Road speed limit enforcement in the United Kingdom is the action taken by appropriately empowered authorities to attempt to persuade
road vehicle
A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), water ...
users to comply with the
speed limit
Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expres ...
s in force on the UK's roads. Methods used include those for detection and prosecution of contraventions such as roadside
fixed speed cameras,
average speed cameras, and police-operated
LIDAR speed gun
Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
s or older
radar speed gun
A radar speed gun (also radar gun and speed trap gun) is a device used to measure the speed of moving objects. It is used in law-enforcement to measure the speed of moving vehicles and is often used in professional spectator sport, for things su ...
s.
Vehicle activated signs and
Community Speed Watch schemes are used to encourage compliance. Some classes of vehicles are fitted with
speed limiter
A speed limiter is a governor used to limit the top speed of a vehicle. For some classes of vehicles and in some jurisdictions they are a statutory requirement, for some other vehicles the manufacturer provides a non-statutory system which may b ...
s and
intelligent speed adaptation
Intelligent speed assistance (ISA), or intelligent speed adaptation, also known as ''alerting'', and ''intelligent authority'', is any system that ensures that vehicle speed does not exceed a safe or legally enforced speed. In case of potentia ...
is being trialled in some places on a voluntary basis.
During 2006/7 a total of 1.75 million drivers had their licenses endorsed with 3 penalty points and £114 million was raised from fines; an 'e-petition' to ban speed cameras during 2007 received 28,000 signatures. The Department for Transport estimated that cameras had led to a 22% reduction in personal injury collisions and 42% fewer people being killed or seriously injured at camera sites. ''
Injury Prevention
Injury prevention is an effort to prevent or reduce the severity of bodily injuries caused by external mechanisms, such as accidents, before they occur. Injury prevention is a component of safety and public health, and its goal is to improve the ...
'' reported that speed cameras were effective at reducing accidents and injuries in their vicinity and recommended wider deployment. An LSE study in 2017 found that "adding another 1,000 cameras to British roads could save up to 190 lives annually, reduce up to 1,130 collisions and mitigate 330 serious injuries."
In May 2010 the new Coalition government pledged to scrap public funding for speed cameras and cut the Road Safety Grant from £95 million to £57 million. Opposition politicians and some road safety campaigners claimed that lives were being put at risk. A survey conducted by
The Automobile Association
AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association.
Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...
said that use of speed cameras was supported by 75% of their members.
Rationale
Enforcement is used to increase compliance with speed limits.
One of the main motivations for enforcement is to reduce road casualties, particularly at
accident blackspot
In road safety management, an accident blackspot or black spot is a place where road traffic accidents have historically been concentrated. It may have occurred for a variety of reasons, such as a sharp drop or corner in a straight road, so oncom ...
s. For 2008, "exceeding the speed limit" was reported as one of the contributory factors in 5% of all casualty collisions (14% of fatal collisions resulting in 15% of all deaths).
[ Department for Transport (2009), p. 45 "Exceeding the speed limit was reported as a contributory factor in 5 per cent of all accidents. However, the factor became more significant with the severity of the accident. It was reported in 14 per cent of fatal accidents and these accidents accounted for 362 fatalities, 15 per cent of all deaths"]
The
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is a British charity that aims to save lives and prevent life-changing injuries which occur as a result of accidents. In the past, it has successfully campaigned on issues of road safet ...
estimates that a pedestrian has a 90% chance of surviving being hit by a car at 20 mph, falling to 50% chance at 30 mph and to 10% at 40 mph.
The government noted that the change from "mainly survivable injuries to mainly fatal injuries" takes place at speeds between 30 and 40 mph.
[ One third of drivers thought that the chances of a pedestrian dying if hit at 40 mph was 50% or less.][ Parliament noted that most deaths of pedestrian occurred in urban areas (where the speed limit ranges from 20 to 40 mph).][
A 2003 survey of drivers for the Department for Transport found that 58% break speed limits on 30 mph roads and 25% break them by more than 5 mph. 57% break speed limits on motorways and 20% break them by more than 10 mph. In 2002 the Select Committee on Transport stated that "Most drivers and pedestrians think speeds are generally too high but 95 per cent of all drivers admit to exceeding them".
