Revealed: UK’s Speed Camera Hotspots

Tue 15th Feb 2022

Motorists in London are subjected to a litany of motoring penalties such as the congestion charge and the ULEZ fees, but they are also the drivers most likely to encounter a speed camera according to a new report.

Analysis from Go Shorty, a short-term motor insurance provider, has revealed which areas of the UK have the most speed cameras, and found that Greater London is snap-happy for speed cameras with 995 cameras installed at a rate of 631 cameras per 1,000km2.

Only Derbyshire county has anywhere near London’s number of speed cameras with 958 installed, but they have a much bigger area to cover, with a rate of 365 cameras per 1,000km2.

The information was gathered by a Freedom of Information request by the insurance firm and finds staggering disparities, or should that be discrepancies (?!?) in the data. Can the county of Lancashire really only have 25 speed cameras? Does Northern Ireland really only have just five in total?

The research also revealed the fastest speeds clocked in the counties across the UK, with one driver in Nottinghamshire having clocked a ridiculous 191mph.

“While it might not be surprising to know that London has the most speed camera sites overall (with just under a thousand), the capital also has the most even when we look per square kilometre, with 631,” said the Go Shorty report. 

“These include spot speed sites, red-light cameras, ‘speed on’ green sites and average speed cameras.

“The area with the second-highest number of camera sites was Derbyshire, which had 958, just 37 fewer than London, and 365 per square kilometre. The largely rural county covers much of the Peak District and the highest speed recorded by a camera in the past three years was 148 miles per hour.”