InfoRad K1

[Old-Guy]

Does anyone have any experience of this dinky 'safety' camera warning device - or indeed of InfoRad devices in general?

I know this doesn't have anything directly to do with Citroens, but as I can't get any sense from TomTom as to why their badly written on-line ordering system takes exception to my address, I'm looking for an alternative device to help me avoid unintentional speeding - particularly near speed cameras.

Guy

[myglaren]

Does anyone have any experience of this dinky 'safety' camera warning device - or indeed of InfoRad devices in general?

I know this doesn't have anything directly to do with Citroens, but as I can't get any sense from TomTom as to why their badly written on-line ordering system takes exception to my address, I'm looking for an alternative device to help me avoid unintentional speeding - particularly near speed cameras.

Guy

Cruise control?

[CitroJim]

I've got one Guy. Never use it since I got a Tom Tom with a speed camera database in it.

They're good for what they are, they bleep when in the vicinity of a fixed camera. they are a GPS device and have an updatable database of camera locations.

As a bonus, you can take the GPS data out of the thing via the USB port (also used to power the device) and feed it into a laptop running say, Autoroute and you have the next best thing to a Tom Tom.

I used to use my Inforad with Autoroute installed on a very small notebook for journeys into unfamiliar territory before the Tom Tom arrived.

It used to keep the kids amused watching Autoroute. You could set it to show the route you'd travelled and this could be saved for future reference. A saved trace of a typical evening of Dad's Taxi work around Milton Keynes made the map look like it had received the attentions of a spirograph gone beserk... Anyone remember those?

[admiral51]

A saved trace of a typical evening of Dad's Taxi work around Milton Keynes made the map look like it had received the attentions of a spirograph gone beserk... Anyone remember those?

They were the next step up from a 6 yr old having a paddy and covering the whole page in hurry

Dont they make them battery operated now 8) 8)

Colin

[Old-Guy]

Thanks for that Jim.

In fact I want something in lieu of the outdated speed camera databse in my TomTom, which I can't update due to a fault in TomTom on-line ordering system that they can't be bothered to investigate!
Or even take sufficient interest in to answer my requests for support
Leaving me with no alternative but to buy another device. The new Inforad K1 has the dual advantages of being the size of a USB flash drive and battery powered - far easier to use and hide than the TomTom with its tell-tale screen mount.

Regards

Guy

[Xaccers]

Have you looked into whether it is possible to update your tomtom from other sources?

I've got tomtom on my PDA, so a slightly different version to the tomtom specific devices.

[citronut]

so you update these devices by calculatting the exact location you recive speeding fines, then enter them into your database
TEA HE

sorry i dont get out much

regards malcolm

[handyman]

There is a very simple device already installed in your car to avoid getting caught speeding by either fixed or mobile speed cameras, gatsos, etc.
No need to spend money on useless gizmos.

I'll leave you to figure it out where and what the device is.


Handyman

[CitroJim]

Here's a clue, it's often a bit optimistic....

[addo]

How accurate are your speedometers? Mine (Sagem) is one optimistic at forty (radar verified; 41ish indicated is 40 actual), three optimistic at seventy, and reads 98 when actually doing 90!

I checked the higher speeds over 10km highway stretches with cruise control, a stopwatch and the distance markers (they're accurate to within five metres).

Yes, I DO speed at times - but never in suburbia. That's for the BMW drivers.

Regards, Adam

[Old-Guy]

Addo. The law says speedos must be accurate to +0 -10% (5% for more recent cars). This is with the largest rolling radius tyres fitted by the manufacturer. Tachographs (and LGV governors) have to be spot-on within the limits of the test rig which allows for actual tyre wear. It used to be common for old cars with tired speedos and worn tyres to over-read by lots more than 10%. My Xantia over-reads by less than 5% according to TomTom. Conveniently, an indicated 80 (3,000rpm) is a true 76-77, reasonably economical and comfortable motorway cruising at the maximum 'legal' speed.

I don't intentionally speed (other than slightly on motorways in good conditions). I want to minimise the risk of getting caught accidentally speeding on an unfamiliar road. We only have to miss one dirty or obscured sign (plenty of those in Gloucestershire) to risk a £60, 3 point, fixed penalty. Mobile cameras are always sited to catch the maximum number of drivers - most of them speeding by accident not intent.

