Flashed while going with 56 km/h

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Last night I was caught by a speed camera in Zurich, it was 2 quick flashes.

The speed limit was 50 and it was 56 on my speedometer. It'll be a 40 chf fine in the end.

So my question is about tolerances. I thought my car has an offset of 4km/h and the speed tolerance was 3km/h, so the flash was somewhat surprising.

Anybody has any information about this?

Ps: I wasn't trying to go on the borderline speed, it was a mistake.

2
Dont worry! It'll be more like 120 chf..

3
Flashed by a camera? Consider yourself lucky

4
I don't drive in Switzerland but in the UK, the tolerance is 10% above the speed limit, so by UK standards, you're over. My car ran at 2-3km/h above the GPS speed so I stuck to within 10% over according to the GPS.

5
It’s really unlikely that you would have managed to spot the flashes and your exact speed at the same time and more likely that you spotted the flashes and immediately slowed while looking at your speedo (speed instrument, not budgie smuggler!)

So trying to calculate offsets, tolerances and exact speed is pointless. You will find out soon enough exactly what speed you were traveling, but based on what you said it’s unlikely to be too hefty.

6
4 km/h difference on 50 is 8%, which would be quite a lot. It's probably only 1-2 km/h.

7
Most cars that I've measured have a margin of around +7%

In some cars it's possible to see the actual sensor reading, which confirms that the overreading is deliberate, being added to the reading from the sensor for what's displayed on the speedo.

8

This is a common misunderstanding: You dont get some tolerance to drive 10% faster... that tolerance is a measurment tolerance - because speed traps arent 100% correct, especially the older mobile ones. In other words: If you got a badly set up camera should you not get fined when driving up to the speed limit... so there are a few km/h tolerance added. In CH its very little and getting a ticket for being 1 km too fast is pretty common.

9
I had it similar: 50 limit, I drove 55, buffer was 3 kmh, hence excess 2 kmh. Fine: 40 CHF.

10
Legally a passenger cars speedometer can show anything from true speed up to true speed + 10% + 4km/h. It must never under read.

UNECE Vehcles Regulation No. 36 https://www.unece.org/trans/main/wp2...regs21-40.html and also Swiss VTS Art. 55 https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...index.html#a55

How a particular cars speedometer behaves depends on manufacture setting, tolerances, remaining thread depth, and actual wheel diameter. In some instance it can be in the lower permissible end in some other in the upper end. Check against a GPS on a flat/straight stretch without much obstruction of high buildings, trees, or nearby rockface at various constant speeds as the GPS speed measurement is pretty accurate in such situations.

More importantly, the tolerance of the speed camera is a measurement tolerance to compensate inaccuracies and setup errors. It can be in your favor but better do not bet on it. In the worst case the applicable speed after deducting the tolerance is the true speed. After deduction of the tolerance the applicable speed must be the true speed or less. Although, in reality the speed cameras are set up pretty accurately and thus the measurement tolerance becomes a de facto discount.

Finally, some cameras flash when the measurement is over the legal speed limit. Tolerances will be deducted afterwards by a human, if you are under you will never get a letter. Some other cameras will only flash when the measured speed after deduction of the tolerance is above the legal speed limit.

In conclusion: No fine, CHF 40, or CHF 120 is all possible.

11
Hi all, thank you for your responses. I will update here once or if I receive the fine.

12
I was told by someone who lives in the UK that this is no longer the case. It's now zero tolerance.

13
It was never defined in law anyway, just a police (ACPO) guideline for prosecution, and it used to be +10%+2mph (or was it3?). This was removed in 2011 due to advances in accuracy of speed measurement technology. But zero tolerance is not actually applied - cameras are still set to slightly more than the limit, but now it's not published just how much this margin is set at. Officer's discretion is encouraged, so a couple of mph over the limit is extremely unlikely to be prosecuted without exacerbating circumstances (like mouthing off to the police if you're pulled over).

14
another common misunderstanding is cars tachometers accuracy also vary depending on cruising speed, the deviation at 50 km/h and at 100 km/ is quite different. So better keep it always under 50 km/h in the city. A bit more relax on the highway. It is not fully accurate but you can also measure this with GPS and car's tacho when it is analogue.

15
Presumably you mean speedo (tachometer in English is the rev counter), but in fact that's unlikely to be true; since the 'error' is deliberately added by the car's software it's usually exactly the same percentage regardless of speed. For anything built in the last thirty years or so, anyway.

16
oh yeah, right, speedo ! Sorry I had too much german

i think it is not exactly the same, once I read about it, Car manufacturers calibrate the error max +10% (but never less) between 25 - 75 mph (approx 40 - 120 km/h)

Above 75 mph, the error would be even higher. It may mostly depend on tyres, transmission friction, wind etc..

My personal experience, I used to have navi with speedo in my first years in CH , my readings from speedo and navi for 30 and 100 km/h were not the same...

While around 30 km/h was almost correct, for 100km/h in navi, I used to see 109-110 in speedo

the question i have now is, what if Navi is also not fully accurate =??

17
So if anybody is wondering the result, it was a 40 CHF fine in the end. After the tolerance was deducted the speed is 51km/h, which is 1 above the limit.

18
Not too bad then, and at least, unlike in the UK, you won't get an endorsement on your licence.

Concerning the accuracy of speedometers, someone once told me if you put on larger / respectively smaller, tyres, this can also affect the accuracy of your speedometer. I don't know if this is true or not??

19

20
Someone once told you correctly. If you swap to wheels which are a different size (not rim but absolute size) to what your vehicle was originally calibrated, it will show inaccurate speeds on the speedometer. Most car manuals will have this as a footnote for tyre sizes mentioning something along the lines of "To guarantee a correct speed display, the electronic speedometer must be reprogrammed."

Then on the minor scale, a worn set of tyres will show a higher speed than a new set.