More than 6,500 drivers have been caught speeding since average speed check cameras were introduced on the M4 in south east Wales, figures show.
The cameras between Junctions 24 (Coldra) and 28 (Tredegar Park) trigger penalty notices when the 50mph limit is exceeded.
Forty three million vehicles - 110,000 a day - have driven through the stretch since September 2009.
The body which polices it said a "tiny fraction" were flouting the law.
Jim Moore, manager of the Wales road casualty reduction partnership said: "It is encouraging to see that, on the whole, motorists are complying with the reduced speed limit of 50mph while important roadworks take place.
"We hope that this compliance continues over the next few months while work is completed for the safety of motorists and the roadworkers, who are operating day and night."
The intention is to replace the average speed cameras with a variable speed limit like that on the M25 near London.
The RAC foundation welcomed the figures.
Elizabeth Box from the foundation said: "Lower speed limits are often applied to motorway road works to improve road worker safety so it is good to see that 99.9% of all vehicles on the M4 in Gwent have stayed within the 50mph limit."
Plans to build a £1bn relief road around Newport to ease congestion were scrapped last year.
The Welsh Assembly Government has not yet announced when it proposes to push ahead with plans to link up a dual carriageway which runs through the Corus site at Llanwern, with the Southern Distributor Road, to provide an alternative route around the south of Newport.
The scheme could be delayed because of budget constraints.
Average speeds have dropped to 49.4mph since the cameras were introduced, but a top speed of 95mph has also been recorded.
"Start Quote
End Quote Prof Stuart Cole University of GlamorganIn the long term the variable speed limits will be preferable as they get more traffic through in the same period of time"
Works to install the variable speed system on the M4 have been completed but lane restrictions associated with the concrete barrier replacement scheme are still ongoing.
The Welsh Assembly Government said it regarded road safety as a matter of paramount importance and so the figures provided by Go Safe were "particularly pleasing".
A spokesman said: "The vast majority of drivers are adhering to the temporary limit and that can only be good news for our workforce, who often work through the night, and for other road users.
"The average speed cameras will be removed from the M4 when work on the central reservation barriers and variable speed limit system is completed. We expect this to be by the summer of next year.
"Decisions on any future funding arrangements for speed cameras will be made in due course."
Professor of transport at the University of Glamorgan, Stuart Cole, said the average speed check cameras were successful at keeping traffic flowing during peak times, but did annoy drivers travelling outside rush hour.
He told BBC Wales: "In the long term the variable speed limits will be preferable as they get more traffic through in the same period of time and it will contribute to solving the problems around the Brynglas Tunnels.
"I don't know what the final decision on the Newport relief road is, or whether it will be delayed because of budget constraints, but it is a relatively low cost programme - £120m compared to the previous £1bn scheme."
I have found the cameras a dangerous nuisance as they consistently cause traffic to bunch up and inadvertent tailgating becomes inevitable. 50mph on much of the stretch and at most times of the day is wholly inappropriate. There is absolutely no need to have the whole section from Tredegar Park to The Coldra covered by average speed cameras when the bulk of road works have now been completed. Localised limits should now be implemented at the specific area where the barrier replacement is taking place. Typical WAG incompetence!
Another British transport service patting themselves on the back for nothing. The reason why the road worker safety has increased is because they've coned off 10miles of motorway, parked there steamrollers somewhere in the middle and gone home for a cup of tea! Workers? What workers?
The speed limit has reduced accidents there, one of my drivers was seriously injured two years ago when a vehicle ran into his vehicle which was attending a broken down vehiucle on the hardshoulder, unfortunately he will never work again. The traffic flows faster and theres way fewer accidents, pre speed limit there would alwasy be a number of bumps in the going home rush hour. the most annoying thing now is the lorries running at 56mph tailgating you
I use this road daily travelling from Junction 26 to Junction 34. At varying times of the day. I am very surprised it is only 6500 people who have been caught to be honest. The amount of lorries, cars and motorbikes that overtake me whilst iam doing 50 is un believable. I find it a more consistent travel to work with less delays than before. So i am all for the varying speed limits. Although it could be tweaked for certain times of the day ie. rush hour etc.
