Anyone know anyone who’s been caught by an average speed camera…?

Driving through multiple 50mph average speed camera sections on various roads today I noticed there are plenty of people who ignore the limits.

Do they get fines?

I was caught years ago on a stretch of the M40 that was limited to 50 mph. I was alone and it was around 5am, with not a construction worker in sight, but I did get fined for it.

Yep. 57mph in a 50 near Birmingham on a near empty dual carriageway past a load of cones carefully placed along the side of the road so that both lanes were fully open at about 3pm on a Sunday. Not pleased.

Driving through multiple 50mph average speed camera sections on various roads today I noticed there are plenty of people who ignore the limits.

Do they get fines?

I think some people seem to have worked out where the triggers are actually set – e.g. if you know your car speed reads slightly low, and the prosecution threshold is x% then if you are cocky enough you got through faster.  if you are sitting at an indicated 50, but thats actually 47 (because of your speedo error), someone doing a “true” 55 will seem a lot faster.

there are of course lots of people who are thick and just slow down for the cameras – somehow thinking its an average of discrete points in time rather than s=d/t!  I did also go through a section recently where *everyone* seemed to be doing 60 – turns out that the local know the new cameras are not active yet so just ignoring it!

I knew someone who was caught on the old A14 70mph average scheme. She thought that people were saps for driving to the limit there and that they wouldn’t be switched on. She was given a speed awareness course and amusingly her main takeaway from that seemed to be that people should get out of her way for their own safety when she was tailgating.

if you are sitting at an indicated 50, but thats actually 47 (because of your speedo error), someone doing a “true” 55 will seem a lot faster.

This +1

I’ve got a GPS speedo on my motorbike because the real one is in km/h. The ‘average’ speed though the current 50mph roadworks on the M4 is about 42-44mph (i.e. everyone’s probably doing an indicated 46-48ish.  At quiet times the HGV’s barrel through in the middle lane knowing the 56mph limiters won’t trigger a fine but is still significantly quicker than anyone in the 1st lane.

I’ve always thought those cameras were really mean. But I suppose it depends what mode they’re in.

Personally, I think the main thrust for prosecution should be drivers who cross the median.

*Applauds*

Well played.

^very good!
An ex-colleague got a NIP from the M4 forever road works, attending a night Service job, cruise set @70 iirc. Brain fade moment on empty 3 lane road.

I think his average was sixty something.

3 points.

Must admit it’s quite easy to drift over if you don’t have cruise.

My cousin drove from his barracks in south London to Cumbria one evening in his late teens.  Little did he know that by the time he arrived, he’d effectively been banned.  He drove at 70-80 all the way through every set of average speed cameras.  He was a Recovery Mechanic in the army so had to go to court and eventually retained his licences (as he needed it for work) but with 11 points and a £3700 fine.

if you are sitting at an indicated 50, but thats actually 47 (because of your speedo error), someone doing a “true” 55 will seem a lot faster.

I’ve banged the “indicated vs actual” drum for years but really there’s little point. 50mph, ACPO guidelines for prosecution is 10%+2 so say 56, the speedo overreads by 5-10% so just under an indicated 60 and I’m golden, right?

But for what? On a long journey you’ll maybe save a few minutes. Stop off for a luxury poo at Tebay services and any gain you may have made goes out of the window. Running the gauntlet for the sake of an extra 2mph is both stressful and pointless, and assuming your speedo is overreading without measuring it is a dangerous game.

Yet it still pisses me off when you get an “I’m doing the speed limit” in the middle lane doing an actual 45.

No, I did get an NIP for one recently, but it was followed by a letter stating that they would take no further action, so no naughty boy’s course for me.

Anyone know anyone who’s been caught by an average speed camera…?

Yes. Eldest fazzini. In the works van. His defence? “Well, I knew they were there, but I didn’t know how they worked…”

Oh, how his colleagues at the depot laughed, and remind him of this every time he is putting a traffic management job out, so that the roadworks et al may commence!