Groups most likely to speed excessively are those driving in a work related capacity, members of high income households and young males. Motorcyclists also frequently speed as do HGV drivers commonly on single carriageway main roads where their speed limit is 50 mph.]
Methods
There are many methods used by authorities, in places where the speed limits are not generally observed, to attempt to achieve greater compliance. These methods generally fall into one of two categories:
* to attempt to identify drivers or vehicles that are breaking the speed limit for the purposes of prosecution,
* to remind vehicle users what the speed limit is, and that it should be obeyed.
There are several types of speed camera in use. Speed cameras
A traffic enforcement camera (also red light camera, speed camera, road safety camera, road rule camera, photo radar, photo enforcement, Gatso, safety camera, bus lane camera, flash for cash, Safe-T-Cam, No contact apprehension camera depending ...
must be calibrated and certified
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
before the images from it are acceptable to the court, including the cameras used in police vehicles. Owners of vehicles photographed may be contacted with a 'Notice of Intended Prosecution' (NIP) requiring them to provide the name and address of the driver. If they do not provide this information they may receive a Court summons for 'Failing to Furnish Driver Details'. "Higher speeds" result in prosecution by way of a 'Conditional Offer Fixed Penalty' which can be settled by accepting a £100 fine and three penalty points. "Excessive speed offences" are automatically sent to the court.
Fixed instantaneous speed cameras
These cameras are installed beside a road and record the instantaneous speed of vehicles and a photograph of vehicles that have been identified as breaking the speed limit. There are two types commonly in use:
* Gatso
Gatso is the brand that Gatsometer BV (now known as Sensys Gatso Group when Sensys acquired Gatso in 2015) use on their speed cameras and red light cameras. The most commonly encountered Gatso speed cameras emit radar beams to measure the speed ...
cameras, which take a photograph of the rear of the vehicle after the vehicle has passed,
* Truvelo / D-cam
d-cam is a type of digital speed camera produced by the United Kingdom, British subsidiary of the South African company Truvelo Manufacturers (Pty) Ltd. Testing by Transport for London commenced on the A4 road (Great Britain), A4 Great West Roa ...
digital cameras which use infrared to take a picture of a vehicle as it approaches, which includes an image of the driver. These cameras then transmit the image and speed to the authorities virtually instantly.
Police operated equipment
Police officers can use LIDAR speed gun
Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
s or sometimes the older and less accurate radar speed gun
A radar speed gun (also radar gun and speed trap gun) is a device used to measure the speed of moving objects. It is used in law-enforcement to measure the speed of moving vehicles and is often used in professional spectator sport, for things su ...
s to gather evidence for prosecution. These may be operated from temporary static sites or from within police vehicles.
Average speed cameras
Known as the SPECS system, these cameras measure average speeds over a known or measured distance. The first average speed camera in Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
was installed on the A77 road
The A77 road is a major road in Scotland. It runs in a southwesterly direction from the city of Glasgow, past the towns of Giffnock, Newton Mearns, Kilmarnock, Prestwick, Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer to the village of Portpatrick on the Irish Sea ...
in 2004.
Vehicle activated signs
Vehicle activated signs
Vehicle activated sign (VAS) is a generic term for a type of road traffic sign which displays a message conditional upon the presence, or speed, of a road vehicle. The devices are deployed on roadsides like regular traffic signs in various countrie ...
that illuminate to indicate to a driver that they are exceeding the speed limit – these do not result in the issuance of a penalty, merely serve as a warning.
Community Speed Watch
Community Speed Watch is a partnership between local people, the Police, the Fire Service and local councils. Volunteers spend a short time each week monitoring speeds and noting number plates. Those identified as speeding are sent a warning letter and the police will take further action if the same vehicle is identified as speeding three times. Community Speed Watch is only permitted for speed limits of 40 mph or below. Junior Speed Watch works in a similar way but involves schoolchildren.
