> there are barely any speed cameras in the UK (compared to other European countries) and yet almost everyone drives under the limitAs a UK resident who spends a lot of time in France and Italy this statement really surprised me, and really isn't my experience. I had to read it twice as I assumed you meant the opposite
I recently drove from Brighton to Glasgow vis Nottingham. I'd easily passed through 10 before I reached the M25 south of London, including one on the street I lived on. The M25 itself easily had 10 possibly way more. The M1 must have had another 10 or so. I passed through about 5 or so driving through Nottingham. Similarly there about 5 before I hit the A1 which now has dozens. There were 3 or 4 on the A66 and even the M74 and M8 have cameras now. I keep Apple Maps on the whole journey even though I don't need it, specifically to beep and warn me when I'm approaching one.
I can't recall seeing cameras in France, but I'm sure they are there somewhere, plus I rarely drive through the large cities. I've never seen one in Italy, but maybe I don't know what they look like and I tend to drive the same routes. I have seen the police at the side of the road with a handheld radar.
Are we maybe driving different parts of Europe?
A quick check (after writing most of this) gave me this graph which, as a non-member, I can't see the sources for, but looks believable.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1201490/speed-cameras-pe...
Which, ignoring Russia, has Italy #1 and the UK #2. So, clearly, I'm not driving the parts of Italy with lots of cameras, but the UK has more cameras than most European countries.
> yet almost everyone drives under the limit
Is also something I haven't observed. We have 'boy racers' shooting up and down our street, the M25 has giant expensive cars aggressively pulling up behind you and flashing their lights and driving through speed camera without a care (or weaving through traffic by undertaking). The right-hand lane of most motorways is people driving 90-100 mph when they can. My experience is that it's congestion, not British good manners that keep people under the speed limit. On the M11 which, last I checked, was still camera free, the fast lane was people driving at 100mph. The 6 lanes on the A1(M) between Huntington and Peterborough was even faster. I recently got an early-morning Taxi from Brighton to Heathrow, and the taxi driver drove at 125mph between cameras.