M1 smart motorway cameras north of Luton

M1 smart motorway cameras north of Luton

Author
Discussion

Acuity30

Original Poster:

286 posts

25 months

Thursday 2nd May
quotequote all
These cameras seem very flash happy. Not sure which junction it is but heading north close to the Lidl and Amazon warehouses on the left. A couple months ago I'm almost certain a camera flashed me doing a sat nav 70mph while no temp speed limit was in place. Still no fine to date, so I can only assume these cameras flash randomly for some reason. Watching the oncoming lane I'm always seeing them going off like a lightning storm too. Are they just defective or is there some other purpose to them doing this?

Stephen-733s2

109 posts

44 months

Thursday 2nd May
quotequote all
I’ve noticed the same on that stretch of M1.

Maybe they go off randomly to scare people into going slower so they don’t get flashed?

Ultra Sound Guy

28,797 posts

201 months

Thursday 2nd May
quotequote all
I’ve heard (a rumour?) that they give a single flash when the speed limit changes?
Not sure how true that is.
That stretch does seem to be quite flash-happy, maybe because the stretch through Luton often has reduced limits for no apparent reason and people are getting pissed-off with it!

RS_MAN_CHILD

290 posts

276 months

Friday 3rd May
quotequote all
Same thing happens on the M40 & M25 think its just calibration as long as you stick to the posted limit at the time you have nothing to worry about!

The Gauge

3,180 posts

20 months

Friday 3rd May
quotequote all
I dread to think back to the high speeds I used to drive on the motorways back in the 1990's before all these cameras came to be.

Thankfully I'm much more sensible now and don't get the same kicks from high speed that I once sought. It's probably a sign of (approaching) old age that I now get satisfaction from having driven a smooth, safe but progressive drive. What have I become frown

Koyaanisqatsi

2,329 posts

37 months

Monday 6th May
quotequote all
Noticed this too, and on the M25. I'm up and down these roads every day and it only seems to be recently within the last couple of months.

Nothing to do with the variable speed limit changing from what I've observed, as it happens within the 15 mile long 50mph road works currently in place. I assumed they are now set to give off random flashes to scare people.

xx99xx

2,247 posts

80 months

Monday 6th May
quotequote all
Ever since they were installed they've fired off randomly. Many times I've been bumper to bumper doing 0 to 5 mph through these cameras and they've still flashed.

SturdyHSV

10,223 posts

174 months

Monday 6th May
quotequote all
Between J14 and J15 they've always been pretty keen, 2 of them in particular. Bearing in mind you don't tend to see cameras going off that often, i commute along that stretch and for months after it went back to a 70 I'd see them going off every single day (not at me...! hehe)

They seem to have calmed down a little bit now, I just assumed they'd been set much closer to 70mph.

In terms of flashing in slow moving traffic, if a lane is closed and you drive through in that lane they flash too, have seen a couple of people done by that.

Koyaanisqatsi

2,329 posts

37 months

Saturday 11th May
quotequote all
Prior to the cameras being 'flash happy', how were the images processed? Manually by a human or just automatically sorted into an envelope and posted out?

With them going off erroneously every few seconds, how are they now processed? Presumably not automatically, as there will clearly be a huge amount of incorrect notices issued. However, is a human mundanely sorting through all these flashes and making sure only the genuine ones get posted out?

BertBert

19,687 posts

218 months

Saturday 11th May
quotequote all
It's perfectly possible that the tech has two thresholds. One for flashing and one for selecting for enforcement. No reason at all for there to be just the one.

Solocle

3,631 posts

91 months

Saturday 11th May
quotequote all
Acuity30 said:
These cameras seem very flash happy. Not sure which junction it is but heading north close to the Lidl and Amazon warehouses on the left. A couple months ago I'm almost certain a camera flashed me doing a sat nav 70mph while no temp speed limit was in place. Still no fine to date, so I can only assume these cameras flash randomly for some reason. Watching the oncoming lane I'm always seeing them going off like a lightning storm too. Are they just defective or is there some other purpose to them doing this?
Hmm, pretty sure cycling across there by Ampthill a few years back I saw a bit of a light show. Would make sense if they were simply being trigger-happy.

hunton69

674 posts

144 months

Monday 13th May
quotequote all
Are you talking about the yellow box ones that are on the side of the gantries.
If so I have been told there set at 78

BertBert

19,687 posts

218 months

Monday 13th May
quotequote all
hunton69 said:
Are you talking about the yellow box ones that are on the side of the gantries.
If so I have been told there set at 78
What's your information source? It seems highly unlikely that they would flash 1 mph below the enforcement threshold.

GiantEnemyCrab

7,724 posts

210 months

Tuesday 14th May
quotequote all
hunton69 said:
Are you talking about the yellow box ones that are on the side of the gantries.
If so I have been told there set at 78
And yet we were all told that they'd only work when there was a temporary limit, or would be set at 90 when there wasn't....

Haven't they improved things for us.

BertBert

19,687 posts

218 months

Tuesday 14th May
quotequote all
GiantEnemyCrab said:
And yet we were all told that they'd only work when there was a temporary limit, or would be set at 90 when there wasn't....

Haven't they improved things for us.
Who said that then?