(I blame the parents)

Must admit it’s quite easy to drift over if you don’t have cruise. aren’t paying proper attention to the control of your vehicle

I fixed that for you!  If you do “drift over” the cameras are usually far enough apart for you to correct the mistake and the average be fine. (e.g. if the camera’s are 1km apart, and you do 50mph for 200m then drift up to 60mph for 500m, but correct down to 50mph for last 300m – you’ll still be under the prosecution threshold.  But your point that with Cruise / Speed Limit functionality make it especially easy to comply is right.

If it’s a 50 I will set cruise at 55 (which is an actual 52-53) – does my wife’s head in!!

If I come up behind someone in the outside lane doing an indicates 50 then so be it….. it’s not the end of the world!

Must admit it’s quite easy to drift over if you don’t have cruise.

A momentary lapse of concentration and a flash from a Gatso is (arguably) forgivable. Or perhaps “understandable” may be a better descriptor.  Cynically, some seem to be located intentionally to catch you out.

Average speed cameras though, you’d have to “drift over” for a sustained period of time, or by a considerable amount.  Anyone caught by an average speed camera is surely either disregarding the limit intentionally or is totally away with the fairies, and probably shouldn’t be on the road in either case.

A colleague got done a few months after passing her test, said her driving instructor didn’t explain how they worked.

He’s a mate of mine, and is adamant he did tell her. She got an awareness course.

Disappointed at everyone trying to justify 56mph. It’s 50, drive at 50.

Yet it still pisses me off when you get an “I’m doing the speed limit” in the middle lane doing an actual 45.

It pisses me off that people feel the need to worry about what speed I’m driving at. If I want to do 40mph on a 50mph road then I will (and usually do)

My OH got caught by the ones on the M25 so they are working.

I suspect though, that there are a lot of people out there with cloned numerplates.

If you clone your plates and drive around like an absolute idiot, you seem to get away with it unless you see an actual policeman rather than a camera. This may just be my cynical world view however…

When you see people doing 60 mph + in an Avg 50 I always assume they are criminals (dont give a hoot) or thick (deserve it)

Yet it still pisses me off when you get an “I’m doing the speed limit” in the middle lane doing an actual 45.

If you’re in need of some entertainment you can play an orbiting game where you pass them while doing the limit in lane 3, move back to lane 1 (at a safe distance) and slow by 10mph. See how many laps you can do before they change lane.

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-1661-2324

According to this from TfL there were 500,000 or so ULEZ PCNs that could not be issed as they could not trace the driver in one year!
12,000 got cancelled due to cloned plates (and this doesn’t include vehicles where the number plate doesn’t match the vehicle make/model/colour which is apparently checked before issuing)

On a long journey you’ll maybe save a few minutes. Stop off for a luxury poo at Tebay services and any gain you may have made goes out of the window. Running the gauntlet for the sake of an extra 2mph is both stressful and pointless, and assuming your speedo is overreading without measuring it is a dangerous game.

Depends, in the work transit van when someone else is paying for the diesel I used to set the cruise control for a GPS *cough*seventy*cough**cough*.  because driving the 5+ hours from Newcastle back to Reading was long enough already without the speedo error.

In my own car on the other hand, 60-ish on the GPS (i.e. an indicated 65-70 which is what 90% of people on the motorway are doing)  is a LOT (~20%) less fuel!

I used to assume it was something like the average speed of the cars going through that area. Simply because I only ever saw them at roadworks and no one ever bothered following the temporary speed limit, so I thought they put cameras just to catch the idiots going faster than the general traffic speed. Or something. In my defence, this was back before I learnt to drive!

It pisses me off that people feel the need to worry about what speed I’m driving at. If I want to do 40mph on a 50mph road then I will (and usually do)

Do you often have a long queue of cars behind you?

