Average Speed Checks / Cameras
April 29th, 2007I often travel on the M6, at least twice a month. The M6 constantly has roadworks in which they impose a speed limit of 40 mph, and is monitored by average speed checks.
I’m always amazed when I travel through these sections of roadworks by the number of people who do not understand the word “Average”. Loads of drivers acknowledge the speed cameras and slow down for just the section in which the camera is, however the average speed checks do exactly what it says on the tin!
How it works is, CCTV cameras monitoring the traffic recognise your numberplate as your enter the speed check zone and record it along with the time. Further along the route other CCTV cameras repeat this operation producing a list of times for each vehicle at each camera. The computer controlling the CCTV cameras knows the distance between each camera, and therefore can easily calculate your average speed.
So, if you enter the zone at 12.00 and leave the zone at 12.01 and the distance between each point is 1 mile, you have an average speed of 60mph.
A common misconception is that each camera takes your speed and then an average of the two is taken. This is wrong, it doesn’t matter how fast you pass the cameras. For example, you could be going at 60mph as you enter the zone and continue at this speed for 30 seconds, then drive at 20mph for 30 seconds and your average speed would still only be 40mph.
There really is no way of cheating these cameras!
April 30th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Got a ticket did ya? :op
April 30th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Nope! I understand the word average!
April 30th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
i drive the m6 incessantly too, and i’m prepared to admit i do nudge over the limit from time to time. i’ve never got a ticket, and i don’t remember seeing such cameras. any evidence of these average limits being enforced?
May 5th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Yep, indeed. The average speed cameras are much less complex in theory to the speed cameras which detect instantaneous speed, however the image processing to read the number plate is quite tricky.
The other type of speed camera have more complex maths to do!
May 17th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Hi Paul! I wanted to ask you a question and could not find a spot on your site to contact you. I’ve been trying to sign up for uknova with your tool for a while now, and it hasn’t worked for hours…I dont mind being patient, but saw in your comments back in February that you werent sure if it was working or if something had changed. Could you possibly let me know if it is still working or not? Thank you so much for making this tool
June 25th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Cameras are all around us, you can even check online to see if you have any impending speeding tickets coming from speed cameras, truvello, specs and gatsos by going here. http://www.i-database.co.uk
June 25th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
hay dose anyone know is the avverage speed cameras take the pics from the front or the back, i have looked at the spec sheet for the cameras and all the pics i have seen are from the front of the car. I am a biker and I think I went threw a area with them quit quick in my deffence i was late for the moto gp and there was no one on the road.
July 5th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
As far as I know, all the average speed cameras on road works take pictures from the front, and all permanent ones like on the M42 near the NEC take them from the rear.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:23 am
There is a way around it if you change lanes. See this article: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23370879-details/Drivers+can+avoid+speeding+tickets…by+changing+lanes/article.do
Rob
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March 9th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
are u sure about the specs cam? do it take the pic of your actual speed when you pass the cam? or do it just take the average between both the cams? would it say give u a tickit if u went 40 miles an hour in a 50 zone for about half a mile, but right at the end u went 60 for about 50 yards as u pass the cam, and how do u get the information that u quaoted thanx steve
July 29th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
iwent through the first average speed camera on a 40 mph zone at 43 mph then realising my mistake i immediately slowed down to 35 mph until i got to the other average speed camera, does this mean i will get a ticket for the 43 mph offence that i had incurred going through the first camera ?!?!?