Flashed M25 J9-10 No Variable Limit Displayed

[MattCVW]

Hi, So I got flashed twice while traveling on the M25 near Cobham Services. The trouble was that I was maybe doing 72 tops and there were no variable limits displayed in that stretch on the motorway at 6:00am this morning when this happened?! I have previously spoken to a speed awareness course instructor who said that those cameras will only go off if there is a limit displayed on the gantry’s, but this is either not the case or there is a faulty camera. There are a few issues being raised online about this area but I couldn’t find a difinitive answer. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Pericoloso]

The speed awareness person is wrong ,the Hadecs cameras are 24/7 but you're unlikely to get a ticket for 72 mph.

[Inigo Montoya]

If the gantry isn’t showing a temporary speed limit then the national speed limit applies - 70 mph for a car. The camera works whether there is a speed shown or not.

And if the camera flashed the most likely cause was that you were going faster than you thought. Sorry.

[MattCVW]

Ok. That wasn’t the news I wasn’t hoping for but thanks for the replies. Hopefully not get anything through. I’ll post if I do 🤞

[MattCVW]

Why do the other cameras not go off when people are driving through the gantrys at speed? This is the only one I have seen do this. I’ve actually noticed it happening whilst traveling anti clockwise past this camera now that I think about it

[Adrian E]

The new(er) cameras mounted off to the side of the gantries (handily signposted with what looks like an array of ANPR cameras on a boom a hundred yards or so before) do seem rather more flash-happy than the overhead gantries of old.

The old ones would still take a pretty pic if you were making sufficient progress, even without a variable limit in place. A friend of mine got done round that section for doing a fairly healthy bit over the limit late at night in is 205XS BITD.

With the newer ones they do seem to have a lower threshold but defo not south of 80mph indicated (noting that speedometers are generally not that far off true speed these days)

[Highway Star]

I went through the same cameras at the end of September, 10pm on a Saturday night, they flashed, I was in lane 1 cruise set to 74, another car was overtaking me in lane 4, so 75+. I never heard anything.

[jayemm89]

Some of these cameras do seem to be triggered very easily, occasionally I have heard they are "calibrating" or something, probably nonsense.

I have seen them go off when the road is at an almost standstill. To be done at 72 in a 70 would have to mean someone really has an axe to grind with you

[rs990]

If it was on the clockwise carriageway just before the services, there is a camera there that seems to have a mind of its own.

I have seen it flash many times when the traffic is well below the limit, including one time when stuck in complete gridlock when nobody was moving above 10mph, and the camera was still flashing every 20 seconds or so

[richthebike]

All the airport taxi drivers I've had say the same... there are a few cameras in this section that flash regularly, even when nobody is breaking the limit.

You will not get a ticket for 72 in a 70.

[jeremyh1]

You will be OK

However I have been canning it all around the 25 all my life until recently . I would sit at 85 where I could .
I have also been flashed a couple of times when the gantrys have been off and I have been going over 80 in a Sprinter van and a VW T6 van

I have noticed other drivers being flashed in the are you mentioned and also last week at anti clockwise just past the M11 junction again the gantry's were set off

With all this in mind I am not taking a chance anymore and I was also told by a black cab driver that speed camaeras are between junction 7 and 5 heading towards town on the M4 .
There are also cameras past heathrow on the whole motoway section heading into town but I think most people are aware of them

[MattCVW]

So nothing came of this in the end! Seems it was just a jumpy camera. Phew.