NotoriousREV

SPECS, they don't use radar so your radar detector is useless. They read your number plate as you pass, then read it again when you pass the second camera (or in the case of the ones on the M6 in Cheshire, the next 3 cameras) and do the old distance/time=you're nicked calculation.

Edited to say:

They're usually mounted on their own poles/gantries but not always. If they don't have the 2 black tubes either side of the camera, they may not be SPECS cams, they may be Trafficmaster etc cams. The 2 black tubes are for night time use (infra-red?)

[Edited by NotoriousREV - 6/5/2002 5:52:42 PM]

Katana

It really bleeds my heart every time the police pulls off a stunt like this. I mean if they spent more money on CCTV cameras to watch a neighbourhood, my fence would never have been destroyed.

But yeah, I say get rid of the police and use private security services instead that has more power than the police. The police brings more harm than good to society.

[Edited by Katana - 6/5/2002 6:07:41 PM]

Diesel

Anyone know what the new CCTV type white colured cams on the bridges are? Some seemed to have a yellow square above them (to help you spot them I guess) and all had a black coloured lamp either side, with what looked like a corrugated black heatsink around it?

Saw them on M1 and M6 over bank hols. Are they some kind of speed cam, since my Bel didn't simg to announce them...

Ohh God - 95mph on an empty dry motorway...gulp!

Steve001

iTrader: (7)

from you description Specs i think

Diesel

Anyone been done by them? Anyone know their trigger speed? These must be right little earners!

NotoriousREV

And of course, it's no good slowing down for each camera, it's avg speed through each particular section, best to play it safe and stick to the speed limit.

Katana

Is it difficult to shoot it from a speeding car?

Mr.Manchester

I spoke to a guy who installed the ones on the M60 and M56 and he said that they check your average speed between cameras and also check you reg number then verify that your car has tax and insurance by sending your reg to the DVLA.

Steve001

iTrader: (7)

M56

Where on the M56?

I travel that M.Way a lot, haven't spotted them.

Josh L

Sounds like the Specs cameras on the M6 roadworks, which are bolted onto the gantries. These recently celebrated raking in an absolutely horrendous amount of money, but judging by the speed the blissfully ignorant people drive through the 40 on the elevated section, it probably serves them right.

Josh

Mr.Manchester

Steve001,

Mainly on the M60, have a look on the bridges with the blue signs on them from M60 bredbury to past the glass pyramid at stockport.

Im not to sure about the M56 ones, its just what the guy told me.

SimonEvoExtreme

If its Specs, they are rumoured to have a weakness - they read front plates and can only manage the normal ones. Therefore bikes get away and, according to legend, those of us with square plates (like on the Evo)

beefola

Untrue i'm afraid Simon. The guy I work with has a (don't snigger) Mazda MX-5 Turbo, and was got on the M6 by SPECS, and he's got a square plate, with crazy spacing too. Apparently it reads it, stores the pic in a database, then gets it analysed by a blokey somewhere. He got clocked at an average of 87mph, got 3 points. AR5EH0LE5!!!

boomer

That would be 87mph in a 70mph limit?

Good to see that motorways are now accident blackspots! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

mb

Phil Harrison

Anyone good good experience as to whether the satnav based systems (Geodesy??) are keeping tabs on these satisfactorily?

Phil

NotoriousREV

Geodosy (sp?) do warn of these sites

DEEDEE

And they wonder why the public don't trust the boys in blue. They are not here to prevent crime or catch criminals, muggers, rapists, muggers, the list goes on. They pretend to do a worth while job to justify the wage, whilst relying on dirty tactics in the name of law. One word describes them B******s

polarbearit

Erm SPECS on the M6 - Are there any others apart from the roadworks ones... I think I'd better invest in a geodesy/blue-I etc soon

wacky.banana

Anyone on this forum who is remotely interested in keeping their licence should be spending time learning about the threat of speed cameras. Web sites like ukspeed_trap.co.uk are but one of many that will educate you and help save your licence.

