grumpyf1

Smile! It's not real! A pensioner in Bedfordshire has attached a very realistic fake speed camera to his house. Fed up with cars speeding past his home on the A1 in Beeston, 72 year old Mike Lacey decided to do something about it, building the impressive bright yellow rig and camera out of drainpipes and guttering, and mounting them on the side of his property next to the dual-carriageway. With his pad just metres away from the busy road, and fed up that there are no speed cameras operational in the area, enterprising Mike took it upon himself to do something about it, with £40 worth of pipes, copious ingenuity, and some bright yellow paint. It seems that, irrespective of whether it makes a difference or not, the local authorities want him to remove his fake camera as they have apparently been informed by the Highways Agency that it is “distracting”. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? They’re painted bright yellow because people are meant to see them. And as Mr Lacey bui...

Here’s a tricky question to answer – Why are speed cameras painted bright yellow? I’ve ruled out “hiding place for canaries” already, by the way. On my morning tootle along the A591 recently, I was just becoming aware of a van parked in the lay-by some way ahead when the chap in front of me braked hard down to 28mph, having identified it as one of the speed detector variety by it’s hi-vis markings. I had to do the same to avoid going in to the back of him. What multiplied my irritation was that we were in a 60mph zone at the time. I’m also frequently irked by berks dropping to just under 30mph for the camera at Ings... which is in a 40mph zone. Here’s a bit of starling news for these motoring morons – not all speed cameras are set to go off at 30mph. They are, surprisingly enough, tied to the speed limit area within which they languish. And it’s not like you ought to get caught by surprise by one, either. Painted in a shade of yellow so bright you can get a tan from half a...