Safety cameras – Combining red-light and speed cameras
Over the next four years, the RTA is replacing existing red-light cameras with safety cameras at 200 locations across NSW.
In December 2009, the RTA began to combine red-light cameras with fixed speed cameras at 50 locations across the state. The safety camera is capable of detecting speeding vehicles, vehicles running red lights, or both.
No new ‘combined’ offences have been created. Drivers will face a penalty notice and associated demerit points for each offence committed.
Safety cameras are being introduced to make intersections safer and reduce the number of crashes at traffic lights.
According to the RTA, “Evaluations of camera enforcement of red-light offences conducted in Australia and overseas have shown this type of enforcement is clearly effective in reducing casualty crashes at intersections. When the evaluations were considered together it is estimated that camera enforcement of red-light offences reduces the number of casualty crashes at intersections by around 30 per cent.”
Intersections with safety cameras will be signposted accordingly. However, motorists need to be aware that there is only one sign warning of the new safety camera, unlike existing fixed speed cameras which have three warning signs in advance.
For more information, please visit the RTA’s Safety camera page.
Will safety cameras reduce the number of crashes at intersections? Will they make you slow down?
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February 5th, 2010 at 10:28 am
I think they will cause more rear enders and more people being booked for just going over the speed limit and eventually resulting in licence suspensions. Just what the government wants! More money!!
February 6th, 2010 at 9:21 am
How is any one of these new cameras going to save lives. Liverpool St Please??? More revenue raising.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Revenue rasing – perhaps! On the other hand, I notice more vehicles accelerating thru red lights than say a few years ago so if the end result is to protect motorists from being smashed in the side or rear then bring it on.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
If the NSW government was interested in road safety, they’d sink some money into resuscitating the Highway Patrol who’d then more than pay for themselves by enforcing the road rules like they used to do 20 years ago.
But it’s easier and cheaper to put revenue cameras everywhere, isn’t it? “Safety” cameras… do they really think we’re naive enough to believe that safety’s got anything to do with their blatant automated revenue raising?
February 9th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Ah yes, the sneaky double fine collecting cameras. While people are still getting used to them, the fines revenue will rise sharply because there is only one warning sign. I have already seen the camera flash going off several times at the Beecroft Rd and Pennant Hills junction when the camera was first installed. Now it is flashing less because motorists are wising up.
This may have the intended effect of controlling speed and going through red lights, but it is only after the caught motorist realises he has been caught when the penalty notices arrive. It has no impact on safety at the time of the incident.
And it does nothing to deter motorists from speeding up again immediately after going past the junction. Is that what safety is about ?
Displaying the rego and the speed of the vehicles that are exceeding the limit would be a more immediate way of influencing driver behaviour in the interest of safety.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
If this out of control monster (RTA) were honest in their reasoning they would only activate the speed camera part of the ’safety camera’ on an orange and red phase only. But that wouldn’t make any where near as much money! Is everyone also aware of the RTA’s proposal to run several ‘covert’ mobile speed cameras (money machines) around the state? No one is supposed to know yet so stay tuned !!!!All in the name of road safety……. B.S.!
February 15th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Is the proposal to update existing red light cameras with combined cameras or a surreptitious way of installing additional cameras without meeting the “black spot” criteria supposedly applied previously. I say this because there are a number of proposed locations on the list which don’t currently have any red light cameras installed.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Is it just my imagination or am I seeing more minor bingles around these “safety cameras”. I suspect we are becoming a society of speedo watchers and taking our eyes off the road. I know I am. Even if you are doing 55 in a 60 zone you still check the speedo. It is now all too easy to be watching the speedo and miss the lights changing and not notice the car in front has stopped. I find it far more prefferable for someone to have creeped a couple of Kms over the limit but firmly have their concentration on the road. I feel that constant speedo watching is not much different to using a hands free mobile phone. Legal but an unnecessary distraction.
February 27th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
You have got to be kidding. More revenue for the government to mismanage.
February 27th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
The attitude of the RTA/NSW Labor government is that “Speed is the ONLY factor involved in road deaths” while driver education and behaviour is totally ignored. That’s why they’re putting more and more revenue cameras everywhere and there are no police on the roads booking motorists for driving badly. I won’t be voting for NSW Labor again, that’s for sure.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I support the propsal. Drivers have adequate warning to slowdown/stop when lights amber. I do have an issue with not enough police on the road to monitor bad driving. I frequently travel F3 & Hume highway at speed limit (when weather allows)& am the usually left way behind by majority of motorists. Also, what has happened to the 100k restriction on semis etc?
Drivers have to learn to drive to road conditions & be alert to changeing conditions. It is not that hard to do!!!. Have no issues with speed cameras & think covert ones an excellent idea.Many drivers slow for the camera then resume their speeding. The revenue can then go towards road maintenance & more traffic police Don’t think it is a Labour/Liberal issue
March 4th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Is this rollout legal? When fixed speed cameras were introduced in NSW if I remeber correctly the legislation was opposed by the NRMA and blocked in the Legislative Council until a compromise was reached requiring BY LAW the quite detailed signage now in use. If I recall the legislation correctly, the signage we are all used to is not optional, but a legal requirement.
NRMA. Where do you stand on this issue? Why is there not a identiacl signage requirment for these cameras to others?
March 9th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
So which genius thought it would be a good idea for us to check our speed at the same time we should be focussed on traffic lights changing and cars stopping in front of us.
Probably the same genius that thought it would be a good idea to put speed cameras in school zones so we are checking our speedos again instead of looking out for the kids.
Don’t get me wrong. We should always be obeying the speed limit but in identified hazardous situations (school zones, intersections, pedestrian crossings, etc) our total focus and concentration should be on the road environment and any potential hazards, not looking away from the road to check the speedo.
With the changes to the situations where cameras are placed and the change to the low end demerits I can see NSW going the way of the ridiculous Victorian zero tolerance speed limits.