I was driving my car down the A9 in Scotland recently about 20 miles south of Pitlochry. I was sitting bang on 60 using cruise when the car behind me overtook. Not a problem for me but…
My question is will he or she get a speeding ticket as they were obviously over the limit.
I have been led to believe you cannot get away with going over the limit with average speed cameras or is there still a bit of leeway?
Depends on the tolerance of the day I would think. My gaffer got done years ago for 32 in a 30, apparently it was zero tolerance on that particular stretch on that day as there had been many complaints. He appealed but still copped the points and fine. (before speed awareness).
Yeah must be some leeway, sitting at 52 in a truck and other trucks fly past me…
albion1971:
I was driving my car down the A9 in Scotland recently about 20 miles south of Pitlochry. I was sitting bang on 60 using cruise when the car behind me overtook. Not a problem for me but…
My question is will he or she get a speeding ticket as they were obviously over the limit.
I have been led to believe you cannot get away with going over the limit with average speed cameras or is there still a bit of leeway?
60mph on a car speedo is probably nearer 57mph in reality.
Harry Monk:
albion1971:
I was driving my car down the A9 in Scotland recently about 20 miles south of Pitlochry. I was sitting bang on 60 using cruise when the car behind me overtook. Not a problem for me but…
My question is will he or she get a speeding ticket as they were obviously over the limit.
I have been led to believe you cannot get away with going over the limit with average speed cameras or is there still a bit of leeway?60mph on a car speedo is probably nearer 57mph in reality.
Yep I am aware of that but the car that overtook was probably doing 70+ so in reality doing about 68
So are they likely to get a ticket?
albion1971:
Yep I am aware of that but the car that overtook was probably doing 70+ so in reality doing about 68So are they likely to get a ticket?
I suppose it depends on the distance between the average speed cameras, if the driver briefly accelerated to 70mph and then dropped back to 60mph and the cameras were a few miles apart, this would only increase the average speed by a very small amount would be my guess.
Average speed cameras will clock your speed over a set distance so its unlikely she’ll get a ticket unless she was doing 60 all the way through.
A quick blat up to 70+mph to overtake, then settle back down to closer to 60 won’t register on the average speed cameras. Even if the average speed was over 60, the authorities generally operate under the ACPO guidelines for speed enforcement and allow a 10%+ leeway before prosecuting. A true 68mph would be very close to the wind, though.
albion1971:
I was driving my car down the A9 in Scotland recently about 20 miles south of Pitlochry. I was sitting bang on 60 using cruise when the car behind me overtook.
More like 54MPH if you were going by the speedo…
My question is will he or she get a speeding ticket as they were obviously over the limit.
I have been led to believe you cannot get away with going over the limit with average speed cameras or is there still a bit of leeway?
They may have not been over the limit. If they were the leeway is 10%+2MPH so 68MPH actual speed which given a car speedo can legally overread up to 10% could be a 74MPH indicated speed.
According to the aa speed awareness course I did a couple of years ago, you’re allowed 10% plus 2mph and it is the average from entry to exit, so you could potentially do 75-80 through 2 cameras and be fine, provided you altered your speed sufficiently through the rest
albion1971:
Yep I am aware of that but the car that overtook was probably doing 70+ so in reality doing about 68So are they likely to get a ticket?
Things that depend on are:
-What average speed they did between the cameras. ( They might have passed you at in excess of the limit and slowed back down once passed.)
-Whether the cameras they were between were active on that day. (Only some have the equipment in the cabinet at a time and it us moved around regularly.)
-What the enforcement threshold is. (+10% +2 mph is often quoted but this is a guideline in England.)
OVLOV JAY:
you’re allowed 10% plus 2mph
The ACPO guidelines are that enforcement starts at +10% + 2 mph, ie the speed they prosecute from.
And guidelines are just that, different forces may have different enforcement thresholds.
OVLOV JAY:
According to the aa speed awareness course I did a couple of years ago, you’re allowed 10% plus 2mph and it is the average from entry to exit, so you could potentially do 75-80 through 2 cameras and be fine, provided you altered your speed sufficiently through the rest
I think there is some misunderstanding here. If your average speed between any two cameras is more than the preset threshold (10% +2mph) then you are probably looking at a ticket (or at the very least, an awareness course). It used to be the case that the cameras were only operated in fixed pairs - e.g. if there were six cameras along the road your speed would only be calculated between cameras 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6. But nowadays they will look at speeds between 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5 and 5-6.
I was told the cams were there to cover the different junctions and services etc, and that it was an average between your first and last
I saw a most unusual way of queue jumping by speeding in the Average camera roadworks on the A45 at Coventry near airport.
Chap in a car came hurtling up the inside, then outside then inside again ducking and diving through the traffic at quite high speed, estimate 60 plus when everyone else was doing 40ish, then slowed down to about 15mph in the emptyish outside lane as he cruised past the long queue for the A46N in the NS lane by the airport roundabout to bring his average back to 40 for the second of two cameras.
Never seen it done quite so blatantly and i confess a certain admiration for his sheer cheek, he probably does it every day, he probably passed 20 vehicles so made at least one light change at the roundabout.
OVLOV JAY:
I was told the cams were there to cover the different junctions and services etc, and that it was an average between your first and last
If they were only interested in average between first and last, why would they bother with all the cameras inbetween?
Because not everyone does the whole journey through the roadworks. Some join or exit between the start and finish. If you had one at the start and one at the end, how would you know the average speed of a car that joins in between?
Dunno how true it is but I was told that the cameras are linked in pairs but not necessarily in numeric order, so for example you may have 5 sets but the links go; 1&3,2&4,3&5… Like I say this is what I was told.
OVLOV JAY:
Because not everyone does the whole journey through the roadworks. Some join or exit between the start and finish. If you had one at the start and one at the end, how would you know the average speed of a car that joins in between?
Just count the cameras. e.g. on the M1 between J28 and the J32 - There are a lot more than one per entry/exit.
What about the works exits?