Radar can capture you on video, too: Dubai Police
The speed radar has become part and parcel of Dubai roads. Be it the black-and-blue radar capturing images on one side of the road, or the 360–degree stature snapping any speeding vehicle in the vicinity, we know that once we cross the speed limit while passing the radar we are most likely to get a fine.
However, did you know that the radar can capture you on video? Follow you to the seconds as you pass through? Capture you even as you are not clearly visible?
There are many features of the speed radar unknown to the public and technology is only advancing, explained Dubai Police. Although not all functions may be used on a regular basis, the things a radar can do might change the way you think about speeding.
Here are five of the most surprising radar facts, as explained by Dubai Police officials.
The radar sees more than you think!
Have you dreaded the idea that the radar could actually capture what you are doing inside the car, as you pass in perfect speed but with a mobile phone pressed against your ear?
The radar can see what the driver is doing, whether this is speaking on the mobile, reading an SMS or not wearing a seatbelt for that matter, explained Dubai Police.
Currently, a camera will notify the observations as violations leading to a fine, but this can definitely be done if desired. The suggestion to utilise these radars to capture such violations has been made, and is not impossible, warns the authority.
Off the road, off the radar?
A common understanding is that the speed radar installed on the side of a highway captures commuters on that highway. Wrong! The radar captures speeders in all vicinity of the stature.
As such, the speed radar monitors the highway lanes, as well as service lanes, exit roads or any other road structures in the vicinity. When taking an exit and heading up to a flyover bridge, the radar can capture the vehicle even as it reaches the bridge, said Dubai Police.
Although speeding is less likely to occur on these secondary roads, it would be captured if anyone considered testing the theory.
Out of sight? Not just yet
Regular commuters usually know where radars are installed. As they pass the radar, they slow down, and resume speed as soon as they have safely crossed it.
In practice, this often works out, but you should never be sure, because the radar can follow you far beyond the radar position, said Dubai Police.
If needed, the radar can follow a car for a while and snap the shot at a distance of 100-150 meters away from the radar. The camera can capture a speeding car at the same distance approaching the radar, informed the officials.
No hiding for the camera
If a vehicle was not visible at the time of passing the radar because it was positioned aside a large truck, will it still be captured when speeding? Most certainly, no one can escape the camera. The radar is installed in such a way that every lane is measured separately, and thus the speed of every vehicle is recorded individually, said the officials.
In addition, the technique described above applies here, too. If a vehicle was not visible at the time of passing the radar, it can follow the car until it is visible, since it will eventually appear on the camera’s eye, they added.
Not only on camera
The speed radar does not only include a camera snapping pictures when needed. The equipment is suited to shoot a video, too, said Dubai Police.
When a motorist behaves strangely, causes an accident, is wanted or followed; in all these cases footage is readily available to the authorities.
Again, not all these functions may be used, and the speed radar primarily exists to change the way people behave on the road, rather than to penalise it, stresses Dubai Police.
