In an interview in the Cambridge News 1, the police have admitted that drivers are being caught ‘speeding’ because the speed limit doesn't match the road layout. 50,000 speeding fines are being issued in Cambridge each year and 1,900 drivers are offered a ‘speed awareness course’ for driving safely.
 
ABD Spokesman and former traffic police officer Keith Peat said:

“If ‘speeding’ causes accidents, then where are Cambridge's 50,000 crashes a year?
What many of these 50,000 drivers are showing is that the speed limits are too low. Inspector Hale admits that people have been getting caught out by the fact that the road layout makes a higher speed limit seem appropriate. If he is aware of that, then it is wrong to set up cameras at these places and trap people. The speed limits should be raised in line with the ‘85th Percentile’ rule 2 or the signage improved.”

The ABD have been aware of the effect of unintentional speeding caused by inviting road layouts for some time and have been experimenting with a driver's database to register these locations in advance of prosecution. Now that we have an admission of this 'entrapment' effect by a senior traffic officer, we are ready to trial it with the general public. Magistrates should be made aware of these layout issues in speeding cases, the best evidence of a layout problem is of course the number of drivers being prosecuted at the same location. It is simply wrong to target these areas and prosecute people if the layout and speed limit do not match, especially if there are no other means to remind a driver of a limit.