22 January 2008

Hume fixed speed cameras - are they operational?

| Vic Bitterman
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I don’t believe that the fixed speed cameras in Hume are operational.

Why? Every other speed camera setup I have seen, has some magnetic sensors embedded into the road. This has been done on the parkway and every other camera I can think of – the strips that are visible when cut into the tarmac.

The ones in Hume do not have this. I don’t think the cameras are a radar type setup, they look the usual separate flash and camera box.

Has anyone here copped a fine from one, or somebody who has? I don’t know a single person who has.

I’m not game to be the one who gives this a test though! 🙂

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If it is not detection radar, then it is only as accurate as the last time it was connected to a updated list of locations, making anything but fixed locations pretty meaningless, and most in car nav systems do this.

If it is a radar detector, then I believe it isn’t legal in Australia. and the police in the ACT use lasers, so you might get caught anyway.

Only slightly OT, I’m told Aldi are selling a GPS unit for about $140 which displays radar in the near vicinity. Not just fixed speed camera locations but mobile as well. An image of a car apparently appears on the screen at the source of the radar, and can be in front, behind or anywhere else in relation to your vehicle.

Could open a whole can of worms, because I suspect it is not a ‘radar detector’ as such.

Gungahlin Al10:47 am 29 Nov 08

bloody italics tags…

Gungahlin Al10:46 am 29 Nov 08

As others have pointed out loop sensors have been around a long time. Indeed apart from one of the trail camera’s in the ACT all of the combined red light/speed camera’s installed in the ACT do this. To be done for speeding you clearly need to go between the two (or 3) loops faster than calculated time. That means you have to trip both sensors. To be done running a red light, the same applies you have to trigger both loops.

Some ACT red light camera’s take a photo everytime the lights turn red, they actually take 2 shots. Again to be done you have to be seen to be moving through the intersection, so just over won’t get you in the poop. But the speed part is still the loop sensors.

With the latest generation camera’s I belive some of the fixed speed only camera’s are indeed of the radar type.

Citizens’ Enforcement Bureau here – here’s a $100 fine to JC for repeated inappropriate use of apostrophes.

howdy said :

A

The ones outside the Gungahlin Lakes club may be fake. I’ve never seen a flash go off and the box is really small.

Oh I can debunk this rumour from experience, 3am Gspot run apparently I ran a red light.

I dont recall it ever happening yet I still have the ticket, these ones are real

Is that the spot where a tree covers the 60 sign on the left? I know someone who got off from a parking fine cause a tree covered the sign. You could give it a go if it isn’t too late…

I got done for doing 80 in a 60 zone by a speed van AFTER they changed the speed limit to 60 – Sneaky bastards! Alot of people at that time were doing 80 too.

Needless to say everyone knows it’s 60 now 🙂

“This was the email forward – It’s from July last year.

“BEWARE!!

Canberra Ave and Hindmarsh Drive intersection has been fitted with Red light and Speed “loop” detectors, these are a new type of red light and
speed camera, they detect how much time it has taken your car to travel from point A (first sensor) to point B (second sensor) instead of using radar, therefore they are extremely accurate.
They are implanted under the road surface and are completely undetectable, they are also only 300 mm in front of the white stop line at these lights, so if you over shoot the line even by less than half a car length you will be charged, even though you didn’t proceed through the lights.

These are also installed at the north bound intersection of Canberra Ave and Captain Cook cres in Manuka.
>
These will apparently replace all existing speed and red light camera’s in the ACT within the next few years…”…………”

As others have pointed out loop sensors have been around a long time. Indeed apart from one of the trail camera’s in the ACT all of the combined red light/speed camera’s installed in the ACT do this. To be done for speeding you clearly need to go between the two (or 3) loops faster than calculated time. That means you have to trip both sensors. To be done running a red light, the same applies you have to trigger both loops.

Some ACT red light camera’s take a photo everytime the lights turn red, they actually take 2 shots. Again to be done you have to be seen to be moving through the intersection, so just over won’t get you in the poop. But the speed part is still the loop sensors.

With the latest generation camera’s I belive some of the fixed speed only camera’s are indeed of the radar type. Having not been home to CBR in about 9 months can anyone expalin what they look like. Is there a main camera head with a bit off the side, or multiple poles?

Good old google. They’ve put a link at the top of this page. Too Funny.

“Speed Camera Detector
First 100 Sold are Half Price! Only a few left”

http://www.beatthespeedtrap.co.nz/australia.html

Probably a ‘refresh’ screen issue so you wouldn’t have seen the correction.

Stupid computers. KICK

(Maybe the correction below my comment was missed)

Nah i’m still an igit I’m afraid : )
I still get that you’re saying the idea that loop systems are ‘new’ is bollocks and that they have been around for years.

My comment is confusing though.
I’m trying to say that that although what the email says about how long they have been around is bollocks the fact they exist isn’t – the reason I posted the spam mail.

Maybe I was supposed to consider in an earlier comment too?