I drive most of my journeys 5:30 in the morning and 7:30 in the evening when the traffic is light. These cameras are a hinderance and a danger, I find I am concentrating on staying within the 50 sometimes 40mph limit than driving safely. I also find it unavoidable not to get boxed in by lorry drivers and at the moment in the narrowed down lanes this can be quite a frightening experience.
The limits on this stretch of road are completely non-sensical and defeat the purpose of having a motorway which is to allow faster driving than is possible on other roads. I have driven on this stretch many times and find it very frustrating and even dangerous to have these 'average speed limit' restrictions as they distract from the driving itself and force you to continually look down at your speedometer. I too rarely see any 'workers'.
I see that the 50mph limit has now been extended towards Magor despite the fact that no roadworks are actually taking place on this stretch, why on earth is this the case? The existing 50mph limit is already far too long so yet another excuse to fleece the motorist
It's a motorway and it should be 70 at all times ..the work force should work at unsociable hours giving drivers the chance to journey on
As a resident of Newport I welcome these cameras. If you don 't want to pay a fine or lose your licence may I suggest to actions to take. In the first instance raise the right foot off the pedal and drive within the speed limit. The second action add a further 10 minutes to your journey time. I am aware of at least 4 major accidents on the stretch of motorway referred to with loss of life in each instance. I wonder if the vicgtims would be alive today if the cameras had been in action.
Usual story, 24 x 7 day hour cameras, but most of the time no workforce, no problem when there is an actual workforce on site. Any motorway works should be 24 hours a day with sufficent labour to get the job done quickly. Do you get railway repairs packing up and going home overnight or at weekends? Second class service for drivers as usual and lucrative jobs/pensions for the speed camera industry.
Returning to Cardiff recently from a holiday in Cornwall I dicovered that they have lengthened the stretch of 50 MPH restriction on the M4 but unlike most places you see on the motorways where there are advanced notices that state 50 MPH in 1 mile etc. you just hit the limit with no warning what so ever, a tad dangerous I think.
I am far from a supporter of these cameras however its very interesting to learn that just 0.015% of motorists have been prosecuted for exceeding the speed limit - surely thats fairly good odds in anyones book for getting away with speeding?
I note the story was about compliance and not about any evidence of an increase in safety. The fact that 6,500 motorists have been caught exceeding an arbitary limit should not be seen in any positive way. Had the 6,500 prosecutions (with attendant disruption of the drivers' lives and possibly loss of jobs/relationships if the unfortunate people lose a licence) led to a reduction in harm that outweighed this I'd be all for it. As the spokesman from the partnership which runs the cameras focuses purely on the fact that the 'caught' motorists chose to drive at a speed they considered safe rather than a speed the authorities considered safe perhaps we should assume there has been no reduction in accidents and the only benefit is the continuation of the Safety Partnership's lucrative jobs, justified by 'catching' 6,500 people who were likely breaking the limit at 3am without another car, nor road worker, in sight. Cynical? Always when governments and their quangos!
Roadworkers day and night? Where? It's just another money grabbing tactic to fleece the public, all for our own good though isn't it. I'm sick to the eye teeth of being told how all this highway robbery is for safety,for gods sake at least be honest about it.
The restricted section is far too long. Why on earth is it necessary to restrict a 7½ mile section (at one time the restricted section was 12 miles) when work is only in progress over about 1 mile?
I drive past this area on the M4 nearly 3 times a week on average, and I have not ever seen any "workers" there. Its a joke.
I'm not sure what these people have against the cameras when all you have to do is stick to the speed limit, regardless of whether you like it or not, it's simple really, isn't it!?
I have been travelling this stretch of the M4 for over 20 years. During the snails paced refurbishment of the motorway the two things that stand out is the desperately slow rate of works- I never see more than half a dozen people working which is why there have been road works between junction 32 and 25 for the last 10 years (yes there have), and the insistence on shutting the motorway between 8pm and dawn for so long. Wales without the M4 operating becomes the joke that everyone else in the UK knows-totally parochial.
