Accuracy of Red Light Camera's

The file is as accurate as the input data allows. If a person reports a wrong location, then that location is the one reported. All the data comes from other users who spot the cameras or take the data from news reports or official web sites and then convert the location to the geocode reference. Goes basck to one of the oldest computer laws - Garbage in - Garbage out.

They have been very accurate. They may be plotted on the opposite side of the road, but they still show up.

I have had a few pop up that there really isn't a red light camera, but a traffic monitoring camera instead. Again, the information is based upon the person reporting and inputing the info.

All in all, it has been good.

Over the last year I have been researching each location and getting it verified by other users in the area.

If I can't find data on it, it doesn't go into the file.

Miss POI

It's very accurate.

I was in Los Angeles last week, and my TomTom 125 had a pre-loaded red light camera file in addition to the POI-Factory file.

In several cases, the TomTom 125 warned me of a red light camera, but the POI-Factory file did not. I looked around and could not see the red light cameras, which means the TomTom alerts gave me false positives, while the POI-Factory file did not!!

I love the red light camera file, it gave me an extra level of assurance and comfort!

So far it has alerted me on every camera in my area. Some I knew of but just today as I was speeding like I normally do it went off I hit the brake and I came up to a camera!
Super Cool!! that one didn't get me. Oh and I alrdy had one a while back, here in CA they are $400 bucks!

It has always been totally accurate for me.

The only discrepencies that I have found are from the fact that for some intersections, the cameras only monitor 2 of the 4 directions, but you still get a warning if you are approaching from the unmonitored street. There is no good way to avoid that though.

We have accurately been alerted to many red light cameras in the South US and also on a trip out West in Denver, CO. The red light POI is an invaluable POI that should definitely be loaded onto your GPS.

at every intersection that gives me the alert.

The only issues I've found are with the names of the files and individual locations within the file. The Garmin POI loader uses keywords to assign proximity and speed alerts to each POI.

If you load the files as they are without any modification, you will only get a 1/4-mile proximity warning for both the speed and red light cameras, and no speed warning at all. If the files and POI's are named properly, you will get proximity warnings based on speed, automatic speed warnings, and 1/4-mile proximity warnings for red light cameras. For example, a POI named "Speed Camera@75" will give you a .7-mile proximity warning and a speed alert if you're going over 75-mph. A 20-mph speed camera will give a .2-mile proximity warning and a speed alert if over the speed limit.

Keywords and naming files properly are very important. I go through the files and make a lot of changes before uploading them to my device.

http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/creating_custom_po...

What? Your info is incorrect. There's a manual mode in the POI loader that over-rides the file info.

Read up on the POI loader and understand how it works. When you are loading the POI files you can specify distance and speed for alerts.

You obviously missed this info in the page you linked to:

Yes, that's true, you can manually set proximity and speed alerts. Try reading through the link I posted and you'll understand. There are also priority levels for each piece of information.

I still don't get your gripe. I never load my POI-files in automatic mode. I always use the manual mode to load the files and manually set my alert thresholds *one time* for each file type.

I don't understand why you'd need to go through each entry and modify them, unless you're really picky about each red light or speed camera.

Thanks for editing your post after I already quoted it. The information I gave is NOT incorrect. Obviously, you're having difficulty understanding exactly how the POI loader works. Maybe you should actually try it and use your GPS in simulator mode to test it out, then get back with me. It works. Like I said, if you load the files as they are from this site, you will simply get 1/4-mile proximity warning and that's all. You can manually set those warnings, but then they will all be the same. Personally, I want a warning further out for a 75-mph speed camera than I do for one that is at 35-mph, etc. The red light cameras will still have a 1/4-mile proximity warning, which is fine. If this information is somehow incorrect, then somehow it's working great for me.

I get what you're saying now. It still makes no sense to me, in real use.

I set my speed alerts to alert me 2-3 miles above the speed limit. So if it's a 35mph camera, it alerts me at 37 /38. If it's a 75 mph camer, it alerts me at 77 / 78. I don't understand how varying those would really matter.

The point is to be aware of the cameras, and watch your speed. Having different alert levels for a 75 mph camera vs 35 mphs is no big deal for me. And I personally see no value in wasting time editing the POI file to have varying speed alerts for a 35mph camera vs a 75mph camera.

Obviously, you're already going into the file and making the changes. The wasted time actually comes from when you load the files and manually set a 2-3 mile proximity warning. If you left it the way it was after changing the speeds, you'd end up with automatically calculated warnings based on speed. However, to each their own.

Honestly, I probably shouldn't have said anything since this is supposed to be about the accuracy of the actual physical locations of red light cameras. I just thought I'd chime in on how you can make the alerts you receive more accurate. Albeit, mostly in regard to the speed cameras.

I'm not going into the file to make any changes at all, actually. I simply make the adjustment during the POI upload process and manually set the speed alert at 2-3mph above the PSL. That takes all of about 2 seconds to do.

Explain to me in a logical step-by-step process how you are adjusting the alert speeds simply by using the POI loader itself. I tried doing what you said, and it doesn't work. I must be missing some crucial step in the process, or something.

Edit: By the way, I meant 2-3 mph speed alert, not proximity warning as I stated above. Still, I've tried multiple different ways of using the manual mode to simply increase the speed at which I am alerted to 2-3 mph over, and I just cannot get it to work. The manual mode will change the alert for all the cameras to whatever you type in. The only way to incrementally increase the alert speed for each and every camera, as far as I can tell, is to go into the file and make the changes yourself, not with the POI loader.

When you are using the POI loader, select the manual mode instead of the express mode.

