A new system of noise-detecting traffic cameras recently installed.near Great Yarmouth’s seafront to target anti-social drivers revving their car engines has backfired on local residents.
Marine Parade in Great Yarmouth is a hotspot for boy (and girl) racers.who soup up their silly little cars with illegal exhausts, tacky alloy rims,.and fluorescent lights to deliberately annoy local old folk – many of whom didn’t fight in the war for the likes of them.
The new scheme, installed at a cost of £300,000 to local council tax payers,.uses a few old VHS videocams found in a backroom at Great Yarmouth Borough Council. and a number of microphones left over from a conference.on the planning of overseas junkets for councillors held at the town hall last year. The system works by detecting noisy passing cars, triggering automatic number plate recognition,. and setting off a series of bright flashing lights and a loud siren to alert the sociopathic drivers to their wrongdoing.
Cheese off, cheese on
Andrew Gray, 78 from Camps Heath, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, is “cheesed-off” that cameras were not installed nearer to his gingerbread bungalow.
“They’re constantly out there racing their automotive vehicles all hours of the day and night. Especially at the weekend when I like to have my boyfriend over. It’s very distracting when a luminous green Ford Escort XR3I convertible speeds past your bedroom and shakes the windows. Last week I was so disturbed I accidentally smeared ASDA’s ‘Tingle All The Way’ Brie flavoured lube gel (£2.50).all over my boyfriend’s face,” he says. He is also worried that if nothing changes, the speeding will cause a “serious injury, rupture or even death at some point”.
Latest Traffic Cameras
Lowestoft resident Thomas Crinch, chair of the campaign group Residents AGainst Everything (RAGE) agrees.
He told the Gazette: “We’d like to eliminate the problem of speeding down here. These bloody microphone traffic cameras aren’t going to work. If I had my way I’d put them up against a wall and…” Yes. Thank you, Thomas!
Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time
One unexpected consequence of the new system is its use by passing drunks turning out from nearby pubs. The microphones and flashing lights on new traffic cameras are perfect for outdoor Karaoke, making the entire system somewhat counterproductive. An analysis of the footage collected by the Marine Parade cameras over the last month.revealed trollied locals delivering renditions of ‘Little Red Corvette’ by Prince,.‘I Drove All Night’ by Cyndi Lauper, ‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman, and ‘Shut Up and Drive’ by Rihanna.
A review of the new traffic cameras is scheduled for the new year.
