Safe Speed Forums

Hi there, I was on a bit of a drive tonight and noticed on the M5 there's average speed cameras with a 40mph speed limit... apart from being painfully slow with other drivers zipping past me, i think i was doing about 60 when approaching the first camera .. slowed down to 25mph to cut the average down for the next camera..
do you think this would have worked?

(i hate speed cameras! just got licence, scared of every camera, on 2nd conviction id lose my licence and have to start again so trying not to get any points!!) great!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do they not just have the distance between the 2 cameras, take a time reading at the first one, and take another at the second, work out the mph using distance/time, rather than taking an average of both speeds?

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Mike

Mike is correct. If you slowed down solely for the second camera, you're on the hook. If you mean at approximately 2/3 of the way between the cameras you slowed to and maintained 25 mph, you'll be ok.

thanks for that.. i noticed it was 40 just after i passed the first one... then went snail-pace for the rest of it... hopefully i will be fine by doing that. last thing i want is a ticket.

i bet you were popular !

to be honest.. id rather be the most unpopular user of the motorway than to get points on my licence.. if i get 2 speeding tickets i lose my licence, my job, my car..

stick to the limit (whether you agree with it or not) then you will not get points, lose your licence your job and your car, not rocket science is it

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now retired

Except in those cases where limit-abiding motorists HAVE received points - http://www.abd.org.uk/talivan_incompetence.htm




Until every speed limit sign is correctly placed and maintained, until every camera is correctly placed and configured, until every last possible cause of incorrectly generated NIPs can be ruled out of the system, then blaming motorist stupidity for getting pinged seems a touch unfair.

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Chris

Yeah! In fact, don't drive at all and then you won't loose your licence OR ever get involved in an accident! Better still, don't have a car and then it won't ever get stolen either!

The trouble is, that while this is, of course, sensible advice, it's not actually that easy to abide by all the time. The cameras don't care what the circumstances were or whether you are a model driver the other 99.999% of the time. If you'd drifted over the odds by 10 MPH for that particular few seconds, then as far as they are concerned, you might as well habitually do 20 MPH over the odds everywhere.

If everyone did drive within the speed limits 100% of the time, then I don't think we'd see a huge reduction in accidents but we'd certainly have the government patting itself on the back saying how happy the public were with the speed limits that we have! Next thing, you know, some pressure group or another would persuade them to drop the limits even further! After all, nobody ever exceeded the speed limit so it's not like there would be a problem lowering it is there?

Now I'm not actually trying to incite mass disobedience here but neither do I want the government to EVER forget that as a result of their enforcement policies, MASSIVE numbers of motorists have been convicted of speeding and yet the KSIs nationally don't seem to change appreciably. Maybe in the next few years they'll start getting the message!

of course it is not.

Unfortunately, someone put a 40mph speed limit restriction on motorways and should be shot.

Yep, SPECS cameras do not measure your speed at all. They log your front numberplate at each camera and then (as the system knows the distance between cameras) work out your average speed. We are lead to believe that if you are found innocent (or a short period after) this data is deleted from the system. Maybe.


That assumes that the signage is correct and readable, all speed limits are justified and that enforcement thereof is done well and properly. Maybe this is the case in your area (I hope so!) but it is not elsewhere.

And I personally have seen a gatso camera get triggered when there was no vehicle exceeding the speed limit. (bus stopped nearby) Yes the photos should be checked, let's hope they always are.

A 40mph limit on a motorway... on a sunday? If there were workers there then sure, go slowly and don't hit them! Otherwise it's 'crying wolf' a little I think.

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Andrew.

Is BW back?

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

I don't know if anyone here travels on the M25 on a Sunday evening.

For the past few weeks I have consistently seen extremely confusing signs between j7 and j14. On the M3 exit road, there is a completely unjustified 20mph, on the M25 the overhead signs indicate lane closures that never take place, recommended speeds of 40mph, then speed restrictions of 40mph followed by 60mph on the next sign then again 50. All very confusing. In correspondence of the M3 exit the 20mph speed restruction extends to the whole carriageway!

On the M1 roadworks, where SPECS are used, whilst there was no workforce on the road, I think I saw a small sign (white letters on red background) at the entrance of the roadworks and 40mph restriction zone (only one sign in the full 4 miles of it) saying "Signs not in use". Maybe it was my imagination (I passed the sign at around 40mph but was on the outside lane), but could it mean that the speed restriction was not actually enforced?

On average maybe twice a month, as a mixture of clockwise from the A2 or anti-clockwise from the A10/A40, always exiting onto the M4 westbound.



Yeah, sounds about normal... The best one I've seen to date was heading anti-clockwise just before the start of the long exit lane for the M4 - one gantry was showing a different restriction for each lane (IIRC it went X 30 40 50) despite there being bugger all traffic around, no roadworks, and (having continued on past the gantry) absolutely nothing to see further down the road which might have warranted such a combination of limits. I suspect it's just the operators taking advantage of quiet spells to test the signs, and maybe competing to see which shift can come up with the most confusing set of displays...

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Chris

yep, 40mph its mad! its been there for the last few weeks on the M6.. The sign is immediately before the first specs camera

Oh really?
This is the speed limit terminal signs? (ie. the first ones in the limit)
And the signs are not at least 100 metres in front of the first camera? Because if they are not then the first numberplates are being captured outside of the 40mph limit!

This happened in Lower Thames Street and there were refunds...

Can anyone get some photos? Could be useful.

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Andrew.

you forgot to mention the warning signs for 3/4 of a mile beforehand...

Which don't count. Up to the terminal signs (first real ones) the 40 limit does not apply.

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Andrew.

well obviously the 40limit doesnt count until you pass the actual 40 signs
but the countdown gives you little excuse for beign surprised by it.

I think you missed the point, which is that some SPECs installations are (or used to) partially enforce a lower limit to vehicles still outside of the lower limit zone.

Here's a good example: an old pic (May 05) of Lower Thames St (courtesy of ABD):