Speed limiters
Some classes of vehicles are required to have speed limiter
A speed limiter is a governor used to limit the top speed of a vehicle. For some classes of vehicles and in some jurisdictions they are a statutory requirement, for some other vehicles the manufacturer provides a non-statutory system which may b ...
s which enforce a maximum speed by physical means. New vehicles should be fitted with limiters as follows. Buses and coaches
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Coac ...
: HGVs: [ Department for Transport (2008), p.181 "Speed limiter settings lowered to 70 mph for new buses and coaches and to 60 mph for HGVs."] Mopeds
A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typi ...
: [ Department for Transport (2008), p.179 "Mopeds redefined to 30 mph maximum design speed"] Older vehicles still in use do not have limiters fitted or have them set at a higher speeds. These devices do ''not'' enforce speed limits as they do not adapt to speed limit changes.
Speed triggered traffic lights
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
council is planning to install equipment on some of their traffic light systems so that they will turn to red early if a car is detected travelling above a preset speed on the approach. A Swindon councillor is reported to have said that "the whole key is to monitor driver behaviour without beating them over the head" and that "it may annoy them, but I think eventually people will work out that if they maintain a constant speed at or around the speed limit then actually their journey times will be much shorter because they won't be getting delayed by traffic lights". The RAC Foundation gave a cautious welcome to the trial. Similar systems are already in use in Spain and Portugal.
Intelligent speed adaptation
A trial of intelligent speed adaptation
Intelligent speed assistance (ISA), or intelligent speed adaptation, also known as ''alerting'', and ''intelligent authority'', is any system that ensures that vehicle speed does not exceed a safe or legally enforced speed. In case of potentia ...
is available in London. Drivers can install free software in their TomTom
TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. ...
GPS sat-nav units to provide a warning if they are exceeding the speed limit. In addition a 'voluntary ISA' system which uses technology installed in the vehicle which makes it difficult to accidentally accelerate beyond the speed limit is being developed. This technology is expected to be available on a voluntary basis with no current plans for vehicles to be required to be fitted with it.
TASCAR
TASCAR stands for Temporary Automatic Speed Camera at Road works, and is the term used by the Highways Agency
National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all fo ...
and other relevant organisations for speed enforcement at works carried out by or on behalf of the agency on the UK road network.
Different rules apply for the placement of these cameras than for cameras used for general enforcement elsewhere.
Effectiveness
Speed cameras
An LSE study in 2017 found that speed cameras reduced fatalities by 58 to 68% within 500 metres of the cameras and "adding another 1,000 cameras to British roads could save up to 190 lives annually, reduce up to 1,130 collisions and mitigate 330 serious injuries."[
A 2013 study by the RAC found a 27% reduction in fatal and serious collisions in the vicinity of speed cameras.
In 2001 the Nottingham Safety Camera Pilot achieved "virtually complete compliance" on the major ring road into the city using average speed cameras, across all Nottinghamshire SPECS installations, KSI (Killed / Seriously Injured) figures have fallen by an average of 65%.
In 2003, '']Injury Prevention
Injury prevention is an effort to prevent or reduce the severity of bodily injuries caused by external mechanisms, such as accidents, before they occur. Injury prevention is a component of safety and public health, and its goal is to improve the ...
'' reported that speed cameras were effective at reducing accidents and injuries and recommended wider deployment. In February 2005 the British Medical Journal again reported that speed cameras were an effective intervention in reducing road traffic collisions and related casualties, noting however that most studies to date did not have satisfactory control groups. In 2003 Northumbria Police's Acting Chief Inspector of motor patrols suggested that cameras didn't reduce casualties but did raise revenue – an official statement from the police force later re-iterated that speed cameras do reduce casualties.
In December 2005 the Department for Transport published a four-year report into Safety Camera Partnerships which concluded that there was a 22% reduction in personal injury collisions and 42% fewer people being killed or seriously injured following the installation of cameras. The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
reported that this research showed that the department had been previous exaggerating the safety benefits of speed cameras but that the results were still 'impressive'.
