Does anybody know if there’s a standard resource for looking up speed cameras on Irish roads?
I notice we have lots of user-reported speed cameras on the map, but most of them are unapproved (they show up in brown in the editor). I usually delete speed cameras that are obviously reported by somebody messing around while sitting on their sofa (if they’re at the end of a short residential cul-de-sac, for example), but I don’t touch those I see on main roads, because I don’t usually have any way of verifying their existence without physically travelling to their location to check them out.
There is a small number of approved cameras - have they been verified by the editors who have approved them?
I’m assuming that we should just have fixed speed cameras on the map, and not locations where Garda speed traps are often found.
Maybe we don’t have fixed speed cameras at all any more, and just the GoSafe cameras located in vans that get moved from place to place. I’m not sure that it makes sense to mark these on the map.
I’ve also always been of the belief that we don’t have any red light cameras at all in Ireland, however there is a pole-mounted camera of some kind in Dublin at the intersection of the South Circular Road and Con Colbert Road between Kilmainham and Islandbridge. Does anybody know what this is? It’s on the Waze map as an unapproved red light camera, but I’ve never dared approve it because I don’t know what it is or what it does.
Is this the camera you mean? Although it doesn’t quite match any of the models I’ve seen in the UK, I would say it is a red light camera with 100% certainty!
In the UK, the law requires warning signs about speed cameras & RLCs to be placed in the area and speed cameras nearly all have a small sign with a speed limit sign directly before them. Speed cameras also have to be “obvious”, which is why they all have yellow backs or fronts facing the oncoming traffic. I did look a way up the road approaching the junction but didn’t see any signs - but I have no idea about the Irish laws governing speed cameras.
I believe it is quite permissible to look on Google Street View to see if a camera is there - always bearing in mind that the images may be out of date. But once a camera has been installed at considerable cost, it is unlikely to be removed. I have seen the occasional post for a Gatso speed camera with no camera on it any more, but I have only ever seen one post completely removed. It may no longer be used, but the only way to be sure is to try jumping the red light and see what happens! :lol:
That’s actually its predecessor - since that image was taken, it’s been replaced with something that looks quite like (but not identical to) the Monitron camera in the UK section of the camera page in the wiki. It does have a high-visibility yellow colour on the back, but is otherwise grey. I don’t recall the front, because I’m always passing it from behind.
I’m not sure what Irish law for speed cameras is either, although we do have plenty of the same camera signs as in the UK, but I have a feeling that they sprinkle them around even in places where there are no cameras.
I’ve never heard of a red light camera anywhere here, but the positioning of that one (just in front of a busy junction) would make more sense than a speed camera. Possibly that junction has a history of accidents from people running the red light, because it’s just at the end of a fast section of road (80km/h dual carriageway, but 100km/h seems quite commonplace). There’s also an sign that’s supposed to light up about 200m before the junction to tell you that the lights are about to turn red. I can’t remember the exact words because it hasn’t worked now for a couple of years
You see the occasional Gatso camera around Dublin; I believe there was once about 20 of them, but only three of these had an actual active camera in them at any one time. I think they’ve been superseded by the GoSafe vans that contain a camera but get moved around all the time.
That’s a definite problem over here. Assuming the real intent of cameras and signs is to improve safety (as opposed to making money!), over-use of signs is pretty bad. The occasional visitor will see the signs and slow down just in case. In the meantime, the regular, local drivers know damn well that the signs in some locations are just not true, so they’re going faster.
To be fair, though, I think it may be the case that regular mobile speed locations can only be approved where there are signs in the area.
Safety/Speed Camera locations on An Garda Síochána (Irish National Police) website http://www.garda.ie should in my opinion have an appropriate approved Waze speed camera located in that area, whether mobile or fixed. This should be incorporated in our Wiki guidelines, after suitable discussion with all concerned. It certainly serves as a warning to Waze drivers to make sure they drive safely within the regulated speed limits in those areas where such speed camera locations are given. It is a gentle reminder and a positive step in road safety, which is what we all need to be aware of out there on the road. Any element of help to assist with road safety can only be applauded. If a mobile speed camera is regularly and consistently sited in an area not on the Garda list of locations it should also, I feel be sited on the map and approved for the regulated speed.
Waze drivers want to lead the way in road user safety and driver safety and show a good example.
Cameras sited in obviously daft places should be deleted after minimal consideration!
Waze! For the common good - out there on the road! :!:
I have mixed feelings about this; I’m not sure what’s best - but it seems to be standard Waze practice in other countries to only mark fixed (not mobile) speed cameras. I think if we have speed cameras marked on the map everywhere there may be a speed trap, then we risk annoying Waze users rather than helping them. This is also hard to verify for approving cameras, since the editor approving the camera might see nothing there at the reported location when they go to verify a reported camera.
I understand that once enough Waze users have marked a camera as ‘not there’ in the app, the camera is automatically removed.
The Garda page for safety camera locations seems to just show stretches of road where there may be a GoSafe camera van. I certainly wouldn’t like to have a camera warning at the start of every one of these stretches, because there are quite a lot of them.
I think the best gentle reminder of maximum speeds is the speed limit signs we already have.
Speed cameras reported on M1 between J3 & J4 have been either there for weeks or keep getting reported, even though I don’t believe I’ve ever seen them there and have hit ‘not there’ numerous times. There were a couple of speed trap signs during construction of the 3rd lane on each side, but my feeling is that doesn’t warrant a speed camera icon on the map.
