Britain’s streets are more crowded than ever — and for once we’re not talking about the traffic. Drive anywhere in the country and you will be observed by speed cameras, traffic-monitoring cameras, traffic-flow sensors, CCTV cameras, automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras, bus lane cameras, parking cameras and, in London, congestion charge cameras.

Tony Blair claimed last month that plans to introduce road user charging were not about creating a Big Brother state. No wonder: with all those cameras and sensors, it’s already here. There are now 36 safety camera partnerships operating cameras at 6,000 sites across Britain. Local authorities have taken over control of parking from the police in many areas and an increasing number are using cameras to help boost revenue.

Fines have soared. Motorists outside London last year paid out an average of £275,000 per day in parking fines and the number of fines rose by a fifth between 2005 and 2006. Across England income from parking charges (including fees, fines and clamping) has risen from £638.5m in 1997 to more than £1 billion and speed cameras now fine about 2m drivers each year.

Legislative changes and rapid developments in computer, radar and camera technology have paved the way for an ever more sophisticated armoury of automated spyware. Digital cameras make it possible for new-style speed cameras to store thousands of images. The cost of replacing film in old-style Gatsos meant that drivers stood a sporting chance. Only one in four were “live”. No longer: the latest cameras work round the clock.

ANPR cameras can match registration plates against Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency records to enable Transport for London to charge motorists £8 per day to enter the centre of the capital. Police can use the same cameras — in vehicles or in conjunction with fixed CCTV cameras — to search the police national computer and insurance company databases to catch uninsured or unlicensed drivers.

Cameras can now be used to fine motorists who jump red lights, who drive the wrong way down a one-way street or perform illegal U-turns. And legislation is currently going through parliament that will enable local authorities across England to use cameras to police yellow box junctions. Those who get caught sitting in a stationary vehicle on the yellow grid will be fined. Such cameras are already being used in several London boroughs.

Road user charging could add yet more roadside spies, with the authorities already testing “tag and beacon” systems using giant roadside gantries fitted with microwave transmitters that read an electronic device in your car. And of course even more cameras.

Vehicles could even be fitted with “black boxes” in future to record times and locations of journeys to enable the government to charge drivers by the mile. Some drivers have even signed up voluntarily to have their journeys monitored as part of a pay-as-you-go insurance service from Norwich Union.

Britain is now the most spied upon nation in the free world, according to the results of a study by the government’s privacy watchdog, published in The Sunday Times in October. The report found people were caught on a national network of 4.2m CCTV cameras an average 300 times a day.

The biggest difficulty for motorists is keeping track of the escalating number of devices — at the roadside, on overhead gantries, lampposts and poles or embedded in road surfaces — and knowing when they are being watched. But the answer is increasingly simple: always.

In January Home Office documents revealed controversial plans to introduce x-ray cameras. These would be fitted to street furniture at key security sites to take x-ray images that would reveal whether passers-by were carrying weapons in bags or under clothing.

The growing number of wireless broadband networks springing up in towns and cities is adding to the confusion and clutter, with radio transmitters also appearing on lampposts. More than 100 Wi-Fi devices have gone up in the City of London in the past few weeks in preparation for the launch of a broadband service next month.

Of course many people will welcome these developments and many of the devices now lining our road network can help motorists by offering information on traffic conditions, accidents, weather conditions and hold-ups. But so bewildering is their number and variety few drivers are likely to be able to distinguish friend from foe. The gallery of pictures shown here demonstrates the problem.

Directs gantries

These 25ft steel structures near Leeds are part of a government study testing technology that could be used for road charging. Directs is an acronym for Demonstration of Interoperable Road-User End-to-End Charging and Telematics Systems

Cyclops

Tested near Edinburgh and between Leeds and Bradford, these cameras are designed to catch commuters who cheat their way into car-sharing lanes by travelling with a shop dummy or blow-up doll. Such a lane is to be trialled on the M1 next year. Cyclops uses two frequencies of infrared to identify human skin by the way it reflects light

Multi-camera system

Dubbed “super-Gatso”, this device can monitor four lanes of motorway and its three digital cameras can hold up to 60,000 images. Not currently installed in Britain, it can take a picture of the rear of a car, like a conventional Gatso, or the front (to identify the driver) — even at night

Road user charging beacons

Transport for London is conducting a road user charging trial in Southwark involving 500 vehicles equipped with tags that can be picked up by 21 gantries fitted with cameras and electronic beacons

Trafficmaster sensors Infrared devices on 1,100 motorway bridges and gantries. They help drivers avoid jams

Trafficmaster cameras Great news — these are not speed cameras. Located at 3,000 sites across Britain they measure traffic flow. Trafficmaster, a private firm, sells data on hold-ups to sat nav companies

Specs cameras Catch drivers who think they can slow down before a camera and then speed up again. They measure average speed between two points. There are 60 Specs sites on urban 20mph zones and motorway contraflows around Britain

Gatso cameras The original, first tested in Britain in 1992. There are now thousands of these yellow boxes across the country using radar beams to measure speed, and the word Gatso has become a generic term for speed camera

Truvelo cameras These can prove who was driving the vehicle and thus prevent drivers trying to fob off their points onto somebody else. Unlike traditional Gatso cameras, the 700 Truvelos on UK roads face oncoming traffic to snap the vehicle and driver

Truvelo D-Cam Two traps for the price of one. Now on test on the A4 in London, this is the first to act as both a traffic light camera and a speed camera. The £30,000 digital system can store 100,000 images. More are expected on UK roads later this year

Parking/bus lane cameras CCTV installed by some authorities in London and other major cities to take the place of wardens. They watch for illegally parked vehicles and car drivers who use bus lanes

BelAir200 These boxes on lampposts in the City of London are not spyware but part of a Wi-Fi zone going live in April. At least 14 urban centres, including Manchester and Birmingham, have similar systems

Traffic light cameras These catch drivers jumping red lights by using radar or sensors in the road. An increasing number of local authorities are installing them, including ones in London, Essex, Somerset, Bristol and south Wales

Yellow box junction cameras Currently only in London although legislation now going through parliament will allow other local authorities to install them to catch drivers contravening yellow hatching rules

Highways Agency cameras The agency’s 700 cameras monitor traffic flow on motorways and trunk roads. They relay images to regional control centres and the national centre in Birmingham. The information is used to warn drivers of jams and accidents

Congestion charging cameras There are now 338 automatic numberplate recognition cameras across the London congestion zone, which stretches from Kensington and Chelsea in the west to Tower Hill in the east