I was wondering if it is worth putting all speed cameras on the M25 and set them to 40Mph.
Reason for this since most of this motorway is a Managed Motorway the speed camera’s speed limit changes with the traffic. Now I have a UR complaining that the speed camera did not show on the M25 and the would like to report the speed camera. Now this I found strange since the cameras are marked here. https://www.waze.com/editor/?env=row&lon=0.20801&lat=51.65185&layers=965&zoom=3&segments=185200649
Now I can only think :idea: this is down the speed limit being reduced to 60Mph along here. So since the lowest speed limit I have seen on a Managed Motorway is 40mph I was wondering if it would be a good idea to set all the speed cameras to this level. So if the speed limit it is higher the camera will be reported in waze?
If you drove along a managed motorway at 70mph (when allowed) where the cameras were set to 40mph then the audible warning for every camera would become very annoying very quickly!
The wiki details that they should be the max speed.
I’ve moved this to the main forum for discussion rather than leave it here in Editor Requests where it will get lost.
I think you may have mis-read the UR, the reporter is complaining that that the speed camera is missing BEFORE where he placed his report, the camera that is there is on the opposite carriageway, he thinks there are camera’s facing both ways, however I think he is wrong. I use this section regularly and have never noticed camera’s facing both ways and I have a separate app to notify me of speed camera’s and that has never reported camera’s both ways at this point.
The problem with camera’s in Waze is they are set at 70mph on motorways because many users don’t like hearing the alerts, I think they still appear on your screen but that’s not much use unless you are driving along looking at the screen. Unfortunately you can’t keep everyone happy therefore if you need accurate camera (and mobile camera) alerts you really need to use a separate app.
Indeed. I typically drive the entire M25 at least once a month (most recently yesterday), and am always on the lookout for differences of opinion between the camera locations in Waze and in reality - you may have noticed quite a few of the cameras have my fingerprints all over them
I didn’t notice anything amiss here yesterday, however I do regularly clean up errant brown cameras dropped by people all around the M25 who think that cameras are present wherever the HA have decided to use up their surplus stocks of white paint by marking out shiny new camera markings on the carriageway - can’t recall if this gantry is one such location, but since there now seem to be more gantries with than without markings, it’s quite likely that it is…
Aside from the other reasons noted above, I believe it is possible for the cameras to be active at speeds below 40MPH - IIRC they are certainly active if the lane is closed (which effectively turns them into red light cameras which would then require a speed setting of 0MPH), and although I’m not sure if the new managed sections ever drop the limit below 40MPH, on the older VSL sections around the western side I’ve seen 20’s and 30’s from time to time.
Besides, even when the lower limits are up on the gantries, people generally either stick religiously to/just below the limit (and therefore don’t need the advance warning) or continue on at 70+ between the gantries and only drop the anchors to pass by the cameras at the required speed before planting the right-hand pedal into the carpet again - these drivers will still be getting the required warnings no matter what the actual variable limit is set to
I have issues with Waze and it’s implementation of camera warnings in so much as my being in nottingham and there being more speed camera than people it is utterly pointless to be going faster than the posted limit. I just want the warning off but leave the camera icons there on the map.
No such luck! you can turn the icons off but the warnings keep dogging you wherever you go!
Given, in this case, that the white markings are seemingly proliferating it would be safe to assume that these are NOT SPECS average speed cams?
What about these new Cams they are using, hidden discretely in the bushes on the side of the motorway? Fixed speed cams as far as I am aware but set to update when the traffic management is in play.
Would it be safer to assume that the cameras may be moveable and are positioned randomly and will change locations every now and then?
As an aside I notice that on the nottingham ring they seem to be replacing the SPECS with these new ones??
Correct, as far as the M25 goes the only time you see SPECS installations is during roadworks, all of the gantry cams monitor only the adjacent stretch of road.
If you mean the new HADECS3 units being installed on the sides of the gantries as opposed to over each lane, then they’re not exactly hidden - indeed, once you learn to cast your eyes over the nearside support pillar on approach to a gantry, they’re easier to spot than the older HADECS units tucked behind the matrix sign. As with the older HADECS units they replace, they’re also used purely to monitor the adjacent stretch of road, and their trigger threshold varies in accordance with whatever limit is posted on their gantry.
One difference seems to be that, when no limit (or the NSL symbol) is shown on the gantry, the HADECS3 units are more likely to fire at speeds above the traditional 10%+2 excess, whereas the older units would generally remain dormant unless you really had the hammer down. Regular users of the M25 may have noticed that, whereas the overhead cameras often seemed to be ignored, the HADECS3 units are being shown a lot more respect. Whether this is just down to them being more visible, or whether it’s also because the boy and girl racers are aware of the rumours surrounding their supposed lower thresholds, it’s a noticeable effect.
That was certainly how the older camera sites were intended to be operated - there were more housings than cameras, and you were never supposed to know which of them had a camera installed on any given day. However, the HADECS3 units appear to be fixed installs - whilst you could probably unbolt/unplug one and move it onto a different mount without a huge amount of effort, at present it seems to be that with the exception of newly installed mounts still awaiting their camera units, there’s a 1:1 relationship between the number of mounts and the number of units.
The current cameras between J6A and J11 are all correct at this time, though they’re set to 70mph.
Waze doesn’t support smart/managed motorways where the speeds change. An audible notification is only produced for speeds in excess of the speed limit, which you won’t get if the speed limit has dropped and you’re doing 69 in a 60. There is always a visual notification though.
Hope this makes things clearer.
There are new SPECS cameras north of J11 which have been placed in readiness for the new J11A which should start within the next few weeks. I don’t believe these cameras are active yet, though I did notify whilst driving southbound on the M1 earlier today.
As hublander says, speed cameras have to be approved in the Editor.
But there’s another reason why even approved cameras frequently disappear. This is the poor design of the Waze app. Sometimes people want to be able to get rid of the speed camera popup in order to see the map. The “clear popup” button is small, and a hard target for a driver with eyes on the road. The “camera not there” button is big and easy to hit, and the camera will be automatically deleted if several people hit it. Guess what happens.
