Does anyone know what the grey vans are doing when the sit on the hard shoulder on m/way and have a massive pole on the roof with camera’s attached.
Are they speed cameras? seems a very silly place to park■■?
You don’t have to be paranoid to know they are watching you… 
Survey work most likely.
Traffic Survey… There dotted around the M77 and A725 up here as well… Prob just say that on the side but actually doing speeders…
if you mean the ones on the a1 just south of peterborough then they count the traffic and pass the bill on to the government. thats because the a1 at peterborough is a privately owned road.
Really? since when? From where to where? Who’s it owned by?
dave:
if you mean the ones on the a1 just south of peterborough then they count the traffic and pass the bill on to the government. thats because the a1 at peterborough is a privately owned road.
He’s right you know.
Quote:
The A1(M) widening between Alconbury and Peterborough was one of the first privately financed road contracts let by the Highways Agency.
RMS are responsible for raising finance to construct, operate and maintain the motorway for a period of 30 years. In return they receive payments from the Agency in the form of a “Shadow Toll” relative to road usage. There is no direct toll payment by the road user.
During the course of the construction of the 21km section of motorway, 2.5 million cubic metres of earth were excavated to form embankments and landscape mounds; 15 bridges and 40 sign gantries were built and over one million square metres of surfacing laid. Some 400,000 trees and shrubs have been planted.
I take it their parked up and coned off ■■?
and not there every day
pecjam23:
and have a massive pole on the roof. seems a very silly place to park■■?
- some of them poles are pretty big lads.
- them poles will do the jobs that the brits won’t.
- yes. them poles do park in silly places.
just to add,
as you come north just before the first peterborough exit there is a sign saying that rms operate and maintain the road on behalf of the highways agency.
i only know this cause i pass it every day 
dave:
just to add,
as you come north just before the first peterborough exit there is a sign saying that rms operate and maintain the road on behalf of the highways agency.
i only know this cause i pass it every day
It is know as a DBFO road Design, Build, Finance and Operate
RMS is the management agent ringways are the maintenance
contractor.
The Highways Agency retains ownership of the road and has appointed consultant Atkins to monitor RMS performance as Department’s Representative.
Very confusing and cost $hi7 loads of money i have seen 1 months bill to the HA 
and guess what folks the M25 is next to turn into one! More money…$$$
Airpikey:
dave:
if you mean the ones on the a1 just south of peterborough then they count the traffic and pass the bill on to the government. thats because the a1 at peterborough is a privately owned road.He’s right you know.
Quote:
The A1(M) widening between Alconbury and Peterborough was one of the first privately financed road contracts let by the Highways Agency.
RMS are responsible for raising finance to construct, operate and maintain the motorway for a period of 30 years. In return they receive payments from the Agency in the form of a “Shadow Toll” relative to road usage. There is no direct toll payment by the road user.
During the course of the construction of the 21km section of motorway, 2.5 million cubic metres of earth were excavated to form embankments and landscape mounds; 15 bridges and 40 sign gantries were built and over one million square metres of surfacing laid. Some 400,000 trees and shrubs have been planted.
Well, well, I’m enlightened. Didn’t know that. Learn something new every day.
Irrespective of who owns it seems a very stupid message to send to all those travelling public who are exhorted to leave their vehicles on safety grounds if forced to park on the hard shoulder .
the said cameras though are always pointing at the ground in front of where you are driving and not at the vehicle itself
I seen a couple of these round Bournemouth and one on the M40 North in the last week or two, the vans I saw were signwritten with a survey company name (can’t remember the name). Them poles a rather large.
Errrmmm, am I thinking about the same kind of survey vehicles here?
If not could someone enlighten me as to what these do.
I’ve seen an Astra estate with a roofrack supporting a thick pole about 5 foot high with a hexagonal box on top that I think have cameras on all 6 sides. What are they?
They look very strange!
google were going to do 360 degree views of everywhere, to go with the google earth thing. thats probably what the astra with the big pole on it was doing. i might be wrong though…
On the M77, it’s always a plain grey 4x4 Transit, sits far higher than standard vehicle. Think there’s 2 cameras on top of an extremely high/tall pole, but the cameras are always pointing at the ground, so there’s no way they can be monitoring speed, certainly not targeting speeders.