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Assumed I am in a train or car (only co-driver!) with high speeds. Can I catch Pokémon anyway although my environment passes very quickly?

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    Catching Pokemon, yes. But I believe that while your character is "running", you are not accruing steps to hatch an egg. That has to be walking speed.
    – Zach Thacker
    Jul 7, 2016 at 15:33

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Yes this is possible, after tapping the Pokémon, your movement speed does not affect the catching period.

I have been catching them during hi-speed train travels myself without any problems so far.

update

Since the last update, Pokémon spawn rates during high speed travel have been reduced significantly. This to prevent people from playing and driving. The limit seems to be somewhere between 60 and 70 Km/h. During travels between 15 Km/h and 60 Km/h a reduced catch rate is observed as well, in combination with a higher escape rate.

TL;DR: It is still possible to catch Pokémon while moving fast, up till certain speeds, and with reduced efficiency.

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  • Also, be sure to turn off the AR camera, it will help make sure the Pokemon doesn't get "lost" on your view if the train/car/etc turns.
    – Doktor J
    Jul 7, 2016 at 16:17
  • Small note, I did notice that after the latest maintenance, the catch rates during high speed travel seems to be lower than usual.
    – Dimitri mx
    Jul 8, 2016 at 7:52
  • Was just playing during a road trip. During highway travel (80 mph) I could engage the pokemon, but the catch rate definitely seemed to decrease. And by catch rate I mean: I would hit it with a poke ball, but it wouldn't stay captured and usually escaped the battle immediately afterward.
    – Chris
    Jul 10, 2016 at 16:43
  • if i walk away while catching... is the walking distance still being calculated?
    – lois6b
    Jul 20, 2016 at 11:46
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    In addition, if you time it right and the game doesn't glitch out on you, you can collect from Pokéstops while traveling at high speeds. I usually click one I'm coming up on and try to spin it til I've passed it.
    – Kimbluey
    Jul 21, 2016 at 21:48
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Yes, if you tap the pokemon it doesn't matter if you are a long distance away. I do it myself during public transport.

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I noticed a huge decrease in catch rate. I used an incense on the highway traveling 100kmh. I encountered 28 pokemon and only caught 8. Most ran away after the first poke ball.

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In Ingress there is a speed limit for particular actions. To be able to hack or attack a portal, or place a resonator onto a portal you'll have to move at maximum around 25-30 km/h and to collect energy you'll have to move at maximum around 70-80 km/h. I'm pretty sure that Niantic will limit speed in Pokemon GO, too.

Also in Ingress turning off and on GPS is considered as cheating. My guess is that this would be checked in Pokemon Go, too.

If they haven't set controls for these limitations yet, they most probably will do it in near future.

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  • But will you get banned for turning GPS off and on? What if you just "lost connection"? Can they detect it if you do it intentionally?
    – Gigala
    Jul 7, 2016 at 12:56
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    @Gigala I'm not sure if they can catch you doing it but if you think about it seriously you would come to the conclusion that it is cheating. The rest depends on your personality traits. Here is an old technical post about ways of increasing the GPS tracking ability from the early days of Ingress : gaming.stackexchange.com/a/182513/82644
    – Montag451
    Jul 7, 2016 at 13:57
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    @Gigala: I have personally observed people being banned from Ingress for doing this. They look for a pattern of behavior. You'll get "softlocked" (unable to interact with the game for 20 minutes to a couple a hours) if it only happens a little, but if you make a habit of it, expect your account to be deleted.
    – Conspicuous Compiler
    Jul 7, 2016 at 20:44
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    All they need to do is look at the points where you lose connection. If you always "lose connection" right before trying to do something, like catch a pokemon, or fight at a gym, and it simply stays there until things are done, and magically returns with no interruption for long periods, then that's a red flag. If your connection loss is tied to things you do instead of location, then they'll ban you. Connection loss should be consistent based on location, and real connection issues don't care about your Pokemon Go.
    – Nelson
    Jul 8, 2016 at 4:06
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    Yes what about People living in e.g. Switzerland who are often in tunnels (ro racism :D )?
    – h0ch5tr4355
    Jul 8, 2016 at 10:50
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Past a certain speed, your radar won't be able to detect nearby Pokemons as effectively (or at all). For me, detecting Pokemons worked well in slow public transport such as city buses, but stopped for regional trains for example, except when the train was slowing down and approaching a station.

However, once a Pokemon is detected and the fight is started, you can catch it independently from the speed.

Also note that Egg Hatching will generally not work inside a public transport, since it uses a combination of GPS and pedometer to calculate the distance you've walked (so it will notice that you are not actually walking).

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    Please do not make comments in an answer.
    – aytimothy
    Jul 10, 2016 at 16:57
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Yes, you can still catch pokemon while on a freeway, but I only managed to catch 1/2 of them. The best way to get a Pokemon on a road is on a slow city bus. I got about 6-10 Pokemons while being on a bus for about 1 hour.

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Last weekend, 9/3/16, I went on a two hour road trip. My husband was driving. When we were going about 70 mph I was able to engage pokemon, but after catching in a pokeball, 9 out of 9 escaped and ran away. I use to be able to catch them when we went on this trip, but since every one ran away, I don't think you can anymore.

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  • No, you are still able to, I do this on the way to work daily. You just suffered from terrible RNG.
    – Vemonus
    Sep 10, 2016 at 15:37
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I do believe now from the newest update even if you do find Pokémons while driving at high speeds they will run away after the first pokeball that has hit it

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