Fixed speed cameras
Roadside enclosures that measure your speed at a single point. They're visible on purpose: deterrence is a stated part of their function.
Most fixed cameras use either microwave radar (the classic "speed gun" technology, typically Ka-band) or twin induction loops in the asphalt. A flash unit captures a still photograph, and many cabinets run two photos a fixed distance apart so the speed can be re-derived from the photographed background. Modern installations increasingly use infrared flash, which is invisible to the naked eye, and high-resolution cameras that work in daylight without any flash at all.
— Manufacturers and product families you'll see named in the press: Gatsometer (the Dutch firm that gave the British nickname "Gatso" to almost every speed camera), Vitronic Poliscan, Jenoptik / Robot, Truvelo D-cam, MultaRadar.
Mobile and handheld cameras
The same speed-measurement physics, but operated by the police rather than installed on the road.
A mobile camera can be a tripod-mounted radar/LiDAR unit at the roadside, a uniformed officer with a handheld laser, or an unmarked patrol car with a forward- or rear-facing camera. Mobile enforcement is unpredictable by design — there's no installation to map, and locations rotate. Reputable speed-camera databases do not attempt to publish every mobile patrol; what they cover is the fixed infrastructure that can be professionally curated.
Average-speed cameras (SPECS, Tutor, Section Control)
A pair (or chain) of cameras enforces the limit across a stretch of road, not at a single point.
Two ANPR cameras read your number plate at entry and exit and record the time stamps. Distance ÷ time gives your average speed across the section. Because the enforcement is over the whole stretch — typically 1 to 30 km — braking sharply just before the second camera makes no difference: the average has already been set by the kilometres before. This makes average-speed enforcement particularly effective for motorways, long roadworks and tunnels.
— Brand names you'll see: SPECS in the United Kingdom, Tutor on Italy's Autostrade, Tronçon / radar tronçon in France, Section Control in Austria and (formerly) Germany. The underlying technology is the same.
Germany ran a Section Control pilot on the B6 near Hannover that was suspended in 2024; the technology itself remains widely used in neighbouring countries.
Red-light cameras
Catch drivers who enter an intersection after the signal has turned red.
Triggering is by induction loop (a current pulse fires when a vehicle crosses the stop line on red) or by video analytics (the camera "sees" the light state and the vehicle position). Two photos are usually captured to establish that the vehicle moved through the intersection rather than just stopped on the line. Red-light enforcement does not normally measure speed.
Combined speed + red-light cameras
One device, two enforcement modes — used at junctions where both speed and signal compliance matter.
On a green or amber light the device functions as a fixed speed camera. On red, the same hardware photographs vehicles entering against the signal. These cabinets are common at high-risk urban intersections.
ANPR cameras
Cameras that read your number plate as you pass, in real time.
ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) is the foundation of average-speed enforcement, but it's also used independently for many other purposes: toll collection, low-emission-zone enforcement, congestion charging, bus-lane enforcement, parking management, and police vehicle-of-interest checks. An ANPR camera by itself does not measure your speed — it measures *who* you are.
Danger zones (France)
Not a camera — a legally-required way of representing them.
A 2011 French law (LOPPSI 2) prohibits navigation devices and apps from indicating exact radar locations to the driver. Manufacturers responded by replacing point-locations with wider "zones de danger" that span several hundred metres to a few kilometres around each enforcement point. Compliant apps in France — including ours — show only the zone, not the camera. The driver still gets the safety benefit of being on heightened attention through the zone, while the law is respected.
Less common types
You'll meet these occasionally — they're usually not what people mean by "speed camera".
Bus lane cameras (enforce dedicated-lane restrictions), weight-check cameras (commercial vehicles), height-restriction cameras (tunnels and bridges), no-overtaking cameras (specific motorway segments), and stationary police checkpoints. Most do not measure speed; some do not photograph at all and just trigger an alarm for an officer downstream.
