Discussion
I have seen a lot of Cameras on lamposts very recently but would like to know what they are recording for or if its just traffic analasys maybe
Location Wolverhampton, West Mids
these camera boxes are located on Lamposts not very high up maybe 8 to 10 ft of the ground,
roughly 400mm x 400mm by 100mm thick black metal box / case with a small veiwing hole in the centre width near the top
they are plumbed into the lampost electrics
no stickers or signage to say what they are on the box but there are still speed camera signs on these roads ( There are sticers when stooped close to one )
have noticed quite a lot of these around the city now i just want to know what they are recording for
I will try and get a better pic of one a bit later and update it to here but here is s small vid quality is a bit crap its on the left lampost by the van centre
https://youtube.com/shorts/hmw320n3m4A
Location Wolverhampton, West Mids
these camera boxes are located on Lamposts not very high up maybe 8 to 10 ft of the ground,
roughly 400mm x 400mm by 100mm thick black metal box / case with a small veiwing hole in the centre width near the top
they are plumbed into the lampost electrics
no stickers or signage to say what they are on the box but there are still speed camera signs on these roads ( There are sticers when stooped close to one )
have noticed quite a lot of these around the city now i just want to know what they are recording for
I will try and get a better pic of one a bit later and update it to here but here is s small vid quality is a bit crap its on the left lampost by the van centre
https://youtube.com/shorts/hmw320n3m4A
Edited by Vtekkers on Monday 24th June 09:50
I am alright Jack said:
"Apparently" they are traffic speed monitors for analytical purposes only.
No doubt there will be a lowering of speed limits not too far into the distant future.
I was going to say that the cameras look similar to the sign I maintain for our village...it's one of those that flashes up your speed in Green or Red (if exceeding the limit - 30mph in our case). And then I saw the last photo and can confirm that it's produced by the same company as our own.No doubt there will be a lowering of speed limits not too far into the distant future.
I've tested it against GPS measured speed in my car and the speed it displays is pretty much bang on. However, I think ours uses Radar (documentation mentions a Klystron) and the "window" in the pictured box looks exactly the same. Obviously, there are well known issues with using radar for vehicle speed detection (Gatsos with vibrating panels etc.).
Clearly the box in the photos is different to ours but ours does similar stuff with traffic data and statistics. By way of further explanation it records data in intervals (I've configured ours for 15 minute intervals - the smallest available) so there are 96 per day. And for each interval I've configured it with 5mph "speed bins" (the smallest again) so it detects a vehicle and increments the count in the relevant speed bin ( eg. if it "sees" a car at 37mph it will increment the count in the 35 to 39mph bin). The sign records Stats for each 15 minute interval with Sum, Average, 85th Percentile, Max Speed and Min Speed. It exports all this data as an Excel spreadsheet and it's easy to order the data. So far so good.
However, having downloaded the data the sign had collected after the first month of operation (our agreement with the County Council is that it should be moved every 4 weeks) I was greeted with horror by members of the Parish Council when they discovered that the maximum speed detected was 68mph...in a 30 limit! This went on for a number of months until I started to get suspicious because the maximum speed was always 68 or 63 or 58 or 53. It didn't look right. Clearly, this Maximum Speed "data" was associated somehow with the speed bin.
I was struggling to compose an explanatory email to highlight this issue to the sign’s technical support so asked my wife to help. Being a bit of an Excel whizz she managed to demonstrate that the Maximum Speed reported by the software directly related to the Sum reported in the Speed Bin associated with the Maximum Speed. If there were less than 3 vehicles in the 65-69mph Speed Bin it reported a Maximum of 68 but if there were more than 3 it decided that the Maximum was 69mph. If memory serves me correctly it would even report a maximum speed of 70mph (in the 65-69mph bin!) if there were more than 7 results. It basically made the data up based on some algorithm.
I eventually got this confirmed by the Technical Support with some weird explanation. I have no idea if a similar algorithm was used to create the 85th Percentile but I learnt to report Maximum Speed with a margin of error. Clearly in my case I used Speed Bins of just 5mph but I don't know how this would be affected if I'd chosen a range of 10mph (more margin for error?).
So, if you want to query any " data" that decisions are based on please ask for ALL the data. With apologies for a long post (it’s such a weird issue that it’s difficult to describe) hopefully it proves of some use. (Oh, and just in case anyone reading this wonders, our sign does NOT have a camera so it CANNOT record anyone speeding).
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