I regularly drive up and down the M62 motorway between Leeds and Manchester and now have the pleasure of driving through a roadwork section with average speed cameras. The speed limit for this section is 50mph so I slow down set the cars cruise control at 50 and sit there at this speed until the end.

What I find surprising is the number of car overtaking at speeds well above the set average. I’m always curious to know if these drivers know something I don’t like the camera activation speed limit is way above 50mph or the cameras actually don’t work or simply don’t know what “average speed” means.

I’ve heard rumours about changing lanes between cameras but understand the systems now cover all lanes. Also the cameras now work out the average from start to finish not just between them.

Has anyone actually had a ticket from these or know what the set speeds are? I’m quite happy doing 50mph as I understand that you can sometimes see someone working so cars travelling slower is safe for them!

A good friend of mine got done at 56 in an average 50 on the M4 in south Wales last year, so they certainly are working sometimes. Some people are just happy to take the chance, I guess…

I heard the lane changing avoidance was only in the early days, but if I creep over (no cruise control at the moment) I will change lane just in case.

Your car speedo is probably underreading by 5mph or so (mine does according to GPS). I sit there doing 55mph indicated on my speedo which shows 50mph on GPS/Satnav. But yes, there always seems to be someone doing significantly more than the rest of the traffic. Must be MI5 officers en route to a rogue nuke 😉

Changing lane doesnt fool these cameras. They log all the number plates going past a certain point and then log them again at the next one. If the number plate is read going through the set in a time that makes your average speed greater than the police threshold (so in a 50mph this is 55mph) then you can be prosecuted.

there’s someone on here who used to work on the m1 section where the average cameras, he assured me, hadn’t worked since day 1.

So did I begin speeding through? No – cos there’s someone on here who works on the roads and its for their safety.

That said, I never understand those who fly through…..

I know my car speedo is way off so I usually set the cruise at around 55mph in a 50mph limit area. Never been done using this method.

I always assume some people are a bit thick and think they can drive as fast as they want when they can’t see a camera.

I sit there doing 55mph indicated on my speedo which shows 50mph on GPS/Satnav

I admire your faith in GPS accuracy.

I think some people just don’t realise how they work. I’ve seen plenty of people ‘surf’ through them; they come haring up, jam on the anchors to go past the camera at 45mph, then boot it down to the next one.

Early systems could be dodged because each camera only covered one lane at a time. The operator would set up the initial live camera for a particular lane (usually the overtaking lane) and would have to set the end camera to cover the same lane. The computer could only recognise ‘patching’ between two preset points, so switching lanes could theoretically move your reg mark out of the field of view. Bit of a risky gamble if you didn’t know how it was set up.

Recent IT improvements create the potential for any camera in any lane to initiate the recording of time and VRM for all vehicles passing through and ‘patch’ the info to any other camera concluding the recording further down the road (provided it is far enough away).

Average speed cameras are there to try and protect the workers.

You’ll never hear people say ‘I was speeding through an average cam and got a fine’. So there will be people out there caught who wont say owt.

Someone I work with did this and tried keeping quiet.

Theres a bend on the M60 that has permanent average cameras as its a total blind bend……and the fact that three young people were mown down and killed a few years ago after they had broken down. You still see people pilling through though.

my merc has a speed limiter on the cruse control that works a treat, click it in (I pre-set it to 50mph) and its all good, I was also delighted to see that kick down overrides it after some arsehat of a foreign lorry driver decided he would change into the lane I was in without warning or signalling!

(usually the overtaking lane)

Out of interest, what’s the second lane for then?

Cougar – could be just a two lane stretch of road (but I know what youre getting at 😉 )

Tailgating?

I admire your faith in GPS accuracy.

Pretty sure he’s right though, mine says the same thing – and those signs that tell you your speed always say I’m going a few MPH slower than my car speedo says. I seem to remember seeing a chart somewhere and different manufacturers did it to varying degrees.

I’m always curious to know if these drivers know something I don’t

Most likely the absolute halfwits don’t understand what “average” means.

I see it all the time. Speed up, hit the brakes for the camera so they’re under the speed limit, speed up again, hit the brakes for the camera so they’re under the speed limit, speed up again etc etc

Some people think ‘average’ means they measure the speed at the cameras and Then take an average of the 2/3/4 single readings…..

Most likely the absolute halfwits don’t understand what “average” means.

