Autoblog

Photo: Nicholas Bowman

Most people have pretty weak arguments for speeding. Everything from having a broken speedometer, going with the flow of traffic, or desperately needing to find a bathroom are usually feeble excuses that generally don't hold up. Simon Grills's case is unique. Despite being caught by a speed camera and slapped with a £60 fine, his case was dropped because the speed limit sign, which changes the allowed speed from 70 mph to 50 mph, isn't lit at night and was extremely difficult to see. While one case wouldn't necessarily make the news, it's been found that Simon isn't alone. The lights for the sign have been broken since November of 2005, and approximately 214,000 motorists have received tickets for speeding with the sign unlit. Despite the promise that the lights will be fixed, speed cameras are still ticketing motorists at a rate of 500 per day. Grills' legal battle, for which he has spent over 300 hours, has opened up the possibility of other motorists to receive refunds.

Thanks for the tip, Fernando!

[Source: SundayMirror.co.uk]

Njection is a website for guys like us. In addition to their forums and picture resources, they have compiled a database of more than 50,000 speed traps worldwide -- areas with high radar use and speed cameras -- that works with Microsoft Live Maps. Njection is now offering owners of Garmin GPS units the ability to download speed trap and red light camera information to their portable navigation units.

A SpeedTrap-enhanced Garmin portable GPS unit will be a great companion on a road trip, long commute, or while traveling in unfamilar areas. However, as sophisticated as the technology is getting, GPS still won't find your lost keys.

[Source: PRNewswire via Winding Road]

If you thought speed camera and roadside police radar proliferation in your country was bad, spare a thought for the Aussies. More than 45,000 drivers in the Australian state of Victoria are on the verge of losing their licenses, with blame being centered on the number of speed cameras that dot the highways.

Australian licenses use a points system where drivers lose a certain number of points for each speeding offense, up to a maximum of 12 before having their license suspended. The Victorian road agency VicRoads has revealed that there are 9,000 more drivers close to losing their licenses then at the same time in 2005, with 150 speed cameras and 83 traffic light cameras on hand to monitor the state's 3.6 million registered drivers.

Opponents of the system regard the installation of speed cameras as just the latest form of revenue-raising for the government. For the 2007-08 financial year, state government revenue collected from regulatory fees, including speed camera revenue, increased by 6.2%. Of course, the regulators will always cough up the defense that the system is saving lives. We'll let you decide for yourselves.

[Source: Drive.com.au]

The Gatso speed camera has been the bane of British drivers for the past couple of decades, but they at least had the hope that when they saw the flash the camera might be out of film. For those of you in the crowd who might not be old enough to drink legally," film" is this silver coated plastic strip that they used to put in cameras. It had to be processed in various chemicals to make images appear. Amazingly enough, the British speed cameras still use this antique technology, but not for much longer.

The Dutch company that builds the cameras for the British government has developed a digital imaging module to upgrade the cameras so that they will never run out of film again. The new units have 11-megapixel sensors and can monitor four lanes of traffic at once. They can also store thousands of images compared to the 200 for the film units. So now the traffic enforcers can ticket more people with less effort. We send our condolences to British drivers.

[Source: AutoExpress]

Last night's episode of Mythbusters was wonderfully auto related. The show's hosts, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, take on the myth that a speed camera can be foiled. They attack the myth from various angles, including testing various types of license plate covers that claim to obscure one's plate from the prying eyes of a roadside speed camera. Of course, every mailorder plate cover fails miserably.

The real myth behind this segment, however, is that one can drive so fast that a speed camera will be unable to snap a pic before the car moves out of frame. They begin with an average car, the late-model Dodge Neon. On an abandoned airforce runway the Neon manages to hit 100 mph, clearly not fast enough to foil the camera. Their best shot is with a Lamborghini Murcielago, but they make the mistake of using a drag strip this time that doesn't offer enough room to get up to speed. A professional driver manages to reach about 140 mph, though it's still snapped with ease. Their conclusion is that the speed camera cannot be foiled just by going faster. Really? The Top Gear crew actually managed to foil a speed camera back in their first on-air episode back in 2002, when a TVR Tuscan S driven by the Stig passed a speed camera at over 170 mph, and the camera never went off (check the video here). Now, speed camera technology has no doubt advanced in the past five years, so perhaps the Mythbusters crew is still right and it is impossible to beat a speed camera in 2007.

Adam and Jaime have so much fun testing cars that at the end of the show they implore their viewership to send in more auto-related myths. You can do so here, and tell them Autoblog sent you. Maybe we can get a walk-on roll or something.

We've left some surprises if you still plan to watch the show, which will now enter the pantheon of Mythbusters reruns on the Discovery Channel, and can also be downloaded as a torrent here (NSFW).

The hatred which speed cameras in Europe have engendered in the drivers they're watching has bubbled up and over to the point where vandalism is a common occurrence. In Scotland, for example, there have been seven camera attacks in three years. The attacks range from cameras simply being damaged so they're inoperable to setting the devices on fire. The same local governments who were smart enough to begin using speed cameras in the first place have a solution: more cameras! The Scottish authorities are considering installing closed-circuit TV cameras to watch certain speed cameras in locations that have attracted attacks in the past. Thus, you would have cameras watching cameras... brilliant! (That should read as being laced with sarcasm.)

If I'm in such a state of mind that taking a bat (cricket bat?) to a speed camera seems like a good idea, I'm probably just as likely to welcome the idea of taking out a CCTV camera, as well. Sure, it's a little more risky since the CCTV cameras are constantly recording and being monitored, but their field of view can't be more than 180 degrees, probably less. And if spy movies have taught us anything, it's that CCTVs are the easiest cameras to trick with a well placed picture or hacked video feed.

[Source: BBB.uk via Engadget]

Apparently, when some motorists see their speed displayed on a radar-assisted light sign, they don't pay much attention (hell, we've seen people speed up to see how high it goes).

The solution, it seems, may be in the form of Atkins' new speed sign that not only shows the speed of the vehicle and tells the driver to slow down, but also the displays the vehicle's license plate number.

The new technology is currently undergoing testing in the U.K. and, during a test run on the M42, elicited the desired response: brake lights.

[Source: AutoExpress]

In a modern twist on the old 'motorcycle cop silhouette behind billboard/tree/bush' gag, residents of Haughton, Staffordshire, U.K., have put up fake signs indicating speed cameras. 20 such signs have been placed on the A518, which runs through the center of Haugton.

The Staffordshire County Council has declared the signs illegal. Supporters believe the signs are working and are refusing to take them down, which could lead to a legal showdown.

(Thanks to tipster Greg)

[Source: BBC News]

The city of Scottsdale, AZ  officially flicked on its system of speed cameras last Wednesday morning at 12:01 AM, which was immediately followed by a southbound vehicle on the Loop 101 Freeway triggering the first snap. By noon the cameras had flashed their bulbs 167 times.

Scottsdale’s project follows a 31-day warning period in which 770 vehicles a day were detected going 11 mph or more over the 65 mph speed limit. That average rose to about 1,400 times a day during the weekend and holidays.

An average speeding ticket is expected to cost a Scottsdale motorist $157, which means speed camera-generated revenue may soon be able to fund Lyle Lanley’s proposed monorail.