A report published by the RAC Foundation in 2010 estimated that an additional 800 more people a year could be killed or seriously injured on the UK's roads if all speed cameras were scrapped. A survey conducted by The Automobile Association
AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association.
Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...
in May 2010 indicated that speed cameras were supported by 75% of their members.
In 2017, the first average speed camera system on an urban road in Scotland began operating. In the following year, there were no crashes resulting in an injury (compared to six in the three years 2013–2015) and the number of speeding offences dropped from three in every five vehicles to around two per day (out of around 15,000 vehicles per day).
There is also evidence against the efficacy of speed cameras. Within four years of Swindon abandoning the use of fixed speed cameras, arguing that the cost did not represent an effective way to reduce road accidents, the town was the safest town to drive in the UK, based on accident rates per 1,000 registered vehicles: a result linked by the Local Authority Member for Council Transformation, Transport and Strategic Planning to the removal of speed cameras and resultant additional funding for road safety, alongside close working with the police.
Vehicle activated signs
The MP Angela Watkinson
Dame Angela Eileen Watkinson, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE (''née'' Ellicott; born 18 November 1941) is a British politician. She was Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), M ...
stated in parliament that vehicle activated signs were more effective than speed cameras – Department for Transport figures show that each vehicle-activated sign is estimated to prevent 3.1 accidents per year compared to 2.2 for speed cameras. Jim Fitzpatrick the Under-Secretary of State for Transport questioned her source.
Following the decision by Portsmouth City Council to remove all their speed cameras, a councillor stated that the evidence is that vehicle activated signs are at least as effective at reducing traffic speeds as speed cameras and at one-tenth of the cost. In 2006 Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman issued a retraction accepting that VAS were indeed ten times more cost effective than cameras. The data behind this came from the Transport Research Laboratory report TRL548 from 2003, which was commissioned by the Department for Transport but was not included in their earlier figures.
History
Historical methods
Time and distance
Before the availability of such technology the police would time drivers over a known distance to calculate their speed.
Pacing
The police would sometimes follow the target vehicle at a constant distance, and use the speed reading from their own calibrated speedometer as evidence of the speed of the vehicle being followed.
Early years
The Highway Act 1835
The Highway Act 1835 (5 & 6 Will 4 c 50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Highway Acts 1835 to 1885.
Parish boards
The Highway Act 1835 placed highways under the direction of parish surveyors, and allowed t ...
allowed cart owners to be traced when it introduced the offence of 'Negligence causing damage to person or goods being conveyed on the highway', not having the owners name painted on the side of a cart, and refusing to give the owner's name.
The early Locomotive Acts
The Locomotive Acts (or Red Flag Acts) were a series of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom regulating the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on British public highways during the latter part of the 19th century.
The first three, the Lo ...
between 1866 and 1896 effectively calmed self-propelled traffic by requiring that a man walked in front of each vehicle with a red flag, and so the imposed speed limits of and did not require enforcing.
The first person to be convicted of speeding in the UK was Walter Arnold of East Peckham
East Peckham is a village and civil parish in Kent, England on the River Medway. The parish covers the main village as well as Hale Street and Beltring.
History
The Domesday entry for East and West Peckham reads:-
:'' The Archbishop himself ...
, Kent, who on 28 January 1896 was fined for speeding at , thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of . He was fined one shilling plus costs.
The Automobile Association
AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association.
Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...
was formed in 1905 to help motorists avoid police speed trap
Speed limits are enforced on most public roadways by authorities, with the purpose to improve driver compliance with speed limits. Methods used include roadside speed traps set up and operated by the police and automated roadside 'speed camera' ...
s. In 1906 Earl Russell
Earl Russell, of Kingston Russell in the County of Dorset, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 30 July 1861 for the prominent Liberal politician Lord John Russell. He was Home Secretary from 1835 to 1839, Foreign ...
