Average Speed Cameras

[Bazile]

Do average speed cameras 'ping' on you sat nav , as they do with Fixed single speed cameras ?

[sunny-dave]

Depends on your pratnav and how recent the data is - I used to get a barrage of pings on the A14 round Huntingdon on my old Garmin both for fixed and av-speed - and the M42 pinged at every gantry on the 'intelligent' section.

My built-in Audi "vorsprung durch merkel" satnav doesn't do speed cameras - presumably because it's illegal to do so in some countries.

[Bazile]

Thanks

Here is a stretch of road that one could easily forget that they were in a ASC zone .

The A9 scheme between Dunblane and Inverness in Scotland is 99 miles from end to end, incorporating multiple networks of cameras with no route sections unmonitored

Yes - 99 miles

[sunny-dave]

Yes - that's an interesting road that changes from single, to dual, to single, to dual at irregular intervals - it can easily and safely support quite high speeds, but the locals haven't got a clue and are prone to turning onto it at 2mph in a tractor - which (even if it survives the entry process) will cause a tailback of many dozens of cars in no time flat.

Hence it has shocking accident stats - which are actually naff all to do with high speeds, but everything to do with inept and thoughtless drivers.

So they put the av speed cameras on - which does burger all for the real problem, but raises a few megapounds for the local councils.

grump grump grump

[murraymints]

average speed just set up in a hot spot here will be interesting...

[CrapAtCryptics]

I stick it on cruise control a mile an hour under the limit then try and avoid all those who rush up to cameras and then think braking like mad will give them their average.

[douglas9401]

Dave, as a regular user of the A9 section from Perth to Inverness and back for almost six years now I agree that some of the problem is insane manoeuvres by drivers but before the cameras were installed it was much worse in terms of speed.
The limit for LGVs has been raised to 50mph instead of the more usual 40 on single carriageway parts which has done much to move things along and cut both frustration and journey times. I can now go door to door in 3h 15m on a good day and feel a lot more relaxed at the end of it (barring the odd blizzard now and then).
One major problem though is car drivers dawdling below the LGV limit because, I suppose, they misread the excellent signage and think that the 50 applies to all vehicles and so sit just below that speed to avoid, they think, triggering the cameras.
This scheme is in place until the Scottish government sees fit to finish the dualling of the entire length of the A9, supposedly by the mid 2020s but we can't see that happening on schedule given the pace of current works.

[Bazile]

Here is a stat for you

Average speed cameras were introduced in Birmingham in August 2016 in 8 locations ; and have caught almost 16,000 drivers breaking the speed limit since that date .

If all of those caught are issued with the minimum £100 penalty, almost £1.6m could be raised in fines.

[Hopkirk]

Douglas, has this LGV speed limit been raised specifically on this road? The reason I ask is that the speed limit for LGVs on single carriageway roads has been raised to 50 in England and Wales, but not in Scotland.

[douglas9401]

Yes, Hopkirk, from just north of Perth to about 12 miles south of Inverness. Every turn-off shows the end of that 50 limit for HGVs.

The part from Dunblane to Perth is already dual carriageway.

[douglas9401]

http://c8.alamy.com/comp/EHGPXD/50-mph-hgv-speed-limit-sign-on-a9-scotland-march-2015-EHGPXD.jpg

[Hopkirk]

No wonder people are confused!

[Hopkirk]

To me that looks like it only applies to small lorries up to 7.5 tonnes.

[sunny-dave]

I agree about the twits in cars travelling at 47mph on the A9, Douglas - they really should be shot for incompetence.

As is so often the case, a reduced and/or heavily policed speed limit is deployed because of the actions of idiots - ironically they are the very people who will take no heed of any limit but continue to drive at excessive speed - whilst the rest of us are now unable to safely nip by a lumbering truck in case we edge 1mph over the limit whilst doing so.

[Old_Geezer]

The ones on the motorways I drive on tend to be known, but sometimes a shift along the motorway isn't noted for some time. I think it takes a while for any change to be fed back into the database.

(On the other hand the ridiculous 20mph zones I come across takes forever to be noted in the database, presumably because intelligent folk can't believe anyone would be daft enough to introduce them.)