M1 variable speed limits

**Patty**

I'll tell you in 6 days.


**went that way last thursday**

wba31

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

:rotfl:

You've never seen the normal GATSO cameras at road works?

Average cameras are used more now as they are a far better way of controlling speed during roadworks.

Ive never seen a Gatso at road works personally... but if roadworks are set up and it says 50 ill normally stick to it to not take the michael.
I was talking about when the hard shoulder is opened up and they bring down the speed limit to keep traffic moving. When first installed on the M42 the rush hour traffic could have cleared and it would still say 50 above, sometimes i'd cruise through at 75 with no problems from tickets etc...

wba31

bigjl. wrote: »

The M42 has gatso's fitted not average speed cameras.

I've never been flashed, often drove between junction 5 (Knowle) right up to M1...

Hammyman

bigdave196 wrote: »

I don't think those cameras are switched on at all, every time I've driven through that section of the M1 (sticking to 70) there's been streams of cars blasting past doing about 80 or 90 and seemingly no reaction from the cameras

80MPH based on whose speedo?

Your speedo could be up to 10% out meaning that if the cameras are set to ACPO guidelines your speedo could need to read as much as 86MPH to trigger the cameras because your real speed would be under 78MPH.

neilmcl

I've never seen the M42 camera's flash at anything under 70mph, even when they're showing reduced speed limits. As an earlier poster mentioned, they are used for congestion management NOT for speed enforcement, this has been well documented. I suspect the M1 cameras are the same, in fact I regularly see drivers speeding past them at 80mph+ with no adverse effect.

bigdave196

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

The view seems to be that maybe only I in 10 actually has the camera installed. Guess the guys that fly by are in the know.

I did read that if you look at the rear of the gantry on the opposite carriageway, you can see if there is a camera fitted as they always arm both sides of the road???? Maybe yet another old wives tail?

Yeah, not every gantry has a camera on it, and as a general rule if you can see one on the gantry on the other side, there's one yours, there's the odd one or two that have it one side but not the other though

Hammyman wrote: »

80MPH based on whose speedo?

Your speedo could be up to 10% out meaning that if the cameras are set to ACPO guidelines your speedo could need to read as much as 86MPH to trigger the cameras because your real speed would be under 78MPH.

Sorry, I should have qualified that as being a guesstimate. When going through that stretch I usually set the cruise control to 70 and sit in the left lane. People in the outer two lanes are usually sailing past a good (estimate) 10mph quicker, so I suppose if my speedo is really out they could be doing 75ish

cyclonebri1

Just for information I did that same journey again this week. There are 6 sets of gantries fitted with cameras out of I think 18 so more like 1 in 3 than 1 in 10.

And, quite a few of these gantries do not span the whole carriageway just N or S bound and they are staggered against each other so it's not possible to see the camera on the opposite carriageway before you pass the 1 on your side.

Still we may have an 80mph limit soon if it can be got past all the lobbyists that will no doubt be out in force

Wireless_2

I recently was almost caught out on the A49 while climbing Dinmore in Herefordshire, the road was always 60mph, and had two lanes for the climb, the nearside crawler was full of HGVs and obscured new speed limit signs that indicated a new limit of 50mph.

It wasn't until I was overtaking around a left-hand bend during the climb at around 56mph that I saw one of the new signs accompanied by a Gatso, it didn't flash, and I immediately took the foot off the throttle and glanced at my speedo, which was dropping from 56mph to 55mph.

A lucky break me thinks, but I have noted that the indicated speed that the car displays is always 2mph faster than the Sat Nav says it is.

So maybe I was doing 54mph past the Gatso?

It really depends on your car's speedo, by how much it over reads, but on the basis that Gatso's normally flash at 10% over the limit, I was lucky by 1mph.

In the case of a 70mph limit, I do an indicated 78mph on cruise control, on journeys where I have an appointment and its a long motorway journey, since this equates to an actual speed of 76mph.

Any other journey on the motorway or elsewhere I usually stick to an indicated 58mph for economy, accelerating up to an indicated 64mph to pass lines of slow moving HGVs.

So if you were doing an indicated 70mph in my vehicle, you'd actually be doing 68mph, and vehicles could be passing you legally up to 8mph faster.

anotherbaldrick

I know that on the M25 some cameras, although the matrix signs are showing no limit, will clock you if you exceed 70 . Not all, but the first camera after the M3 junction will.