Motorway average speed cameras

I was told by a friend who was involved in working on the cameras and software supplied to monitor average speed limits that if you're not central in your lane when the camera 'clocks' you (i.e. over the line) you won't get done. They have so many miscreants that unless they have a clear and conclusive image, they just bin'em apparently. He seemed to know what he was talking about but I always stick within the limit anyway!
 
Cobra said:
Norty Kermit
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How does that work? The amount of drivers in the middle lane barely doing 70, can you undertake them when on the left lane, or do you have to go all the way out to the right lane to pass them, always wondered.
 
jakeblu said:
How does that work?
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If that wasn't rhetorical, if you are travelling in heavy traffic and the middle lane is travelling faster than the outside lane, its perfectly acceptable to stay in lane and keep up with the flow of traffic.
 
Cobra said:
If that wasn't rhetorical, if you are travelling in heavy traffic and the middle lane is travelling faster than the outside lane, its perfectly acceptable to stay in lane and keep up with the flow of traffic.
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Wasn't rhetorical :)

What if its light traffic and I'm doing say 70-72 mph on the inside lane, and the guy in the middle lane is going slower? Can I stay in lane and overtake him, or do I have to cross over to the outside lane?
 
jakeblu said:
Wasn't rhetorical :)

What if its light traffic and I'm doing say 70-72 mph on the inside lane, and the guy in the middle lane is going slower? Can I stay in lane and overtake him, or do I have to cross over to the outside lane?
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If the road ahead of you is clear, and the road ahead of the middle lane crawler is clear you are supposed to go around him.
However much you feel like pulling back in and cutting him up to make a point, I'm afraid that's frowned upon :D

TBH Its very much a judgement call as to whether or not you are keeping up with the traffic or "Undertaking"

But I tend to go by the above.
 
From gov.uk...

Rule 268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.

Rule 269
Hard shoulder. You MUST NOT use the hard shoulder for overtaking.
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IIRC, in this context "Do not" means that the practise is strongly discouraged and should it be found to have been a contributory factor in an incident, it might be grounds for prosecution but isn't in itself an offence while the "MUST NOT" means that the action is illegal.

I always go the long way round (lane 1, out to lane 3 then back in), waiting for the lanes to be clear enough to do so but I have the luxury of never (or, at least extremely rarely) needing to be somewhere in a tearing hurry and always leaving plenty of time for journeys which are taking me to meetings.
 
Cobra said:
If the road ahead of you is clear, and the road ahead of the middle lane crawler is clear you are supposed to go around him.
However much you feel like pulling back in and cutting him up to make a point, I'm afraid that's frowned upon :D

TBH Its very much a judgement call as to whether or not you are keeping up with the traffic or "Undertaking"

But I tend to go by the above.
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Nod said:
From gov.uk...



IIRC, in this context "Do not" means that the practise is strongly discouraged and should it be found to have been a contributory factor in an incident, it might be grounds for prosecution but isn't in itself an offence while the "MUST NOT" means that the action is illegal.

I always go the long way round (lane 1, out to lane 3 then back in), waiting for the lanes to be clear enough to do so but I have the luxury of never (or, at least extremely rarely) needing to be somewhere in a tearing hurry and always leaving plenty of time for journeys which are taking me to meetings.
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Thanks guys. I'd guessed that was the case, and usually do go the long way round.

I thought legislation a few years back was supposed to stop, or at least reduce middle lane hoggers, they seem to be still as many to me. Would be interesting to know if there had been any prosecutions.
 
jakeblu said:
they seem to be still as many to me
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Me too! I see it all the time, I travel the A11 quite a bit, early mornings, ( duel carriageway) Some BMW or Audi ( other German cars are available) or other,
Cruising down the outside lane when there is a perfectly clear near-side lane feeling lonely.


jakeblu said:
Would be interesting to know if there had been any prosecutions.
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I remember hearing about 1 in the last 12 months or so. Hardly a crack down is it? :(
(And obviously a rarity, or it wouldn't have made the local news :D )
 
Cobra said:
Me too! I see it all the time, I travel the A11 quite a bit, early mornings, ( duel carriageway) Some BMW or Audi ( other German cars are available) or other,
Cruising down the outside lane when there is a perfectly clear near-side lane feeling lonely.
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try the M25 - on the occassions it is moving people treat it as two sets of two lane carriage ways next to each other.

lane 2 is for overtaking 1, and 4 is for overtaking 3 - no movement is allowed between lanes 2 and 3
 
As long as you do not move from lane 2 to 1 to perform the "overtake" you are simply making progress in your own lane, weaving in and out between lanes is frowned upon but if you overtake a chain of cars in the middle while you are in the first lane and maintaining a safe suitable speed then you shouldn't be pulled for it. Sometimes it is safer to stay where you are than to try and jump 2 lanes.
 
Cartus said:
I was told by a friend who was involved in working on the cameras and software supplied to monitor average speed limits that if you're not central in your lane when the camera 'clocks' you (i.e. over the line) you won't get done. They have so many miscreants that unless they have a clear and conclusive image, they just bin'em apparently. He seemed to know what he was talking about but I always stick within the limit anyway!
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It did used to be that way, even just changing lanes between cameras would result in a failed read - they've upgraded since then though, the modern systems will track you pretty much regardless of anything as long as your plate is in view.
 
wuyanxu said:
This.

