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Comment by theogravity | Hacker News Reader

Wonder how the limiter is going to know what the current speed limit is? Map data, sign monitoring?

I was on a business trip to Korea years ago and had a friend / co-worker who was native Korean drive us around. He said there were certain sections of the highway where they keep track of your average speed and if it exceeds the limit for that section, you'd get fined. Not sure how the tracking works in that case, but I'd imagine it's probably something RFID related where you cross a checkpoint that keeps track of start time and an end checkpoint and calculates accordingly.

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The UK has this and it's super-frustrating! (aka it works!). With those radar based grey box cameras you see in urban areas, you just have to make sure you were not speeding when going past them (they even put handy calibration marks on the road to help you notice them). But the average speed ones have overhead cameras that read your license plate every 5-8 miles so you have no choice really but to stick to the speed limit (I have no idea what the margin of error is). Driving from Inverness to Edinburgh (A9 I think), they are quite frequent.

I feel a little cheated really, in the US it's you vs the state trooper, they have to see you to ticket you. You can almost always get away with 10 over on the highway and on a familiar road you usually know where those crossovers that they hang out in and Waze is pretty good at reporting cops in near real-time. Even if you end up passing a waiting cop they won't stop you for 75 in a 65. I'm pretty sure you'd get a ticket every time for 10 over in the UK!

Speed, then stop on the side of the road to consume a Sandwich or do some texting while waiting for the average to go down

Most likely it's camera based, using the license plate. We have something similar in Australia that is used for trucks but not cars (so far).

One of the side effects of Google completely mapping the developed countries has been a comprehensive map of the speed limits - if you use Waze it already warns you when you're exceeding the limit by changing the colour of the speed icon. I actually find it pretty handy on the highways here.

WA actually has it implemented for all vehicles on Forrest highway.

The one toll highway in Ontario has cameras at every exit and if you don’t have a transponder it takes a photo of your license plate. Been like that for something like 25 years. I imagine it’s as simple as that.

That would just need a camera pointed at the license plates.

Speed traps of this sort are specifically illegal in California.

ISTR that turnpike highways in the eastern U.S. simply record when cars reach each tollbooth. If a car arrives too soon at a booth, the driver is automatically fined for driving too fast. Can anybody confirm this?

At least in MA, NH and FL, no not at all. I always slow to the limit for the toll booths (even the high speed tolling ones), but then I'm back to 10 over until the next one. Never had a ticket, I believe a cop has to see you speed and ticket you (you have a right to face your accuser or something like that, possibly urban legend).

NH has a lot of troopers on their highways, you really can't drive far without seeing several. In MA, I rarely see MSP troopers on the highways (aside from the one taking a nap in the middle of the cloverleaf on a big interchanges during the early evening commute when the traffic is crawling).

Driving through the NYC/NJ/Baltimore/DC I95 corridor, there's a lot of tolling going on, express lanes etc but I've never had a ticket despite averaging 10 over driving through at night.

FL has lots of tolling going on, but I can't say I've ever seen a FL trooper on patrol, usually only at the scene of an accident/breakdown.

Having sped past a lot of state troopers in NH, there are a lot on the highway, but they're usually on watch for assholes rather than just speeding.

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