Safe Speed Forums

Which speed measurment equipment is there in the UK?

In Holland we have fixed speedcamera's based on radar and induction. Point-to-point systems. We have mobile radar equipment and optospeed (speed measurement by optical method). Also we have laser guns, undercover cars with video camera registration using trip-track for measurement. We will have mobile point-to-point system's, probably this year.

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www.beterveilig.nl

http://www.speed-trap.co.uk/ is a very interesting and informative site, detailing every type of camera in use in the UK.

Mostly it is GATSOs and a few Truvelos, but we have also recently got the wonders of SPECs in a few areas. (Read the site for definitions of all these wonderful terms and more..)

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

Don't forget the thousands of camera vans with LTi 20/20's sat in them. There are more of them these days than all the GATSOs put together (so I hear).

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Carl Prescott

I post this question as fighting tickets is quite big in Holland. One of the legal points is the aligning of Multanova equipment. This has to be alongside with the markings of the road.

This week I took some pictures of doubtful alligning.

See for a picture: this report. I'm talking about the fourth and fifth picture top->bottom. Click on the images for enlargement.

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www.beterveilig.nl

The pictures I am pointing out are about bad-alligned radar equipment. It has to be 90 degrees along with the road. In Holland, we have a 3% margin, but this is for measured speed. The pictures show radar equipment measuring a higher speed, than actually is driven. It is not really sure whether this situation is a proper legal point yet, but perhaps the argument would be interesting issue for people in the UK to fight that ticket. The 3% margin is in Holland a result of a legal case, about errors in radar alignment and calibration of the equipment. This gives the uncertainty in the case of figthing that ticket in our country. Question is, is this deviation within the 3% margin or not. I don't know.

In our country, the equipment has to be calibrated once a year, if this doesn't happen, speed tickets will be dropped if someone finds out. It did happen once and this is why these reports have significance.

So if someone gets a speed ticket, we write a letter asking for all items in the legal file. This happens to be the following items:
* The photograph
* The calibration report
* Alignment report
* An extended description of assumed observation (an extension on the given police report)

For small ones, the officer doesn't bother to give them to you within "reasonable" time. If this happens, there's a case of inproper justice and there you get your ticket dropped.

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www.beterveilig.nl

I've looked at many websites in the UK about equipment used, but often they omit to mention that some forces still use mobile Gatso's and hand held radar guns.

Fife police still use handheld radar (as well as scamera vans). Northumbria police (Newcastle upon Tyne) and Lothian and Borders police (Edinburgh and area) also use a type of portable tripod gatso (radar based). Radar still used a bit in other parts of Scotland - obtained cheap from forces in England who swapped over to using laser guns/vans.

Yep, I don't think we use that type of equipment in the UK DrNomad. Our devices are radar, laser or buried induction loop based normally. 8)