, an early motoring enthusiast, compared 'speed traps' to 'highway robbery' in Parliament: "Policemen are not stationed in the villages where there are people about who might be in danger, but are hidden in hedges or ditches by the side of the most open roads in the country... they are used in many counties merely as a means of extracting money from the passing traveller in a way which reminds one of the highwaymen of the Middle Ages".
In 1910 in legal test case ('Betts -v- Stevens') involving an Automobile Association patrolman and a potentially speeding motorist the Chief Justice, Lord Alverston, ruled that where a patrolman signals to a speeding driver to slow down and thereby avoid a speed trap then that person would have committed the offence of 'obstructing an officer in the course of his duty' under the Prevention of Crimes Amendment Act 1885
The Prevention of Crimes Amendment Act 1885 ( 48 & 49 Vict. c. 75) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It became law on 14 August 1885.
It amended the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871, and provided that any person convicted of obstr ...
. Subsequently, the organisation developed a coded warning system which was used until the 1960s whereby a patrolman would always salute the driver of a passing car which showed a visible AA Badge unless there was a speed trap nearby, on the understanding that their officers could not be prosecuted for failing to salute.
All speed limits for cars and motorcycles were abolished under the Road Traffic Act 1930
The Road Traffic Act 1930 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom introduced by the Minister of Transport Herbert Morrison.
Context
The last major legislation on road traffic was the Motor Car Act 1903. Amendments had been discussed ...
because 'the existing speed limit was so universally disobeyed that its maintenance brought the law into contempt'.
Speedometers were made compulsory for new cars in 1937.
Electronic aids
By the late 1980s traffic police were being issued with Laser speed guns which enabled them to measure the speed of a vehicle more precisely.
1991 – March 2007 Speed cameras
The first speed camera was installed in 1991. A camera that was installed on the M40 motorway
The M40 motorway links London, Oxford and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately .
The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry slip-r ...
and recorded 400 instances of speeding within 40 minutes. The Association of British Drivers was formed the same year and campaigned vigorously against speed cameras.
A Statutory instrument
In many countries, a statutory instrument is a form of delegated legislation.
United Kingdom
Statutory instruments are the principal form of delegated or secondary legislation in the United Kingdom.
National government
Statutory instrument ...
, 'The Road Traffic Offenders (Prescribed Devices) Order 1992' was approved in May 1992 coming into force 1 July 1992 allowing for unattended traffic cameras to be used for prosecution of speeding offences. The Gatsometer BV Type 24 was approved in June 1992. The LTI 20.20, a police operated LIDAR speed gun
Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
received type approval in 1993.
The charity Brake
A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction.
Background ...
was formed in 1995 to support traffic victims and campaign for effective enforcement of speed limits. The charity RoadPeace
RoadPeace is the national charity for road crash victims in the UK. It supports the people affected by road crashes with emotional and practical support and advocacy. It operates a help line and provides practical support to people affected. R ...
was founded in 1990[ ] and has since actively campaigned to increase the number of speed cameras. In 1991 the government launched a major TV campaign 'Kill your speed, not a child' with the budget rising from an initial £1m to £3.5m in 1997.
Research published in February 1999 showed that cameras reduce drivers' speeds markedly and were perceived to be reasonably effective. Safety Camera Partnerships were introduced by the Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
in December 1999 with eight initial trial areas. In 1999 income from penalties for offences recorded by cameras was approaching £100 million.
In 1999 there was an increase in road fatalities for only the second time in 10 years (the previous time being in 1997).[ Department for Transport (2008), p. 106 table 2]
In March 2000 the government launched a new road-safety strategy that would focus specifically on speed aiming to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries by 40%, and by 60% for children by 2010 (compared to the average of 1994–8). A similar level of 10-year casualty reduction had been consistently achieved over each of the previous eight years. Safe Speed
Safe Speed was a United Kingdom-based pressure group that campaigned against speed cameras, claiming that it did so on the grounds of road safety.
History
The organisation was started in 2001 by Paul Smith, a former computer electronics engineer ...
was founded to challenge this strategy and campaign against the crack-down on speed.
