Speed Cameras... Seriously what's the deal??

So family and I drove up to Scotland for the holidays... 7 hours to a nice cabin near the Cairngorms.  During the drive I was driving between 70-72 on the roadway given all the speed camera signs.  But I can easily tell that the majority of vehicles were going 80 if not faster, especially north of Birmingham. 

So at what point will a speed camera cut over and give you a ticket?  And is it the registered owner of the vehicle that will get the ticket?

Super confused why there are speed cameras if everybody flatly ignores the speed limit.

I've been caught twice in the same road by speed cameras in a van. I was doing 36 in a 30mph. Had to attend a speeding course twice and that allowed me to not get any penalty points. Sometimes the speed cameras aren't working so people don't get caught.

Generally, they give you a leeway of 10% of the speed limit plus 2.

So, in a 30mph zone, you can go 35mph without being caught, but 36 mph gives you a speeding ticket.

On a motorway or dual carriageway (70mph), you could go up to 79 mph without the camera flashing.

Also, the speedometer in a carsis usually adjusted for this and generally reads up to 5mph faster than you're actually going. So, it could be that the people you see going 80mph are actually reading 79 mph or below according to the speed cameras.

I've been caught speeding once (mobile camera in a van) - for going 36mph in a 30 mph zone... but the speedometer in my car actually read 40 mph at that time!

If you are caught speeding, the ticket/fine/notice will be sent to the registered owner of the car, though I assume if you were driving, but you aren't the registered owner, you need to declare that it was you, so that the points go on your licence and not on theirs.

There's a lot of good information here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/advice/the-truth-about-speeding-fines/

The article says (and I've heard from other people) there's a little leeway in the point at which the camera triggers. In a 70mph zone (a motorway, for example) you'd get up to 79mph before you'd get a ticket. That's just guidance, but it makes sense that they wouldn't send out a ticket for everybody going 71.

Then there's the question of whether or not the cameras are on/working. The M25 around London has cameras all over it, but a cab driver once showed me how his camera detector wasn't going off at all because the cameras aren't in use.

(x-posted with ksand)

A lot of cameras around my area on the motorways are variable speed cameras too.  So it takes your average speed over the length of motorway you've travelled.   

Up here in Scotland we have more and more variable speed cameras on our roads, not just on the motorways. they time how long it takes you to go from camera to camera and calculate your speed. If you were above the speed limit they then issue you a fine..  Its seems more effective than the old speed cameras. Of course if you never go above the speed limit then you don't have to worry 

AFAIK it's a criminal offence to take points on behalf of someone else. So if you lend out your car and get a ticket you must tell them who was driving. A recent politician and his wife made this mistake.

The speedo in my car is almost 10% off, I think by design as I have the correct size of tires. If the speed limit is 70, and the camera doesn't trigger until 79, then my speedo would have to read about 85 before I got a ticket.

To check set up a GPS unit (e.g. Garmin) in your car and compare what it says the speed is with your car's speedo.

Thanks all.  Those Telegraph posts really helped.
Just need 2 years with less than 6 points   That's all...  miss the days of getting a DL by just driving around a parking lot and backing up in a straight line.