Motorway Speed limits?? (in red lit circles)- are these strict to camera fines ??

brat

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Police do, courts don't.

Police are generally fairly discretionary about speed. They get interested if the speed is significantly over the limit, or if the speed is inappropriate to the conditions.
Automated enforcement or camera vans tend to be more rigid, and work to a prescribed figure irrespective of conditions.

IanMSpencer wrote: »

, driving to the limit, not some optimistic interpretation of the rules is the right thing to do, then if you do drift over you are still in safe territory.

That generally works. I like to think that compliant, would be law abiding drivers should respect speed limits but not fear them. Because road etiquette (in safe conditions) is to drive AT the speed limit, a degree of drift is inevitable. This drift is most evident when, while paying full attention to hazard awareness (as we should), the hazards become more infrequent and less significant.
Appropriate speed is inversely proportional to hazard risk. When driving with full concentration and awareness on real road hazards our speed will therefore tend to rise as hazard risk diminishes. Occasionally in these circumstances we need to consciously remind ourselves of the applicable speed limit, because it might be significantly below our mind's interpretation of an appropriate speed.
Intelligent speed enforcement should take these factors into account. Unfortunately automated enforcement doesn't do that. Worse still, it tends to be sited precisely in these locations where an appropriate speed is at odds with the speed limit.

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Driving last Sunday, I had the driver in front suddenly brake to 40mph when they spotted a speed camera - even though it was clearly a 60mph limit. I don't believe his speedo was overreading by that much - and I was ready for the same trick at the next camera in a 50 where the same thing happened.

Most people drive in a state that is somewhere below full consciousness. This is neither wrong nor unsafe. Their driving decisions are made using the fast reaction sub conscious 'reptilian' brain rather than bringing every action to our conscious awareness. This allows our consciousness to recognise road hazards that our quick acting reptilian brain needs to deal with. Much of the rest of the time, our conscious awareness takes a rest.
When drivers see an unfamiliar speed camera, especially in a 50mph or 60mph zone, their conscious awareness takes over from their reptilian brain, and worries them about the correct speed limit. They're probably sure that it's 60 or 50, but not sure enough to warrant sailing through at that speed if it might earn them 3 points and £100 fine.
It's quite a normal reaction in unfamiliar territory, and I think it's reasonable to blame the enforcement strategy rather than the worried driver.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

robbies_gal wrote: »

if you say so ian this is what i was told that neither thepolice nor courts do an extra percentage anymore

There is a specialist forum for speeding pepipoo and they continually ask people who claim to have been done within ACPO guidelines for evidence. Every single time it turns out that they were mistaken. While there may be rare occurrences of people getting tickets within ACPO guidelines, and I would never rely on ACPO guidelines myself, it is a fact that ACPO guidelines exist and are used.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/road_traffic_offences_guidance_on_fixed_penalty_notices/

Documents this, that is the Crown Prosecution Service which I would suggest is more reliable than some bloke waffling on who you are only paying half attention to.

Here are the guidelines:

http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/roadsafety/docs/201305-uoba-joining-forces-safer-roads.pdf

See para 9.6 but you will also see a clear explanation of the logic of the guidelines if you read the whole document.

dannyrst

They must do a percentage over because I've worked off that assumption for some time and driven past plenty of police van cameras at 10% over (environment permitting) and never had a ticket.

brat

dannyrst wrote: »

They must do a percentage over because I've worked off that assumption for some time and driven past plenty of police van cameras at 10% over (environment permitting) and never had a ticket.

Most if not all of that 10% would be speedo overread.

Keith

StaffsSW wrote: »

Not all of the gantries have cameras, so glance across to the other lane, and if there are no cameras on that gantry, they will not be on your side either.

I've seen a number of NIPs come through for these on my fleet for the M40, M25 and M1, and they tend to be for a minimum of 47mph or 58mph, presumably under a 40 or 50 sign.

I'm also seeing a lot more HADECS 3 camera NIPs come through as well. These are the stealthy grey boxes tucked into the side of a gantry. http://www.speedcamerasuk.com/hadecs-3.htm

Not true on the m1, the gantries don't match in some places.

YorkshireTraveller

"Not all of the gantries have cameras, so glance across to the other lane, and if there are no cameras on that gantry, they will not be on your side either."



That certainly is not the case on the M62 near me. Several gantries have speeding cameras on one side of the motorway but not the other.

Take care!