In April 2000 two motorists caught speeding and challenged the Road Traffic Act 1988
The Road Traffic Act 1988 (c. 52) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, concerning licensing of vehicles, insurance and road regulation.
Contents
Part I contains a number of traffic offences including causing death by dangerous drivi ...
which required the registered keeper of a vehicle to identify the driver at a particular time[ as being in contradiction to the ]Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the rights contained in the European Con ...
on the grounds that it amounted to a 'compulsory confession', also that since the camera partnerships included the police, local authorities, Magistrates Courts Service (MCS) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which had a financial interest in the fine revenue that they would not get a fair trial. Their plea was initially granted by a judge then overturned but was then heard by the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
(ECtHR), and the European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...
(ECJ). In 2007 the European Court of Human Rights found there was no breach of article 6 in requiring the keepers of cars caught speeding on camera to provide the name of the driver.
During 200
The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001
made it illegal to alter, rearrange or misrepresent the letters or numbers on a registration plate (number plate), with a maximum fine of up to £1000. Th
Vehicles (Crime) Act 2001
introduced registration for number plate suppliers, regulate the specifications for registration plates and provided new 'Unified power for Secretary of State to fund speed cameras etc.'
The Transport Research Laboratory published a report o
in January 2004. Safe Speed
Safe Speed was a United Kingdom-based pressure group that campaigned against speed cameras, claiming that it did so on the grounds of road safety.
History
The organisation was started in 2001 by Paul Smith, a former computer electronics engineer ...
received a copy of the then unpublished report and claimed that it showed that fixed cameras increased the risk of injury accidents 55 per cent at road works and by 31 per cent on open motorways, also that fatal and serious crashes were 32 per cent more likely where cameras were being operated'.
The first average speed camera in Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
was installed on the A77 road
The A77 road is a major road in Scotland. It runs in a southwesterly direction from the city of Glasgow, past the towns of Giffnock, Newton Mearns, Kilmarnock, Prestwick, Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer to the village of Portpatrick on the Irish Sea ...
in 2004. Vehicle speeds significantly reduced immediately after the system was installed, the average being reduced by 5–6 mph and the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit by 80% or more in some areas.
In March 2005 a BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
program Inside Out
Inside Out may refer to:
*Backwards (disambiguation) or inverse
Books
* '' Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd'', by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason
* ''Inside Out'', Christian book by Larry Crabb
* ''Inside Out'', novel by Barry Eisler
...
demonstrated how the LTI 20.20 LIDAR speed gun, of which 3,500 were in use in the UK, could create exaggerated reading. Errors came from two sources. 'Sweep errors' were as a result of the camera not measuring the distance to a fixed point on the vehicle but instead being 'swept' along the side of the vehicle. This was demonstrated by sweeping the target along a wall which was recorded as moving at 58 mph. Another way of achieving a bogus reading was where the laser reflected off a wing mirror, hit a stationary reflective object and then returned reflecting off the mirror a second time.
In July 2005 the Department for Transport blocked the installation of nearly 500 new speed cameras over concerns that partnerships have failed to consider alternatives.
A 2006 report from the Department for Transport estimated that 'exceeding the speed limit' was a fact in 12% of fatal road crashes and 5% of all casualty crashes. In the year 2006/2007 1.75 million drivers had 3 points put on their licenses and a total of £114 million of fines were issued. The 2006 AA road map controversially included the location for thousands of speed cameras – the first time such information was available in that form. A trial of number-plate displaying Vehicle activated signs in 2006 at roadworks
Roadworks (called road work or road construction in the United States) occur when part of the road, or in rare cases, the entire road, has to be occupied for work relating to the road, most often in the case of road surface repairs. In the U ...
on the M42 motorway
The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the Bi ...
resulted in half of the speeding traffic slowed down, compared to a third who responded to normal speed cameras.
