what the . . .

[Steve]

I was driving home today, and noticed 2 cameras set up in close proximity, though there may have been more. One was on a stick, about 3 foot above a traffic light. It had been fastened to the traffic light somehow, pointing towards the traffic. Its gear was in a box on the ground, chained to the post. The other one was fastened in a similar way, on a stick, fastened to a lamp-post in the central reservation, pointing at a set of traffic lights, in the direction of the traffic. Both cams were un-manned, but very small and discreet. Small CCTV cameras. I only spotted them by chance really.

Any ideas?

 

[gcol]

Yeah there were some around Jnc 31A of the M6 a few days ago. There was a van parked nearby with "traffic data collection" (or something like that) written on the side. Read into that what you will.

 

[bernardgreen]

Depends on size of the box of equipment.

Most probably these were measuring flow and volume of traffic to assist with better phasing of the traffic lights.

The ones the naughty people need to fear are the ones connected to a van full of equipment. They check each number plate automatically against the DVLA data base for tax paid and MOT ( where needed ). the insurance data base for valid insurance and the police data base for stolen vehicle or in-valid number plates.

A few hundred yards down the road will be a police car waiting to stop and question any driver whose car is missing something. ( in Milton Keynes they are so busy they have three cars waiting ).

Personally i agree with these measures if they take un-licensed and/or un-insured car users off the road.

 

[Steve]

Agreed Bernard.

But these were something different. Possibly the traffic light phasing thing. Though the traffic lights all along this road were fitted about 12-15 years ago, and were top of the range, interconnected and with sensors on all approaches, they adjust themselves really, only changing when nessecary! Wonders of modern technology eh.

 

[Spark123]

The other thing is they could be specs speed cameras, they measure a vehicles time to travel over a set distance, they should have the old box brownie roadsign up if they are used for this.
They were using these at roadworks just north of M6 J32 a few months back, they had a camera above each lane at the start and end of the roadworks (although I believe if you changed lanes they are not allowed to use them as the cameras are only calibrated as a pair - unless of course they calibrated them as diagonal pairs lol, I didn't want to try it to find out )

 

[Steve]

No they weren't SPECS cameras either. There'd be no point anyway, either side of a set of traffic lights, and they werent pointing at the same traffic. They had SPECS cameras on the M60 enforcing a 40MPH limit a while ago, and there are some on my route to work (Stocksbridge bypass, most dangerous road in Yorkshire until they fitted these cameras)

I think they were just general traffic monitoring at the traffic lights. Cant think of any other reason.

 

[breezer]

seen them years ago, nothing to worry about, they are literally fillming traffic flow in the box is a big battery