Specs Camera Loophole Confirmed - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

davidoli · 17th October 2006, 20:50

Change lanes and you'll be safe from SPECS, the cameras that calculate your speed over a distance. And it's been officially confirmed too.
SPECS work by measuring your speed over the distance between two cameras, rather than at a single point where you pass the device. But according to the Mail, the Home has admitted that if you pass the second SPECS camera in a different lane to the one in which you passed the first, you cannot be prosecuted.
That's because they're linked and set up to monitor only one traffic lane at a time. In other words, if the system is to monitor a three-lane carriageway, it would need three sets of the pricey cameras.
According to the story, this characteristic of the system was confirmed by the system's maker, Speed Check Services, which said that the system was approved for use only one lane at a time.
SCS technical director Graeme Southwood said that there was neither enough time nor money to test the system under Home Office rules to monitor multiple lanes when the devices were first introduced in 1999. And so the situation has remained.
However, Southwood introduced an element of doubt into the solidity of this method when he said that the loop-hole was not foolproof, and that some drivers who use it could still be prosecuted. SCS said that it discouraged people to lane-change on safety grounds.
Roads policing chief Med Hughes said that it would be dangerous for drivers to swap lanes in order to evade detection. "It is irresponsible for motorists to deliberately seek to evade detection and speed", he said.
The fact remains however that the cameras monitor speed at the expense of other driver behaviour, potentially compromising safety. And now we find that, as has been shown with respect to other types of camera, they could actually be making the roads less safe by encouraging lane-changing.
Road safety campaign Safe Speed said: "We know for sure that road safety hasn't improved as expected in the speed camera era. I believe that this is because speed camera come with dangerous side effects. All cameras cause side effects, but the side effects of average speed cameras appear to be especially subtle and insidious. Speed camera side effects are everywhere, but none of them have been adequately studied."
The trouble is that, if you disapprove of them, there's no political remedy: the Tories introduced them, and New Labour loves them. No-one is promising a change in policy.

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=15313

Mmm-Five · 17th October 2006, 20:56

Does that mean I don't have to flip my number plate up anymore?

The only problem with this method is making 100% sure you're not in the same lane each time - if there's more than a pair of each it could get confusing!

Personally I just tailgate (<1m) the guy in front

davidoli · 17th October 2006, 21:03

You're nuts......I think I like you !

FinalEditionE34M5 · 17th October 2006, 21:15

I don't often break the limit through roadworks.

I do, however, like positioning my car at a 45 degree angle behind a 40foot trailer on the way out of the roadworks - so the view from the SPECS camera is obscured - & Big brother can't measure my speed - whatever it is.

BURTON · 18th October 2006, 00:37

Or you could not speed anyway...

The things I know I could write a book on cameras... hehe.. ANPR thats another good system!! And I do mean that!!

davidoli · 18th October 2006, 00:39

ANPR ?

BURTON · 18th October 2006, 00:40

Its on Pistonheads.com..

But I have had experience with this first hand.. good system!

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/defa...?storyId=15308

davidoli · 18th October 2006, 00:57

If you say so......

Depends on the intention / aims ......

Have you ever read Aldous Huxley's ' Brave New World ' ? I fear we are heading that way !

dalius · 18th October 2006, 01:24

time is coming when we can own only pandas

davidoli · 18th October 2006, 09:33

With in built programming that dictates how the Panda is driven !

Oh to be allowed to make your own decisions and be an individual .......

Instead , we will all become sheep , following all of the other little sheep !

God help our children who will all be safe as long as they remain in their cars !

Alan Archer · 19th October 2006, 00:33

I found it only fair and just to do the exact required
speed limit through my local SPEC infested roadworks....

..only to return a week or so later passing everything on my motorbike.

davidoli · 19th October 2006, 00:35

brilliant.....what bike do you ride Alan ?