Speed Cameras

How accurate are UK speed cameras? Police force tolerances REVEALED

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/how-accurate-are-uk-speed-cameras-police-force-tolerances-revealed/ar-AAAN9ol?li=AAnZ9Ug

Speculation is always rife about what you can ‘get away with’ when it comes to speed cameras. Of course, you should always adhere to prescribed speed limits, regardless of whether there’s a camera or not.

Nevertheless, it’s useful to know whether cameras will nick you on a decimal point, or whether there’s some leeway. Here’s the latest on the issue…

Recently, rumours have spread that there is little room for error when it comes to speed cameras. If it’s a 30 and you’re doing 31 mph, they say, prepare for an unwelcome letter in the post.

It is unclear how such speculation has arisen. That it may have caused drivers to watch their speed more closely is a welcome side-effect. The truth, however, is a little different.

Speed camera tolerances: the truth

Auto Express has been doing some digging on the issue, including procuring figures from many of the UK’s police forces via freedom-of-information requests.

Consider the rumours about cameras with 1 mph tolerances, debunked.

Nearly all the forces that responded gave a 10 percent plus 2 mph threshold. That applies for both normal ‘Gatso’ style cameras, and any others that clock an individual speed case, as well as average speed check zones with multiple cameras over a distance.

Doing the maths, that means “safe” speeds could be as high as:
79 mph in a 70 limit
68 mph in a 60 limit
57 mph in a 50 limit
46 mph in a 40 limit
35 mph in a 30 limit

Note the quote marks, though. Limits are limits for good reason that we shouldn’t need to explain at length – and a threshold doesn’t necessarily need always to be followed…

Curiously, two forces reported a 10 percent plus 3 mph threshold – Lancashire and the London Metropolitan Police. Add another mph to each of the above numbers.

According to Auto Express, the reasons given for this higher tolerance are to do with higher traffic numbers in London. In the case of Lanchashire, it’s to give just that little bit more wiggle room.

Why is there such a wide margin for error in speed cameras?

Error is just the word. Different cars show speeds to varying levels of accuracy. Some will show you’re doing 60 mph, when you’re actually going 57 mph. Conversely, some cars could indicate 60 mph, and you actually be going at 63.

The threshold is there so that drivers have no excuse if they’re caught. If you’re flashed, it’s more likely that you’re deliberately breaking the limit if you’re travelling at 80 mph, as opposed to 72 or 73. It serves both the interests of fairness and indeed, reduces workload for the justice system.

Every offence takes paperwork, they don’t just get your money for free, and that’s without factoring in offenders potentially appealing charges.

Wiggle room, therefore, serves both motorists and the authorities well.


This is very interesting and if we note the wording "Nearly all the forces that responded gave a 10 percent plus 2 mph threshold" and note the word NEARLY it means that some forces do not have this tolerance and they have not noted which forces do not have this tolerance and the various police policies recommend the 10% + 2 MPH policy, but this is only a recommendation and nothing more and it needs to be made a national policy which is legally binding upon all police forces.

Not all police forces enforce speed limits because many are contracted out and more claimed charity or claimed "not for profit" organisations enforce these and they are another private company comprising usually of Police, council, and often safety campaign groups who receive large salaries and even larger bonuses, but they claim any profits they make go straight back into making the roads safer but never state what these various schemes are, so now we have a different scenario. We now have a group of people taking huge salaries and large bonuses, then any remaining monies are divided up between them, police claim it goes to their traffic units, councils claim it is going towards schemes such as traffic calming schemes and pedestrian crossings, so where is it really going.

What is the law? it states that a vehicle speedometer must be within an accuracy of 10% and this can be up to 10% too high or 10% too low, so a vehicle speedometer can be reading 40 MPH and the vehicle can be travelling from 36-44 MPH and the speedometer is accurate and totally legal; typical car tyres come with 7mm of tread from new, many 4X4 tyres come with as much as 12mm of tread from new and when a tyre is new it has a larger circumference or rolling radius, so what does this actually mean. Currently all tyres have a legal minimum tread depth of 1.6mm and this means the tyre loses 5.4mm of tread, this equates to a total loss of 5.4mm from the radius or 10.8mm of total diameter.

When a tyre is new it will travel further per single rotation due to its increased tread or overall circumference and when it is worn it will travel less distance so the same tyre can travel at a maximum and minimum distance per revolution in its lifetime and this depends upon its wear and circumference; hence the reason for this tolerance, it has to have a tolerance to allow for the different vehicle speeds which is dictated by tyre wear.

Recently, rumours have spread that there is little room for error when it comes to speed cameras. If it’s a 30 and you’re doing 31 mph, they say, prepare for an unwelcome letter in the post.

This is for good reason, councils such as Ceylon's fsvourite Nottingham introduced a no tolerance policy and they were sending out letters to anyone doing over the 30 MPH limit and people were paying them; this meant the council were enforcing the speed cameras and not the police and I put a challenge in when a member of my own family was ht with such a letter for doing 31 MPH in a 30 limit, what did the council do? they took it to court and when we were all in court they dropped the case before we went into court, and I hit them with my charges. So yes, they are not rumours and we have specific evidence of this happening.

Thank you so much for the info Assassin and we done on your win against the council!

great news, am in "conference" NOW over such a matter - me doing 87-ish in a 60 will let you know the out come.

How to to possibly defend?

by sending a few cursory "notes" or "polite phrases" will let you know accordingly, as & when!

What type of camera and what were the conditions?

Many people do not realise that for mobile cameras there are many parameters which police must conform to and in many cases they ignore them; one such example is overhanging trees. I received a ticket for doing 62 MPH going up a dual carriageway which is a steep hill with a 40 MPH speed limit and I simply sent the unfilled paperwork back and included a letter which said "take me to court, see you there" and I heard nothing so I phoned them up and asked for an update and they said they were contemplating the case and would write to me when they had made their decision.

They dropped the case, but why? because I was in a tractor with 32 gears and I was in 3rd gear, I was running at 27 tonnes which is 3 tonnes below maximum weight, and the top speed of the tractor is 40 Km/h or 25 MPH, and the top speed of the newer high speed tractors is 50 Km/h or 31 MPH which is only half the speed they were claiming.