Camera question

rbruce1314 · Post by **rbruce1314** » 30 May 2005, 20:49

Am I the last in the world to find this out or are there some others also? I was told only yesterday that the REAL reason for banning italic and other non-standard typefaces on 'plates was that they could not be read by the OCR devices attached to the new cameras. It all makes sense now: my son was stopped (in my car) and told that the plates were illegal (they are bold italic) because they could not be read. Answer from my son: "In that case officer how did you do a PNC and find out it was not my car?" Reply from officer: "P*ss off smart***e- just go away"

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » 30 May 2005, 22:08

Aside from the conspiracy theories, there are some good reasons why there is a set specifiaction for number plates. Thing is, if your sons car were nicked we'd put the VRM on the ANPR database. He'd look pretty silly if it drove past a scanner or camera routed for ANPR and it wasn't picked up. Likewise, if someone with similar plates ran him over (heaven forbid that never happens) then he'd be equally peeved that witnesses might have a harder time reading a non regulation plate fitted to the offenders car.

rbruce1314 · Post by **rbruce1314** » 30 May 2005, 22:15

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by turbolag

he'd be equally peeved that witnesses might have a harder time reading a non regulation plate fitted to the offenders car.
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That IS my point- they are far easier to read from a distance than standard plates: its only cameras they supposedly confuse

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » 30 May 2005, 22:26

Yeah, but where do you draw the line. Oh, thats only a little bit out so it's ok? The regs can't anticipate every eventuality. TBH, if he'd spoken to me like that i'd have FPN'd him for having no number plates (the law on the subject is absolute - you have the correct spec, or you don't have any fitted at all) which would've cost him £60 and 3 points, half his licence if he's a youngster. I've seen young lads get smart and have their car seized as evidence (I don't do that cos it's helluva lot of paperwork) - they weren't so smug then.
I can't see why anyone feels the need to fanny about with their plates at all - you only draw unwanted attention, which seems odd that the drivers then moan when they get it.
Rich.

rbruce1314 · Post by **rbruce1314** » 31 May 2005, 01:06

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by turbolag

I can't see why anyone feels the need to fanny about with their plates at all - you only draw unwanted attention, which seems odd that the drivers then moan when they get it.
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Dont get me wrong- I take your point, but I am not a mad youngster (far from it!) and the plates in question were fitted when the car was new (1998) and were completely legal at the time. I know there are some stupid plates about (these aren't), but as I understand it the principle of British law is that things cannot be made illegal retrospectively- seatbelts etc: please correct me if I am wrong on this because you obviously need to know the law.

Richard Gallagher · Post by **Richard Gallagher** » 31 May 2005, 03:12

As far as plates are concerned, unless I'm very mistaken italics have never been legal.

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 31 May 2005, 03:36

The reason for italics being banned is that some people have used fonts that were very difficult to read and there has been all manner of people trying to get their number plates to "say" something they don't.
As an example, I watched Gordon Ramsey's program and the person who he was helping had "A 16 HEF" as his numberplate. There was a "secruring screw" placed with a white cap on it so it made the 6 look like a C, trying to get the plate to read "A1 CHEF". The whole point of a numberplate is that the car can EASILY be identified, witnesses don't always manage to read legal plates correctly so what chance do they have trying to read something that is deliberately trying to look like something it isn't?
The line has to be drawn somewhere, and to make sure that nobody gets away with anything the rules have been made absolutely stringent. The standard now specifies fonts, colours, spacing, plate size etc it's pretty tight.

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » 31 May 2005, 15:16

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Richard Gallagher

As far as plates are concerned, unless I'm very mistaken italics have never been legal.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Correct. Since the 1920s there has been a spec governing font size, spec and spacing, but it was tightened up radically in 2002. And in the example Kowlski quite rightly mentions, using fasteners to alter the characters is yet another offence.

reblack68 · Post by **reblack68** » 01 Jun 2005, 11:49

I got flashed by a camera yesterday but I was travelling towards it and I wasn't speeding. I was on the A1 and a Fiesta overtook me but was gone by the time the camera flashed.
I always understood that these cameras (it appeared to be the standard GATSO) work from behind but there was definitely nobody coming the other way. Am I likely to get a ticket?

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 01 Jun 2005, 15:04

Gatsos do only photograph the rear of the car, shining a flash in drivers eyes is rather anti-social and dangerous too.

Sl4yer · Post by **Sl4yer** » 01 Jun 2005, 15:12

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by reblack68

I got flashed by a camera yesterday but I was travelling towards it and I wasn't speeding. I was on the A1 and a Fiesta overtook me but was gone by the time the camera flashed.
I always understood that these cameras (it appeared to be the standard GATSO) work from behind but there was definitely nobody coming the other way. Am I likely to get a ticket?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
They do occasionally go off when you're travelling towards them. Nothing to worry about.

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » 01 Jun 2005, 16:01

Truvelo fires at the front of the car. If some numpty was overtaking you, then you should be fine. The flash doesn't dazzle at all - i've set off dozens of the damn things on response jobs over the years and never been dazzled once. The favoured trick is to pull a 'Wallace and Grommit' face as you go through to give the girls that develop the pics something to talk about!

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 01 Jun 2005, 16:11

I beg to differ over camera flashes dazzling or not, at night they do if you're looking directly at them when they go off, it has happened to me. Its very similar to the effect you get from having any camera flash shone in your eyes. They are a fairly tightly directed flash to avoid this sort of thing, but if you get yourself into the wrong place...

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » 01 Jun 2005, 16:34

Fair enough, i've triggered dozens, possibly even hundreds and never been dazzled, so I can only speak as I find. Some people are more sensitive to differnt wavelengths in the spectrum (I seem hyper sensitive to front fogs etc) so perhaps you get it worse than I do in that respect?

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 01 Jun 2005, 17:23

I was talking about Gatsos and not Truvello, i.e. the ones that are supposed to photograph the rear of the car, personally I haven't triggered one but I've driven past them when traffic coming the opposite way has triggered them and thats when I've had the flash in my eyes. I am quite sensitive to bright light, badly adjusted headlights and the flair off xenon (hid) headlights are amongst my pet hates but I've never had a problem with fog lights (other than the fact that they're never on when they're needed and always on when they're not).
Northumbria Police have had some new cars recently and they have white strobes on the top pointing forwards and these tend to dazzle me. They also make the blue lights look paler from the front which makes them harder to differentiate from the blue flair you get from xenon headlights. I always thought the red lights they had on the rear at the top were very good, but as for white strobes on the front, I'm not a fan. I didn't like the fact that police cars flashed their full beams, these have a warm up time so they don't get fully bright but these white strobes aren't in the same league its all instant blinding brightness.
This is very off topic, the vast majority of my driving happens on dual carriage way and I'm often shocked by the amount of time that passes between me spotting a police car and getting out of its way by changing lanes and other drivers around me doing the same thing. Often I'll change lanes and two or three cars behind me will take the opportunity to overtake and hold up a police car rather than get out of its way, I once watched a small truck do about a mile with a police car following it with its lights on and sirens going. My point here is that I can spot a police car, get dazzled by its strobes (in my mirrors from a great distance) and other drivers around me can manage to completely ignore the same police car. I'm sure you have vast amounts of experience of this.