ACT speed cameras in 2010 collect $7M compared to $11.3M of 2009
Official government data recently released has shown, in the ACT alone, fixed speed camera revenue actually dropped - from $11.3 million in 2009, to just $7 million in 2010. There's an obvious disconnect with the death rate though, because fatalities rose by 50 percent in 2010 compared with 2009.
Twelve people lost their lives on ACT roads in 2009, but 18 died in 2010. In both 2007 and 2008, 14 people were claimed in ACT road crashes.
What does this mean? Perhaps simply that drivers are learning to slow down before fixed speed cameras. Are the cameras providing an overall safer environment on ACT roads? It doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to determine that the answer is no.
Other campaigns and more stringent driving rules may have impacted on figures, but it appears fixed speed cameras alone make no difference to the ACT road toll.
Superintendent of Traffic Operations for ACT police, Mark Colbran, recently told Fairfax,
"There are less people being caught and I believe that a significant number of people are going slower and they are not being caught because they are travelling below or at the speed limit."
Clearly, you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to be the Superintendent of Traffic Operations of the ACT Police, either. Supt Colbran said the cameras were not about raising revenue but were about saving lives - what a pity they appear not to be doing that.
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