Tomtom Speed Camera Alerts
Across the majority of the developed world, a fair percentage of speed limit-related law enforcement has transferred out of individual hands to the realm of machines. But where a human traffic policeman might give you the benefit of the doubt if you don't slow down fast enough when the limit falls onto a street, a camera will only record that you overstepped the mark, and that's it. So a fantastic understanding of rate limits and where the automated systems employing them are located is essential for the modern driver. That is where TomTom's Speed Cameras comes ; it's pretty much all of the app does.
TomTom's Speed Cameras is a program for iOS only, like the company's fully featured sat-nav program. It is even more restrictive, though, since a mobile data link is a necessity. So it runs on the iPhone 3GS and over or one of the 3G iPads. It is not compatible with the iPod Touch or even wifi-only iPads. The app itself is free, but it is entirely useless on its own. You will need to obtain a subscription, which costs #16.99 a calendar year, although an introductory offer of a single month for #1.49 is available.
With the app installed along with a subscription applied, the interface could not be easier. During regular driving, a stylised road graphic fills the screen, using a speed limit sign on the best along with Google navigation hack your current speed on the left. If you are inside the limitation, the rate shows in white, but if you exceed the limit it changes to light red then a darker red. We discovered that Speed Cameras was not mindful of the limitation in certain suburban side roads, except where this had been reduced to 20mph. However it should be fairly obvious the default speed is 30mph in residential neighbourhoods, and all significant streets were discovered properly.
The most important function of the app, of course, comes into play when you are approaching a speed camera. As you near the camera, a warning beeps and a distance countdown begins at the bottom. There's also an icon to show you which type of camera to look out for. Occasionally, cameras have been found that aren't in your current path, but only around a nearby rotation, which is a particularly handy safeguard if you turn into a side street that also entails a decrease in speed limit.
A much more useful feature is how average speed zones are presented. Instead of just telling you to keep under the limitation, Speed Cameras keeps track of your existing average within the zone. So if you do wind up unintentionally going too quickly at any stage, you can peg your rate back enough to keep the average lawful. For long average zones, this is going to be very handy indeed.