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

No, I mean that on a junction between a major road and a minor road the cameras are always on the major road, where opposing traffic would be going slower and there would be less of it.
From the minor road the opposing traffic would be moving faster there there would be more of it, so ignoring a red light on a minor road would be more dangerous.
Also I know of one set where the straight on/left lane in both directions on the main road (the most commonly used ones) have cameras and sensors, but the right-turn lane does not, nor do the side roads which have particularly bad visibility.

So the cameras are on the lanes where most traffic passes, rather than on the ones where there more danger.

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Andrew.

I can kinda see the reason for this. Anyone who's ever driven on Queens Drive in Liverpool would know they only need the red light camera in L3.

What happens is it's a 2-lane road, but increases to 3-lane at lights (with additional lanes for right turners) then shortly after the lights L3 disappears again, so the impatient people queue up in L3 and drag race the people in L2 with the aim of cutting in before the lane vanishes.


Personally I find that if you must do this, it's better to stop a car length or so short of the stopline and begin accelerating on amber. As far as I can tell it's legal and there's no need for all the revving or to dump the clutch (which would be really bad in my automatic) or any of the other boy racer stupidity. It's handy if you're stuck behind someone who hasn't realised they're in a

But if the bulk of the traffic is approaching along the major road at a higher speed there are more potential opportunities for light gamblers to try their luck and get it wrong. When two vehicles collide at a junction, from a pure 'what happens next' and 'danger' point of view, which of them is going fastest is largely irrelevant; someone is going to get hurt.
So having the camera on the major road to act as a deterrent to light gambling from the direction it is most likely to occur makes sense. To me anyway.

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Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.