The first average speed schemes in Warwickshire are being introduced with a promise to not only improve safety and save lives but also improve traffic flows and air quality.
The Jenoptik Specs cameras are to be installed along sections of the A435, A446, A426 and A428. Warwickshire County Council says these routes have been chosen because a high number of personal injury collisions caused by excessive vehicle speeds have occurred here. Over a five year period, 129 personal injury collisions have been recorded along these routes.
The new cameras will be installed and operational by next summer.
“Warwickshire County Council has the primary responsibility for monitoring and improving road safety and making our roads as safe as they can be,” says Cllr Wallace Redford, portfolio holder for road safety at Warwickshire County Council. “We identify patterns of collisions and then analyse the best and most cost-effective ways of preventing those collisions. The Average Speed Enforcement Cameras will not only improve safety and save lives, but also manage traffic flow, which in turn leads to reduced traffic congestion and improved air quality.”
Instead of capturing speed in a single flash, average speed cameras work by logging a vehicle at two locations along a route, and then calculating the average speed over this distance. Vehicles are identified through Automatic Number Plate Recognition, which allows the same vehicle to be matched at either end.
“These four new average speed camera routes are a fantastic boost for people in Warwickshire,” adds Chief Inspector Faz Chisty on behalf of Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership. “Speeding in local communities is one of the main concerns the police are asked to deal with and our data tells us that speed cameras are effective. In Warwickshire, in 2019, 45,783 people were caught speeding in the county and even in 2020 during lockdown with fewer vehicles on the road, 33,640 people were caught speeding in Warwickshire so your chances of being caught breaking the law are high. Most people don’t speed and we are asking the drivers that do to ‘slow down, save lives’ by driving at an appropriate speed within the limit.”
Jenoptik have installed more than 200 SPECS average speed schemes in the UK over the past 20 years. “It is clear that average speed cameras are now a go-to solution to make our roads safer,” explains Jenoptik’s deputy MD Geoff Collins. “We look forward to extending our collaboration with Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership to improve the four routes. When installed as part of a casualty reduction scheme, statistics show our schemes are startlingly effective, cutting the number of killed and seriously injured people by an average of 50 per cent. They are also shown to lead to fewer emissions, meaning better air quality and have the support of drivers, with anecdotal evidence suggesting average speed schemes are far more accepted and popular than spot-speed cameras.”
Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership includes Warwickshire Police, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire, Warwickshire County Council, Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service and National Highways.
