Between junction 16 (Swindon) and Jct 15 (Marlborough) on a bridge over the motorway. One camera per lane - cameras on tripods.
Are these for catching people with tax and/or MOT or something else?
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They are the work of the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Partnership and are positioned n a number of bridges over the M4 from time to time.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4439123.stm
" 'The mobile speed cameras were brought into operation in April 2005. Numbers of deaths and crashes have significantly reduced since mobile speed cameras were introduced on the M4 motorway in Wiltshire, figures show. Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership (WSSCP) began enforcing the 70mph limit in the county last April.
Figures suggest that since then, there has been a 57.89% cut in the number of people killed or seriously injured. "
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4905684.stm
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Are you sure they are speed cameras. Why not just use the camera in the van like they normally do?
Why one per lane?
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The ANPR cameras to catch untaxed/insured/MoTd vehicles are only ever deployed in tandem with police cars/bikes, and officers on the ground, as the offenders are always stopped once the system has flagged a possible offender. Taking a pic. of them doing 75 down the motorway isn't much use.
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Figures suggest that since then, there has been a 57.89% cut in the number of people killed or seriously injured. " news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4905684.stm
There were only a few accidents on this part of the M4 before so I take issue that this is a big enough statistical sample to provide meaningful stats in the first place.
ie If there were 6 accidents last year and 3 accidents this year, that is a 50% cut, but with figures this small who is to say that due to adverse weather we may not have 3 accidents in a single 48 hour period.
I am not the only person to challenge these figures there is a lot of similar discussion on the ABD website.
The fact is that there is no tangible proof that speed cams on motorways has had any effect on accidents, as the figures for the last couple of years have been flat with only tiny fluctuations either way.
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The giveaway is the reduction figure quoted to two decimal places, on a sample that may be in single digits.
Reminds me of the voting figures in third-world tyrannies: 'The President was reelected by 98.735% of the electorate'. Really a) there were no other candidates and b) hardly anyone actually bothered to vote, that being the case. Neverthyeless the whole charade had to be discussed with a straight face.
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There was for example a very bad, fog-related pile-up on the M4 in this area, some years ago (not the one on 2002, but earlier).
Any stats that include that year will be skewed as a result.
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OK - but why 3 cameras (1 for each lane?) I know they use the white vans - just curious about using a separate camera for each lane.
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OK - but why 3 cameras (1 for each lane?)
There was a posting on here a while ago about being able to deceive SPECS cameras by changing lanes between one SPECS camera and the next. Maybe that's why?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=48...2
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=45696&...e
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OK - but why 3 cameras (1 for each lane?) I know they use the white vans - just curious about using a separate camera for each lane.
>>
They are not speed cameras, as an previous poster stated, they are ANPR cmaeras checking tax/insurance. They are at this spot (and just off J16 towards W. Bassett) quite regularly
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They are not speed cameras, as an previous poster stated, they are ANPR cameras checking tax/insurance.
In that case what then happens when they get a hit?
" Oh isn't that interesting, another transgressor passed by?"
Please explain further because as previously stated, ANPR, as I and many others have frequently seen are backed up with highly mobile support teams to stop the vehicle PDQ that fails the checks.
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The support will be there but sometime sit is only one car/bike. If it's on a job with an offender, the area will appear to be police free.
Another option is that some of these units are remote and send the NIP's in the post to the people who have been caught.
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Great - thanks. Hope they catch plenty of offenders then. Can't abide people who don't pay for tax, insurance and drive around without an MOT. If I have to pay it then so should they.
Speed cameras are another matter though......
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The giveaway is the reduction figure quoted to two decimal places, on a sample that may be in single digits.
I agree that the two decimal places are stoopid, but the sample is not in single figures. According theBBC News article "Saira Khan from the Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership said that more than 200 people had died or were seriously injured on the M4 in the past year, and defended the use of the cameras."
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"Saira Khan from the Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership said that more than 200 people had died or were seriously injured on the M4 in the past year, and defended the use of the cameras."
I doubt that more than 15% were in Wiltshire - quoting 200 is just plain devious, when the M4 stretches from West London to West Wales. The Wiltshire stretch is one of the quietest, except round Swindon at rush hour. She's clearly never been East to the Reading to M25 stretch, or West to the area round Cardiff.
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"Saira Khan from the Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership said that more
Strange way to spell Sarah!
MD
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news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4439441.stm
"Spokeswoman Saira Khan told BBC News: "If those 240 people had been involved in in one incident in one day there would have been an outcry."
etc. etc,,
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Some of these deaths were debatable as to being "motoring incidents" as well at least one was a suicide off a bridge!
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Its the ANPR team at work. Somewhere after the cameras you there would have been a couple of marked vehicles ready for the days catch. Another favoured location is on the bridge about 2 miles east of J18 (Bath), especially thursday nights for some reason. Catch vehicles are usually parked up on the hidden layby some 5 miles further on.
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