Since speed cameras were introduced in Queensland in May 1997 there has been a steady increase in the number of speed camera sites and the number of operational hours. However, infringements have not risen in line with this increase in speed enforcement. Superficially this data suggests that speed cameras are effective in reducing speeding. An alternative interpretation is that motorists are reducing their speed at known camera locations, thus avoiding detection, but still speeding at locations where they do not expect to encounter any speed enforcement. If the infringement to vehicles monitored ratio is a system wide indication of the number of motorists speeding, then a decline in this infringement ratio should be roughly parallelled by a corresponding reduction in speed related crashes. This paper will analyse infringement data, speed camera deployment data and speed related crash data in order to clarify the effects that speed cameras are having on speeding and crashes. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E210298.
Abstract