- Eight average-speed cameras on I-25 now issue $75 fines in Colorado.
- Drivers have 45 days to pay or appeal, with no license points attached.
- CDOT says speeding in the zone already dropped 90% during warnings.
Most speed cameras are beatable by those who know where they are. Even police radar and lidar are avoidable, given a little bit of help from things like detectors. Colorado’s new speed cameras on I-25 have an entirely different methodology, and they’ll catch pretty much everybody who speeds.
Starting Thursday, drivers traveling through the I-25 North Express Lanes construction zone between Mead and Berthoud can now receive a $75 fine based on their average speed over roughly six miles of highway. That makes the state’s latest enforcement effort much harder to game than a traditional radar camera parked on the side of the road.
The new setup uses eight cameras spread along both directions of I-25. Instead of measuring how fast a car is going at one specific point, the system photographs and time-stamps vehicles at multiple locations, then calculates their average speed between them. If that number comes out more than 10 mph above the posted 65 mph limit, the registered owner gets a $75 civil penalty in the mail.
In other words, slowing to 65 mph for a few hundred feet before each camera and then hammering back up to 85 mph will not save you. To avoid a ticket, you have to keep your speed down through the entire work zone…