Amazing Truth About Speed Cameras
Friday, 24. May 2019
At the start of 2019, rumours swept the internet that speed camera tolerances on certain motorways were so strict, they would issue tickets if drivers exceeded the 70mph limit by just 1mph.
This would have been worrying had you not read my report last week on the accuracy of car speedo’s.
The stories and rumours turned out to be untrue and unfounded. But rather than allow misinformation about speed camera ‘thresholds’ to circulate unchecked, Auto Express asked the UK’s 45 police forces via Freedom of Information requests how strictly their 3,224 speed cameras enforce limits.
The majority of the forces that responded to Auto Express said their cameras would only activate when drivers exceed the speed limit by 10 per cent plus 2mph, in line with prosecution guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers.
This means cameras won’t issue tickets until someone is driving at 35mph or more in a 30mph limit, or 79mph or more on the motorway, for example.
The Metropolitan Police, which uses a less strict, 10 per cent plus 3mph threshold, say this is “a proportional response to the high volumes of traffic” in the capital. Lancashire Police also sets its cameras so that they activate at 10 per cent plus 3mph, and says that this has been done “to ensure greater tolerance or discretion”.
A number of forces wouldn’t tell us their camera thresholds, arguing that knowledge of these would encourage drivers to speed. All police forces that told us their thresholds said these applied to both fixed and average speed cameras.
Speed camera thresholds across the UK
| Police force | Number of cameras | Camera activation threshold |
| Avon and Somerset | 41 | 10% + 2mph |
| Bedfordshire | 38 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Cambridgeshire | 32 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Cheshire | 15 | 10% + 2mph |
| Cleveland | 4 | 10% + 2mph |
| Derbyshire | 18 | 10% + 2mph |
| Devon and Cornwall | 98 | 10% + 2mph |
| Durham | 0 fixed | 10% + 2mph |
| Essex | 63 | Don’t use a standard threshold |
| Greater Manchester | 235 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Gwent | 21 | 10% + 2mph |
| Hampshire | 36 | 10% + 2mph |
| Hertfordshire | 53 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Kent | 109 | 10% + 2mph |
| Lancashire | 34 | 10% + 3mph |
| Leicestershire | 30 | 10% + 2mph |
| Merseyside | 18 | 10% + 2mph |
| Metropolitan Police/TfL | 805 | 10% + 3mph |
| Norfolk | 26 | 10% + 2mph |
| North Wales | 28 | 10% + 2mph |
| Northumbria | 55 | 10% + 2mph |
| Nottinghamshire | 48 | Refused to confirm if threshold exists |
| Police Service of Northern Ireland | 12 | 10% + 2mph |
| Scotland | 173 | Refused to confirm if threshold exists |
| South Wales | 137 | 10% + 2mph |
| South Yorkshire | 25 | 10% + 2mph |
| Staffordshire | 286 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Suffolk | 4 | 10% + 2mph |
| Thames Valley | 294 | 10% + 2mph |
| Warwickshire | 28 | 10% + 2mph |
| West Mercia | 23 | 10% + 2mph |
| West Midlands | 33 | Would not reveal threshold |
| West Yorkshire | 402 | 10% + 2mph |
I should make it clear that this in no way should encourage drivers to break speed limits as they realise they have a ‘free allowance’. Especially in built-up areas and areas close to schools and homes for the elderly.
Personally, I would like to see greater enforcement of the ‘Keep Left’ rules. Far too often I see cars hogging the outside lane of motorways causing frustrated drivers to either undertake or end up flashing the car in front potentially leading to road rage. By Graham Hill
