New speed cameras for 24 sites across Scotland

Extra enforcement part of new plans to cut Scottish road deaths and serious injuries to zero by 2050
One third of the new sites will have fixed speed cameras. Picture: Neil HannaOne third of the new sites will have fixed speed cameras. Picture: Neil Hanna
One third of the new sites will have fixed speed cameras. Picture: Neil Hanna

A total of 24 locations for new speed cameras across Scotland were announced today by transport secretary Michael Matheson.

They include two new average speed camera zones, where vehicle speeds are measured over set distances.

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Mobile speed camera vans will cover 14 of the sites, with the remaining eight featuring fixed cameras.

14 of the sites will be operated by mobile speed camera vans. Picture: JPIMedia14 of the sites will be operated by mobile speed camera vans. Picture: JPIMedia
14 of the sites will be operated by mobile speed camera vans. Picture: JPIMedia

They are part of a £675,000 scheme to cut deaths and injuries.

Average speed cameras will be deployed at:

Auchinairn Road in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire

Parkhouse Road, Nitshill, Glasgow

The new fixed cameras will be at:

Camelon Road, Arnothill, Falkirk

A944 eastbound at Kingswells, Aberdeen

Great Western Road westbound, near Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow

Fenwick Road, Giffnock, East Renfrewshire

Nitshill Road northbound, Nitshill, Glasgow

Main Road, Cardross, West Dunbartonshire

Crookston Road northbound, Rosshall, Glasgow

Dubbs Road, Mid Auchinleck, Port Glasgow

Mobile cameras will cover:

Links Road, Port Seton, East Lothian

Largo Road, Leven, Fife

A96 at Bainshole, Aberdeenshire

A835 north of Morefield, near Ullapool, Highland

B9128 at Crombie Crossroads, Angus

B987 at Northern Road, Kintore, Aberdeenshire

B977 at Old Aberdeen Road, Balmedie, Aberdeenshire

A930 at Dalhousie/Monifieth Road, Broughty Ferry

A832 at Station/Toll Road, Avoch, Highland

A96 west of Brodie, Moray

Springfield Road, Celtic Park, Glasgow

A72 on Carlisle Road, Ferniegair/Allanton, near Hamilton

Edgefauld Road, Petershill, Glasgow

Newton Street, Greenock.

The cameras will join nearly 600 speed and red light camera sites in Scotland.

They include average speed cameras on the A9 between Inverness and Dunblane, the A90 between Stonehaven and Dundee, the A77 in Ayrshire and the A82/5 between Tyndrum and Lix Toll.

The new cameras were announced as part of the Scottish Government’s new Road Safety Framework to 2030 which sets a new target of zero road deaths and serious injuries by 2050.

There are also interim targets for the figures to be halved by 2030 compared to 2014-18.

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Last year, 168 people were killed, seven more than in 2018, after the total dipped to a new low of 145 in 2017.

However, the 2019 figure is half the total in 2003, and less than one third of the 1990 total, of 546.

Proven

Mr Matheson said: “Road deaths are not an inevitability. We believe they are preventable. Our ambition for Vision Zero by 2050 is achievable.”

On cameras, he said: "An exercise has been completed to identify new sites that would benefit from safety camera enforcement.

"Our investment of £675,000 will improve speed limit compliance, encourage better driver behaviour and reduce the numbers of people killed or seriously injured across the road network.”

The Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency said cameras were “proven to improve road safety by encouraging improved driver behaviour and speed limit compliance.

"This ultimately leads to fewer people being killed or injured on Scotland’s roads.

"Other benefits which safety cameras can deliver include reduced incident frequency and impact, and improved journey time reliability.”

Flatlining

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The IAM RoadSmart motoring group said the cameras were a “small but important start” towards the 2050 zero deaths taget.

Neil Greig, its Scotland-based policy and research director, said: “Average speed cameras tend to be a more effective tool but there is still a role for a site-by-site approach if speeding has been identified as the main problem at a location.

"Changing entrenched human behaviour will always be the key challenge.

“With flatlining in road death, drink drive and speeding statistics for almost a decade, real progress is still some way off.”

Stuart Hay, director of Living Streets Scotland, which campaigns for pedestrians, said: ”People have become immune to the daily toll of tragedy on our roads. It’s time that reducing road casualties is treated as a health emergency.”

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