What the HECK was that?

[Harrigan]

Just picked up a friend from Gatwick, returning on the M25, (clockwise, about four miles before the A243 offramp to Kingston/London), spotted a small van on a bridge, no police markings, chap in bright yellow reflective jacket "sprawled" on a chair next to van.

Van and man as far to the left of the bridge as possible...

He had a piece of equipment on a tripod which did not look like any camera or speed equipment I recognised. (Anyway, I was making progress in the fast lane, so couldn't look away from the road).

My impression is that the direction that it was pointing was at quite an acute angle, but I could be wrong...

Now, any ideas what that might have been? A bit nervous actually...

Harrigan

[PetrolTed]

Seen a few people on motorway bridges recently. Usually some sort of census although I'm not seen them with cameras.

Perhaps one of those stingray tax checking cameras?

[plotloss]

Number plate recognition testing?

Tax camera as Ted said.

Trafficmaster reciever trials?

Car counting?

Could be anything really.

Matt.

[Harrigan]

Hmmm, sounds like a likely explanation. Thanks for commenting!

We shall see presently I expect...

H

[joust]

Sure it wasn't a surveyor? There are a lot of traffic information signs going in (massive multimillion DETR project), and he was just surveying for it.

A "thingy" on a tripod sounds like a thodolite to me.

[Harrigan]

Hi Joust,

Did you get my eMail, btw?

It was definitely not a theodolite, not even one of the new electronic ones... It was very low too, about waist height. Operator was also slouching in a chair next to it, so more likely a test of some sort of new technology, (I hope).

Harrigan

[T5Cosmo]

A good chance it was a speed camera (These units can stand no more than waist high if positioned close enough to the gantry), but 1 camera can only do 1 lane so if the camera was at lane 1 and you were on lane 2 or 3 you should be safe.

As for his position - the cable on these units is long enough to stretch across all 3 lanes. He was probably sitting where he was 'so that he was not causing obstruction' to the road he was parked on. Some may see this as hiding out of the way.

[Harrigan]

T5Cosmo,

Thanks for comment. He was over lane 1 and I was in Lane 4.

Holding thumbs...

H