I see it all the time. Speed up, hit the brakes for the camera so they’re under the speed limit, speed up again, hit the brakes for the camera so they’re under the speed limit, speed up again etc etc

agree same on bypass near us

also suspect that for some people paying someone else to take points is a reasonable norm’ and just another minor expense they can easily afford

Aren’t there those things that can detect speed cameras, that you see advertised in service stations? Or do they only work for the normal static cameras?

I’d assumed they have no tax/insurance and registered the car to a false address when they bought it?

Aren’t there those things that can detect speed cameras, that you see advertised in service stations? Or do they only work for the normal static cameras?

Apart from the big yellow cameras mounted on gantries and repeated warning signs there’s no way of detecting an average speed camera as it’s just taking a picture of the car and timing it over a calibrated distance.

Unless you can get hold of the ‘Filming Detector’ that they had in Thunderbirds…

Ha, I always though those things sounded suspiciously like magic – I just looked at one – didn’t realise they were just working off a database. 😳

Ha, I always though those things sounded suspiciously like magic – I just looked at one – didn’t realise they were just working off a database.

Some work off a database and some can pick up the signals from certain cameras, but not average ones.

The “Speed camera detector” things you can get use GPS to locate you, and cross check it with an inbuilt database of the locations of speed cameras. As long as your database is up to date and the camera is on the database, it’ll tell you the camera type and trigger speed, accompanied by warnings if you’re over the threshold according to its GPS. Mobile speed camera spots are on the database too. I’m unsure if it’s a legal requirement for the locations of speed cameras to be logged in the database, or whether car mounted cameras can only catch you for speeding if they’re in the database logged location, etc.

My car is fitted with FLIR jammers anyway, and diplomatic immunity plates.

Your car speedo are specced to read between 10% over and 0% under by law that is why your GPS could show you going 55 when your speedo shows 50. I guess its to prevent the manufacturers being liable for your speeding fine….

I think that speedo law thing is just urban myth. Speedos do tend to over-read (in part a margin for error involved in tyre wear etc), and it does seem to be around 5%, but I’ve never seen a law to actually quantify it legally.

I set my cruise control to 53mph according to the sat nav, so I’m probably going 8mph faster than you.

I admire your faith in GPS accuracy.

Trust it much more than the car speedo.

I don’t think it’s a law for how good the speedo needs to be, just something like the SVA kit cars used to be tested to. There’s a spec which says how close the indicated speed is to actual, any more is a fail.

Your car speedo are specced to read between 10% over and 0% under by law

What law states that?

It may be true, but I always thought it was an unwritten rule, rather than defined in law.

Some work off a database and some can pick up the signals from certain cameras, but not average ones.

I got one for Christmas a few years ago. It claimed to pick up the signals from speed cameras. In that respect it worked; however,

1) if it can detect the camera then the camera can detect you, so by the time it goes off it’s too late, and

2) it also picked up every other god damned transmission in the area. So, every puffin crossing, every sensor-controlled traffic light, every time a pedestrian breaks wind, beep beep beep beep. You get so acclimatised to it that even if it was effective you’d be ignoring it by the time you actually needed it.

I set my cruise to about 53/54 in those M62 roadworks.

What I dont get is then you will get a car doing 40 mph which makes it more dangerous for everyone.

As to those going faster I think its:

1. Just plain dumb people
2. People who dont care because the car is stollen, not registered etc etc
3. Unmarked Police cars, customs cars etc etc.

Anyone been done/know anyone that has on the variable speed limit sections? There’s often camera markings on the road after some of the gantries, but I’ve never seen a flash.

I don’t mean the flashing orange signs, but the carriageway-wide gantries with colour led speed limits. The section of the M6 around the M5 interchange & the M4 around newport have them.

At 50mph over a 5mile stretch its 6mins
At 60mph its 5mins
At 70mph its about 4.25mins.
My license is worth more than less than 2mins…

I don’t mean the flashing orange signs,

You won’t get done on those, they’re advisory not mandatory.

It may be true, but I always thought it was an unwritten rule, rather than defined in law.

Well it’s written in my copy of the (now out-dated) SVA regs for kit cars, so I’m sure there’s a similar reg for ‘real’ cars.

average speed cameras don’t give off any signals. they’re just cameras. an up-to-date gps-database-based system will find them, but if you manage to miss all the signs about them, you should probably think about leaving the car at home

if you manage to miss all the signs about them,

And the huge bright yellow gantries.

As to those going faster I think its:

1. Just plain dumb people
2. People who dont care because the car is stollen, not registered etc etc
3. Unmarked Police cars, customs cars etc etc.
4. BMWs/Audis – everyone knows the rules don’t apply to them because they’re “special”

🙄