Pocket GPS UK Safety Camera Database

Privateer

Dave and Darren,

I’ve just downloaded the latest version of the “UK Safety Camera Database”, thanks for the update. However, I’ve noticed that there are a few cameras missing in the Oxfordshire area.

I send out an ad hoc email, which details the locations (that I have recorded) of known cameras in Oxfordshire and those near the Oxfordshire borders in neighbouring counties (yes, I’m a sad Speed Camera spotter).

If I send you a list of the cameras, would you be able to discard any duplicates of cameras that you already have?

The positions were taken in Ordnance Survey grid references and the OSGB Datum. However if I were to type them up into an .ASC file and run them through the latest version of WinOV2 for conversion to Longitude and Latitude and the correct Datum, would that be acceptable?

Do you need a distinction made between GATSO and Truvelo cameras?
_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

Dave

Sure, not a problem. Mail them to cameras@pocketgpsworld.com and Duncan will pick them up. We have a method of removing duplicates from new POI files.

Whatever is easiest for you, we can accept OV2 files either just with the new additions or the complete database with your new cameras added. We would prefer them in the correct datum as it makes life easier for us because we do gets lots of submissions every day and it could throw up issues when putting it through our automated process.

Any additional information you can provide like Fixed GATSO, Truvelo, or even the speed would help.

Privateer

Hi Dave,

I've sent a zip file with the .ASC and .OV2 files to the above email address.

I assume that WinOV2 converts Datums OK?

Regards,
_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

andyfox

Sorry to ask such a basic question but where do I get the ASCII version of the OV2 file from. The ZIP only seems to include the OV2 and BMP so fine for TT users but looking to use with Autoroute at present.

Thanks in advance

Andy

Privateer

Andy,

I use a piece of PC Software called WinOV2, which can be downloaded from here.

Regards,
_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

nicknick · Regular Visitor Joined: 03/02/2003 17:18:53 Posts: 154

Dave,

I think considering today's news you should consider selling the database to the ambulance service.

I can see two upsides:

1) big public outcry which will slow down the proliferation of this car version of the poll tax

2) if he gets convicted then it means that in theory the police could be prosecuted (talk about hoist by your own petard)

Nick

TheBoyGroucho

The transplant guy should have read this site when he got the NIP:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/unsigned.html

andyfox

Quote: Originally posted by Privateer on 27 May 2003

Andy,

I use a piece of PC Software called WinOV2, which can be downloaded from here.

Regards,

Much appreciated. Now to see if I can give back a bit too with some camera coords...

DavidW

I want to veer off in another direction a bit, though this is in the context of recent comments about the hope that the database will eventually identify camera types and speed limits at individual camera sites.

I drove down the A41 Hendon Way and into the A41 Finchley Road (heading towards Lords) yesterday. Many of the cameras marked on the Hendon Way in particular are Gatso red light cameras. Those cameras are in a rather narrower box than a Gatso speed camera, presumably because there's no radar in there. There are a couple of Gatso speed cameras on the Hendon Way, however, enforcing the 40mph limit.

Is there a policy about the inclusion (or otherwise) of red light cameras in the PocketGPS overlay? I know, for example, that there's some red light cameras in Dunstable that aren't in the database (come to think of it, there's a couple of newish speed cameras in the Dunstable area that aren't in the database - when I get my proper car mount, I'll capture the positions - one is on Church Street, another pair are on the A505 towards Leighton Buzzard in the bit that's now a 50mph limit).

I'm not sure warning on red light cameras is at all useful.

In fact, I'm not sure that I personally want camera warnings at all - my advanced driving training teaches me, amongst other things, about driver workload, and the noises from the warning utility are adding to workload. I've had it argued to me by at least one of the people that trained me that having a Trafficmaster on isn't a good idea for similar reasons, though I remain to be convinced of that. I live in hope that we will eventually get a Pocket PC service from Trafficmaster (just as there is a service for Palm OS users) - or, even better - traffic information integrated into TomTom Navigator! I'll then happily ditch my Trafficmaster.

If my observation and situational awareness are correct (and up to, or exceeding the standards I reached on my last test), then I should be aware of the speed limit, my road speed and what factors there are in determining a safe speed. My training is to drive up to the speed limit whenever possible, but not in excess of it, and to make good progress (I was marked down for that on my last test - I was felt to be not brisk enough in that it was safe sometimes to drive faster than I did).

If I am driving to the standards I've been trained to, I don't need speed camera warnings. However, we're all human, and we all make mistakes! There's always the chance of an inadvertent mistake when you are distracted, and maybe the warning of an upcoming speed camera can jolt you back to proper awareness. I'm still trying to weigh this issue for myself.

I certainly wouldn't suggest that what is right for me is right for everyone else, as it's both logically and morally incorrect to do that! However, I would recommend anyone to have a go at advanced driving. I learnt a lot and feel I'm a better and safer driver as a result. It cost me very little, too, as the observers are all unpaid volunteers (in part due to the law that anyone who teaches car driving for payment, even if they only teach at advanced level, has to be an Approved Driving Instructor).

