This means that an infringement notice is issued for less than the speed a person was detected to be travelling at. This tolerance deducts two km/hr from a vehicle's detected speed for fixed digital safety cameras. For mobile cameras, a tolerance of three km/hr or three per cent for speeds over 100km/hr is deducted.
NSW Police can issue a licence suspension at the roadside if you are caught speeding by more than 45km/h over the speed limit. Police also have the right to impound your vehicle or confiscate your vehicle's number plates. These offences carry demerit points that will be added to your record.
How Much Margin for Error is There? At present some police forces allow 10 per cent of the limit plus 2 mph albeit, this is subject to change at any stage, with our without your knowledge from the relevant police forces. This leeway has always been discretionary.
The MPS speed tolerance level for fixed safety enforcement cameras is 10% plus 2mph.
Technically, you can be issued with a fine for going just 1mph over the limit, although this is unlikely, particularly with fixed speed cameras.
“So for example, travelling at 35mph or above in a 30mph zone will be recorded as a speeding offence. “However, Go Safe say thresholds vary and can change without notice. “Officially, any speeding offence occurs at 1mph above the limit, but most forces will allow a variance.”
The 10% rule
That's because the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) urges police officers to use their discretion when dealing with drivers who break the speed limit. To be more specific, they recommend only handing out speeding tickets if a driver surpasses the speed limit by 10% plus 2.
It's fair to say there is a tolerance for speeding, which is 10%+2mph above the speed limit. So, in short, a speed camera flashes you speeding but allows for this tolerance – in most instances, that is! However, when a police officer uses a mobile speed camera, they can enforce different levels and rules!
Don't believe the urban legend that most cameras are just empty boxes, but it is true that not all speed cameras flash. Ultimately, there's really only one way to tell whether you've been nabbed by a roadside speed camera, and that's the appearance of a fine notice in the post.
A large portion of the country's cameras work to a tolerance of ten per cent of the speed limit plus 2mph, including the Metropolitan Police in London and its surrounding areas as of 2019.
Most police forces have a tolerance of 10% plus 2 mph above the limit before a speed camera 'flashes'. So on a 30 mph road, a camera wouldn't normally activate unless a car drove past at 35 mph or faster. So for example, On a 70 mph stretch of motorway, the threshold would go up to 79 mph.
Although police are recommended to give drivers leeway, it isn't guaranteed that you'll get away with speeding 10 percent above the limit. There is no specific amount of mph that you can go over by as drivers are meant to firmly stick to the restrictions - meaning you can be fined for going even just 1mph over.
Where a driver exceeds the signed speed limit by 45 km/hr or more, they may be charged with the offence of driving at excessive speed, see: Excessive Speed. A speed limit sign often indicates the speed limit [Australian Road Rules r 20] or if there are no signs, the default speed limit applies.
The camera itself gives a speed measurement, but a court will rely on a technician's calculation of the distance covered over the ground, which is estimated to be accurate to within one mile per hour. Successful challenges have been made on occasion, however.
On a straight section of road the typical range for a mobile speed camera is one mile. Can you get caught behind another car? As long as the speed camera operator can see and target your vehicle they will be able to get a reading of your speed.
Average speed cameras work by recording your speed at two different points. They don't capture your speed in a single flash. Instead, they'll monitor your speed over a length of road. This is so people don't slow down just before they see a camera and then speed up again afterwards.
40mph limit: between 46 and 53mph. 50mph limit: between 57 and 64mph. 60mph limit: between 68 and 75mph.
First and foremost, speedometers in most vehicles are designed to overestimate the speed of travel. International law has long required modern cars to overstate true speed.
Do all speed cameras flash? Most speed cameras flash when they capture an image, but you might not see the flash of a Truvelo forward-facing camera.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by BBC Panorama has revealed that only around half of fixed speed cameras now work.
It's an average of your speed between two points, and on longer stretches can have multiple cameras averaged out together. Say you cross the first checkpoint at 50mph, and the last checkpoint at 50mph but it only took you 4 mins to cover the 5 miles of average speed zone - your average speed is 75mph.
The bad news is that In most parts of Australia, there isn't a specific law that forbids driving 'too slowly' – nor are there any minimum speed thresholds at which you're allowed to travel.
Where several speed cameras are deployed on the same road or motorway, the most obvious example being that of average speed cameras, drivers can run the risk of being caught speeding more than once on the same journey.
So for a 30 zone, you would be speeding if you did 35. (30 + 10% = 33, +2 = 35). Remember, these are the speeds where you're officially counted as speeding. Not what you can go up to.
You'll either be offered a speed awareness course, be issued a speeding ticket, or – in the most dangerous circumstances – you'll be sent to court, where you'll receive a fine, points on your licence or a driving ban.