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over the last few years i have noticed the steady increase of blue roadside cameras, they sit about 10 feet high and face both ways on most A roads , any clues?
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sp30 - there have been many threads on this - if only I could find them. They are TRAFFICMASTER cameras and warn subscibers to the service of....traffic funnily enough ;-)
--
"Ah...beer - my only weakness - my achilles heel if you will"
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Trafficmaster. They monitor traffic speeds. Or so I have been told.
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Traffic density rather than speed - they look for traffic jams.
Well, OK, I do believe they measure speed in some casesm by capturing the central part of a car's number and measuring how long it takes to get to the next blue camera. But the intention is traffic, not speed...
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I was given one of the little trafficmaster receivers free when I updated my sons mobile with Vodaphone a couple of years ago and it is surprisingly effective although sometimes there is no way round the blocked traffic or they really annoy you by warning of a blocked road about thirty seconds after you've joined the end of the queue..
Two weeks ago I was coming back in convoy with the brother in law from Bournemouth on a quiet Sunday just about to join the A31 when it bleeped and advised that the traffic was at a standstill ahead so I pulled over , consulted the map and took a very pleasant detour via New Forest backroads navigated by SWMBO.
I found out from some other friends who were also in Bournemouth that weekend that they sat in virtually immobile traffic with nowhere to go for nearly an hour due to an accident.
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What are the green ones that have been springing up next to the blue ones?
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About 10 miles South of Alnwick, on the A1, there is the usual solid blue pole with the Trafficmaster boxes on it; 10 yards away there is a lattice tower of the same height with 2 similar, but not blue, boxes on it. My Origin Blue warns of a camera there; there was one but it has been removed, or is it the gizzmos on the lattice tower? I think we should be told!
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Does your Blue eye indicate it as "specs"?
specs have two boxes - is there another one further down the road?
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I didn't actually see what it was reported as. From my knowledge of the road I can say that it is not SPECS. On reflection, what it does look like is 2 sets of Trafficmaster cameras on 2 different poles and at the same location. For what the things cost you wouldn't think that they would leave both sets there. The cameras look slightly different (colour etc) but are the same basic design, a long box with blades, rather like 4 petals, fanning out at the end.
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RFP
I had assumed that they were the new colour for traffic master cameras. They look the same and are in positions that the blue cameras are normally placed in. I hope they are traffic master cameras anyway, if not I won't be using any road transport as the driver for a while.
Bill
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Bill I think you have got it spot on! Origin update their database with new "devices" but presumably they don't get told when these things are removed. For some reason there are,perhaps temporarily, ywo sets of Trafficmaster's kit at one location.
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"Origin update their database with new "devices" but presumably they don't get told when these things are removed."
Yup they do. The gatso on the A1 southbound near the neane valley railway went from noted to removed on the origin database within days of an "out of service" cover appearing on it.
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You can always contact Trafficmaster to find out www.trafficmaster.co.uk
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The blue pale blue boxes I asked about a few months ago, mounted at a slightly drunken angle about 3 feet off the ground, I now discover are water meters.
I found out because I saw a water board man opening one.
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On the M11, just before the London end, there is a GATSCO camera facing away from the traffic plus a pair of green cameras in fron facing towards the traffic.
Any ideas on the latter?
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Hmm - Personally I don't have a clue. I would suggest security cameras for the Gatso but not 2 of them.
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arent they truevelo cameras got lots of them locally it takes your picture when you pass the first one and works out your speed when you pass the next one and within two weeks you get a letter confirming how fast your car actually does go.
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K-T-D. What you are describing is SPECS. TrueVelo camera works from the car passing over sensors in the road and taking a picture of you, usually but not invariably, from the front.
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The blue ones on the lattice towers ARE new installations of Trafficmaster.
You will notice the bridge-mounted ones are currently being replaced also.
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LD, thanks for clearing that one up! Many of us are getting a bit paranoid about 'things on poles' by the roads!
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