Whats the crack with the speed cameras on the M1?

I drove down yesterday past a fairly large number and they were the average speed type. The odd thing was that a good number of them were pointing in random directions. Now I'm used to these things, they were first installed in Nottingham years ago so I have a good idea of what real ones look like. These looked like they had just been plonked in the ground as a deterrant but not calibranted or set up properly.

Any ideas?

Random directions?

No idea.

If some were facing you and others pointing away from you, yes, they're so that motorbikes don't get through at speed.

One was pointing up in the air! don't you have any contacts you could ask?

The TM guy here would know, but I don't need to ask him to tell you that one pointing up in the air isn't clocking your speed as you drive down the motorway.

Have they just been installed? If so, they maybe haven't been set yet.

There are shit loads of road works between J28 & J24 of the M1 and its been going on for about 2 years now. The cameras have never looked right from day one. Also I've passed speed cameras at 70 in a 50 on that stretch and never got a ticket. I'd just like confirmation that they are just for show.

I know that the ones on our stretch of the A1 are live, but I also know that with the average speed ones you need to pass at least two cameras before they can clock you and in our roadworks you can avoid this depending on your route, e.g. coming south to work I pass the first one as you enter the roadworks but then turn off at Leeming Bar before passing a second camera so I could speed down at 100+ and not get a ticket.

I believe Mr Tax Payer has some knowledge of whether there are live cameras on the M1 and the endorsements to prove it.

Passed them last week, some are not in use and being repositioned I suspect, but the deterrent value of a unused average speed camera is just the same. They've done the same thing on the A 34 at Newbury, but they carry a tiny sign telling you they're not in use... too small to read till you're on top of them so they still slow you down.

I drive that stretch every day. When the road works started they were definetly pointing in the right direction but as time has gone on traffic has been redirected onto the new tarmac and the cameras have never moved so many of them now point to what are currently the unused lanes.

The poles for certain cameras also had to be moved once they started putting the new lane in as they had placed 'em too close to the exising motorway. When they moved them thats when some ended up pointing all over the place.

So I agree they are probaly not used but I still make sure not to take the p*** too much just in case some of them work. I have also seen a couple of people pulled over by unmarked cars on that stretch so you still need to be careful.

Nah, mine was the A1(M) at Wetherby which has recently finished.

That 50 zone near Nottingham is evil. I fcking loathe it.

It's even more evil on a Sunday if you have to come off the motorway and drive through Nottingham if you're southbound.

I think that diverson must have ended now as it didn't happen to me a couple of weekens ago.

I'll be using the A1 next time as that 50 stretch makes me feel quite ill!

The A43 from Stamford down to Northampton aint a bad run if you use the A1... not forgetting those irritating fixed speed cameras on the 50 stretch of the A1 for no obvious reason to me.

There's 50 zones on the A1 too?

If you're on about the stretch north of Donny that hasn't been upgraded then the speed limit is determined by the number of and frequency of junctions, especially ones were the carriageway can be crossed. Similar reason as to why the A66 is a 50mph limit around Diddlesbrough.

At Elkesley on the A1, there's about four 'normal' fixed cameras over a couple of miles stretch about 30 miles south of Doncaster, but that's the only ones.... apart from the ones at Grantham.....

It is the current bane of my life. The bstards have now put even more in going south beyond Junction 24.

It's enough to make you want to headbutt your dashboard into tiny pieces.

What's wrong with youse lot? Don't speed! The worst ones are the ones who catch you doing 34 in a 30 zone on a deserted road!

It's OK for you on your electric scooter.

Well they won't actually do that as the prosecution limit is 10%+ 2mph.

Does that mean 35 is in or out?? I got done once for doing 35 in a 30 limit.

Borderline, obviously, if you'd protested they'd have done nowt.

No chance of you speeding ... you're too busy kerb crawling.

That's a myth.

Surely not, anyway, how would his little battery powered pavement 4x4 hold two, unless one was a dwarf....?

Correct, some forces have adopted a 10% margin of error, but only some.

I wasn't really pleading for clemency. Speeding's wrong, full stop.

I got three points for doing 35 in a 30 zone, queried that it was me, and got invited along to view the pic in a little portakabin police office in Cannon Park in the Boro. The retired traffic cop who was running the place was a friend (if any policeman can ever be called a friend), and I asked about the 10% +2 rule, thinking I could still be classed as being within the limit. But he said the cameras always rounded down, so I would definitely have being doing between 35 and 35.99 and would therefore be over that threshold.

Useful info about the M1, I will be going down to Junction 23 next Monday. Last time I went down the traffic volume made sure I couldn't get up to 50 most of the time.