UK speed camera tolerances revealed: is your car's speedo accurate?

http://bit.ly/2DwrkQW

Hugo Griffiths 2019-04-24 (All day)

We investigate the internet rumors surrounding UK speed camera tolerances and whether your car speedo can be trusted

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.

Those stories 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.

• UK speed cameras explained

The majority of the forces that responded 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

Can you trust your car speedo?

In addition to asking police how strictly their speed cameras enforce limits, we investigated how accurate the speedometers on 10 cars were. We did this by comparing how fast they said we were going with our actual speed, revealed by a VBox meter. 

Car speedometers are not allowed to ‘under-read’ – they can’t tell you you’re going more slowly than you really are – but they are allowed to over-read by up to 10 per cent plus 6.25mph. So they could read 50.25mph at 40mph. 

All the cars we assessed were well within legal limits, although some read with near-perfect accuracy, while others over-read by 3mph. This, with the different approaches police have to enforcing limits, means some variance will always remain around speeding. 

Commenting on our investigation, AA president Edmund King said it is “sensible to have some flexibility” with speed-limit enforcement, “as the last thing we need is drivers concentrating solely on the speedo and not the road”.

King added that, with speedometers becoming increasingly accurate, “Auto Express’s testing is a valid reminder to drivers not to gamble on their speedo perhaps providing some leeway”.

• UK speeding fines and how to appeal them

Our speedo accuracy test explained 

The VBox is a clever piece of kit that uses a GPS signal to measure a car’s speed. It’s very accurate, gauging velocity to within 0.1km/h, so is perfect for assessing speedos.

We set our test cars to 30, 50, 60 and 70mph using the built-in speed limiter or cruise control to ensure a steady speed, then used the VBox to measure how fast we were going. This gave us a fair idea of the discrepancy between actual and indicated speed.

“Not many drivers have access to a VBox, but a separate smartphone app or sat-nav can give you an idea of how accurate your speedo is.

Model	True speed at indicated 30mph	True speed at indicated 50mph	True speed at indicated 60mph	True speed at indicated 70mph
Kia e-Niro First Edition	27mph	47mph	57mph	67mph
BMW i3s	28mph	48mph	58mph	68mph
SEAT Arona 1.0 TSI 115	29mph	49mph	60mph	69mph
SEAT Tarraco 2.0 TDI 150 manual	29mph	49mph	59mph	68mph
Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 TDI 150 manual	28mph	48mph	57mph	67mph
Peugeot 5008 BlueHDi 130 manual	28mph	48mph	57mph	68mph
Volvo XC40 D4 auto R-Design	30mph	49mph	59mph	69mph
Mazda MX-5 2.0	27mph	48mph	58mph	68mph
Dacia Duster dCi 115	28mph	48mph	58mph	68mph
BMW 330i M Sport	28mph	48mph	57mph	67mph

Do you think that UK speed camera tolerances are too strict? Let us know in the comments below...

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