speed cameras

[dive75]

Does anybody know if speed cameras take photos in both directions even if the white dash lines just after the box are only on one side of the road? As yesterday I was driving past a speed camera doing the usual 29 mph when a bloke driving from the other direction obviously doing in excess of 35 seemed to set the speed camera off, although it only flashed once. Is this possible? (may have been Gokhan!!!) only joking Gok!!!

[Jay70]

Hi dive75.  There is a speed camera close to me that has white distance markings on the road on the side of the road that the camera is on, but, it can be swivelled to face traffic coming head on at it on the opposite side of the road where there are no white road markings.

[Loosehead]

They only take pics when the car is going away from the camera, on either side of the road, so there are sometimes hash markings on both sides of the road. The speed detectors do sometimes cause a single flash when a car is going towards them but no picture is taken

[brian5]

As far as I know, they can only take photo's of traffic going away form the camera, mosy do not trigger at the prescribed speed, for instance most in 30mph area's will not trigger until at least 40mph, if the camera flashes once, then no photo has been taken , or the camera has no film left, if it flashes twice, get you wallet out.

[Skids]

There are several types of speed camera. The early big square side-of-the-road ones (Gatso) take pictures, with actual film, of the REAR of your car, and they're the ones that flash. The newer big square ones (Truvelo) take digital pictures of the FRONT of your car so that the picture shows the driver as well. These are the ones that can be turned around and often have ruler markings on both sides of the road. Speeding can only be proven if the camera takes two pictures of your car passing over these ruler markings. Its rumored that if your travelling in excess of 155mph you can beat the second flash of a Gatso camera, but as yet I haven't tried it for myself. ;-)
SPECS cameras look like CCTV cameras painted yellow and are mounted high over the road. They are in pairs with a second one mounted at a set distance down the road from the first. They measure your average speed over that set distance by clocking your registration plate at the first one and timing how long it takes for that same registration to pass the second one. These have no road markings.
All speed cameras must be high visibility yellow by law. Those that aren't are normally mounted near traffic lights and are actually red-light-jumper cameras.

[sddsddean]

The only thing I have to add to Skids' answer is about camera vans. They usually 'get you' coming towards them, but can get you going away. Most people accelerate after passing the van. To combat this, they can swivel the whole camera rig 180 degrees and get you going away through their windscreen. They will also 'do' you for any other visible offence eg insecure load, using a phone, reading a map etc.

[Zen]

Wonderful film about speed cameras at
http://www.punchbaby.com/clip_ads.htm

The one you want is titled " Radar"