Hundreds of high-tech cameras that monitor motorists’ average speed are set to be introduced as Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, admitted that the traditional fixed Gatso and Truvelo cameras were seen as “arbitrary” and “unfair”.

Hoon became the first senior minister to concede that speed traps were a source of resentment among drivers. In an interview with The Sunday Times he indicated that many so-called “spot” cameras, which measure speed at a fixed point, could be replaced by the new average-speed cameras, which he claims are fairer and encourage safer driving.

“Spot speed cameras are seen by some people as unfair because when you are driving along you perhaps don’t notice your speed,” Hoon said.

“What is interesting about average-speed cameras is that [limits] are largely observed by motorists.”

In other controversial moves, Hoon said he was considering reducing the drink-drive limit and giving the police powers to issue tougher fixed penalty notices to motorists travelling at dangerous speeds.

However, the 54-year-old MP for Ashfield, in Nottingham-shire, is no car-hater. Indeed, he proudly admits that he covers 15,000 miles a year in his Ford Galaxy people carrier. “I am an enthusiastic motorist. I enjoy driving,” he said. “I know most people enjoy driving.”

Hoon even confessed to having once had penalty points on his licence for speeding: “I was doing 42mph on a country road that at the time was a 30mph limit.” He revealed that a few months later the local council raised the maximum speed on the road to 40mph. “I still have a sense of resentment,” he said.

It is, however, his love affair with flying that threatens to land him in political trouble. In the next few weeks Hoon will announce whether Heathrow can build a third runway.

The project could create thousands of jobs and ensure that London’s largest airport remains a competitive global hub. But the extra aircraft noise will blight the lives of millions of families in London and the Thames valley who live under the flight path. Rebellion is stirring both on the Labour back benches and in the cabinet.

Hoon was careful to say that he has yet to reach a final decision but it was clear which way he was leaning. “The economics are important. If we don’t allow a hub airport to develop, British jobs will be exported to Schiphol [in Amsterdam] or to Paris,” he said.

Hoon said airport expansion was generally popular and “democratic”. He added: “Ordinary people can afford to travel by plane to a whole range of destinations. We don’t want to go back to the days when only wealthy people could travel.”

Hoon is a politician who has survived as many incarnations as a time lord. Indeed, as a junior minister in Tony Blair’s first government he was dubbed “Geoff Who”, for his ability to rise through the ranks without creating a ripple.

That changed in 2003, when as defence secretary during the Iraq war he was pilloried by the antiwar left as Britain’s answer to Donald Rumsfeld, his American opposite number. He survived the ordeal of the Hutton inquiry into the death of David Kelly, the government weapons inspector, and acquired a new persona as the avuncular elder statesman, first as Commons leader and then, under Gordon Brown, as chief whip.

The appointment of the car-mad Hoon – his family has three: the Galaxy, a purple Mini that he bought his wife for her 50th birthday and his ministerial Toyota Prius hybrid – may prove to be a shrewd move by Brown, a nondriver because of his blindness in one eye.

The next general election will be won with the votes of suburban men and women who commute up and down the trunk roads of the Midlands and the north. Instinctively, Hoon understands their gripes. He believes that traffic wardens should exercise more common sense. “I understand the irritation that people feel,” he said.

He is also concerned that normally conscientious drivers who are caught speeding just over the limit should not be persecuted. “What we are really after are the people who seriously abuse the rules,” he said.

However, he is resisting the populist urge to review the national speed limit. He knows that by raising the motorway limit to 80mph he would be hailed as a hero in the pubs of Britain. But perhaps he also knows it is a battle he would lose to Whitehall’s green lobby.

Nevertheless, Hoon recognises the resentment that motorists feel towards “arbitrary” Gatsos and regards average-speed cameras as the way forward. Many motorists will have encountered them on motorways where there are roadworks. Hoon is among their number. “There is an area between my home and my constituency where they are widening the M1 and there are average-speed cameras,” he said.

“It reduces fuel consumption. By encouraging that smoother flow of traffic you are getting greater reliability.”

However, Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: “Doing 80mph on a clear motorway a safe distance from the car in front is perfectly okay. The danger is these cameras could encourage bunching and ‘tailgating’.”

While the positioning of any new cameras will be decided by local partnerships, Hoon’s remarks are expected to lead to action, with the speed traps becoming more widespread.

Hoon is also set to reopen the debate on drink-driving by consulting on whether the limit should be cut from the current 80mg per 100ml of blood to the European average of 50mg – less than a pint of beer.

He recognised that the debate was finely balanced: “The anxiety is not about people who are marginally above the limit. Most of the really terrible accidents that involve drink-driving involve people who are several times above the limit.”

Reducing the limit, however, might help the government to press home the point that it is wrong to drink and drive: “Is there any help in getting that message across by reducing the limit? I am completely open-minded.”

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