I’d prefer to see icons only where actual cameras are known to be, even if mobile/temporary.
See in particular the post from Arthur O’Hara. He went to the trouble of contacting the NRA about speed cameras (thanks Arthur!) and the official word is that we don’t have any fixed speed cameras in Ireland at all - just the GoSafe vans in certain areas and Garda speed traps.
So the bottom line is that we shouldn’t have any speed cameras - at all - on the Waze map in Ireland; any you see popping up can be deleted straight away. Waze itself automatically deletes unapproved cameras once they’ve been on the map for a certain time (14 days, I think), but approved cameras will stay there until somebody does something with them.
So what is the best way of flagging the mobile vans?
Typically I flag as Police invisible, however on a recent trip into the West I noticed a few fixed cameras on the map obviously marking frequent locations of speed vans. In one of the locations there was a van. This got me thinking that it would be better to mark with a camera instead of a police report which only lasts a bit.
Pity that there’s not an option for mobile camera.
In my opinion, I think flagging as police is the best thing to do, even though the flag will expire and disappear after an hour or so.
The current consensus (as I see it anyway; it’s just the result of a few discussions here) is that we don’t mark the locations used by speed vans on the map with cameras on the map, because:
If they are marked and a Waze user passes the location when there’s no van there, they’ll probably tap “not there” on their phone. Waze automatically removes cameras after enough people have tapped “not there” so they’ll disappear sooner or later anyway.
When somebody reports a camera on their phone, a map editor then has to mark the camera as approved and also set the speed limit at that location (so that the camera only causes an alert if the Waze user is going faster than the limit). The map editor may not know what the limit is at the location (unless they know it well) and they may be unaware of the local consensus and even if they go to check the location, they won’t see any camera there, so they might just remove it.
It seems to be very common for people to report cameras all over the place, maybe from the comfort of their sofas - so we get fake cameras reported in all kinds of random places. Most editors (myself included) delete these as soon as they see them. Waze also automatically deletes cameras after 14 days if they haven’t been approved within this time.
I agree that some people might find it handy to be alerted about the camera vans, but I think there are about 600 potential locations around the country. If Waze had better support for locations where camera vans might be found, that’d be good - but for now, it doesn’t.
With the way it works at the moment, I think it’s best not to map them. Just like speed limits (an often-requested feature in Waze) it would take a lot of work to keep them mapped accurately and reliably - and most speed van locations seem to be preceded by camera warning signs. Hopefully most road users are paying attention to the signs
Reading another thread on the Waze app section of the forum there is a post by a mod which says mobile cameras should be flagged as Police.
I would still like to see a specific maker for a mobile van, but until there is one will I will continue to use the police maker.
Whilst there appears to be a good number of users of the app in the Dublin area the number of users on my commute seems to be few. If there were enough users the temporary flagging would be ideal.
I agree - a specific marker for places where a mobile speed camera van might be would be useful (so long as there was an option to turn it off for people who aren’t interested) - although Waze would need to add it to the app (maybe as a fourth camera type?) and editors would need to maintain the locations on the map. You could request this feature with Waze, although they’re fairly slow to make changes - even those requested by many people - so it could be years before it gets implemented, if at all.
There was a problem recently with other Waze users being shown on the map (often there were none visible at all!) but even when that’s working properly, only 20…40 are ever shown at a time, not all of them.
I notice when I start Waze in the Dublin area it tells me that there are around 40 other users in the area. I don’t know if this notification works in other parts of the country though. I think we have a good few users in parts of the country where the maps are fairly complete and accurate (such as Cork), but I’m partly guessing based on how many GPS tracks I can see in the map editor - and we have no way of knowing how recent the GPS tracks are.
In any case, I think the best way to encourage more people to use Waze in Ireland is to get the map as complete as possible. There’s a few editors beavering away, but there’s a lot of work yet to do, so the more good editors we can get the better.
This is a particular bugbear of mine. The number of times I’ve clicked “not there” is ridiculous. There’s one by the Jack Lynch Tunnel and it still won’t go away. How many not there clicks does it take to kill the damn thing?
I flag the vans as visible police. Ok, the notification expires after an hour but the vans don’t stick around all day either.
Just go into the editor and delete them - I think it takes quite a few drivers to click “not there” for them to automatically delete them.
It’s OK to delete in the editor any speed cameras you see on the map in Ireland (for now), because there are no fixed speed cameras anywhere in the country.
I’ve deleted a few cameras around the Cork area but can’t delete the one by the JLT as it has been approved by Arthur. I asked him to remove it a few days ago but it’s still there. It’s not a GoSafe spot and the Garda presence is rare and usually on the other carriageway so the camera warning is of little value.
I’ve taken the liberty of going in and deleting the one by the Jack Lynch tunnel. I think Arthur has been quite busy lately. (Arthur: apologies for jumping the gun here (although I have been deleting speed cameras on the map wherever I see them))
Go for it! I think bprob, zzemca and maxkappell all have decent-sized AM areas down your way, but the more active and competent AMs we have in Ireland the better, I reckon. (and AM areas can overlap too; nobody has a monopoly over any particular area)
Some of the larger countries are self-managed for approval of AMs, but we’re still small enough that AM applications are handled centrally by Waze. I never had any problem getting any of my AM areas approved - I just put in the application and the AM area showed up within a couple of days.
