The objective of this research is for the results and recommendations to be utilised to enhance speed enforcement strategies in WA, by assisting the WA Police in developing formal business cases for the deployment of enforcement technology (what, where and how) and the purchasing of enforcement technology (number, mix and type). A package of speed enforcement programs was defined for the WA road environment which recognises its relatively unique characteristics of vast size and light traffic density, except in Perth. Evidence of the effects on speeds and road trauma in other jurisdictions due to speed camera systems and manual speed enforcement was reviewed and synthesised to provide strategic understanding of their mechanisms. For some key speed enforcement operations, it was possible to calibrate the road trauma reductions against the operational levels. From this research base, it was possible to define a suitable speed enforcement method for each part of the WA road system and calculate the road trauma reductions and economic benefits if operated at each level. The recommended speed enforcement package, when fully implemented, is estimated to produce 26% reduction in fatal crashes, 12% reduction crashes resulting in hospital admission, and 9% reduction in medically-treated injury crashes. These effects correspond to a reduction of 36 fatal, 210 hospital admission and 357 medically-treated injury crashes per annum. The package is estimated to provide a saving of at least $186 million in social costs per annum. The total cost to produce these savings is estimated to be $18.6 million per annum. Thus the benefit-cost ratio of the package is estimated to be at least 10. The expected fine revenue from speeding motorists detected by the recommended speed enforcement operations, at least in the short term, is estimated to be $204 million per annum. Thus the estimated cost to operate the recommended package would initially be less than 10% of the fine income. In the longer term, the operational cost is not expected to exceed 20% of the expected diminishing fine income as speeding behaviour improves and detected offenders reduce in response to the escalated speed enforcement activity. (Author/publisher)
Abstract