Do speed cameras work?

Chris Torney,  20 Jul, 2011

Figures that show the effectiveness of speed cameras are being released. But some motorists will get the picture sooner than others.

Drivers will soon be able to decide whether speed cameras in their area are effective after the government ordered local authorities to release data about prosecutions and accident rates at every site in the country.

But residents in certain areas face a wait of months for this information because ministers have not put a deadline on exactly when the statistics should be made available to the public.

Lancashire County Council became the first authority to release speed-camera data on 20 July, but it is not yet clear how quickly other councils will follow suit.

What the government wants

Road safety minister Mike Penning asked all of England’s highways authorities to publish the number of drivers caught and fined at each speed camera location, as well as accident and injury rates before and after the cameras were introduced.

Mr Penning gave a deadline of 20 July for each authority to tell the Department for Transport (DfT) the website address where this information would be published.

But the edict said merely that the authorities should put up the speed camera data information “as soon as practical” rather than setting a strict deadline.

The DfT will then set up its own website providing links to local websites where the public can find speed camera date for their area.  

Public should be informed

At the time, Penning said: “We want to improve accountability and make sure that the public are able to make informed judgements about the decisions made on their behalf.

"So if taxpayers’ money is being spent on speed cameras then it is right that information about their effectiveness is available to the public.

"That is why we want full details of accidents and casualties at camera sites, along with the number of offences arising from each camera, to be easily accessible.

"This will help to show what impact cameras are having on road safety and also how the police are dealing with offenders."

How you can use the information

Even if you don’t live in Lancashire, it is worth looking at what the council there is doing to make the effectiveness of its speed cameras more transparent.

The website gives information on the number of fines issued following speeding offences at each camera site in the county, as well as the numbers of drivers who attended speed-awareness courses or who had their fines cancelled over the course of 2010.

There is also a map of the area with the precise location of cameras marked on: by clicking on each one users can see the number of accidents at the site by year, as well as when the camera was installed.

This allows comparison of accident rates before and after each speed camera came into use.

Speed isn’t the only problem

A new survey has highlighted the fact that slow or over-cautious drivers can also cause problems for other road users.

Research carried out for Confused.com found that half of the UK’s motorists attempt “unsafe” overtaking when stuck behind an excessively slow vehicle. A third say they have had an incident or near miss as a result.

Gareth Kloet, head of car insurance at Confused.com, says: “Slow drivers need to be taken as seriously as motorists caught speeding.

"Our findings confirm they are a constant source of anxiety on UK roads and responsible for a large number of accidents each year.”

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Chris Torney Chris Torney is a regular contributor to Confused.com, and is the personal finance editor at the Daily Express. Chris has been a journalist for more than 10 years on the Daily and Sunday Express, and contributes to a wide range of personal finance and business magazines and websites.

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