Safety cameras
How the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership decides where to put safety cameras.
What are safety cameras?
Safety cameras are used to detect traffic offences such as speeding and failing to stop for red lights at traffic signal junctions. A number of different types of cameras are used, but all make a photographic record of the offending vehicles actions at the time the offence was detected. All types of camera are exhaustively checked to ensure that they only activate when an offence is committed.
Why are they used?
Speeding and failing to stop at red lights are a real danger for all road users, including those drivers choosing to break the law in this way. Police patrols provide one way of enforcing the law, but cameras have the major advantage of providing much more extensive coverage than could realistically be achieved by such patrols.
Monitoring of safety cameras shows that they do help reduce the number and severity of accidents.
What types of safety camera are used in Oxfordshire?
Fixed site cameras are placed in permanent housings at the side of the road (those enforcing speed are marked in yellow). Mobile cameras are housed in vans or on tripods and are moved from site to site. At present average speed cameras - which measure speeding over a length of road rather than just at one point - are not used in the county.
Who chooses where and how they are used?
The Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership - a body comprising the Police and all the highway authorities in the Thames Valley area (including Oxfordshire County Council) - manages the use of safety cameras locally.
Government guidelines provide advice on how safety cameras are best used, such as where safety cameras are sited and how they should be signed. Although these guidelines are not binding and do not affect the legality of any camera enforcement carried out, the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership agree that these guidelines provide a good framework for obtaining the improved safety. The guidelines are quite lengthy, but the key points include:
- A check should be made of the number and circumstances of the accidents at a site or a route being considered for safety camera use to confirm that speeding (or in the case of a red light camera, red light violation) is a frequent factor in the accidents. For speed camera sites, a survey of current traffic speeds must be carried out.
- New fixed camera sites are reserved for sites with a poor history of severe accidents OR at major and longer term road works where there is a high risk of accidents if vehicles exceed any temporary lower speed limit in force during the works.
- Mobile cameras are used at lower level problems; these include sites with both accident and speeding problems, but can also include 'community concern' sites where there is a significant level of speeding, even if the current accident history is limited or nil.
- All speed enforcement cameras should be signed in advance; fixed speed cameras should have yellow reflective backings to highlight the location of the camera. Note that for red light cameras, the presence of the signals is deemed to remove the need for signing or the provision of yellow backing.
How are safety cameras funded?
As of 1 April 2007, for a period of four years the government will be making additional funds available to all highway authorities to support safety measures including safety cameras. These funds are fixed and are not affected by the number of prosecutions made as a result of safety cameras.
Further information
Dan Campsall
Communications Manager
Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership
PO Box 142
Banbury
OX17 1UZ
Tel: 01295 731812
prmgr@saferroads.org
Geoff Barrell
Principal Engineer
Accident Investigation Team
Environment & Economy
Oxfordshire County Council
Speedwell Street
Oxford
OX1 1NE
Tel: 01865 810450
geoff.barrell@oxfordshire.gov.uk
Queries about particular offences should be referred to:
Thames Valley Fixed Penalty Support Unit
PO Box 156
Banbury
OX16 7UX
Helplines:
- camera offences: 01865 293355
- Officer issued tickets: 01865 293357
- payment office: 01865 293358
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