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crazycraig Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jul 05, 2007 Posts: 8
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:17 am Post subject: Snapped by FRONT facing Gatso! |
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Has anyone else ever been, or ever heard, of being snapped by a front facing Gatso?
A friend of mine was coming into work this morning on the A430 heading into Gloucester, and as he approached 'Gatso 2286' which is on the right hand side of the road monitoring outbound traffic, it double blinked him.
Now as it was around 0630 there was no other traffic on the road at the time so the only person 'he' thinks it could have snapped was himself.
Does anyone have any ideas / thoughts? |
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mostdom Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jul 10, 2006 Posts: 1964 Location: Surrey, UK.
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:32 am Post subject: |
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If it was a fake camera it could be just chance that it flashed as he went past. It is doubtful that a camera on the opposite side of the road would be used for prosecution as the measurements on the road would be inaccurate.
My brother got done by a true front facing camera in a hired porsche, (completely different style of camera) and recieved a nice photo of him in his car.
Have a look at the camera types at the bottom of the speed camera page and you'll see the differences in style to ordinary gatsos. _________________ Dom
HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
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Tim Buxton Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: 14/09/2002 20:56:18 Posts: 5231 Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:36 am Post subject: |
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I once got snapped by a gatso camera (now removed) near Billingshurst. It was monitoring traffic coming into Billingshurst and I was driving out. It was at around 4 am and yes, I was exceeding the limit. Blooming think blinded me for a few moments but, thankfully, I didn't crash and didn't get a NIP either. _________________ Tim |
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Skippy Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12 Posts: 2946 Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:43 am Post subject: Re: Snapped by FRONT facing Gatso! |
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crazycraig wrote: | A friend of mine was coming into work this morning on the A430 heading into Gloucester, and as he approached 'Gatso 2286' which is on the right hand side of the road monitoring outbound traffic, it double blinked him. |
"A friend" of mine sets front facing cameras off on his motorbike from time to time. They do go off but mostly the vehicle is out of shot for the second photo so they aren't useable for speed enforcement, just to harrass the motorist.
If it's an old style Gatso then you are fine. Truvelo (red eye) cameras use invisible flash and are front facing. Not sure about monitrons but all the ones I've seen are rear facing. _________________ Gone fishing! |
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PaulB2005 Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9323 Location: Durham, UK
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:02 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | Has anyone else ever been, or ever heard, of being snapped by a front facing Gatso? |
GATSO:363@40 does it at night a lot, even though you can be 4 lanes over. Any photos taken would be useless... |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:38 am Post subject: |
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Agree with all the above.
Gatso:3371 on the approach to Kew Bridge in London does it all the time, especially with motorbikes.
I'm sure some bikers do it deliberately, just to scare car drivers going through it the "right" way into thinking they've been done! |
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GJF Frequent Visitor
Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:08 am Post subject: |
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I have had this with a camera in Canterbury on several occasions, I'm not sure whether it is the light/shadows or just the angle it picks you up on the other side of the road - but it is not relevant for your side of the road, so ignore it.
On a forward facing camera, they wouldn't be allowed to have a camera flashing lights directly into your face.
As someone above wrote, forward facing cameras use invisible flash as infared so as not to 'dazzle' you. _________________ TomTom Go 60
Garmin Nüvi 660, Firmware v4.90
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crazycraig Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jul 05, 2007 Posts: 8
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:03 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the input guys.
Yes it was definately a Gatso, and yes he was on his bike. I just never knew that when going towards a Gatso you could set it off.
Not that I'd condone such a thing, but I bet you could scare one or two innocent people by doing this |
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jeff-d Lifetime Member
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 42 Location: Thurnby, Leicestershire
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject: Bi directional gatsos |
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My understanding is this:
Real gatsos with a camera fitted will never flash oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road. They only flash the rear of vehicles.
Fake gatsos which only contain a flasher unit and no camera have a speed sensor which reacts to vehicles travelling both ways. They will flash twice in the usual way but since no camera, no NIP. |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:38 pm Post subject: Re: Bi directional gatsos |
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jeff-d wrote: | My understanding is this:
Real gatsos with a camera fitted will never flash oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road. They only flash the rear of vehicles. |
Not so...
There is a simple switch on the main control box to set it to react to either forward, backwards or both.
See the red "direction" knob and printed arrows on this picture:
However, I believe they are only type-approved in the UK for rear-facing detection, so you won't get a ticket if flashed from the front. |
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jeff-d Lifetime Member
Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 42 Location: Thurnby, Leicestershire
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Andy, I stand corrected! |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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What this means, of course is that whoever sets them up must decide to switch it to "both" just for devilment! |
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mostdom Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jul 10, 2006 Posts: 1964 Location: Surrey, UK.
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:10 pm Post subject: |
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Andy_P wrote: | What this means, of course is that whoever sets them up must decide to switch it to "both" just for devilment! |
More likely to have been a senior management decision memoed to the civals. First we'll hear about it is when it is left on a laptop or in a briefcase on a bus somewhere! _________________ Dom
HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot |
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GerryC Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Mar 01, 2005 Posts: 1513 Location: West Mids
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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Andy_P wrote: | What this means, of course is that whoever sets them up must decide to switch it to "both" just for devilment! |
Without knowing how the box in the photo is positioned, I'd say the installer set it to detect both ways as he didn't know which way was "left" and which "right" . _________________ Gerry
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dcgh2007 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jun 21, 2008 Posts: 16
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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Gatso cameras rotate between 4 or 5 sites. When there is no camera present, the housing contains a dummy which will flash and give the impression that a camera is present. However, it does not get calibrated to the same extent as a real camera (doesn't need to because nobody will ever get prosecuted) and so it goes off a lot more than the real thing does. It's not uncommon for them to go off at or less than 30mph. They can also be triggered by oncoming traffic. |
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