I am surprised by the results. I am constantly being overtaken or hassled by the vehicle behind for keeping to the speed limit. The standard of driving is atrocious in most places and the majority don't seem to understand even the basics of road safety - reversing on to main roads, fog lights when it's not foggy, rules of priority, speeding etc. etc. etc. These are things that happen everywhere, every day. And don't go near a school at pick-up/drop-off time.
It's particularly dangerous going eastbound between 28 and 27. If you move over to let people join the motorway at 28, you have barely enough time to move back into the inside lane to leave at 27. You can't speed up to overtake, so you end up being stuck and unable to move back into the inside lane in time to leave the motorway at J27.
Living in the middle of this speed limit, it is a complete nightmare! There is no evidence that this has actually saved lives and there have been more accidents in Newport along that stretch since these speed limits went up than there were before! Traffic is a nightmare and the people who have to actually live and work in Newport are being punished so that the government can make more money catching what it is now showing to be a tiny amount of speeders!
I have to say that I have found this stretch of the M4 has been much nicer to drive on since the 50mph limit - all the traffic just moves smoothly along, no running into stationary sections (which are stationary for no apparent reason), far fewer idiots driving at 100mph right up to someone else's bumper and extremely dangerously tailgating them (which apart from the danger for the person being tailgated, is very distracting and stress inducing for those of us in the lanes next to this idiot). Why don't people just relax when they're driving? in time it takes to do this 6.8 mile stretch at 50mph rather than 70mph, why would this be such a problem for anyone? If driving is such a stressful rush rush rush for these people, perhaps they shouldn't be driving?
The comments made show a lack of understanding of how things are built, and how roads are managed. Many people state that no workers are ever on the carriageway working. This is clearly nonsense, if no work was being carried out, how would the work ever get done? It is in a contractors best interest from a safety and commercial point of view to complete their works in a shorter time frame as possible. They expose their workers to less danger, and, the faster they get the work done the more money they can potentially make. The travelling public are never happy. If there is congestion they moan that developments should take place to expand the capacity, either by widening carriageways or by installing intelligent traffic systems.
Whilst using that stretch of the M4 regularly, only on one or two occasions recently (this year) have I actually seen any work being done and to top that off, on these occasions sections were closed in which the diversions sent you back at least 10 miles (from the direction I'd just came from) to take a different route - good thinking? Overall a very poor service and we have to wait until Summer of next year? Lost for words.
I note the "safety partnership" does a lot of quoting about the numbers caught but makes not a reference to any casualty reduction usually used as the very worthwhile justification. We have no indication of works operative casualties either. After all road safety measures are introduced after a problem is detected not the more sensible approach in anticipation of it, so one might expect a known typical casualty level within highways workforce.
Roadworks aside, it's completely wrong that on any part of the main arterial route between Cardiff and London it should be necessary to impose a speed restriction to make it safe. Government (Westminster and WAG) should invest to engineer the M4 so that it is safe to travel at the national speed limit over this stretch at all times.
Once road workers cease motorway work all speed restrictions should end and normal flow be allowed. Delay costs and frustration raised are untenable. 90% of the time there are no workers so non of it is justified. Motoway work is a never ending quango. Close down the Highways Agency for 3 years and lets get Britain moving again. Shut them down and shut them up. Speeding fines for non existent workers contravenes rights and justice. If were in a funding crisis what better case than neutering this bunch. Toll road tax all lorries coming in from Ferries exactly as in France. Make Scotland one way only. Nothing leaves again. The Romans had it worked out.
Yet another money making scheme on behalf of the safety camera partnerships, yet again no reduction in accidents or proof their use is required. I pass through this Newport section nearly every day at varying times. It's a constant annoyance and quicker to go through Newport. Nearly always with a empty carriageway and no workers. Seems these safety camera partnerships want to send us back to the days of having someone walk in front of the car waving a flag. 21st Century I don't think so!
As a regular user the only time I have encountered workmen is at night, using enormous arc light in an otherwise unlit area of the motorway (why are the lights off?) anyway. Therefore, temporarily blinded which is obviously a tad dangerous! Wake up Wales, we are the laughing stock of U.K drivers, nowhere else is taking so long to 'upgrade the motorway'. I am really fed up with it. Do not congratulate yourselves, hold yourselves accountantable for a situation that has become untenable, and get the M4 working normally, NOW.
