Average-speed cameras: boost for road safety or a total waste of money?

Published on Sunday 23 March 2008 21:28

MOTORISTS could face a massive increase in the use of average-speed cameras in Scotland's towns and cities, The Scotsman can reveal. Ministers are considering putting up more cameras that measure speed over set distances, in a huge expansion of the surveillance network on the nation's roads.

The average-speed cameras, which record vehicle number plates and the time at each end of a speed-check area, would prevent motorists from "camera surfing" – braking sharply just before a camera and then accelerating away after passing it.

The average-speed devices have already proved effective at enforcing speed limits at roadworks and have been used to police 20mph residential zones in several English cities.

Now Stewart Stevenson, Scotland's transport minister, has floated the idea of extending their use to tackle speeding.

The idea has been welcomed by road safety campaigners but has infuriated motoring groups.

There are concerns about the cost of installing networks of cameras, and whether drivers could evade them. And a study last summer showed the average speed of vehicles going through Edinburgh was just 18.5mph; in Glasgow it was 19mph.

But Mr Stevenson believes average-speed cameras could help cut pedestrian casualties, after road deaths increased by 10 per cent in 2006: there are, as yet, no figures for last year.

The minister also pointed to Swedish research, presented to him last week, showing that most pedestrians hit by vehicles at 60km/h (37mph) are killed.

He has been impressed by a significant reduction in speeding and accidents on a 29-mile stretch of the A77 in Ayrshire since average-speed cameras were introduced in 2005, in what is Britain's longest speed trap.

Since then, the cameras have also been used at major roadworks, such as on the Edinburgh city by-pass, the A90 east of Perth and the M8 in Glasgow.

Road safety chiefs have called for them to be installed permanently on the A1 between Edinburgh and the Border, while the Forth Estuary Transport Authority is considering them for the Forth Road Bridge.

Mr Stevenson said: "The public has an overwhelming wish to cut undesirable speed, so that should be a focus.

"This could be increasingly through the use of average-speed cameras, which have been pretty successful on the A77 and at roadworks sites. I think they could have a role quite widely. They certainly seem to be one of the more effective interventions."

Brake, the road safety charity, backed the use of more average-speed cameras to catch offenders and promote safer driving. A spokeswoman said: "

While current speed cameras have proven effective in reducing the number of people killed and injured on roads, some drivers still persist in putting others in danger by slamming on the brakes when they see a camera, then speeding up once they've gone past.

"Speeding is a dangerous offence, which puts other road users at risk, and these cameras should help to encourage drivers to maintain a consistent, safe speed within the limit."

Scotland's police chiefs were also generally supportive. John Vine, Chief Constable of Tayside and chairman of road policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, said: "We would welcome anything that reduces deaths and serious injuries in urban environments."

Willie Wills, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "I am pleased to hear that the minister is considering every avenue to address road safety issues, including average-speed cameras in built-up areas.

"The installation of these devices is not without technical challenges, but it is well established that they are successful in reducing speeds and also accidents and casualties. Approximately two-thirds of all crashes in which people are killed or injured happen on roads with a speed limit of 30mph or less.

"Reducing the average running speed of vehicles by just 1mph would reduce the number of accidents by 5 per cent.

"It is to be hoped that public support for the installation of these devices at sites that are recognised to need compliance with the speed limits will see them deterring excessive speed rather than detecting large numbers of offenders."

However, motoring groups saw no merit in the move.

Neil Greig, a director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists' Motoring Trust, said: "I would rather see good road design to reduce speeding in urban areas, such as blocking off the ends of streets and traffic calming measures, rather than have to use speed cameras. Drivers would find the widespread use of cameras intrusive."

Bruce Young, of the Association of British Drivers, said: "Average-speed cameras are useful in regulating stretches of road where it is important to, for instance, protect road repair workers. This usefulness is restricted, however, to that part of the day when the workers are working – yet we see no evidence of these cameras being deactivated at other times. The conclusion has to be that their main attraction is to fine drivers on the technicality of the rigid enforcement of the limit."

Mark McArthur-Christie, the director of policy for Forward, a transport think tank, said: "Normal speed cameras divert drivers' attention from the road ahead to their speedometers. Urban average-speed cameras are much more dangerous. They will turn drivers into speedo- focused cruise missiles, watching the clock permanently rather than watching the road – just where there are most hazards."

In England, average-speed cameras have improved safety on roads in Nottingham, and been introduced to deter rat-runners in Gloucester.

In the latest trial, in Camden, north London, speeding in a 20mph zone has been cut – although no fines have been issued as the scheme involves new cameras, which are still awaiting Home Office approval.

Kristy Marshall, from Transport for London, which is taking part in the trial, said: "We are following the development of this technology closely as we believe these new cameras could, in time, replace speed humps."

AVERAGE-SPEED CAMERAS CUT ACCIDENTS BY HALF ON A77

SCOTLAND'S first average-speed cameras were installed on the A77 in Ayrshire in August 2005.

The 775,000 speed enforcement camera system (Specs) uses 15 linked cameras to track vehicles over stretches of a 29-mile section of the route between Symington and Girvan.

The cameras time a car's journey between two points, recording vehicles that are found to have broken the speed limit.

Although initially resisted by motoring groups, the cameras have proved invaluable in cutting accidents on the Glasgow-Stranraer route.

Figures released by the A77 Safety Group last year show that deaths and serious injuries on the road have fallen by half since the average-speed cameras were installed.

The annual number of deaths on the route fell from four to two after the cameras were introduced, with serious injuries dropping from 17 to nine per year. There was also a one-third reduction in the total number of people injured.

Separate speed-monitoring equipment showed the number of drivers breaking the speed limit on dual-carriageway sections of the A77 covered by Specs has fallen by 87 per cent. Speeding on single carriageways was cut by 78 per cent.

The A77 is the longest section of road in Britain to be covered by Specs.

Following the success of the A77 project, average-speed cameras have been used temporarily on a number of sites across Scotland's road network and can be currently found on the Edinburgh city bypass enforcing a 40mph speed limit next to where the Dalkeith bypass is being built.