The A4135 in the 4 miles from the A38 (50 going north, 40 coming south) starts in a 30 limit at the junction, changing to 50, 40, 30, 40, 30, 60. There is no obvious reason for the two 40 to 30 changes, and each is marked by a single sign with no repeater for some considerable distance.

Guy

[handyman]

Hi Old-Guy, how do you speed by accident?

I would suggest that if a speed limit drops from 40mph to 30mph, it is a pretty good indicator that you are driving through an urban area, where you will need to be more aware of pedestrians, slow moving vehicles, side roads, crossings, traffic lights,...........

All speed limits are a maximum, if in doubt about the accuracy of your speedometer or the limit of the road you are on, you wont get a ticket, penalty points or a fine for driving below the speed limit.

Unless you are driving hazardously!

Jim, 'fraid you don't get the cigar! The device I was referring to lies between your ears. Lump of grey matter?

Handyman

[Xaccers]

Some roads have lower speed limits along stretches despite there being no difference to the faster sections, so it's not like you're pootling along at 60, then you come to a 40 zone with houses etc making it obvious that there's likely to be a drop in the speed limit.
If one section of road looks identical to another section which has a 60 limit, are you going to think "Ooo this could be 40mph" or are you going to think "It's 60 still" ?
Especially when you factor in how poorly signposted speed limits can be.

On the A32 from Basingstoke to Gosport on the way out of a village there are national speed limit signs each side of the road, except the one on the left is covered in green moss so you can't actually see that it's a national speed limit sign, and the one on the right is hidden by leaves except in the winter.
Thankfully they're going from a slow limit to a higher one, but there are numerous accounts of lower speed limit signs being obscured by foliage or even other signs, and just along the road, a camera.

Some roads go from 60 to 30, but only after a bend, so if you come round at a safe speed, you still have to brake hard to ensure you don't break the law.
Other junctions are so badly layed out that in order to navigate them safely, your view doesn't move to where they have decided to place the speed limit sign.
Thankfully these a few and far between, but something like tomtom or road angel gives prior warning.

I used to have a radar detector, not so that I could speed through towns without getting caught, but to give me prior warning of possibly dangerous roads (ie where speed cameras should be until they fix the road and make it safe, which of course they never actually do because that costs money while the camera makes it), and I used to find it interesting to know where the active cameras were and how often they are moved around.

[Old-Guy]

I'm sorry that Handyman and others have misunderstood me:

I would suggest that if a speed limit drops from 40mph to 30mph, it is a pretty good indicator that you are driving through an urban area, where you will need to be more aware of pedestrians, slow moving vehicles, side roads, crossings, traffic lights,...........

I neither deliberately break speed limits nor drive faster than I consider to be both safe and considerate in the circumstances. But if it's an unfamiliar road (about half my annual mileage) with no significant change in the surroundings and the solitary 30 limit sign is hidden by a parked van, overgrown bush, or just plain missed in the road-side clutter, my TomTom warns me that I'm breaking the limit. What's the objection to this?

This Government has created a penalty culture of deliberate entrapment to raise revenues. A drastic reduction in the requirements for speed limits signs has enabled traps for 'speeding' motorists to be deliberately created. To justify this, TRRL statistics were falsified to 'prove' that speed is THE major cause of accidents (the actual statistics inconveniently show that in general speed is not A major cause). To paraphrase Dr Goebbels: "If the lie is big enough and repeated often enough, enough people will believe it."

I'd like to keep the clean license I've held for 43 years and well over 600,000 miles with only one (minor) accident in the last 20+ years. Apart from the Xantia, I now drive anything from a 7½T recovery truck via almost any van or 4x4 that you care to name, to a Toureg V10.

This post started out as a reasonable request for any feedback on InfoRad because I can't get updates for my TomTom!

Guy

[Old-Guy]

Xac,

Thanks for the dose of reality.

A few weeks ago I saw a prime example: a 30 limit sign before a village invisible around the next corner. I knew both sign and village were there, but in a truck looking down at the sign it was hidden by the small tree in front. In a car, looking up, the (dirty) sign is plainly visible below the foliage. I frequently pass a low gear warning sign at the top of a long hill down off the Cotswolds into the Severn Vale, which is similarly hidden from truck drivers! I've had a moan at Glos Highways several times in the last couple of years to no effect.

Guy