On North Circular London, I see so many cars speed 60+mph to the next average speed camera and then slam on the brakes. I think they all failed at GCSE Maths.
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Whenever I have driven on the A406, all I encounter is people unwilling to drive at the 50mph limit, they usually like to stick to 40 or below.
 
OK - time for some myths to be debunked/explained. For obvious reasons I can't say specifics but I'm very aware of these systems.


dinorock said:
half the average speed cameras in the uk are not on they nicked so many drivers they had to be turned off LOL the police could not keep up
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Not true - they are all on, all the time. They have internal storage and communicate back over 3g or 4g signal, over whichever network is strongest/most reliable in the area.
Permanent ones are connected to the police force data centre, temporary ones are often hosted on the manufactures servers with the data securely access by the police forces.


Cartus said:
I was told by a friend who was involved in working on the cameras and software supplied to monitor average speed limits that if you're not central in your lane when the camera 'clocks' you (i.e. over the line) you won't get done. They have so many miscreants that unless they have a clear and conclusive image, they just bin'em apparently. He seemed to know what he was talking about but I always stick within the limit anyway!
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Not true, all cameras installed for at least the last 3-4 years can read across at least 4 lanes, in all weathers, almost all light/weather conditions.

You don't know what the trigger limit is set to for the penalty, but if the limit is 50 then the cameras will record that and over. Data is written into databases which are then automatically interrogated by the application software depending on parameters set.

And these are huge databases due to the amount of data recorded. The m4 cameras around bristol junc 19-20 successfully prosecute on average over 40 people a day

So yes - cruise control on, run at a speed just below the limit
 
Mr Bump said:
70mph middle lane = sorted
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But who's 70mph? There seems to be a variance in the actual speed of different vehicles, all of which are reporting 70mph. When on cruise control at 70 on the dial, our Tiguan reports 70mph while the inbuilt sat nav says 68 and the Garmin says 67. The Mondeo has a similar result.

The requirement to keep left unless overtaking works well for the most part.
 
nilagin said:
Whenever I have driven on the A406, all I encounter is people unwilling to drive at the 50mph limit, they usually like to stick to 40 or below.
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You might be driving on the area of A406 that is average speed checked at 40. West of M1 is 40, M1 J2 to the bit always congested is average speed checked at 50.

But yes, other end of the spectrum is where people hold up traffic and drive 10+ below the speed limit because they think average speed check means one must never exceed the speed limit. They also failed at GCSE Maths.
 
Hmmmm! my Ford Sync Sat Nav does not appear to show the 'actual' speed.though it would be interesting to know what speed it measured.

Having said that, as Kevin @Quoth, the Raven says his various satnav systems show variances so I surmise the satnav "resolution" is a factor i.e. are they taking readings every 10M, 50M, 100M....or what???
 
Byker28i said:
OK - time for some myths to be debunked/explained. For obvious reasons I can't say specifics but I'm very aware of these systems.




Not true - they are all on, all the time. They have internal storage and communicate back over 3g or 4g signal, over whichever network is strongest/most reliable in the area.
Permanent ones are connected to the police force data centre, temporary ones are often hosted on the manufactures servers with the data securely access by the police forces.




Not true, all cameras installed for at least the last 3-4 years can read across at least 4 lanes, in all weathers, almost all light/weather conditions.

You don't know what the trigger limit is set to for the penalty, but if the limit is 50 then the cameras will record that and over. Data is written into databases which are then automatically interrogated by the application software depending on parameters set.

And these are huge databases due to the amount of data recorded. The m4 cameras around bristol junc 19-20 successfully prosecute on average over 40 people a day

So yes - cruise control on, run at a speed just below the limit
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i'm an hgv driver and never drive at 50, closer to 56 when i can. and the idiots arn,t sat in the middle lane at 45 really p***es me off never been nicked yet i,ll let you know when i do ;) long way to go and a short time to get there (theres a song in there somewhere)
 
Nod said:
From gov.uk...



IIRC, in this context "Do not" means that the practise is strongly discouraged and should it be found to have been a contributory factor in an incident, it might be grounds for prosecution but isn't in itself an offence while the "MUST NOT" means that the action is illegal.

I always go the long way round (lane 1, out to lane 3 then back in), waiting for the lanes to be clear enough to do so but I have the luxury of never (or, at least extremely rarely) needing to be somewhere in a tearing hurry and always leaving plenty of time for journeys which are taking me to meetings.
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The problem is that we have to drive on the left, that means the inside lane on a motorway, and the maximum speed is 70mph. You end up overtaking a car in the middle lane anyway. Why? That driver is hogging the middle lane and driving at something like 60mph!

Would not be fair for us to be arrested and fined for overtaking on the left when it is them in the middle lane driving slower, giving the illustration that we are undertaking them.
 
wuyanxu said:
This.

On North Circular London, I see so many cars speed 60+mph to the next average speed camera and then slam on the brakes. I think they all failed at GCSE Maths.
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The new ones on the North Circular are fairly new. Most people don't even know that there are average speed cameras on the North Circular but you are right in that some people try to fool the cameras by speeding and slowing down when nearing the cameras which is silly :)
 
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