Reviews and Tests Of the Best Speed Trap, Gatso and Radar Detectors in the UK
Updated  10 July 20006

NEW - There are now two new units from Snooper and Blackspot that have combined sat-nav and speed-trap detector capabilites The Snooper Indago and Road Angel Navigator 600 - see here

Free PDA / GPS NAV Speed Trap Sofware here - Don't pay for it on Ebay.

After so many sites with American reviews of detectors that weren't designed to work on British roads. I thought it time to make a definitive review of the best (and the worst) detectors in the UK in 2002.

k and ka bands are the most commonly used in the UK. Both GATSO and hand-held radar work on these bands. Many detectors are based on US models, which means they also detect X band.

This used to be the source of majority of false readings. Fortunately, the latest units allow X band detection to be disabled. Mini GATSO cameras work on Ku band, but their use is not widespread.

Licence endorsements and speeding fines are becoming increasingly likely with police forces around the country being allowed to keep a proportion of speeding fine revenue. Furthermore, camera trigger speeds are being reduced, so each camera will catch more motorists.

The number of cameras is expected to grow over the next couple of years from about 4,000 now to 13,000.

The number of speeding tickets issued is obviously set to increase dramatically. Most motorists will inadvertently be caught in the net. A speeding offence carries a minimum of three penalty points and a £60 fine (with more points/higher fine for 25mph+ over the speed limit). Twelve points usually lead to a period of disqualification.

The upshot of all this is the mobility, freedom and livelihoods of many normal, otherwise-law abiding, people will be affected.

Recent reports have said that Speed trap detectors may become illegal in the UK - this is NOT true.
A Press Release, stated the well publicised Road Safety Bill has been dropped for 2005, The bill was dropped on the 11th April 2005 The Law remains unchanged and GPS and Radar detectors remain 100% legal. Only Laser Jammers remain as illegal. The bill may or may not re-surface in 2006 or may not be heard or progressed even if it does. Even if the bill is progressed in 2006, the process then starts to debate publicly and privately what technologies they intend to ban, with that process expected to take a further 12 months. If agreed, it would then take a further 6 months to become law, so the Department for Transport would not implement any such changes until late 2007, if at all. What did the “Road safety Bill” aim to achieve before being dropped ?

The primary focus of the bill was to ban Laser Jammers, as these units prevent the police getting a speed on your vehicle. They also intend to ban Radar detectors, The latter were proposed for a ban as they can determine which cameras are live and which are not, effectively allowing the user to speed through inactive cameras, working against the reason for having the safety camera installed at that location, “Reducing Speed”.  GPS Speed Camera locators were not under review in the 2005 bill and this was confirmed in writing from the Department for Transport. The government fully understands and accepts the safety benefits of GPS based safety alert systems, as documented in the dropped Road Safety Bill. GPS based detectors warn of areas of danger advising user to reduce speed and be aware of potential danger, which supports perfectly what safety camera aim to achieve.

Cameras should save lives - (From AA and Autocar magazine - 21st August 2002)

According to the AA and Autocar magazine, there are 33 per cent more speed cameras on Britain's safest roads than on the most dangerous stretches of our highways. It would seem that those speed cameras are in place for one primary purpose and that has nothing to do with road safety. It is simply to raise money in the form of fines on drivers.

How much easier it is to achieve this target when the speed cameras are trained on gentle traffic rather than on vehicles that might actually be going along too fast for their own and others' safety.

Full story at BBC News UK (Opens in new window).

In the UK on January 1998 the Queen's Bench Divisional Court stated that radar detectors had in fact never been illegal, contrary to popular folklore and the repeated claims of the police.

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