For info the SPECS cameras on the M62 have been setup to protect the road workforce. Saw a to$$er going through these a month ago doing around a ton in a 40mph zone with blokes in yellow jackets working by the roadside. One slip and someone would have been without a husband/father/lover/son. This surely can't be right.

Secondly most static speed cameras are setup and run by local councils, not the police. In Northamptonshire, for example, the mobile speed cameras are operated by a 3rd party civilian firm on behalf of the local council, supported by the police.

SPECS is a huge threat as it looks at your AVERAGE speed over a set distance, not what you are doing as you get to it. These things can take digital shots at 5 per second at any time, in any weather conditions. Those over the speed limit get their details checked against the DVLC computer and get their fine and points in the post. Efficient and very effective.

The Origin Bluei or Geodesey units are the best for monitoring these things as they use GPS and mapped locations to warn you (I use one). Standard radar detectors don't work on SPECS or on the Truvelo cameras as they don't emit a radar signal.

Its bad, can only get worse. Beware.

WB

PS If you speed in a 30mph zone and get caught you can only blame yourself. When you've seen what's left of a human being, mashed by a car, with flies crawling over what's left of the carcass, it makes you think a little.

boomer

"For info the SPECS cameras on the M62 have been setup to protect the road workforce."

Well i don't know about the M62, but the SPECs on the M6 (both Brum and just south of Manchester) are "guarding" roadworks where i have never seen ANY kind of activity, never mind a worker!

"One slip and someone would have been without a husband/father/lover/son. This surely can't be right."

So we had better set up SPECs on the North Sea oil rigs, 'cos those winds and waves can be killers. Sorry, but some jobs are risky (including the Police) - you make a choice and take a risk!!

"...for example, the mobile speed cameras are operated by a 3rd party civilian firm on behalf of the local council, supported by the police."

Privatisation strikes again!!!

"SPECS is a huge threat as it looks at your AVERAGE speed over a set distance, not what you are doing as you get to it. These things can take digital shots at 5 per second at any time, in any weather conditions. Those over the speed limit get their details checked against the DVLC computer and get their fine and points in the post. Efficient and very effective."

Humm, so why haven't the 50% of drivers between Spaghetti and Wednesbury who obviously exceed the (ridiculously low) speed limit been well and truly nicked???? Oh, and that would be the DVLA would it not!!!

"Standard radar detectors don't work on SPECS or on the Truvelo cameras as they don't emit a radar signal."

So, more advanced radar detectors can detect, er, non-radar traps can they??


"Its bad, can only get worse. Beware."

Very true!!!

"When you've seen what's left of a human being, mashed by a car, with flies crawling over what's left of the carcass, it makes you think a little."

They are very quick flies, or a very slow emergency service!

mb

NotoriousREV

Boomer,

What a childish response.

"Well i don't know about the M62, but the SPECs on the M6 (both Brum and just south of Manchester) are "guarding" roadworks where i have never seen ANY kind of activity, never mind a worker!"

No activity on the M6? Apart from the digging out and resurfacing work plus the new crash barriers? Appear by magic did they?

"So we had better set up SPECs on the North Sea oil rigs, 'cos those winds and waves can be killers. Sorry, but some jobs are risky (including the Police) - you make a choice and take a risk!!"

Beleive it or not, even on dangerous jobs, they try to minimise the risk to workers, slowing down to 50mph seems entirely reasonable to me when there are people working nearby with little or no protection, I think I can afford the extra minute or two it will add to my journey time.

"Humm, so why haven't the 50% of drivers between Spaghetti and Wednesbury who obviously exceed the (ridiculously low) speed limit been well and truly nicked???? Oh, and that would be the DVLA would it not!!!"

Not all cameras are designed to stop your average speeder. Some cameras are used only to trap people at truly excessive speed. Try driving on that stretch of the M6 at 90mph and see what happens.

