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Drivers may face new wave of speed cameras
MOTORISTS across Yorkshire are facing the prospect of an intensive new clampdown on speeding with a network of new "average speed cameras" which monitor drivers over long distances.
Authorities in Leeds, Kirklees and South Yorkshire are actively investigating the practicalities of introducing the systems, which use cameras on overhead gantries to check vehicle speeds several times. A computer then works out whether each vehicle has been speeding or not.
That technology removes the possibility of drivers just slowing down as they pass known camera sites, so is regarded as a step forward by safety campaigners.
Humberside's Safety Camera Partnership has confirmed that it may adopt similar technology in future, though no immediate plans exist.
So far detail of only one potential location for a test site is known – a stretch of the A61 which links Sheffield to the M1, Huddersfield and Barnsley.
Officials at Leeds and Kirklees Councils have identified roads where the cameras, called SPECS, may benefit safety but have declined to release details of the sites because the proposals are at an early stage.
The Department of Transport introduced SPECS cameras on the Stocksbridge bypass near Sheffield several years ago as a solution to that road's poor accident record and they have been regarded as successful.
No permanent SPECS cameras are currently operated by safety camera partnerships in this region, though they are sometimes used to monitor traffic around motorway roadworks.
A wider choice of average speed cameras is likely to become available shortly, with a new company seeking Home Office approval for its equipment and SPECS also in the process of being upgraded.
Leeds City Council has already been in consultation about the prospect of using cameras produced by a firm called Redspeed. One obstacle to the system would be installation costs, which are expensive and would have to be met from local authority budgets. They are cheaper to operate than conventional Gatso type cameras because they do not have to be visited by staff to change films.
South Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership would need a new policy to govern the use of average speed equipment and that is being developed, alongside potential test routes, with the A61 between Grenoside and High Green a likely candidate.
That has been the scene of a catalogue of fatal and serious crashes, with speed said to be a cause in many cases. Spokes-man Steve Betts said: "It is something which has been put forward as a proposal. Routes have been considered."
West Yorkshire partnership said a few local authorities
were "contemplating" average speed cameras, including Leeds and Kirklees."The use of average speed cameras is a possibility if local authorities can deal with the capital cost."
A spokeswoman for the Humberside partnership added: "It is something we will continue to look at. The Government is keen on SPECS systems and they are getting better and better."
The Association of British Drivers said: "These cameras cost a lot of money that would be better spent on more police patrolling the roads, pulling people up and fining them."
Police could take account of offences such as drink driving, rather than just relying on cameras and fines sent by post.
Drivers' organisation the RAC Motoring Foundation said it believed the cameras were effective in the correct locations.
A spokeswoman said they could reduce pressure on law-abiding motorists by reducing drivers being "tailgated" by other traffic as everyone would be obliged to stick to the limit.
Also drivers who momentarily veered over the limit would not face an automatic penalty because the system calculated average speed over a route.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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