If that’s not the misunderstanding I think I need “VBerlinaV8’s comment for the Dummies” : )

Vic is referring to Hume, the suburb, not Hume, the highway…..

Oppps, forgot about the suburb of Hume!!!!

el ......VNBerlinaV86:47 pm 22 Jan 08

Hint:

The ‘Loop’ type systems have been installed for years at various intersections.

el ......VNBerlinaV86:47 pm 22 Jan 08

Re-read what I actually typed then, rather than what you think I typed.

‘have not been around’ (I’m tired)

Glad to be of service : )
But only the fact they have been around for years is bollocks though? The loop thing is worth bringing up since we are querying speed camera design : )

el ......VNBerlinaV86:35 pm 22 Jan 08

Meh. As was discussed at the time, that email was a load of bollocks – The ‘Loop’ type systems have been installed for years at various intersections. Glad to see people are still reposting it though.

Aw but I wanna believe it!

Don’t believe EVERYTHING. Some cameras use radar or laser technology rather then sensors in the road. The email above about the Canberra Ave/Hindmarsh Dr is wrong.. red light and speed cameras have used this technology for years. And yes, 300mm over is breaking the law so wizzo you get a fine.

It appears the lack of unfortunates with speeding tickets on the Monaro at Hume probably does mean these cameras are non operational.

We may need to be aware of road works; like wiring loops being installed.

I will now be suspicious of unknowns reporting tickets received. You have had your chance.

I am still amazed that an employee of Roads had so little social/political nous that the cameras were originally hidden behind road signs.

I second that the Gungahlin Lakes redlight camera is fully operational – a friend of my mum’s got a ticket for stopping too far over the line.

Off the top of my head, last time I rode past the speed cameras on the Barton Highway, they didn’t have those telltale cuts in the tarmac either. I have heard rumour of people getting caught there so I don’t think the cuts are the be all and end all of whether they are operational or not. I just assumed they used some sort of radar system as opposed to the weight triggering sensors (not sure how this works but in my head it makes sense!).

You have to watch out for the speed camera vans, they are not fake. I got a ticket about a month ago for doing 89 on Gungahlin Drive. The flash in my eyes as I was heading towards it was BRIGHT!

Liddle buggers! Cheers for that : )

Jonathon Reynolds12:58 pm 22 Jan 08

@howdy

The “Gungahlin Lakes” Redlight/Speed Camera on Gundaroo Drive Northbound is real – a friends son received a ticket for turning right on a red.

This was the email forward – It’s from July last year.

“BEWARE!!

Canberra Ave and Hindmarsh Drive intersection has been fitted with Red light and Speed “loop” detectors, these are a new type of red light and
speed camera, they detect how much time it has taken your car to travel from point A (first sensor) to point B (second sensor) instead of using radar, therefore they are extremely accurate.
They are implanted under the road surface and are completely undetectable, they are also only 300 mm in front of the white stop line at these lights, so if you over shoot the line even by less than half a car length you will be charged, even though you didn’t proceed through the lights.

These are also installed at the north bound intersection of Canberra Ave and Captain Cook cres in Manuka.
>
These will apparently replace all existing speed and red light camera’s in the ACT within the next few years…”

On related matters, the latest set of fixed speed cameras on the Monaro Highway going under Hindmarsh Drive seem to be taking an eternity to bring online. Not that it bothers me.

I thought that all the speed cameras used laser to detect the speed and those lines cut into the roads were actually to trigger the traffic lights that someone is waiting?

Same – never been done by a van or fixed camera … and I’ve seen the vans too late on several occasions and was sure I’d been done, but nothing.

I, like most people who use that road regularly, cruise along that section at 90ish, and back off the 80 as I go past the camera, and then back up to 90ish after another 100 metres or so. I have been doing this since they were put in, and have not received a ticket. In fact, I’ve never been done by a fixed camera or speed van in Canberra.

The “flash” in newer static cameras is infra-red, you won’t see it.

An email went out a while back warning about these ‘loop’ sensors which time how long it takes a car to travel between two points. These sensors are apparently ‘undetectable’. Not sure about that, I still think they’re the sensor lines cut into the road but you never know…

The ones outside the Gungahlin Lakes club may be fake. I’ve never seen a flash go off and the box is really small.

Holden Caulfield9:37 am 22 Jan 08

Vic is referring to Hume, the suburb, not Hume, the highway.

Which ones are you talking about? Not the safe-t-cam ones by chance? If so they are only for heavy vehicles and work on timing the said vehicle between two points. So they don’t need a sensor, the film everything, identify heavy vehicles, take picture, use number plate reading technology to get plate then record the time it passed. If it passes the next point before the calculated time then it is done. Although I do beleive it is a warning to the owner not a fine to the driver that is issued.

Now if it is not these camera’s then which camera’s are you talking about?

Oh BTW some of the older style fixed camera’s used elsewhere in the world (even in NSW IIRC) used radar with the radar sensor on the side.

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