Average-speed camera use doubles in three years

THE number of British roads now covered by permanent average-speed cameras has more than doubled in three years, figures show.

Fifty-one stretches of road now feature the cameras, with 12 systems installed last year alone.

Covering 263 miles in total, the distances covered by average-speed cameras range from a quarter of a mile, over Tower Bridge in London, to 99 miles, on the A9 between Dunblane and Inverness in Scotland.

Unlike traditional speed cameras, average-speed cameras work by recording the time it takes a vehicle to travel between two positions on the road.

First introduced in the UK in 2000, the devices were originally used on a temporary basis. But the study by the RAC Foundation found average-speed cameras were increasingly being used by highways chiefs as an alternative to “spot” cameras on the main roads network.

The use of the cameras has been criticised by groups who claim they are keeping track of motorists and miles of road. And concerns have been raised about the accuracy of the technology, with some motorists saying it is harder to challenge offences.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC said: “Unsurprisingly, the indications are that compliance with the speed limit through stretches of road managed by average-speed cameras is high, but the acid test is whether accident and casualty rates have also fallen. That is what the next part of this research project should tell us.

“Rightly or wrongly many motorists perceive the current ‘spot’ speed cameras to be more about raising revenue for the Treasury than saving lives, but average-speed cameras have greater potential to bring drivers on side.

“Clearly a high compliance rate means a very low penalty rate and hence both road safety and drivers wallets could benefit from greater use of these systems in appropriate places.”

One of the main reasons for the growth in average-speed cameras is the fall in cost – from £1.5 million a mile in the early 2000s to about £100,000 a mile today. Richard Owen, operations director at Road Safety Analysis, said: “Some of the old fixed-speed cameras have been around for 25 years. They are coming to the end of their life and are starting to be replaced, in some cases with average-speed systems.”

In March, the House of Commons’ transport committee recommended further use of average-speed cameras. It said the schemes could “reduce the impression that motorists are unfairly caught out by speed cameras”.