On Nov 24, 1:32*am, aemeijers wrote:

You must not live in flyover country. Out here in upper midwest, there
are many stretches where there is not even an overpass or elevated
structure for 10-15 miles at a time to mount a camera on, interstate or
2-lane state road or city street. I work for the govt, and have been
well trained in spotting potential camera locations. *For a highway
camera, you need height, power or room for a solar grid, and a nearby
phone line for the IP connection. The whole country is not like
California or the eastern urban centers. Around here, they are pretty
much limited to the concrete rivers where the local interstate passes
through town, and the major surface street intersections. Local TV
stations may have a few 'live cams' as well, mounted on the local high
spots, but about all they can resolve is looking to see how fast
headlights are moving, or if brakes are being applied. The cameras are
not hard to spot- the little half-ball silver or smoke-color enclosures
jump right at you, once you have seen a few.

And for OP- *now that I understand situation better, my 'pink paint'
idea is sounding better and better. Lay them out upside down in parking
lot back at the shop, and paint the backs some dayglo color. Maybe put a
tamper-proof foil sticker on back. And in the flyer to the scrap yards,
and the demo for local TV stations and papers, show exactly what they
look like, and give a number to call for anyone that sees one running
loose. Stripping sprayed paint off mill-finish aluminum is a
labor-intensive and tedious process.

--
aem sends...


Apparently you live in way low tech world aem...

You work for the government in spotting camera locations ? LOL...
Apparently not so well trained... Yes you do need height for a
camera to be useful... However you do not need an overpass
or a bridge to install them on... In fact such installations are
VERY vulnerable to vandalism and do not provide the best
vantage point for being able to use the cameras as more than
a stationary feed... If someone can spray paint the side of the
bridge they can easily spray paint the camera dome as well...

Modern highway monitoring systems utilize cameras mounted
on towers usually off axis from the driver's line of sight if they
are using proper care and caution in driving down the road...
The cameras are pan/tilt/zoom capable and can when installed
at a strategic location sweep the roadway in both directions...
Modern cameras can even have a night vision capability if
required, although not all do...

These towers will often times contain weather sensors to allow
for real time detection of potentially adverse conditions which
would effect the safety of the roadway and prompt sanding
or salting operations to be initiated...

Often located near such towers are the inductive detector
loops which measure both vehicle speeds and provide
a count of the traffic passing over them to allow the
highway and transportation departments to have data
available to them for determining where money should
be spent on periodic maintenance tasks...

As far as being located near a phone line for IP connection,
what century are you living in -- due to the MILES involved
in distances on a highway these installations are usually
all installed on a fiber optic backbone which is owned and
maintained by the state department of highways or
transportation and buried either beside the roadway or in
the median where it connects many transportation
data communications functions and runs back to some
central location where the computer infrastructure is
located without using the PSTN... DSL service for miles
and miles and miles along highways for such equipment
would cost the state DOT megabucks and would not
have the reliability and durability of a dedicated buried
fiber optic line located in an area where no one will
ever be digging anything without the authorities closely
supervising...

The power is the big factor... However, buried lines near
the highway can feed such equipment without attracting
attention to it like wires strung on poles would...

If you have cell phone service along the highway, it would
not be a gigantic stretch of the imagination or technology
used to install DOT dedicated fiber and power facilities to
install a traffic camera system...

So please, let's not base what little is seen of the low-res
public feeds from traffic cameras on the news or even on
the internet in some areas as factual knowledge of what
the monitoring locations are truly capable of...

~~ Evan