They operate whenever a temporary speed limit restriction sign is illuminated, but can also be used to enforce the national 70mph motorway speed limit. These are usually mounted on roadside gantries at regular intervals of more than metres, although the latest SPECS 3 cameras need only be 75 metres apart. In terms of appearance, they closely resemble security surveillance cameras such as those found in urban public areas and are mounted in yellow plastic housings.
They're effective day and night, with infrared illumination sufficient to clearly capture number plates once it gets dark. As well as being installed in permanent locations, SPECS cameras are also used to enforce temporary speed limits, for example during major roadworks, where lower limits are introduced for the safety of traffic and the construction workforce.
The latest VECTOR cameras look similar but are more versatile — as well as speed limits, they are used to monitor for offences committed at bus lanes, level crossings and traffic lights, and to enforce congestion-charging schemes. They can be mounted on their own gantries or attached to streetlamps or other tall urban street furniture.
They can be either forward or rearward facing and one camera can monitor two lanes of traffic. Both camera types incorporate automatic number plate recognition ANPR , which allows an offending car to be identified and linked to its registered keeper. Any average speed camera system requires at least two cameras linked together, but there's no limit to the number of cameras that can be combined in a system, nor is there any specific limit to how long an average speed camera network can be.
As an example, 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. When a car passes the first camera in a linked sequence, an image of its number plate is taken and used to identify the car when it passes subsequent cameras.
As the car passes along the route, the time taken to pass between the cameras is recorded, and if this exceeds a set baseline, the vehicle details are submitted to a prosecution database. Individual cameras don't have the facility to measure vehicle speed — a car must pass a second camera for its average speed to be calculated. In a sequence of multiple cameras, it is at the discretion of the local enforcement agency as to whether cameras work in pairs or in larger groups.
Best speed-camera locators to buy If you have passed an average speed camera, you will have been recorded by it. Only by ensuring that your average speed is below the legal limit can you ensure that a prosecution notice won't land on your doormat. The tell-tale flash when a motorist triggers a standard Gatso speed camera is absent from linked average speed camera networks. Exceeding the speed limit is against the law and a network of average speed cameras that measures the time it takes a car to complete a set journey will provide all evidence required to secure a speeding conviction.
However, not every instance of the speed limit being exceeded results in prosecution. Individual police forces reserve the right to exercise discretion in determining whether further action is appropriate. There's no hard and fast rule, though, and there might be times when a zero-tolerance policy applies. Similarly, drivers may be prosecuted in different ways, depending on the offence and their history. In some cases, for example, they may be offered the opportunity to attend a speed awareness course in place of receiving points on their licence.
This guide helps you to know what to look out for where UK speed cameras are concerned. With police forces battling reduced funding, especially for road policing, speed cameras play a vital role in keeping a watchful eye on UK roads. Combined with local safety camera partnerships, they are a good visual deterrent and a reminder to check your speed when driving. Some motorists see them as a revenue earner, though, as they can only catch speeders and are unable to spot unlicensed drivers, uninsured cars, drink and drug-drivers or general bad driving like road traffic officers are able to.
The cameras used rolls of film, which had to be developed and processed, and this also meant that there was a limit on how many speeders they could catch - it's thought that the first camera used up its exposure roll in 40 minutes after it was first switched on.
Average speed cameras have also been introduced to monitor vehicle speed over longer distances, rather than just in one location, while traffic light and wrong-turn cameras have also been introduced. We've also seen the introduction of cameras that no longer need a flash to snap speeding vehicles at night, while the latest mobile cameras operate over far longer distances than before.
In this instance, if you're speeding, the mobile camera could well have spotted you long before you've spotted it. Here's our guide to the different types of camera used on UK roads, and later we tell you what to expect if you think you've been caught speeding.
The most common cameras in the UK are Gatso and Truvelo speed cameras, but there are more than a dozen different types of speed camera in use on UK roads in total. So without further ado, here's what you should be looking for. The Gatso was the first type of speed camera seen in the UK, and it's still the most common type you'll find.
First introduced in , the Gatso - short for Gatsometer, the name of the Dutch company that makes them - is a rear-facing camera. That means it faces up the road and takes a picture of the rear of a speeding vehicle, so it can catch motorcycles as well as cars, vans and trucks. A Gatso camera is easy to spot, as speed cameras must be painted yellow by law in Scotland they have yellow and red diagonal stripes , although they can be obscured by road signs, street furniture and poorly maintained hedgerows.
Gatsos are usually mounted at the side of the road on a pole, although they can also be used in mobile units or on overhead gantries, such as you'll find on the motorway. Gatsos use radar to measure a vehicle's speed, but the law says that there needs to be secondary proof of speeding. This is why all Gatso locations have dashed lines painted on the road in front of them. These dashes are spaced evenly and are used to measure distance over time, so when a Gatso is activated it takes two pictures a fraction of a second apart, which can then be checked to see if an offence has been committed.
The camera features a flash, and this goes off with each photo that's taken. On single carriageway roads, two sets of dashed lines are usually painted at a Gatso location. That means vehicles using either side of the road can be measured for speeding, but only in the direction that the Gatso is pointing.
That means a camera site can only catch vehicles travelling away from it - if you are speeding towards one and it flashes, a ticket can't be issued. Gatsos are also reliant on the dashed lines in the road - if the lines aren't present, then the photos alone cannot be used to prosecute speeders. While the first Gatso cameras used photographic film to record speeders, a new generation of digital camera arrived on The other common type of speed camera in the UK is the Truvelo, which is named after the South African company that makes it.
While Truvelo cameras look similar to a Gatso because they are painted yellow and mounted on a pole, the chief difference between a Truvelo and a Gatso is that most Truvelo sites are forward facing. As with a Gatso, a Truvelo camera uses a flash to get a clear image of a speeding vehicle's number plate, but it also has a special filter on the flash that stops it from dazzling drivers.
While this means that motorcycles which lack front number plates are harder to identify when speeding, the Truvelo can be used to identify the driver of a speeding vehicle.
The Truvelo only takes one picture, because the speeding offence is registered by sensors in the road which activate the camera.
However, as with a Gatso, the photographic evidence needs backup, so small white squares are painted on the road where the sensors are to act as secondary evidence that a vehicle is speeding. In recent years, the Truvelo has evolved into the Truvelo D-Cam. This is a digital version of the Truvelo that can be mounted forward or rear facing, can also be used at traffic lights, and can even be set up to watch up to 3 lanes at a time.
The D-Cam comes in a distinctive housing, while some have a flash unit separate from the camera itself - which again makes no visible light. Hadecs units come in two small housings that are mounted on the side of motorway gantries. Several other attempts to develop an usable camera were made during the following 60 years or so, with the most notable one being that manufactured by Dutch company Gatsometer BV, founded by rally driver Maurice Gatsonides.
He was trying to use the photographic equipment to help him improve his driving, by monitoring speed around corners. His camera was the first automated road-rule enforcement system. Currently, Gatsometer is the world's biggest supplier of speed camera systems, and you should also blame it for inventing the first radar used in road traffic. The first cameras began getting introduced starting with the s. These units used film to record the image and they largely remained in use until the early s, when digital speed cameras came into the spotlight.
Currently, based on how they are used, speed cameras can be divided into three large groups: mobile systems, fixed speed cameras and average speed cameras. Latest car models:.
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