I travel across to Wales and back 3 times a week - sometimes 4, and have done for the last 4 years. I can honestly say I rarely ever see 'workers'. This is the frustrating thing for us drivers - if they were there 'working' to improve the road - which these works have been going on for the majority of the time I have been travelling across - then we would have more patience with this ridiculous 50mph limit across 7 miles of motorway. I'd say it is more dangerous having the speed limit in place at times, people still drive like idiots and it ends up everyone is packed in like a tin of sardines. The Welsh Government are a bunch of jokers, time to sort the M4 out once and for all.
Safety adverts tell us that hitting someone at twenty and they will probably survive but at forty they will probably die. Restricting speed to fifty would therfore seem to have little to do with worker safety.
I am extremely annoyed by the average speed cameras scheme. I find the 50 mph limit excessively low and totally unnecessary. I don't see why the need to block off huge sections of the motorway for so long with work being carried out at a snail's pace. 50 mph is far too low a speed for these areas. People can drive very safely at 60mph in those areas.
Ok i want to see the accident numbers for the few years prior to this speed restriction coming into place and then for the time period since its been in place. I've been driving along this section of the M4 for years and years daily. I can guarentee that there have been more accidents along this section since they introduced the restrictions. Its a total joke, and as for the extension east bound nearly out to the magor junction, WHY!?!? There is no work taking place there so don't put signs up until there is. Total over reaction as per usual.
Having just received notification of me speeding on the section of motorway mentioned above I am very frustrated with the whole situation. I was caught doing 57mph (agreed above the set limit of 50mph) but this was at 23.54 on a Sunday night - not another car in sight. Yes - stop speeding motorists when they present a danger to others but not when the road is clear and there is no workforce to be seen. Money generating waste of time perhaps?
I don't have a problem with the cameras as there is a safety aspect to consider whilst works are ongoing. However, the problems the 50 MPH speed limit presents is at peak times with junctions being so close together like Jcn 28 Tredegar Park & Jcn 27 High Cross. At peak times traffic wishes to join the M4 at Jcn 28, which forces motorists into the middle lane to give way to them but, that means there is insufficient time / space for the motorist giving way to be able to exit at Jcn 27 when required! This must be the same in the opposite direction and at other Junctions!
Overall, the introduction of the 50mph limit has been a success as there fewer serious accidents on a very dangerous stretch of road. Regrettably, a number of motorists, often younger drivers, take no regard of the speed restriction, particularly when the come onto the motorway at one junction and leave at the next knowing that they only pass a single camera whereby their speed can't be averaged. I look forward to the Variable Speed Limit as at night driving along that stretch can be very frustrating when so few cars are on a 3 lane motorway.
What speed are they actually catching motorists? I often see a number of cars passing me who are obviously doing more than 50mph and yet they have only caught 6500! I suspect you have to be doing more than 70mph to get caught so what is the point. I have also seen just as many if not more accidents on this stretch in recent months. Last week a car was perched up on the temporary concrete barrier. No one was working there but how dangerous was that to other motorists.
Yes, the work is taking a long time to do (but look at the M25 widening saga) and, yes I cannot understand the lack of workers who should be there 24/7. But lower speeds mean that the traffic stays moving and there are less holdups due to fewer accidents. If the speed were not lowered we would still have the selfish, arrogant drivers who think that 70mph allows them to travel at 90 plus! Not only am I happy to see cameras but would like more unmarked police cars to catch speeders and bad drivers hopefully eventually getting them off the road. If all else fails, lift your right foot.
Good news! Whether or not drivers think the 50 mph limit is appropriate is irrelevant - it is the law, and if they break the law they will be punished. The solution is simple - if you do not want to be fined, keep to the limit. Whenever I drive on this stretch, I am irritated by the individuals who believe that they are above the law and storm past at high speed. They get what they deserve.
Are HGV's and articulated Lorries exempt from the 50mph restriction? Whenever, I adere to this painful 50mph restriction, I am always overtaken by big lorries. They seem to rule the roads!
M4 speed cameras are another way of taxing motoring. Safety has little to do with the main reason for installing. I have never known such a long stretch of motorway having to stick to 50MPH. The extra time to people travelling long distances is ridiculous. On the whole traffic management in Wales is ridiculous.