One thing I am sure - for me, the right 'safety speed' in Navigator 2 is 45mph. Any more and I feel there simply shouldn't be a map on display, at least the way I drive (again, this is a personal thing). When you're slowing to come into a roundabout, the map will reappear in case you want to glance at it.

I'm just aware that it's best to avoid too many extraneous 'inputs' when we're driving. It's for that reason I often have the radio off. In my limited experience so far, TomTom Navigator 2 is pretty good in terms of giving relevant information in its voice prompts and no more.

Certainly my feeling is that getting red light cameras out of the database (if people really want warnings of them, can we put them into a separate overlay that I won't even install) would be a positive step, not least from a driver workload point of view.

David

Darren

David, although we haven't actually set a formal policy yet I agree that we need to revisit this issue. I personally do not think Traffic Light Cameras should be in the database, others disagree but it becomes confusing receiving alerts for these locations as whilst I may inadvertantly exceed the posted limits on occasion I hope I don't run a red light!

If you use Checkpoint as your POI Alert Utility it permits categorisation of cameras by type and speed which allows the creation of seperate .ov2 files. We are hoping to eventually categorise all cameras by type and speed.

Glad the advanced driver training has enthused you for motoring, I pased my IAM and GEM tests 13yrs ago and that training has saved me on more than a few occasions.
_________________
Darren Griffin

TheBoyGroucho

Quote: Certainly my feeling is that getting red light cameras out of the database (if people really want warnings of them, can we put them into a separate overlay that I won't even install) would be a positive step, not least from a driver workload point of view.

I know we have been here before, but this seems to be a good compromise between those who want red traffic light camera warnings in the database and those who don't.

Darren

I will raise this with the team and see if producing seperate .OV2 POI files for normal Gatso's and Traffic Light Cameras is soemthing we can implement. The main problems I foresee are that those traffic light cameras already in the database and not currently flagged as such will be hard to ID and remove but we could easily remove them one by one as they are flagged to us by our readers.

As Checkpoint allows new sites to be categorised this could be a good solution.
_________________
Darren Griffin

DavidW

That seems like a great idea, Darren. Further, you can distribute both overlays in the same ZIP file so that users can update all the overlays they use at the same time (about the easiest way to do this is to extract the ZIP file on the Pocket PC if you have Resco Explorer 2003 or similar - that way the .BMP files don't get converted by ActiveSync).

The red light cameras could have the icon with a red border for a red light camera!

As the current database has a number for each camera, hopefully it should be easy enough to take reports of cameras that need moving into the red light camera database using those numbers, just as they can be used to report speed limits for existing cameras. (Whoever decided to add those numbers - it was a great move!).

I expect there'll eventually be multiple speed camera overlays in the ZIP file when speed limits begin to be recorded in the database. I believe the speed warning functions in CheckPOInt and GPSAssist need multiple overlays that identify the speed limit of all the cameras in them, though I may not have understood correctly.

David

mattster

Chaps,

Firstly: this database looks awesome - long may it grow, for the sake of safety. And our licenses. This is the final straw to convince me to get "all GPS'd up"!!

Secondly: In relation to this "traffic light camera" discussion... it seems to me that (having downloaded and examined the database) a couple of extra fields would be really handy. I don't know what the compatibility constraints are, but the following info could probably help enormously:

1) Direction of travel (perhaps just in deg CW from N, or some other useful measure)... then you could be alerted only to cameras active in your direction of travel (may require software updates I suppose). Safety relevance: when on a dual carriageway and the danger spot is caused by a slip road - a hazard irrelevant to opposing traffic.

2) Description... this could perhaps have a number of "standard" entries - for example, "Signal", "Fixed-Dist Start", "Fixed-Dist End", "Mobile", etc... Then those who, for example, prefer not to hear about Traffic signal cameras could turn this option off in their (updated?) software.

3) Limit in force... this would have to be advisory of course, and have a way of signifying "Variable", but would be useful nonetheless, and help to reduce the occurrence of those "heck-I-can't-remember-what-the-limit-is" braking panics. Which drive me mad when I'm behind folk who have them :-)

4) Comment... this might not be required, but if you were to be changing the DB anyway (which you may not!!) it might be worth including in case there are some handy uses for it. I'm sure there must be!

I know this would all be a substantial change to the database, but it could start out blank and get filled up in time; alternatively I'm sure you guys may have a lot of this info somewhere already...

In terms of compatibility, I suppose it would not be too hard (considering all the trouble you've already gone to!!) to have two databases available for downloade - one as-is, and one "upgraded".

I'd be interested in your thoughts on this - hope you don't think I'm being too cheeky!

I'm quite interested in writing my own program to deal with the above (additional) information... though I'm not yet sure whether to do this on a car pc or a pocket pc!!

Thanks again, and keep up the good work!

Best regards,

Matt

mattster

Sorry, seem to have duplicated some thoughts there, (thought I'd already read it all!), but no harm done I hope.

Cheers,

Matt

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