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How Fast Can You Drive Before Being Issued With A Speeding Ticket?

How Fast Can You Drive Before Being Issued With A Speeding Ticket?

Every police force has been asked to reveal the thresholds for their speed cameras and here are the results

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Ok, before we get into this one, let's clear up something very important. We're not here to condone speeding and we're certainly not encouraging dangerous driving.

What we do understand, however, is that sometimes your attention can be focused elsewhere when you're in your motor, and you may subsequently go a tad too fast. Alternatively, you might be in an area you've never been to before, meaning that you're not all too familiar with the local speed limit.

Well, good news - tolerances for speed cameras used by police forces across the UK have been disclosed thanks to Auto Express.

We get it, sometimes going over the limit ever so slightly is a complete accident.
PA

This doesn't mean we're saying, 'Hey, why not go over the limit?'

But if you do happen to pass a camera and notice that you're speeding slightly, this could give you a little bit of reassurance. Let it be a lesson learned though - stop fucking speeding.

The investigation has also uncovered whether you can actually trust your car's speedometer, with the majority of cars actually driving a few miles an hour slower than what is displayed.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted to each of the 45 police forces regarding information on their 3,224 speed cameras.

Results on the Freedom of Information requests on speed cameras. Source: Auto Express
Results on the Freedom of Information requests on speed cameras. Source: Auto Express

As you may be able to see in the table above, the majority of forces said that their cameras only recognise a speeder when they exceed the limit by 10 percent plus an additional two miles per hour.

This means that the cameras won't snap you until you're driving at 35mph in a 30mph zone, or 79mph on a 70mph stretch.

According to Auto Express, the Metropolitan Police, which uses a more lenient approach of 10 percent plus three miles per hour, says that this is 'a proportional response to the high volumes of traffic' in the capital.

Can you trust your speedo? Source: Auto Express
Can you trust your speedo? Source: Auto Express

Irrespective of how many miles an hour you can go over the limit, what about your own car? Is that being truthful with you?

Auto Express took care of this also because they tested the accuracy of some speedometers on 10 different cars.

The speedo on your car isn't allowed to tell you you're going slower than you actually are but they are allowed to 'over-read' up to 10 percent plus 6.25mph, according to the publication.

Therefore, you could be driving at 40mph but the display of your vehicle could be showing that you're driving at speeds of 50.25mph.

Each car assessed was within these limits and AA president Edmund King spoke to Auto Express, saying that it's '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'.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, News, Driving, Speeding, Cars