Greater use of a "stealth" speed cameras

Sunday Times, Driving section feature
Robot spies put police out of a job
A ‘stealth’ camera on the M25 is outstripping traditional speed traps. 150222 More

Speed cameras explained
A speed camera detector or satnav with a good speed camera database may be the answer, read more about the different types of detectors that help keep you on the right side of the law and your licence intact.
Review of cameras & Hadecs3

Just how "sneaky" are they?
There has been alarm about new "stealth" speed cameras. BBC News 150116






Source: BBC News 150116 & Sunday Times, Motoring 150222
Posted: 150222

A set of verification cameras on a pole (far left). In the distance, a single enforcement camera and radar gun on left side of the gantry (halfway up, visible just above a square electronic road sign). Photo credit: BBC News More
A new generation of speed cameras is being installed on UK motorways in "significant numbers" to enforce speed limits - and they are proving very effective. They are known as Hadecs3 and they are hard to spot as they are a dull grey colour and require no telltale white markings on the road surface. Without the yellow painted face seen on traditional Gatso cameras, it's not only their reduced visibility that causes the "stealth" claims but also the uncertainty from the variable level of use and enforcement with Hadecs3 by various police forces on motorways in the UK

Hadecs3 (a sinister name from Highways Agency Digital Enforcement Camera System 3) differs radically from older systems. A single camera and radar gun are attached to the gantry or a pole at the side of the road. It can cover all the lanes of a motorway carriageway. About 200 metres
away is a set of cameras that takes a wide angle photograph for more detailed verification - they will take a shot of the speed limit on the gantry signs and the car.

The new speed camera system was installed in April 2014 between junctions five and six on the M25 in Kent, near Clacket Lane Services, but it only became operational in October. By mid January 2015 - less than three months later - 1,513 people had been caught by the new cameras of whom 781 had exceeded a speed limit of 70mph, according to Kent Police. The other 732 had broken a limit of either 40, 50 or 60mph as the cameras are linked electronically to the signs on overhead gantries displaying the variable speed limit .

A recent BBC News report notes "the Highways Agency says the people caught are a small proportion of the "hundreds of thousands of motorists who use this stretch of the M25 every day". But without knowing how many motorists were caught by the old camera systems on a similar stretch of motorway, it's hard to say whether more drivers are being caught by Hadecs 3".

The M25 in Kent was chosen for the early installation because it is part of the UK Government's Smart Motorways policy - where the hard shoulder is used and variable speed limits enforced. Similar cameras operate on the northern section of the M25 between junctions 23 and 27. And they will soon be rolled out to other Smart Motorway sections - the M1 (in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire), M6 (around Birmingham) and a stretch of the M3.

With concerns over the visibility of the grey Hadecs3 cameras the Highways Agency, which is part of the Department for Transport, is reported as saying "the Hadecs3 cameras will be visible and motorists will see the recognisable signs — a black image of a camera on a white background — that tell them they are in an area where speed enforcement cameras can operate. The onus is always on drivers to abide by the speed limit. The cameras have the capability to enforce the national speed limit but it is up to the police force operating the system to determine at what level enforcement will be carried out.” That of course adds to the visibility difficulty by providing another source of uncertainty - a variable level of use and enforcement with Hadecs on motorways in the UK.