65 in a temporary 50 on the M6

[North West Tom]

Hi guys, I received an early Christmas card from the Cheshire Constabulary this week. I've done a bit of searching for similar events but Google brings up stuff from 2003 and the PH search function is crap.

It's my first offence in 6 years of driving. I'm still quite young (23) and my insurance is starting to go down, and I'd hate for it to shoot back up due to 3 points but it looks likely. The threshold for a course is 64mph so I've missed it by 1mph, and I doubt there will be any leeway. Does the fact it happened at 4am make a difference?

Anyone know what I should expect?

[giantdefy]

£100 and 3 points as you are above the SAC threshold.

[agtlaw]

Too fast for a course, not fast enough for a Single Justice Procedure Notice. Looks like a fixed penalty - as above.

The computer doesn't care about the time of the offence.

[GreatGranny]

North West Tom said:

Does the fact it happened at 4am make a difference?

Anyone know what I should expect?

No difference what time the offence took place and you will get £100 fine and 3 points.
However it shouldn't make much or any difference to your insurance ?

You could always try a comparison putting in your offence and see what it comes up with.

Just be careful next time. 65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

[JonV8V]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

Agreed.

The only good news in the thread is for the last year where I've been driving like a monk on the M6 through the various speed restrictions has been the right thing to do.

OP, it's worth knowing where the clip limits are for each speed limit - as you now know, 1 mph can make a difference in outcome. I'm not condoning speeding, but most people do speed to some extent, and when I passed some years ago before speed cameras someone suggested a 10mph period of grace (could have been bull but that's what I remember). 40 in a 30 etc. but thats no longer the case. Nowadays in a 70 limit, 78, 85 and 95 are important numbers for prosecution, SAC and Summons as a rough guide. You can still get done but the odds are much more in your favour if you do 85 on a motorway for instance

Edited by JonV8V on Saturday 24th December 13:07

[Super Slo Mo]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

The only thing I've driven that was close to accurate were trucks as their speedos/tachos are pretty much spot on. Every car I've driven has over read. Some by greater amounts than others.
My current car is about 3-4 over at 70mph.
Appreciate I've not driven everything onrhd market so it's not a definitive answer by any means.
That said, these days cars ought to be taking speed readings off the abs sensors not the gearbox for greater accuracy. Don't know if they do though.

[ezi]

Super Slo Mo said:

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

The only thing I've driven that was close to accurate were trucks as their speedos/tachos are pretty much spot on. Every car I've driven has over read. Some by greater amounts than others.
My current car is about 3-4 over at 70mph.
Appreciate I've not driven everything onrhd market so it's not a definitive answer by any means.
That said, these days cars ought to be taking speed readings off the abs sensors not the gearbox for greater accuracy. Don't know if they do though.

Most trucks I've driven have overread by quite a bit, I've been in some which at 56mph indicated are doing 53 by GPS speed.

[Super Slo Mo]

To be fair I've not driven a truck in over 10 years. I always thought they were way more accurate than a car though but maybe there's more allowance for tyre wear now, although it shouldn't make that much difference.

[anonymous-user]

When you say 'temporary' do you mean "set temporary" for an incident etc or "roadworks average speed temporary" which are usually on SPECS? So 65 through them seems pretty blatant poor driving/speed awareness??

[Osinjak]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

+1. It's been said often enough to become corporately internalised. Now it's the urban truth.

[xjay1337]

FWIW my speedo at 70mph reads 67mph on the wheel speed sensors and 68mph on GPS.


Sorry to hear OP, no-one to blame unfortunately, just send it off and take it on the chin. 3 points probably won't make much of a difference.

I stick to average cameras, 52 usually on cruise, not worth it really....

[1ians]

Osinjak said:

+1. It's been said often enough to become corporately internalised. Now it's the urban truth.

My driving license can also testify to speedo accuracy. I was recently caught by an unmarked police car on the motorway. When settting my cruise control the calculation for the speed set involved points vs court, and then adding a couple of MPH for speedo error. I was a bit surprised when I was told my average speed was exactly what my speedo said, unfortunately a couple of MPH on the wrong side of what you'd want to be caught at..

[codenamecueball]

1ians said:

My driving license can also testify to speedo accuracy. I was recently caught by an unmarked police car on the motorway. When settting my cruise control the calculation for the speed set involved points vs court, and then adding a couple of MPH for speedo error. I was a bit surprised when I was told my average speed was exactly what my speedo said, unfortunately a couple of MPH on the wrong side of what you'd want to be caught at..

Is it not due to wheel sizes and tyres and such, so they set it to one that means it's the most accurate up to the biggest wheels and is naturally less accurate on the smaller ones? I'm not entirely sure, but it saves them doing 20+ different speedo calibrations when they're being put together in the factory. Someone will actually know what I'm on about and be able to explain it better.

[simoid]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

It's most probably true, though.

[DoubleD]

simoid said:

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

It's most probably true, though.

All the fairly recent cars that I have checked have been accurate to 1-2mph

[wack]

My only speeding conviction was in roadworks on the M6 in 1996, no average cameras back then

I was coming back from scotland in a van at 70, entered the roadworks and slowed to 50,they went on for miles, about 1/2 way through all the carriageways opened and cars started coming past me at 70 so I assumed I'd missed the release sign, but I hadn't , right in the middle there was a range rover sat waiting, I didn't even slow as I went past him then because I thought it was 70 then I saw the 50 sign and slowed

seems they had a stretch in the middle with no roadworks but the 50 was still active, they must have caught thousands

I was doing 69 in a 50, can't remember the fine but it was 4 points so the magistrates court decided it didn't warrant 3 points, none of these dangerous drivers got stopped by the police though because that would have interrupted the cash flow, nor were they enforcing the 50 where the men were working, not as much money protecting lives

[Fore Left]

codenamecueball said:

Is it not due to wheel sizes and tyres and such, so they set it to one that means it's the most accurate up to the biggest wheels and is naturally less accurate on the smaller ones? I'm not entirely sure, but it saves them doing 20+ different speedo calibrations when they're being put together in the factory. Someone will actually know what I'm on about and be able to explain it better.

Its all digital these days and generally bigger wheels have lower profile tyres so the same rolling diameter.

On my 3 series you can code the digital speedo to either read the same as the analogue speedo or the actual road speed. Actual speed is 3 mph less than the speedo and 1 mph more than the GPS on my phone. That's on new tyres. Might change marginally as they wear.

[xjay1337]

On various VW A5 model cars there is a speedo impulse number on the cars dashboard coding in which you can alter the overread.
Mk5 gti overreads by between 3 and 7mph depending on this setting.

[simoid]

DoubleD said:

simoid said:

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

GreatGranny said:

65 will be indicated near enough 70 on your speedo.

I don't understand why people continue to quote this bks. Plenty of cars have speedos that read within 1mph up to licence-losing speeds.

It's most probably true, though.

All the fairly recent cars that I have checked have been accurate to 1-2mph

In my limited sample, everything I've driven recently is around 5%: (Clio 182, E92 3 series, Audi A4, Mini Cooper, Suzuki Alto, Punto).

IE GPS says 66/67 when needle is on 70