"So, more advanced radar detectors can detect, er, non-radar traps can they??"

Thats standard radar detectors vs GPS based warning devices

wacky.banana

Boomer,

"So we had better set up SPECs on the North Sea oil rigs, 'cos those winds and waves can be killers. Sorry, but some jobs are risky (including the Police) - you make a choice and take a risk!!

Hope you never have to tell someone's wife, etc that "they made a choice and took the risk" after they have been wiped out by a nerd.

"Humm, so why haven't the 50% of drivers between Spaghetti and Wednesbury who obviously exceed the (ridiculously low) speed limit been well and truly nicked???? Oh, and that would be the DVLA would it not!!!"

Are you sure what you are seeing is SPECS and not Traffic Master?

"So, more advanced radar detectors can detect, er, non-radar traps can they??"

No, simply that radar detectors don't work on these, full stop.

"They are very quick flies, or a very slow emergency service!"

The car had flipped at high speed and landed right on top of him and wiped out several other vehicles in the process. It took the emergency services so long to clear up and get to him (or what was left of him) that by the time they did so the scene had become totally gruesome. I still see this picture of absolute horror 15 years on from when it happened.

If you haven't experienced it dont knock it and don't be a smart a$$.

SWRTWannabe

Wouldn't it be nice if they did something usefull too like checking the car isn't stolen, and of course acting on it if it was.

mutant_matt

The DVLA have no way of knowing if you have insruance ADAIK!!!!

Matt

MATTeL

The SPEC cameras in Northampton and Nottingham as on the blue poles in the middle of the road with two cameras hanging from arms.

The pole is similar to the street light and has a circular logo in both corners.

The SPEC carmeras in NOrthamton do have yellow on them, which is really usefulas they are as tall as the street lights. When you consider that street lights focus down and car lights don't reasch that high.

Spent a very nervous two weeks.

I remember the ones on the M6 guarding the roadworkers, although they seem to have gone and the cameras have stayed.

Thanks to the guy that sat on my bumper in the inside lane, beams on and hand on the horn all the way through the roadworks one time. All becuase I refused to go over 40mph.

DaveR

Don't know if it was a SPECs or not - but I was well pi$$ed off on Sunday morning to get done on the M2. It was a totally empty motorway at around 10am (note, 30 mins before England kick-off) and a sunny, dry day. Saw a Police volvo about 300 yards ahead in the shade under the bridge just before junction 5, so slowed down to 70-80 to pass him. He then pulled me over and did me for an average speed of 91.2mph over the last 2 miles!!!!!

Apparently he had been timing me since a bridge two miles back - don't know if he had a buddy back there or a SPECs cam or what.

£60 and 3 points, since I had a clean licence up till then.


Two things:

1.) I defy anyone to tell me the speed I was doing on a dry empty sunny motorway on a quiet Sunday morning was a danger to anyone
2.) I would bet another £60 I would never have been pulled over at all in my old dark red Pug106 - the fact I happened to be driving a WRBlue WRX seemed to make a big difference!!!

well cheesed off
DaveR

Phil Harrison

"so slowed down to 70-80 to pass him." Sounds rather like a cough to me!!! It was a sunny day, so as you go under any bridge the shadow gives a "negative" flash of darkness on the reflection from your windscreen which provides a very accurate stopwatch starting signal. Providing they could see the starting bridge, they've got your time.... and coming down Swanscombe they can.....

Suggestion is, that having your headlights on prevents the flash-of-darkness being so readily visible.... but I've never tested it out. Only thing to do is to hit the hard shoulder with a credible excuse for stopping - or dawdle at 30 if you've spotted him in time.

Bummer, eh?

Phil

shunty

there IS a way to beat specs, (& ALL cameras) which has been mentioned on here before
I'm being serious btw.

shunty

[Edited by shunty - 6/6/2002 12:38:26 PM]

mutant_matt

Which is? (other than don't speed in the first place?)

Matt

NotoriousREV

take your number plates off?