June 2nd, 2005
ilanin
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2005/06/02 17:07:58
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The "strange lamposty thing" is blatantly a solar panel to provide the electricity to power it.
Well, probably. It looks like one to me.
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brrm
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2005/06/02 17:12:51
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The lampposty thing is a solar panel, I think. The road marks are a buried induction loop for detecting metal things (cars, in this case). The traffic flow cameras work by timing particular number plates between points - presumably the induction loop triggers the camera. There are also similar blue cameras on very tall poles, used by Trafficmaster to measure traffic flow.
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teleute
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2005/06/03 07:48:39
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all the traffic lights round here have the same marks which Adrian told me are to detect cars. However, they don't seem to work for bicycles, but since hardly anyone cycles round here, I assume that the road planners didn't think it mattered. They always look worrying to me, as if there is some big hole in the road and someone has just taped a new piece of tarmac over the top and is hoping no one will notice. I always worry that I'll stop over one of the squares and then fall through and disappear...
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mobbsy
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2005/06/03 07:59:08
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The induction loops can be tuned to detect bicycle sized lumps of metal. There are even a few bicycle-specific detectors for crossings in Cambridge, like the one on Parker's Piece near the Pizza Hut, and the one from Midsummer Common going across Maid's Causeway.
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