Average speed enforcement, a huge impact on reducing speed

A guaranteed way to get drivers to slow down and comply with work zone speed limits is to use average speed cameras. Deployed in the UK for over a decade now, they have had a huge impact, not least in achieving around 99 per cent compliance with speed limits. It's not difficult to understand: when someone knows that if they speed through a work zone it is absolutely guaranteed that they will be caught, fined and have points on their licence, only a total fool would. In the UK, SPECS average speed cameras we

Enforcement / January 31, 2012

UK Roads

A guaranteed way to get drivers to slow down and comply with work zone speed limits is to use average speed cameras.

Deployed in the UK for over a decade now, they have had a huge impact, not least in achieving around 99 per cent compliance with speed limits. It's not difficult to understand: when someone knows that if they speed through a work zone it is absolutely guaranteed that they will be caught, fined and have points on their licence, only a total fool would.

In the UK, SPECS average speed cameras were developed in 1999 by SpeedCheck Services, which recently joined forces with 31 Computer Recognition Systems to become 604 Vysionics. That average speed cameras produce previously unimagined compliance levels with speed limits, is only part of the story: it is well documented how traffic flows more smoothly, congestion is significantly reduced, vehicles can merge and diverge more easily near junctions or ramps.
The system, very familiar to UK drivers, is poised for widespread use around the world. While the recently formed Vysionics is looking outside the UK, major industry players have now entered the market.

Australian-headquartered 112 Redflex, which developed a point-to-point camera system in 2003, says it is now working closely with European governments that are looking to improve road safety over large stretches of road, be it in work zones or on highways. Moreover, Redflex promises that its next-generation point-to-point systems, being launched in the coming months, will see features like non-intrusive technology, newly designed enclosures, and solar power.

Meanwhile, global enforcement camera player 37 PIPS Technology, part of 38 Federal Signal Corporation, has launched, and won UK Home Office Type approval for, its SpeedSpike average speed enforcement system. PIPS's first product within the average speed enforcement market, it was developed as a cost-effective distance-over-time speed enforcement system, for deployment just about anywhere, and over short or long distances. Up to 1,000 cameras can be linked in any one system.