Then be sure you load the red light camera and speed camera as two separate files, not a single file. When you load the speed camera file, you can specify that the POIs have alerts, and it's by speed. When you click on "speed" option, you should see a box that allows you to enter how much above the PSL you wish to be alerted. I enter a value of 2 mph above the PSL. Then finish loading the POIs, and that's all there is to it.

Once your Garmin reboots, the speed alerts should work as you specified. There is no need to modify the file entries in the csv file at all. If this is not working for you, you should give Garmin support a call, and have them walk you through step by step on the phone, and see if there's a problem with your GPS.

The only issue I've had so far on my forays into NYC are the occasional alerts I'll get when driving on a highway, and there is a RLC on the adjoining service road. I couldn't figure it out at first - here I am running with traffic on the Long Island Expressway, and the Nuvi is telling there is a RLC ahead! I guess that's a factor of the proximity to the highway and my direction of travel. Not a big deal to me, but good to know when it goes off like that.

Every city I've traveled to the red light file works perfectly.

Been accurate for me. I was in Florida stuck in traffic and when crossing over a intersection the alarm sounded I'm set at 1500 feet and 2000 for speed cameras.

Nuvi360

Note:I realize that we're far off the subject regarding the accuracy of the red light camera files. However, I want to come to some sort of resolution with the other subject at hand. If someone else would like to step in and prove one or both of us wrong, please feel free.

I took some screenshots so that we can determine if I'm following the steps properly using the POI loader. This first shot is simply showing that I've selected the "Manual" settings mode and I am ready to click next.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9153/screen1pbb.jpg

Now on to the next screen, I have selected that the file contains proximity alerts and have typed "2" in the only box that I can, as you can see.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7265/screen2dvj.jpg

After clicking next, the files load successfully and I power-up my GPS to find that I now have a bunch of speed cameras loaded with a 2-mph speed alert and .2-mile proximity warning, not 2-mph over what is typed in the file as you said. Whatever you type into that box is what your speed alert is going to be. If I type in "65", my alert will be at 65-mph, not 65-mph over what is indicated in the file. The only time where this isn't the case is when speed alert information is already typed into the file, such as "Speed Camera@65". This is because information typed directly into the file has priority. Garmin explains it all right here:

http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/creating_custom_po...

And several other users here pretty much confirm most of the things I've been saying:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/19045

So, what am I doing wrong? Nothing. I guarantee there is absolutely nothing wrong with the software or otherwise on my device. Everything is working perfectly. If you could post some screenshots or something that would explain how you are miraculously doing what you're doing, that would be great. I don't think you're getting the results you think you are, or else you are experiencing some sort of anomaly that I and apparently many other people cannot seem to duplicate.

I have found it to be reasonably accurate in practice. Occasionally I can't see one that my GPS says is there but I'm driving so easy to miss.

There are some errors - camera locations where there really isn't a red light camera - but mostly the file is accurate. Some folks have submitted "red light camera" locations that are actually "traffic control" cameras.

There are a few in the town where I work. Miss POI asked me to verify which ones they are and send the info to her so she could remove them from the file. Sadly, I haven't done so yet. When I'm in this town I'm always "at work" rather than free to get the location info. When I encounter the improper alerts I'm always on the road to some other office where I'm needed and usually in solid traffic.

One of these days I'm going to get the info to Miss POI. Really...... I promise......

What I find is that people reporting red light cams many times they don`t zoom close enough to mark the spot with accuracy, the same as for the speed traps, some times you can see a mark on where there is no road.
Reporting an accurate spot is crucial for those who use this site, integrity is what we need not deception.

I've always found the accuracy to be quite good! Generally the cameras are in the middle of the intersections. The only thing I'd like more (whihc is probably a limit on my Garmin) is knowing Eastbound facing cameras versus Westbound facing, and only alert if you're driving in the "right" way.

But otherwise, I love these files!

When a cam is reported who reports the cam should put the initials for a better accuracy,
by putting facing :
SB=South Bound
NB=North Bound
WB=West Bound
EB=East Bound

This way there is a better understanding for the people using this terrific site.

Falcao

Okay,I give up. I wish someone would have had something to say one way or another. That's why I wasn't sending private messages, a_user. I know that the way I modify the files and use the POI loader works for me. When I try and do it the way nuvic320 says, it doesn't work. If nuvic320 hadn't called me out so aggressively by initially proclaiming "That's entirely incorrect." (in reference to the information I provided), then I wouldn't have dragged this out so long. No hard feelings, just a lot of misunderstanding or something.

That's a good idea. It might take a lot of work to get all of that information, though.

Your understanding is correct. Somebody is merely misreading and misunderstanding what they are doing when they put in a 2 or a 3. Now, let's get back to the beating of this dead horse issue of whether we have accurate camera files.

I would prefer to be alerted regardless of the direction of the cameras. As has been postulated here hundreds of times, strange things happen at these intersections -- people speed through RLC's to make sure they aren't in the intersection when it changes, people slam on their brakes unexpectedly, and roads don't always run N, S, E, and W (and many people don't know what direction they are headed). You get the audible alert anyway; do you really want to read all that data to figure out whether your direction has a camera? I can see the complaints now: "The alert said that only SB had a camera, but I considered my direction to be E (OK, maybe SE) and I get flashed. Somebody really screwed up, and it wasn't me -- I thought I was safe running the light because I wasn't going SB." Or, "I was reading all the directions that were covered and seeing whether mine was one of them when that stupid car in front of me decided to be overly cautious and slammed on their brakes. So, it wasn't my fault that I plowed into them . . . our direction wasn't covered by a camera."

In a way you are right, there are people who can`t tell which direction they are traveling.
For that, all posts for red-light cams should not have directions, but at list put the DOT on the right corner, that way you can see what corner the cam is installed.

When you are right you are right, Thanks Good:idea: