With the spread of traffic cameras more commonly known as Gatso’s around the UK and Europe many drivers are taking steps to prevent the occasional lack of concentration that can land them with a fine and in the UK anywhere between 3 and 6 points on their license. Many devices exist for detecting radar and we have reviewed the Bel550 which is one of the best radar detectors on the market, however these are no good against the latest generation of police speed detection equipment such as SPECS which use paired video cameras to calculate average speed.

A number of systems are available that use GPS systems and databases to warn of fixed camera sites of all types, typically these are very reliable but also very expensive, however if you already have a system like Tom Tom navigator or a GPS enabled PDA Trafcam offers a viable alternative.

 Trafcam a UK based company have a simple application which can take data directly from an installed GPS receiver or piggy back on Tom Tom navigation software, it should be noted that no other device can be using the GPS data if Trafcam is in use (with the exception of Tom Tom) this is due to com port sharing in Pocket PC.

 The version we tested is the combined tom tom navigator / Trafcam package, in effect this is identical to the Trafcam main product but data is taken from the tom tom application not the GPS receiver directly (note you need to purchase Tom tom separately to run this version) 

The Trafcam is easily installed after an online purchase and subsequent download, some of the files are fairly meaty at 2.5mb so you may want to use your broadband link! The CD purchase option is of little interest as Trafcam update versions frequently so you’ll be downloading the update anyway! 

The Trafcam software runs in the background and sniffs the Tom tom GPS location this is updated every 5 seconds and the Trafcam software compares your location, speed and direction with its database of known speed camera locations. The database contains over 4500 camera sites these include fixed GATSO, TRUVELO, SPECS, LASER and frequent mobile sites and is updated whenever new cameras are added typically this is about every 2 weeks, the new database is downloaded to your PDA in the normal way the file is about 85k. 

As you approach a camera location the Trafcam software takes over the PDA screen with a simple graphical symbol indicating the direction and type of camera, you can set different sounds to be associated with each camera type so you can keep your eyes on the road. The distance that you wish to be warned at is also configurable in either miles or seconds, from a quarter of a mile to 5 miles! Or 15 seconds to minutes, in practice we found miles to be best and a distance of a third of a mile. 

The latest version 1.6 shows the first signs of a motorway mode which will narrow the forward field of acceptance which should make the time option to be useable, currently on the motorway and camera 30 seconds to the left at 80mph would alarm!

In fact the field of acceptance is the only gripe after a week of field evaluation, it would be good to have a configurable field of acceptance our best guess is a field of about 25 degrees which would greatly reduce the number of false positives encountered.

The database seems highly accurate with it finding all cameras on our test routes including one only in operation for 3 weeks, to submit a new camera if you find one Trafcam doesn't know about there is a menu screen which allows you to simply select the camera type. You then retrieve a file from the PDA and mail it to Trafcam and it will be included in the next database, there doesn't seem to be a way of removing sites if they are wrong or no longer in use, this needs to be addressed in later versions.

So how did it perform, well as mentioned above it found every camera and highlighted the three local mobile locations frequented by Essex police and their "man in a van" and at £79 for year one it is several hundred pounds cheaper than a radar detector or similar GPS system.

Trafcam clearly have a good product on their hands, yes its still in development but its very useable today and we hope they can tweak a few bits to take on features like acceptance angle and database camera removal, Trafcam also hope to have an e commerce system on the site soon to ease the buying process which involved a fax machine of all things!

In fact it speaks volumes for the quality of the product that the lordpercy.com team persevered with a less than perfect transaction process and still rate the overall Trafcam experience so highly.

www.trafcam.com

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