As of April 2006 there were thirty eight Safety Camera Partnerships in England and Wales covering forty-one police force areas out of a total of forty-three. Th
Road Safety Act 2006
introduced new legislation relating to Road safety grants, the application of surplus income from safety camera enforcement and regulation relating to fixed fines. From April 2007 authorities received a 'Road Safety Grant' which was no longer related to the number of fines issued locally and was instead given directly to those Local Authorities responsible for road safety regardless or not of whether they operate traffic enforcement cameras.
During 2007 a e-petition to ban speed cameras organised by Safe Speed received 28,000 signatures.
April 2007–present
Funding for Safety Camera Partnership changed in April 2007 and has subsequently come from Department for Transport as 'Road Safety Grants' rather than being directly linked to money raised locally from fines as it had been previously.
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
in Wiltshire switched off their 5 fixed cameras in July 2009, with the intention of replacing them with vehicle activated speed warning signs. They thus became the first local council with no fixed cameras, although the police will continue to use their mobile speed cameras to enforce speed limits. In the nine months following the switch-off there was a small reduction in casualty rates between similar periods before and after the switch off (Before: 1 fatal, 1 serious and 13 slight accidents. Afterwards: no fatalities, 2 serious and 12 slight accidents). The journalist George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is a British writer known for his environmental and political activism. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and is the author of a number of books.
Monbiot grew up in Oxfordsh ...
claimed that the results were not statistically significant
In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...
, highlighting earlier findings across the whole of Wiltshire that there had been a 33% reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured generally and a 68% reduction at camera sites during the previous 3 years.
A report by ICM Research
ICM Research is a public opinion research company that was founded in 1989. ICM is a subsidiary of Creston Insight, a marketing services company, and is a member of the British Polling Council.
History
When ICM was initially established, the initi ...
(an Opinion poll research organisation) sponsored by motor insurance
Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury r ...
company LV in 2010 indicated that 1% of accidents are caused by drivers braking and then accelerating near speed cameras and that this would equates to a total of some 28,000 accidents across the country. A spokesman said that speed cameras 'impair driving ability or at the least concentration on the road'.
In May 2010 the new Coalition government said that the 'Labour's 13-year war on the motorist is over' and that the new government 'pledged to scrap public funding for speed cameras'. In July 2010, Mike Penning
Sir Michael Alan Penning (born 28 September 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hemel Hempstead since 2005.
Penning was the Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 2016 to 20 ...
, the Road safety minister reduced the Road Safety Grant for the current year to Local Authorities from £95 million to £57 million saying that local authorities had relied too heavily on safety cameras for far too long and that he was pleased that some councils were now focusing on other road safety measures. It is estimated that as a result the Treasury is now distributing £40 million less in Road Safety Grant than is raised from fines in the year. The cuts include a 27% to the revenue grant used for camera maintenance and education programs and 100% to the capital grant used for road safety measures such as the installation of fixed cameras, speed humps and pedestrian crossings. Brake warned that by removing ring-fencing the cuts could in reality be larger. Penning later said "road safety grant was reduced as this grant was spread evenly across all local authorities, not because this was considered an area of lower priority spending."
In June 2010 it was announced that 9 of Somerset's 26 fixed speed cameras were to be switched off.
In July 2010, the BBC announced that the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership was to be wound up, and that no speed camera would be operated in the South West from the following year unless funding was provided by the government. Also in July 2010 one-fifth of the speed cameras in Northamptonshire were switched off – the council would not reveal which of its 42 cameras remained active, and others announced plans to review camera provision.[ and a total of four other counties; Buckinghamshire, Lancashire, Dorset and Essex announced plans to turn off some or all of their cameras;][
All the Oxfordshire speed cameras were switched off on 1 August 2010. Later in August an Oxford Mail report challenged a claim by Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership that speed offences had increased since the switch-off, stating that they have received data showing that speed offences actually fell by 4 per-cent when compared the figures since the switch-off to those of 2008–9. In September, Oxfordshire's Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership reported that the number of drivers speeding past the county's deactivated speed cameras had increased by up to 88%. Following lobbying by road safety groups and by local residents it was announced in November that they would be reinstated. The Oxfordshire cameras were switched back on in April 2011 after a new source of funding was found for them.] Following rule changes on the threshold for offering "Speed Awareness Courses" as an alternative to a fine and licence points for drivers, and given that the compulsory fees charged for such courses go directly to the partnerships rather than directly to central government as for the fine revenues, the partnership will be able to fund their operations from course fees.[ Compared with the same period in the previous year with the cameras still switched on, the number of serious injuries that occurred during the same period with the cameras switched off was exactly the same – at 13 – and the number of slight injuries was 15 more at 70, resulting from 62 crashes – 2 more than when the cameras were still operating.][ There were no fatalities during either period.][
In July 2010, some opposition politicians and some road safety campaigners claimed that lives were being put at risk by the removal of speed cameras. The AA agreed saying adding that cameras were supported by the majority of motorists.
