Are Mobile Camera Warnings Effective/Useful ??

RDS · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 242

My first proper journey with a Nuvi 310 and successfully downloaded latest Speed Camera Database has prompted a few thoughts.

Although the warnings of Gatso, Temporary and Specs sites were undoubtedly useful I did wonder the usefulness of the many mobile site warnings also picked up.

Many times the 'alarm' would be triggered, on both motorway and A/B roads, yet not a camera would be in view. So often would it occur that it quickly lost its effectivness. I'm not saying the warnings were a case of 'crying wolf' yet when they occur so frequently they begin to lose impact.

Given their very nature of being mobile these cameras can be sited almost anywhere, and I know the operators have favoured and most profitable places , but how often does a mobile site have to be in a particular site and how many reports of it are needed to warrant inclusion in the database ?

For example for the past 5+ years I've regularly (3-4 times a week) travelled up and down the M40 and in all that time have seen a mobile speed trap in a particular location on only just two occasions yet it features on the database.

Wam7 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 8

Funny should mention that as I was thinking exactly the same thing. I recently traveled from Tenby Wales and there was only once that I noticed the mobile camera van over a bridge and as you say it was fairly easy to spot.

I suppose you can chose to be notified of them or even have them in your POI. I use them mainly as an alert as to where mobile speed cameras have been so to be in slightly more aware.

Johnny_D · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject:

Personally,

I think that any inclusion of the location of any mobile location is
worth it's weight in gold.

Why ? - Because it alerts me to the fact that it may be there and gives me ample time to re-evaluate my speed.

As someone who travels a lot to areas i have not been before (and will only visit maybe 1-6 times within a given period) I find it invalable as
road speeds are not allways displayed!

So keep 'em coming Smile

JD
_________________
TTG 300 Died the death of a cracked screen
Navman F20 USB Fell off
TTG 520 Third time lucky?
Bloody Superb PGPSW Camera Database.
Not much else!

Andy_P

RDS · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 242

I've downloaded the 'Speedzone' database and was toying with the idea of deleting all the mobile sites before loading it all again. However I wasn't aware that there is a 'Warn when near' feature, which might be the better option.

Is this found in the POI loader, which would obviously involving reinstalling the database, or local to the Nuvi 310 in settings ?

Andy_P · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:27 pm Post subject:

Sorry, brain not in gear, been up since 4:30, thought I was still in the TomTom section Embarassed

smstextaddict · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 9:22 pm Post subject:

i find them very useful as if a mobile unit has been there before, they might be there again and it might be a case its a copper who sits there at 3am on a saturday morning or a camera van that turns up once a week in the day time.

I think its worth its weight in gold especially if an unmarked police car is parked there plugged into a ds2

RDS · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 242

So it appears from the replies to date that several of you find mobile warnings useful.

However as yet there hasn't been a response to my question of how many times and over what period a mobile camera has to be seen in a particular location before it makes onto the database 1, 2, 5, 10 ?

Obviously the more regular the siting the more effective the GPS warning ie if it's just once or twice in a year it might not be particularly effective, if it was five or more it'd certainly be worth taking note of.

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:57 pm Post subject:

RDS · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 242

I've now decided to delete all mobile camera warnings from the database before uploading it again to my Nuvi 310.

I may be taking a chance but feel until there are a few 'rules' on how many times and how often a mobile site has to seen before making it to the database the warnings were become too frequent to be really effective. If I knew that each warning was because a mobile camera had been spotted in that location at least a certain number of times in a certain period then I would have taken more notice.

Obviously there's a lot of work involved in maintaining the database, which is certainly appreciated, and it is only right that a certain amount of verification is required.However without wishing to sound too critical I believe that the same verification checks carried out on on static cameras ought to be applied to mobile ones as well.

Arimus · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:29 am Post subject:

RDS · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 09, 2006 Posts: 242

For the past 2 days on the A418 between the M40 and Thame the 'tax collectors' have had a mobile camera van situated no more than 5 yards from a fixed Gatso site.

Wish they would do that everywhere as it makes it easier to spot the b**t**ds.

MV54 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 26, 2006 Posts: 4

There's a couple of mobile van sites near me on the A3 which have a van there at least one every couple of weeks.

The location in the GPS database is slightly wrong though, it puts it about 1/4mile earlier than the actual location.

I assume its still the case that camera vans can only operate from predetermined positions and not anywhere they fancy. That and they only operate during the day. So if I'm on the M25 and know of a camera site ahead I'll ensure I'm doing the correct limit. Not worth the risk really.

Aren't the locations of mobile sites still published on the web?

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:42 am Post subject:

RobStevens · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:57 pm Post subject:

A cautionary tale:

I, too, became annoyed by the constant alarms relating to (vacant) mobile sites. So I deactivated the alarm for mobiles. And, of course, I got nailed by a mobile. Luckily I was only doing 37 in a 30 area, so I avoided penalty points on my licence, but it still cost me £60 (and I had to attend a "speedchoice workshop").

Now I've compromised by activating only CheckPOInt's initial warning and choosing a less intusive alarm sound, so I get a single "chirrup" as a reminder.

They are indeed limited to certain locations (as regular speed cameras are), so those locations are worth knowing about.

	PocketGPS
	Web