i have noticed a lot of motorway roadworks now have the temporary speed limits. i prefer these to the single fixed point camera as they seem to slow down the traffic for a greater distance and you don't get the person stamping on their brakes because they have seen a 'gatso'.
what i want to ask is are they a legal limit? i'm repeatedly overtaken by people doing atleast 10 mph more than my callibrated spedo shows.
do you know anyone who has got a ticket from an average speed camera?
Edited by Pugugly on 11/08/2009 at 00:20
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I would defend the use of cameras in built-up areas - greatly preferable to those stupid humps. But whatever sort they are, installing them at roadworks is sheer money-grubbing spite. Worse still when nobody is doing any work.
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i'm repeatedly overtaken by people doing atleast 10 mph more than my callibrated spedo shows.
Care to elaborate as to why your speedo is calibrated?
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It still amuses me to see people stand on the brakes at the first camera, then speed up to 90mph and slam on the brakes at the next one. At least it keeps the postman in a job!
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The one that amused me was the guy in the 3 series (stereotypical comment removed) who missed the first camera at Weatherby and stamped on the brakes as he approached the second at about 80mph.
Lack of observation, after all the "cameras" are bright yellow.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/08/2009 at 11:34
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do you know anyone who has got a ticket from an average speed camera? >>
No, and neither from the instant speed cameras on the overhead gantries on the M25 (j11 to j16 section). Nor do I recall any threads here from people who have been done by those cameras.
As for the behaviour of drivers through "average" speed sections, is it because us Brits are famous for our lack of Maths/Arithmetic knowledge?
Or is it that some of those who do know what "average" means believe that the average is calculated as the mean of the instant speed measured when passing the cameras, rather than the mean of the speed in the distance between the camera?
Or do they know something we don't, eg. that the cameras don't really work?
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I always seem to be the slowest person through an average camera area.
I even have lorry's sitting on my back yet I am driving at just below these 'average speeds'.
But there is no way I want a ticket.
Like the other posters have said, I too have seen lots of drivers slow down for each camera and then speed up.
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Let them do what they want... I just stick cruise on and let the car do the work...
I thought the reduction of speed was because of narrow lanes as well as protection of the road workers?
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Can't really say that average speed cameras are a bad thing. They are a permanent fixture on many A roads in Notts. In my opinion, they have greatly improved the safety of a certain wide but single carriageway by-pass, where the central white line was being used as an unofficial high speed 'third lane' in both directions at the same time! You just don't see that any more.
As for motorway road works, I usually set my cruise to 50mph if traffic allows, and try to stay in lane 1. It doesn't bother me if people want to risk overtaking - I understand that specs does not monitor every passing vehicle. I have much more of a problem with trucks, who may well have more accurate speedos than mine, tailgating me in 50 zones.
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"do you know anyone who has got a ticket from an average speed camera?"
Yes. Notts has been riddled with SPECS for nearly a decade, as the former chief constable was in with Common Purpose.
The ones on motorway roadworks don't appear to be working whenever I check, and I can see why, they take a long time and a lot of effort to legally commission and have approved.
If you hold a mobile phone camera up so that the cameras appear on the screen (especially at night) you should see the infra red lamps at the side lit up bright white on the screen, but the ones on the M1 where it is being widened are clearly not lit, even at night.
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Me too, cruise control all the way through. ive never heard anyone get caught by them though.
it makes sense on the narrow lanes to reduce the speed, but the ASC's on the A1 at Nottingham just seem to go on for ever its a very long section of roadworks
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At what distance away does the SPECS camera read your number plate?
One more that one occasion I've been in nose-to-tail traffic entering the zone behind an artic and I'm pretty sure my numberplate can't have been visible to the first camera. It was very tempting to join the "limit+10" crowd.
I guess you could also try to hide behind an artic when approaching the far SPECS gantry too.
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There are plenty of people caught by these, just check out the threads on Pepipoo. There was even a thread started, claiming the SPECS cameras between J4 and J3 on the M3 were probably dummies, based on the flimsy evidence of a couple of speeding taxis that never heard anything. Needless to say a week or so later someone (who may have believed the "dummy" theory) got a NIP.
Edited by Steve Pearce on 11/08/2009 at 10:56
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I'm not a big fan of average speed cameras used for roadworks. I don't have cruise control on my car, so I find it hard work to keep at the very low limits some of these average cameras are set to on the motorway.
It just seems harder to drive in those sections at low speeds for long distances, mainly because the visual cues are of a much faster road, and I find I have to check my speedo far more frequently, which can't be good for safely.
I imagine that cruise control helps tremendously on those low-limit specs zones.
I have no problem with average speed cameras that are set for the normal limits for a road, as the visual cues make it easy to stick below the limits without having to frequently check my speedo.
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......so I find it hard work to keep at the very low limits some of these average cameras are set to on the motorway.......
Its quite simple really......
Lift the right foot off the go faster pedal and press the brake until you reach the required speed...... :0)
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