I think every motorway in the country should have vast stretches averaging speed cameras. Whether the limit is 50 or 70 just stick to it. The big metal box you're sat in when travelling at 100mph, is unlikely to protect you when the unexpected occurs. As someone who has lost a loved one due to motorway speeding please think.
As an Welshman living in Essex I do find it a tad embarrassing to see the M4 roadworks still plodding on whilst the M25 is upgrading at lightspeed in comparison.
As usual you have the assembly and camera partnership. Patting each other on the back for another badly managed complete waste of time. The average speed in rush hour was about 50mph before the cameras were installed. They slowed the traffic down to about 25mph due to the fact no one could overtake for fear of being penalised as a criminal. This made wales look like a fool paradise. I was on the M6 several times last year. They managed it much better by removing or moving cameras when small stretches were finished. Not like us idiots who kept them over a large area. They have now been removed completely now. I suspect that this will never happen in wales.
I travel J23 to 26 and back each day. Since the cameras were introduced I get an extra 40 miles from a tankful of diesel in my Astra. It pays to go slower!
Utter incompetence. The roadworks have stretched out for far too long a time. In the rest of Europe, such works would have been completed in months, and with minimal disruption to traffic flow. Certainly not here in Wales. You almost never see any actual workers and it is difficult to see what the point of the exercise is, apart from the WAG spending tonnes of money on yet another ridiculous white elephant. 50mph is utterly inappropriate on a motorway, and these average speed cameras cause more congestion and more accidents. The speed cameras cover areas where there are no roadworks, and are seen by drivers as a cynical scheme to make money and make drivers feel like criminals. Also, it is Newport, not London. We don't need a variable speed limit, the traffic flow is not as heavy as the M25. Yet another example of the WAG spending money to make themselves look more important. Idiots.
There seem to be quite a few people complaining of being hassled and tailgated while "doing the speed limit". It's probably worth noting that all car speedometers overread by anything up to 10%, so you could be doing 46mph and your speedo will say 50. Meanwhile the guy behind is using a GPS unit to get to an actual 50 and their speedo is reading 55. Then they turn the cruise control on. Normally the overreading and the use of cruise control is not a problem on motorways as we have 3 lanes to play with, but when you get everyone crammed into 2 lanes for the Brynglass tunnels, all travelling at a slightly different definition of 50mph and refusing to budge for fear of getting a ticket, it's a recipe for disaster.
"Inadvertent tailgating" - This would be prevented if motorists read the road ahead and didn’t exercise impatience getting too close to the vehicle in front. Bunching is not caused by a slower vehicle or obstruction in front (adhering to the speed restrictions or perhaps going a bit too slow) but by motorists from behind getting too close and not being patient. I have been in many jams along this stretch of the M4 but I keep a distance from the vehicle in front even though I get some bunchers tailgating behind me.
I drive from Magor (J23) to Swansea (J42) everyday and the two areas with constant traffic problems are the 50 limits between J24 - J28 and the Port Talbot Section. There is so much undertaking that occurs in these sections and lorries steaming up behind you sat on their 56mph limit, i forget how many near misses I have seen during the last 6 months there have been that many!
The speed limit on the camera by junction 25A a few weeks ago in the middle of the night during the week, miles from any workers, was 20mph! These roadworks have taken a very very long time, and are STILL not finished, meanwhile motorists have to put up with an unfinished stretch of road plus in recent months all the disruption caused by the Ryder Cup. Like most people have said, a bad joke.
The problem with leaving the correct distance between yourself and the car in front these days is that 3 cars will instantly move into that space. Again, this is especially true on the approach to Brynglass when people who didn't bother to look at the signs suddenly realise that the left lane is exit only.
I'd be happy to slow down when asked, but the speed cameras just make me paranoid that I will inadvertently average over 50 mph and get a fine/points. How much leeway do I have? I find I spend all my time looking at my speedo and not looking at the traffic situation around me! I know this is stupid, but I can't help it!! I want to obey the law AND be safe, but this doesn't seem to be the right way to go about it
We asked you what you thought of speed cameras on this stretch of the M4. Here are a selection of your responses.