Safe Speed Forums

Well i looked at it earlier today.. Its a camera sited in the centre of the road which can be turned in either direction.. its angled towards the traffic coming the other way...for the forward facing photography.

Of course it is obvious, the camera only has 2 lenses and both of them are on the front of it.
If the camera lenses are facing you as you approach, then how on earth is it going to photograph the rear of your vehicle once you have passed it?

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

It can't, but it can photograph the front of your car as you approach, if it's working in forward-facing mode... How do you know which mode it's in? You may be able to figure it out from the position of the camera, the layout of the road, and the presence/absence of camera-related road markings, but it's not necessarily as obvious as you think it is.

e.g. You're driving along a dual-carriageway and you see a Truvelo, flash/camera side of the box clearly visible as you approach, in the central reservation. How do you tell if it's monitoring your side of the road in front-facing mode, or monitoring the other side of the road in rear-facing mode?

The angle of the camera is enough for me to detect what carriageway is being monitored, although this is a bit academic anyway as common sense tells you that the minute you see the bright orange box you should check your speed.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Ah, OK, that would be enough of a clue. The part of the UK I spend most of my time driving around seems to be almost entirely Truvelo-free (I only know of 3... if only the same could be said of their Gatso cousins ), so I don't get to see them on a regular basis, and the ones I have seen have always appeared to be mounted with no obvious angling of the housing towards the lane/carriageway being monitored.

HMM, just maybe a solution to the problem. According to data on truvellos from another site ( can't remember which) the truvello needs a grid in the road prior to the camera to trigger it - the three white lines are to get your speed. So ,in theory, if grid in road ( look for tar marks on your side) are before camera and its pointing at your face , its looking to photo you front on. Problem their hard to see - so you might want to get out and check road. However , another site suggests that the reason for the infra red idea was to take a picture of you and no plate without any arguement about the safety aspect of a flash in your face. So they'll always be looking to photo you and car .so you can't say it wasn't you driving. The ones i've spotted all point in that direction
Not gospel - just some ideas for discussion.

Try telling the Bedfordshire Constabulary to activate the infra red mode then, a Truevelo flashed me in the face at 1am a few weeks ago.

I'd dearly love to know who they intended to send the NIP to though, I was riding a motorcycle and wearing a full face bash hat at the time

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Nice one Gixxer -
but the flash bit is interesting - all the blurb is that it uses infra red , but a mate at work swears blind that when he got done by one he saw a flash of sorts too.That was Northampton

Saw this on another site with a very similar name"The forward-facing cameras work by infra-red so don’t flash when they take a picture, and they are able to photograph the driver’s face as well as the car to help prosecution."

Truvelo cameras don't use infra-red. They have a normal white flash with a magenta filter. Apparently the human eye is least sensitive to magenta.

Gareth

It doesn't matter how many filters you put in front of a flash, unless the filter is opaque then you can rest assured that the human eye is more than moderately sensitive to the flash when it goes off in your face at 1am along a road that has no street lighting at all.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

So the scams don't just tell porkies about other things then.

Speed into one of these, off goes flash, chances you'll have a prang - caused by speeding they say.
slow down , flash doesn't go off and you drive by safely - (no accident)

ergo - accidents are caused by speeding (in simplistic terms with tongue very much in cheek)

That would explain the couple of people on Pepipoo who were blinded by truvelo's with broken filters.

Good bit of design there. The only thing protecting the public is breakable and a ripe target for vandalism!