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More than 1,000 motorists a week are being caught speeding on the UK's smart motorways, police figures suggest.
Last year, 52,516 fixed penalties were issued on 11 smart sections, including on stretches of the M1, M25 and M6.
This compared to 2,023 on the same stretches in 2010-11, before they were upgraded to smart motorways - which use the hard shoulder and variable speed limits to control traffic flow.
The government says they are used to improve capacity, not generate revenue.
Smart motorways are operated by Highways England, which uses overhead gantries - also containing speed cameras - to direct traffic into open lanes and change speed limits depending on the volume of traffic.
Ticket revenue has increased tenfold over 5 years. Have British drivers experienced the "improved capacity" that the government uses to justify the smart highways?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday November 07 2016, @11:39PM
Before motorways were 3 lanes plus a shoulder
Now they are 4 lanes but no shoulder
Obviously there's more capacity. It's been done on the cheap, but it does increase capacity (at the expense of safety)
The speed limits also help moderate the flow and prevent bunching. In my experience when the signs are on it's impossible to go that fast anyway. From the detailed stats it looks like once the limits have been in place and people are used to them very few get caught.
The issue comes when they enforce the 70 limit, but again in my experience I've done 90 plus through them when there's no limit and not been caught, so I don't see the problem.