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Homemade Speed Trap Made By Former UVA CS Professor (cvilletomorrow.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Irritated by speeders in his neighborhood and frustrated with the City of Charlottesville's inability or unwillingness to enforce the speed limit, a former professor in the Computer Science department of the University of Virginia created a program in openCV to track vehicle speed on his residential neighborhood street: "You'll find that almost 85 percent of the cars going by are violators [of the neighborhood's 25mph limit]". This includes a city bus doing 34mph.

5 of 582 comments (clear)

  1. therefore the speed limit is invalid by dltaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At least in California, other than the absolute maximum, and things like school zones, roads have to be surveyed periodically, and the speed limits must reflect the prevailing speed. If it is 85% near some higher number, including mass transit, then the limit is too low.

  2. More info? by stevegee58 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Link to original article, name of the professor please.

  3. Here is a Raspberry Pi version FYI by pageauc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Last summer I wrote a python opencv program for a Raspberry Pi computer and Pi camera module. This monitors in real time. It has a lower fps due the hardware capability but does work Ok when calibrated for the distance. Here is my YouTube video https://youtu.be/eRi50BbJUro github repo is here https://github.com/pageauc/mot.... This was just done for fun after reading a forum article on the subject.

  4. Re:legalism is a crap philosophy. by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone that speeds in a residential area is the worst type of scumbag.

    On an open highway, go for it, I think we should be allowed to go 100mph. Driving around people and kids only a few feet from their homes, they need a punch in the face to go along with the ticket.

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  5. Re:Dear black and whiter by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I grew up less than 100M from a busy 4 lane street, where traffic often moves at 40MPH. The street where I grew up, was "sleepy" except for the idiots who thought that 40MPH traffic was too slow, and went 50 MPH down my street (25MPH residential) to get around the "slow" mainstreet. And now, with apps like WAZE telling people how to bypass the busy streets for the less busy streets, the road I grew up on, is no longer safe for kids, at anytime.

    What I don't get, is why people feel the need to justify Speeding down Residential streets where kids want to play, simply because they are inconvenienced by normal traffic.

    Following your logic, we would need a $50,000/6 Month traffic study to justify wanting 25 MPH residential street speeds for every neighborhood that wanted them. Here's a fucking thought, how about you drive 25MPH in a residential neighborhood, and if you can't, then don't drive those streets.

    People complaining about residential neighborhoods aren't the ones that usually live there.

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