In August 2010, Gloucestershire cancelled plans to update cameras and reduced or cancelled maintenance contracts.
In October 2010, Wiltshire switched off its remaining speed cameras, both fixed and mobile. Speed limit enforcement will continue to be provided in the county by Wiltshire's traffic police and Community Speed Watch.
In December 2010, Portsmouth City Council decided to end its membership of the ''Hampshire and Isle of Wight Road Safety Partnership'', and to remove all its speed cameras.][
In 2017 fines issued by courts for the most serious speeding offences have increased to better reflect the seriousness of the offence. On 24 April 2017 new rules came into force which see the maximum fine for being caught speeding increase by 150% to £2,500 from £1,000 for the most serious offenders. The minimum penalty for speeding remains a £100 fine and 3 penalty points added to your licence.
A 2017 ]Freedom of Information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigeno ...
request found that 52% of speed cameras in the UK were switched on. The report showed that four out of the 45 police forces in the UK had no working speed cameras and that West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Kent and Cheshire police forces had a quarter or less active cameras. The report found that City of London, Metropolitan Police/TfL, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Northern Ireland police forces said that all of their cameras are active. The reason for this has been a cut in funding and many cameras, most notably many Gatso
Gatso is the brand that Gatsometer BV (now known as Sensys Gatso Group when Sensys acquired Gatso in 2015) use on their speed cameras and red light cameras. The most commonly encountered Gatso speed cameras emit radar beams to measure the speed ...
and Truvelo Combi
Truvelo Combi is a speed camera manufactured by the South African company Truvelo Manufacturers (Pty) Ltd. It was approved in 1999.
Background
The Truvelo camera is usually a front-facing camera (it can also be rear-facing) taking pictures using ...
speed cameras, still used older film technologies rather than newer digital technologies.
See also
* SPECS (speed camera)
SPECS is an average speed measuring speed camera system introduced in 1999. It is one of the systems used for speed limit enforcement in the United Kingdom.
SPECS was originally manufactured by Speed Check Services Limited, from which it takes ...
* Speed limit
Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expres ...
* Speed limit enforcement
Speed limits are enforced on most public roadways by authorities, with the purpose to improve driver compliance with speed limits. Methods used include roadside speed traps set up and operated by the police and automated roadside 'speed camera' ...
* Traffic enforcement camera
A traffic enforcement camera (also red light camera, speed camera, road safety camera, road rule camera, photo radar, photo enforcement, Gatso, safety camera, bus lane camera, flash for cash, Safe-T-Cam, No contact apprehension camera depending ...
Notes
References
;Documents referenced from 'Notes' section
*
;Other references for article
Further reading
Home Office approved speed detection devices – March 2007
Handbook of Rules and Guidance for the National Safety Camera Programme for England and Wales for 2006/07
Department for Transport
Note that the layout of the table of contents is odd, the actually contents are off to the far right hand side of the page.
2002 – registration required
2000 – registration required
1996 – registration required
Debate in the Commons about use of plain clothes police to enforce speed limits
1935
External links
Roadworker Safety
Highways Agency website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Road Speed Limit Enforcement in the United Kingdom
Transport policy in the United Kingdom
Roads in the United Kingdom
Driving in the United Kingdom