Point-to point cameras. A new threat!

[Merv and Sharon]

Thanks Rob. I am glad that they were debunked. I would hate to have any evasive devices around. Yes I have experienced the French system in a car we hired for 4 months there. I was going everywhere at ridiculous speeds on their wonderful tollways With many passing me) and then handed the car back. I had a suspicion I may have infringed few times but the stops to the wine growing regions may have saved me.

It is interesting what Bryan is saying about speedos. I used to GPS systems two calibrate the Cobra speedo and in doing so checked our other cars. Both were about 5kms/hr on the optimistic side. The Nissan Navara was 10-2kms out! I wonder how many people roll around at a real 90-95kms/hr?

Merv

[Krait]

Originally Posted by Rob. Smith

In France they have the point to point cameras on some of the motorways but their downfall came from the fact that you could pull off the road for a rest and meal for a 1/2 hour or so.

The UK uses them as well. It's quite farcial being in traffic that suddenly all slow down like lemmings then speed up after the camera.

Our Honda indicates 100kph at 97 actual.

Cheers

[767Jockey]

Are these "e-tags" mandatory? Here in New York we have something called EZPass which is a transponder type device that you can choose to use which allows you to drive through toll booths to avoid the long cash only lines at the booths. The tag identifies you and the toll is charged directly to your credit card without you stopping.

What you are describing was almost exactly the revenue raising scheme proposed by some short sighted politicians, misusing the EZPass tags. The very quick response from the EZPass users was a flood of EZPass transponders returned to the agency that issues them along with notes proposing that the director of the issuing agency perform various very creative yet anatomically impossible feats with them. The lines at the toll booths would have become a nightmare with almost all of the EZPass system shut down. The revenue raising scheme was quickly withdrawn.

They do however have one additional good use for these EZPass transponders now. The tags are read as we enter some of our more traffic delayed roadways. However they are completely deidentified. They are then read again as we exit at various points, and we now have some pretty neat traffic signs that tell you at the entrance to the roadway how long it will take you at current traffic conditions to get to various exits. It's all computerized and based on reading the EZPass transponders of everyone as they enter and exit the roadway in real time. It works really well.

[Modena]

all our new toll roads as of about 10 years ago use an e-tag system, there are no toll booths, and if you dont have an e-tag you can have a video account which uses OCR to read your number plate. If you dont have an account or a trip pass or day pass, you get fined for driving on the road.

[Merv and Sharon]

I agree. Same here in QLD now. No paying booths. Just crazy for all the tourists that we want to attract! We seem to select every failed idea from other countries and 'police' ourselves out of any choice these these days.

Merv

[tcrist]

Originally Posted by Bryan Wilson

I was actually booked for doing 69kph in a 60kph zone but they got it wrong I was actually doing 69 in a 70kph zone because the camera operator was an idiot. He must have ran out of film early as he would have got every car that went past him.
Cheers,
Bryan

Understood, I thought something was a little strange there.

Terry

[Merv and Sharon]

Seems we will have 8 fixed cameras in one of our new tunnels! Massive overkill.

[Plums]

There's a bit of a trick in the ADR regarding speedo accuracy. It's allowed to be -10% but only +1%. I.e. at a true 100 kph your speedo can read anywhere from 91 to 101 and still meet ADR's. Most speedo's are somewhat conservative, usually a speedo reading of 100 kph is normally a true road speed of around 95 kph....

[Dimi]

Hi All

One little experiment to try is to use a gps and see what the difference is between gps speed and your speedo speed is when your tyres are brand new and then again when your tyres are due for replacement.

Also compare different tyres of the same size on the same rims.

I think you will be amazed at the results.

On my work van I have done this several times as I go through a lot of tyres and the speed differences have ranged from -10 to +10.

Dimi