I was stuck behind someone for ages recently on a rural road going at around 20-25mph. Limit 60, perfectly feasible to be going 40-50 without danger. Enjoying the view I can understand, but why he didn’t just pull over and let me past I don’t know.

I was trying to join a dual carriageway (70) just the other day and had a nightmare getting on as there was someone doing 40-45 going past the slip road right next to me. Getting past him and up to speed in my slow-accelerating car with lorries thundering past at 60 was not fun.

A friend of mine has a garmin satnav ( the built in one in his car is crap) that knows where some fixed average speed cameras are e.g. on  the A9, and provides a running average between each camera on the screen.

A friend of mine has a garmin satnav ( the built in one in his car is crap) that knows where some fixed average speed cameras are e.g. on  the A9, and provides a running average between each camera on the screen.

The cameras are in pairs but I think they stagger them, so the area measured is not necessarily between one camera and the next.

I was stuck behind someone for ages recently on a rural road going at around 20-25mph. Limit 60, perfectly feasible to be going 40-50 without danger.

Do that in your driving test and there’s a decent chance you’ll be failed.

I was trying to join a dual carriageway (70) just the other day and had a nightmare getting on as there was someone doing 40-45 going past the slip road right next to me. Getting past him and up to speed in my slow-accelerating car with lorries thundering past at 60 was not fun

Wasn’t cutting your speed a bit and slotting in behind him an option? There can’t have been lorries thundering past behind him at 60 if he was doing 40-45.

Some of you guys must be a **** nightmare if you ever get held up by a cyclist…..

Do that in your driving test and there’s a decent chance you’ll be failed.

Plenty of rural roads around here where you’d definitely get failed if you attempted an overtake during your test. Getting past bikes safely requires a lot of patience, let alone another car.

After a month away driving all over Europe what I do know is we have nothing but 50 mph ave speed zones that go on for tens of miles all over the SE of the UK, and how many of those did I find in 3500 miles in France, Italy and Switzerland?  A big fat zero.

Are they always ‘on’?

There are tons of ‘roadworks’ i drive through that have restricted limits and the vast majority don’t have any visible road works or workers on them. And tbh pretty much everyone just ignores the temporary limit

Would make sense to switch off the average cameras when there are no workers and no cones!

They’ve started putting signs up telling everyone they work night shifts in an attempt to justify the endless miles of closed carriageways with no visible signs of any activity whatsoever for weeks on end…

It pisses me off that people feel the need to worry about what speed I’m driving at. If I want to do 40mph on a 50mph road then I will (and usually do)

Feel free.  Just don’t park yourself in lane 2 of the motorway until the heat death of the universe, shift yourself over.

polyFree Member
Must admit it’s quite easy to drift over if you don’t have cruise. aren’t paying proper attention to the control of your vehicle
I fixed that for you!  If you do “drift over” the cameras are usually far enough apart for you to correct the mistake and the average be fine. (e.g. if the camera’s are 1km apart, and you do 50mph for 200m then drift up to 60mph for 500m, but correct down to 50mph for last 300m – you’ll still be under the prosecution threshold.  But your point that with Cruise / Speed Limit functionality make it especially easy to comply is right

Yeah, whatever wondered how long it would take.

Would make sense to switch off the average cameras when there are no workers and no cones!

Because the cones and signage that will still be there may get clipped or blown into the narrower lanes, as well as the reduced access for the emergency services in the event of an incident mean it’s probably safer to keep people running smoothly, safely and more slowly.

I  remember many moons ago there was a big story inthe local press and on the Welsh news that the average speed cameras around Newport were going live and that you would now be prosecuted for infringement. The cameras and signs had been up for at least 5 years prior so it is no wonder people get complacent and ignore them.

That caught out a lot of the lads at my old job, think the transport manager had a big envelope with roughly 40 individual infringements (for 45 drivers at our base) land on his desk from Head Office one morning!  A few got 3, one got 5 in the time it took the tickets to go to Head Office, them find where the van was kept and forward it on.  There was only a few of us that didn’t get any.