A3 Guildford - New Average Speed Cameras
Discussion
Driving home from Godalming today and I noticed they've started to install what look like average speed cameras along the 50mph section of the A3 through Guildford.
Don't know whether it will make the usual rush hour traffic better or worse! Hopefully better! The new slip road lights they have installed at the Worplesdon Road junction are utter sh
te
Don't know when they'll go live but I just wanted to warn you all ahead of time.
Don't know whether it will make the usual rush hour traffic better or worse! Hopefully better! The new slip road lights they have installed at the Worplesdon Road junction are utter sh
teDon't know when they'll go live but I just wanted to warn you all ahead of time.
Crashes almost every week. Moved down south 6 years ago and it was utter lunacy even then. My commute home is through that section at the moment.
It's funny because I rarely manage 50mph through that section so what purpose they serve stumps me, at a more quiet time of the day nobody is stupid enough to crash. Come rush hour and it's mayhem full of people that can't merge or are being utter braindead tossers.
Won't solve anything and neither would a speed reduction.
It's funny because I rarely manage 50mph through that section so what purpose they serve stumps me, at a more quiet time of the day nobody is stupid enough to crash. Come rush hour and it's mayhem full of people that can't merge or are being utter braindead tossers.
Won't solve anything and neither would a speed reduction.
Anecdotal, I know, but on Sunday last the cameras seemed to make it easier to join from the Hog's Back at or around the speed limit. Maybe not so useful when it's busy, but in free-flowing traffic it was easier to get off the slip road because I could forecast the speed of established traffic more reliably, and the traffic on the A3 wasn't doing it's usual trick of closing down the gaps to almost nothing...
yellowjack said:
Anecdotal, I know, but on Sunday last the cameras seemed to make it easier to join from the Hog's Back at or around the speed limit. Maybe not so useful when it's busy, but in free-flowing traffic it was easier to get off the slip road because I could forecast the speed of established traffic more reliably, and the traffic on the A3 wasn't doing it's usual trick of closing down the gaps to almost nothing...
I found the opposite last Monday - everyone on the A3 doing 49 mph and everyone trying to join it from the A31 doing about 35 mph just like before! 
Does anyone know when these nasty new average cams actually go live? News article here at www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-a3-... but they seem to be installing before doing the supposed demonstration and explanation of their plans to the general public.
The first time I saw any evidence of them was coming through Guildford Northbound on Friday evening (29th March) having not seen sign of them three months earlier on December 24th. But all I saw was two SPEC poles and attendant cams over 1 mile in to the 50mph section travelling north and in fact not far from getting back to the 70mph National Speed limit section. The strange thing is that there were two cameras just before and after entering the junction. I suppose this means eventually when they are fully installed the section after the junction will be a separate average speed calculation area from the heavily downhill section just before it (thus maximising the speed of the unfortunates caught travelling down hill who don't spot the new cams or don't understand what an average speed limit is)..
As with Surrey Plod's new 50mph average camera system on the A24 between Dorking and Leatherhead or the Met's new 40mph average speed cam section on the M4 and M4 elevated section near Chiswick) this has damn all to do with safety and everything to do with a piece of road on which they reckon they will get a large ticket haul from high traffic volumes with minimal investment in the cams themselves. Also the speed limits are way below the natural 85th percentile speed of the traffic before average speed cam enforcement starts. Of course the A3 through Guildford has been crying out to be widened for at least 30 years and is now totally and utterly unfit for purpose. But the only investment made is in more rigorous monitoring and penalising of the motorist. Ditto with the M4 elevated section.
They obviously know that downhill late at night people might be doing as much as 80mph or 90mph (I have seen people doing just that) through Guildford so are hoping for some nice juicy prosecutions and lengthy bans.
P.S. Can anyone else also reassure me these cams are not yet in use.
The first time I saw any evidence of them was coming through Guildford Northbound on Friday evening (29th March) having not seen sign of them three months earlier on December 24th. But all I saw was two SPEC poles and attendant cams over 1 mile in to the 50mph section travelling north and in fact not far from getting back to the 70mph National Speed limit section. The strange thing is that there were two cameras just before and after entering the junction. I suppose this means eventually when they are fully installed the section after the junction will be a separate average speed calculation area from the heavily downhill section just before it (thus maximising the speed of the unfortunates caught travelling down hill who don't spot the new cams or don't understand what an average speed limit is)..
As with Surrey Plod's new 50mph average camera system on the A24 between Dorking and Leatherhead or the Met's new 40mph average speed cam section on the M4 and M4 elevated section near Chiswick) this has damn all to do with safety and everything to do with a piece of road on which they reckon they will get a large ticket haul from high traffic volumes with minimal investment in the cams themselves. Also the speed limits are way below the natural 85th percentile speed of the traffic before average speed cam enforcement starts. Of course the A3 through Guildford has been crying out to be widened for at least 30 years and is now totally and utterly unfit for purpose. But the only investment made is in more rigorous monitoring and penalising of the motorist. Ditto with the M4 elevated section.
They obviously know that downhill late at night people might be doing as much as 80mph or 90mph (I have seen people doing just that) through Guildford so are hoping for some nice juicy prosecutions and lengthy bans.
P.S. Can anyone else also reassure me these cams are not yet in use.
Edited by NGMsGhost on Monday 1st April 17:32
Sorry I've no idea if/when they went live - the only way I'd find out would involve a NIP. 
So I just work on the basis they already are live.
But based on what else you said there does seem to be a trend for what used to be N/S/L dual-carriageways getting 50 mph limits slapped on them.
I live near the A331 (Blackwater By-Pass) and from the M3 to the A30 that recently got a 50 limit. More recently the section from the A30 past Tesco up past Rackstraws also got a 50 limit imposed.
It's like there is some sort of agenda to do away with N/S/L roads.
So I just work on the basis they already are live.
But based on what else you said there does seem to be a trend for what used to be N/S/L dual-carriageways getting 50 mph limits slapped on them.
I live near the A331 (Blackwater By-Pass) and from the M3 to the A30 that recently got a 50 limit. More recently the section from the A30 past Tesco up past Rackstraws also got a 50 limit imposed.
It's like there is some sort of agenda to do away with N/S/L roads.
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