Speed Camera Alerts Germany
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I am just wondering how a sat nav would know there was a mobile speed camera location in existence? On my TomTom sat navs I have always removed the speed camera alerts anyway for all countries as I have always found them annoying!!!
David
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Big question is can one do it readily with a built-in satnav? POI's certainly aren't straightforward. ISTR on my 'very old' standalone TomTom, it was part of a software update.
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Have you never drifted a little over the speed limit without realising till you look at the speedo. I do my best to stick to speed limits but sometimes when I look have found I am over the limit. One of the easiest is when overtaking an HGV while towing your caravan you look at the clock and hey you are doing 65mph unintentionally.
These days I set my speed limiter at whatever the speed limit is just to be on the safe side.0 -
The German Federal Council has adopted a series of amendments to the StVO, Germany’s road traffic regulations, on February 14, including a change that makes it clearer speed camera apps are not allowed behind the wheel. And yet, another loophole has already been discovered.
In the original version, the regulations banned the use of devices created to reveal traffic monitoring systems, which technically, also includes speed camera apps. But because smartphones themselves aren’t necessarily built with this purpose in mind, having a mobile device running an app on the car’s dashboard wasn’t specifically forbidden.
The new regulations, however, also cover smartphones and speed camera apps, as they state the device which is used for traffic monitoring system alerts doesn’t have to be specifically built for this purpose, but for “other uses” as well. In other words, pretty much any app that can warn of a speed camera is now forbidden, no matter if it runs on a phone, a tablet, or a GPS navigation system.
But as German site iTopNews noticed, the updated traffic laws only refers to someone who drives a vehicle. So in theory, a passenger of the car can still use a speed camera app like Waze just fine. The Google-owned traffic navigation app comes with both visual and audio alerts on a series of reports, including speed cameras, so technically, you can still use it without having the phone on the car’s dashboard.
It goes without saying this loophole once again places speed camera apps in a gray area, although given the fines, you should really avoid using such apps in a car.
According to the 2020 amendments to the StVO, violating the traffic laws and using speed camera apps inside a car could result in a fine of up to €75 in Germany.
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One can still argue that if the driver is relying on information gained from a passenger using a speed camera app he is still technically indirectly using a prohibited feature. How it can be proved that the passenger is using the app purely for his personal interest and not to warn the driver is another matter.
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And, just set the cruise control to the limit, simple. Don't speed! Come on though, are the police in Germany really going to do random checks to see if you have turned off speed cameras on your sat nav
. We have family who live just south of Frankfurt, the final 15 ks of the trip are on rural roads and at every place where a road joins the limit is reduced and quite often there is a fixed camera. There is one stretch where in about 200trs there are 3 changes of speed limit - and a camera! The locals are very law abiding.0 -
Regardless, a margin of error still applies. In Germany it's 3km/h for speeds under 100km/h and 3% for speeds over 100km/h when stationary equipment is used. In the case of video evidence taken from a moving patrol car, a 5% tolerance applies.
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I have to admit that I sit at about 55mph when towing on Autobahns and plenty of police pass and pay no attention. Got done once for speeding in Germany and that was in 1970 so quite a good record really🌞 The reality is that we are on holiday so what’s the hurry
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I am glad we don't have all these rules here in the UK although radar devices were outlawed many years ago! I appreciate the countries like France and Germany have a higher fatality rated than the UK but do these rules really help to reduce that rate? How long will it be before they outlaw a sat nav actually keeping you informed of the regulation speed limit or informing you of what your GPS speed is? It wouldn't be so bad if the rules were universal but they vary so much from country to country.
David
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German police tend to take a pragmatic view of things. Outside of signposted speed restrictions they rarely check actual speeds. They are happy enough if the traffic is flowing smoothly without checking whether anyone might be towing slightly over the limit.
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Our qashqai does this too. Seems to swop limit as you pass the speed limit change sign.
However on a regular, well not these days 😂, it shows 40mph a good half mile before it is 😱😱😱.
As OH said when we got it, can't claim you don't know current speed limit as defence, not that you ever could!
Not planning on driving overseas but no idea, even reading the book!, how it works so couldn't turn it off.
I seem to have managed to put avoid motorways on satnav last year and hunt as I might cant turn it off now 🤣🤣🤣
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David, they dont....
however, what they do know is the 'area' in which mobile speed enforcement generally occurs.
this is certainly true in the UK.
i dont know if its srill the case but i used to to 'subscribe' to the Somerset Partnership website and i got a weekly update as to where the coming mobile traps were to be located.
this was seen as a good way to deter speeders rather than a way to avoid them.
In France, whilst having the locations of cameras on a Satnav is prohibited, what is allowed is the 'general area' of this fixed cameras, called Speed Alerts (or whatever) which will cover a stretch of road several km long which will encompass the location of the camera...
not a speeder, but works for me.
i don't find them distracting at all, merely another piece of info to enable better driving.
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i did have a little chuckle at this one (and MM's quoted post)...
in all cases that i know of, the reason a satnav posts a change of speed limit when it goes past a new limit sign is because the device 'knows' from its inbuilt mapping, where the change should be, not because it looked out of the window and read the sign....hence sometimes a slight variation between the satnav indicating a change and the sign itself.
with your 40 sign example, they may have extended the limit by a few hundred metres and moved the sign but not updated the software yet...or even keyed in the incorrect coordinates.....
it exactly the same as how it knows the next roundabout is 3 miles away and to get to (say) Doncaster you turn left....it cant 'see' (with a magic camera and number/word recognition software) that far ahead (and over cars and round corners) and read the Doncaster sign...
im afraid its all in the little satnav box's mapping.
im not doubting for one minute the technical wizardry of a decades old ML Merc, or of those cunning Japanese, but even my cheap as chips shopper (Fiat 500) does exactly the same trick and has no magic cameras at all....it uses an old Tomtom....that happens to have up to date speed limit locations in its latest mapping....
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