this is not a joke.

it's six metres up a pole, smaller than ever and there's no escape from its lens. This is Britain's first digital Gatso-style camera, and look where it has been placed - out of drivers' eyeline and part-hidden by a telegraph pole!

Called the SpeedCurb, it's the latest weapon in the battle against motorists who flout the limit. It's made by Worcestershire firm Monitron International, and is mounted higher than usual partly to deter attacks from vandals.

The device is set to spread nationwide, and has already sparked fury in the anti-camera lobby. Unlike traditional Gatsos, it has no film inside and is linked via a telephone line to a control centre. That means it's live all the time, and if it's set off will issue a ticket.

The device in our picture is on the A4 Bath Road in the Brislington district of Bristol, and is one of several that have just gone up in the town. Dave Gollicker, spokesman for road safety group Avon, Somerset and Gloucestershire Camera Partnership, said: "We have introduced these cameras because of the parking problems in Bristol. When our engineers change the film in the cameras, we get complaints - but with these devices, we don't have to park at all."

The Monitrons haven't gone live yet, and white calibration lines on the road have still to be painted. In all, there will be 20 cameras in the Bristol area. Eight will be sited to snap speeders, with another 12 at junctions to catch red light jumpers. That model is called the RedGuard, but another device, RedSpeed, can do both jobs at the same time. Goll- icker said: "Once everything is in place, we'll tell people about the cameras and their locations through the media."

 

Seen that one already - nearly had me.
Lucky I had a detector

 

"Friends-Chandler Bing.................Could IT BEEEE any taller! "

 

There is loads of those bastards round Bristol

 

Lewis could easily touch the top of that one

 

was just gonna say that high tower should be ok to get at it ..
looks a bit of a bugger tho... no doubt a petrol disc cutter could help ... ttttiiimmmbbbeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

if we cant kill the new gatso's we gotta go to the mothership "Monitron International" who's goin to do a recky, then we'll destroy!!

 

When will they stop, untill every road has a camera on it.

 

Looks like that one's partially obscured by the street-light pole behind it in the pic, aswell......typical location, devised by another revenue-generating bunch of thieves!

Also, if my geometry from school is right, putting the camera vertically further away from the horizontal travel of the vehicle means it's less accurate, as it has to take into account the "angle-of-attack" at each photo-point (ie. if the car is right below it, the angle between the travel direction of the car and the direction of the camera-lens is going to be almost 90-degrees; but if the car is 6 metres away, the angle will be 45-degrees; if the car is a long distance away, it will be close to 0-degrees - the closer to the ground, the more accurate the camera in calculating the speed, unless the cameras are calibrated to already take the height of the camera and distance from the line of travel of the car)?

 

Its not a Gatso, Looks more like a post box for a lanky fooker......

 

Hightower could reach that one in the picture from his back garden!! only round the corner from him..

 

3am angle grinder and then timber!!!!! or you may crash into it by accident with a bullbar'd landy

 

its just for him .. tall persons post box.....

 

is it me or have the car and bus got the wrong idea of bus lanes?

like bus should be in the bloody bus lane and not the focus driver!

 

We're gonna need magical boxes to dump in dustbins near the cameras, ala "The Italian Job"

 

WANKERS!!

 

Fuck, im worried now, lol.

Theres none on the road from the motorway end of brsitol down the A37 out towards somerset is there as always use that road...

ALSO, you know the road just after the end of the motorway in bristol, where you turn right and its a dual carridgeway and goes thru an underpass type bit and theres the 30mph limit signs that flash if u speeding... Is there any cameras there? Im sure there not, but the amount of people i see shit em and slam on brakes down to 30mph is making me wonder, lol.

 

They are there just to shit u up to slow down the bit on the top is just a speed detecter not a camara

 

there r a ghood no. arounf bristol now!

 

i think these are just places for lewis to store my cookies when he steals them from me

 

, Do They Ever Stop !!


Al..

 

pmsl @ spiky!

oh & that pic is right by my house!

 

hmmz.. thats weird... gatso is from Holland
and we dont have them here......

 

There's your weak link then
These will probably be some kind of ISDN line
I'm sure someone will come up with a way round these shortly

(Not that anyone will of course because that would be illegal)

 

bastids i really hate em....

 

Simon, it still works with radar signals then? what band?

Gav

 

Dont know what band it was but my detector made a NEW sound that I
have never heard before !

 

it might of been pickin up the old camera that was there mayb!? :s

there is 1 by steve & lous & there is 1 on st johns lane on me way to work! fook knows y thogh & i swear its pointin up the side road!

 

i got caught out by 1 of the fookers 55 in a 40

3points & Ł60

 

I am sure your detector won't pick it up. It has 2 loops in the road, at a set distance, and will calculate your speed from that. It will take ONE picture, and I understood that there would not be any white lines with these either. This gets away from the angle issue mentioned above...

 

Poor Lewis

 

Do you remember how many times it flashed - for sure?

 

I agree!

 

Any on the A37?

 

St3V3_C, it did not flash & was about 7am ish on the A38

 

not yet.

 

So if it's light enough the don't even flash once?