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Speed and Camera Alerts update: 120726 The Speed and Camera Alerts update 120726 is now live and there's been some huge changes since the February 2026 update and many smaller changes and fixes.
OpenStreetMap for speed limits As I was trying to find speed sign data for Australian states and New Zealand, it became obvious the data was either not there, or of poor quality. I'd looked at OpenStreetMap previously and had found the coverage and quality of the data wasn't up to the standard I wanted. I could either try to create my own speed sign data, an impossible task, with a large amount of changes, or put the same work into OpenStreetMap, and the changes going into OpenStreetMap would help so many more people. Secondly, I would be the only one creating and editing the speed sign data, whereas anyone can update the speed limits for the roads they use, to make the speed limits for their drive near perfect. OpenStreetMap became the obvious choice. Better average speed camera information for drivers I wasn't quite happy with my previous design and the average speed data I provided drivers. Previously if an average speed camera zone had multiple speed limits, I'd set up each section separately, in effect as separate cameras. The problem with this approach was it didn't give your true average speed for the entire zone and could give false alerts as you went from higher speed to lower speed sections of road. This didn't match the reality of how the average speed camera zone works, so I wanted my approach to closely match the drivers information needs and real driving experience. Just as important, or even more important, I was concerned GPS often fails and if you're in the middle of an average speed zone and the GPS fails for a period of time, or you need to use another function of the mobile phone so Speed and Camera Alerts misses the GPS data (since it doesn't work in the background), I wanted a better approach. I added a countdown timer to show how much time was left which is a great secondary piece of information. If the timer has time left when you pass the camera, you've been speeding and you may get a fine. The timer has to reach zero at or before you reach the next camera. The average speed information shown is better and includes: current average speed/weighted average speed of the zone, the countdown timer and distance remaining. Should your current average speed exceed the weighted average speed (the average speed you need to be at or below), you'll receive a separate warning from the current speed/speed limit, to slow down and the average speed information will appear with a yellow background. I also separated the camera nearby alert and the displaying and updating of the average speed information so the average speed information is updated around 50m before the camera, giving greater accuracy with plenty of warning. More countries covered My speed limit sign approach really only enabled me to cover a couple of Australian states and the some of the ACT. By using OpenStreetMap that has literally opened up Speed and Camera Alerts to be used worldwide.
The difference between countries is the data required. Speed limits are stored in OpenStreetMap and can be updated by anyone. These are available for all countries. That means you can now have near perfect data for your drives if you put in the effort.
If fixed camera location data is available, then countries can also have fixed camera alerts. Finally, there is public holiday and school term data. I have researched and entered public holiday and school term data for Australia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and Scotland. If anyone can provide this data for their country and/or state/province/region, based on how areas within the country is grouped, then within reason countries can now have time of day, alerts that are required for school zones, and this level to my knowledge, is not available from any of the major companies. There may be some compromises such as generalised school terms for the area, that may not be perfect, but this is still better than any other options available. Again the time of information needs to be entered into OpenStreetMap for this to work. For my area it now does. Speed and Camera Alerts provide useful tools and information to help people improve their speed limit data in OpenStreetMap for their drives. You can see a map of your drive with colour coded dots to show the speed limits of the road in your drive. A red dot means an unknown speed and you can update those speed limits. There's a button to report an issue which goes into your drive log. Review those reports and fix issues where the speed limit in OpenStreetMap for example may be out of date. There's a log of your drive that you can email to yourself and later use the map tool on a desktop to quickly link from GPS points to Google Maps, Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap so you can easily make the speed limit data the best for your drives. There's been dozens of small changes and corrections. One of my favourites is a small tweak. When the Start button is pressed, the page moves up to make it better aligned with the mobile phone's screen. There's many more changes but I think it's best to share these over time. Whilst I don't really want Speed and Camera Alerts to be an everything web app, there are already some minor changes I have in mind to tighten up the application.
Enjoy, NOTE: It is important to at all time obey the speed limits shown on the roads. The Speed and Camera Alerts web app can and will be wrong at times. It is your responsibility to at all time obey the actual speed limits and not what is presented in the web app. |
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