Speed camera detectors to be banned...

[Shad]

Speed camera detectors to be banned...

Devices which detect speed cameras are to be banned, the Government has revealed.

The Department for Transport said it would seek to ban the dashboard devices as soon as possible because of fears motorists were using them to break speed limits without being caught.

Thousands of drivers have installed the detectors after a huge rise in the number of speed camera penalties.

They have already been banned in many European countries including France and Ireland.

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the problem and as soon as a legislative opportunity becomes available we will seek to make these devices illegal."

Road safety groups welcomed the announcement. Rob Gifford of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety told The Times: "This is a long overdue closing of a legal loophole.

"Speed camera detectors should not be needed by law-abiding drivers."

Transport minister David Jamieson yesterday said he was happy for people to know where the cameras were. But he did not want information to be passed on revealing whether or not they were switched on.

He told a Commons committee: "If there is a map showing where they are, then I think that's a good idea, because people will then be very careful in that area."

[From Yahoo News]

[CocoPops]

Been discussing this on other forums.
As far as we can tell, Origin B2, Road Angel etc should all be ok.

It's the Snoopers, BelDirect units etc that "detect" the camera's rather than know their locations from GPS signals etc.

[steve threlfall]

they must be joking bah

[Atomic]

Yer this will deter most users, but the others will just get the grill mounted ones from abroad and stealth them.

Hoping the Road Angel will be ok.

[gobbo]

Never had to use one personally, as my car isn't very powerful to speed. But I can see the safety aspect of the Road Angel/B2's etc

[TiG]

Well personally i dislike the idea of speed camera detectors myself, as I personally believe that people that have them use them as a way of speeding much more than they should.

I'll be very interested to hear if it is active ones like snooper or whether those and the GPS based ones that will be affected. (Trafficmaster old company has just put speed camera detection based on GPS position into their navigation Unit - SMARTNAV)

Could be a nasty suprised to be told that they potentially might have to take it out...

TiG

[këö¬t]

banning speed camera jammers i can understand, banning detectors i cannot. aren't speed cameras meant to be coloured bright yellow and be as visable as possible anyway? what happens in a few years (probably more,) when my fancy car complete with a hud overlaying highlights and extra information over the scene i see out the windscreen?

[Russ]

i have a road angel..

its lucky if it comes out my draw more than once a month. if im going a long way il use it, as :
A) if i break down it can tell em my location
B) when your driving threw places you dont know, it warns me off accident black spots.
C) so if there is any speed camera's i can make sure im not over the limit.

i never speed more than 5mph on a regular basis though...

[Moby-Dick]

I think they wont ban the GPS based as its not about knowing where the cameras are ( as that info is in the public domain ) , but knowing which ones are active etc.

[TiG]

Hmm, i've been asking several people at Trafficmaster in the know about this today and they seem pretty worried, i'm not convinced that this is just for detectors but may well be for GPS ones as well.

I guess it will depend on the governments view.... I'm not sure its particularly commercially fair to ban one and not the other tbh.

I mean i still think we are all in line for something fitted to the car which reports our speed myself. Sure maybe 15 years off but still think it will come eventually...

TiG

[dkmech]

I think there is a possibility that they ban the detecors first and then gps based infor later. Or maybe change it to "dangerous STRETCH of road" instead of having the exact position of the camera.

As for having a bug in the car to monitor speed - I would then want location sensitive cruise-control as i wouldn't want to be nabbed every minute by the bug when i stray one mile over the limit.

[Shad]

As for having a bug in the car to monitor speed - I would then want location sensitive cruise-control as i wouldn't want to be nabbed every minute by the bug when i stray one mile over the limit.

I don't like the sound of that, practical as it would be. What would we have left to do?? The GPS tells us where corners are, the data tells us what speeds to do... we might as well just call it a bus and read the paper while the car does it all

[dkmech]

Well, it would be either that or doing 25 in the 30 zone to make sure that when you go down a hill you don't get nabbed. Maybe have a light which lights up yellow when you are close and red when you are speeding, but i don't want to look at the speedo all the time. Sometimes speeding occurs when someone is not aware of a change in speed limit. So I would at least like to know at all times what it is.