Advanced Driving Hub

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45545525

Haven't we seen this before?

Must be easy enough to get a camera that can measure the gap and fine appropriately.

jont- wrote:Must be easy enough to get a camera that can measure the gap and fine appropriately.

I think the problem with this is that if you get cut up by someone just as you're going through one of these enforcement cameras, then you could get fined for tailgating because of one brief moment where you were a bit close to someone else through no fault of your own?

Really, what we need is vastly more camera coverage, all monitoring following gaps etc, say every 250 yards or so, and if you've triggered the "following too close" thing on more than 2 or 3 cameras in a row, then you get your fine etc. The problem with this is the cost to install, plus there aren't any cameras for sale in the current market that could actually measure a gap between two cars (I think). I mean, there are cameras that could measure a gap, but you'd have to program it to recognise cars without the need for a plate etc.

An observation: if one is driving leaving a decent gap there is a high probability that the gap will suddenly get filled by somebody from an inner lane or even by being undertaken (the undertaker having the perception that if you aren't right up the chuff of the vehicle in front you aren't going fast enough). How can a camera or series thereof handle such things ?

I know. We could employ people who would drive on busy roads. Not only could they judge these and other driving matters, but they could also act as a visual deterent. we could call them "traffic police"

Triquet wrote:An observation: if one is driving leaving a decent gap there is a high probability that the gap will suddenly get filled by somebody from an inner lane or even by being undertaken (the undertaker having the perception that if you aren't right up the chuff of the vehicle in front you aren't going fast enough). How can a camera or series thereof handle such things ?

I think that continuous close following of 15 seconds has been suggested as a minimum, is so that if someone cuts in front you then you will have had time to ease back again.

Unrelated, I know that trials of close following detection equipment were underway on UK motorways last summer, but I don't know how successful they were or whether equipment is at the stage of being introduced.

Horse wrote:trials of close following detection equipment were underway on UK motorways last summer, but I don't know how successful they were or whether equipment is at the stage of being introduced.

Technology is shit at this sort of thing. Recurrent training and education are the only real fix. Now, I'm off to find that pig which just flew past my window...

It may well be, as I said, I don't know the results.

dvenman wrote:

Horse wrote:trials of close following detection equipment were underway on UK motorways last summer, but I don't know how successful they were or whether equipment is at the stage of being introduced.

Technology is shit at this sort of thing.

Nah, should be easy. Bit of image recognition software and some ML and jobs a good'un, shirly? We're the most monitored country on the planet. Tracking a cars following distance over a couple of cameras should be trivial.

However, when there is heavy congestion and traffic grinds to a halt, the gaps close right up to a couple of feet, particularly in lane 1. How do you account for that? If people did leave decant gaps there would be a lane-changing circus.