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Speed cameras have been the focus of motorists' anger and frustration for years, although we are told repeatedly that they are an effective means of reducing death and injury on the roads. But is this really the case?
Whether speed cameras actually do save lives seems an easy assertion to test: measure the numbers of casualties at a site over a period, say two years; introduce a speed camera; re-measure the number of casualties over an equal period, and any reduction is due to the camera. But it's not really that simple. Many other factors are at play that might make cameras appear to be more effective than they really are. And these factors are often ignored when evaluating the performance of speed cameras at improving road safety.
Do speed cameras actually save lives?
[...] In road safety data, there is a general tendency for collision incidents at a site to reduce anyway following a short-term rise in their number, without any treatment (such as a speed camera) being applied. In statistics, this is known as regression-to-the-mean (or RTM). We also know that the long-term trend in collisions has generally been downward due to factors such as improved vehicle safety and better driver education[PDF].
So if we observe a reduction in casualties at a site following the installation of a camera, we need to ask how much of this reduction would have happened anyway (the RTM effect)? How much is due to general trends in road safety? And how much can we actually attribute to the camera itself?
[...] To make matters worse, half of the UK's fixed speed cameras may not even be turned on. So the situation is far from simple.
Methods to accurately account for RTM and trend often require knowledge of advanced statistics which may not always be available within a road safety team, and so it is likely that these confounding factors are not being considered consistently across the country.
[...] So, do speed cameras save lives? The answer is almost certainly yes, but probably not always to the extent that people are led to believe.
https://theconversation.com/do-speed-cameras-really-save-lives-87701
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday November 21 2017, @11:14PM
unknowable. Too many variables, too many strongly held opinions on both sides of the issue, and as the article implies: whatever effect there is is likely minimal.
Speed cameras are one of dozens of behavior shaping methods attempting to influence driver behavior on the road. If speed control was such an important life and death decision point, there are dozens of viable technologies that have been available for decades to 100% control vehicle speed on the public roads. When GPS was rolled out to trucking fleets, some fleets (WalMart for one) imposed zero speeding tolerance policies on their drivers for several years - during that time your would NEVER see a WalMart truck over the posted speed limit. Apparently they have relaxed this policy in recent years, because I regularly see all semis on the local highway at 5-15mph over the limit. Toll roads know how far drivers travel and how long it takes them to travel that distance, but I don't know a single one that imposes any kind of penalty for arriving at the pay booth "extra-legally early."
Since speed isn't important enough to actually control completely, it's left out there in the field with other "violations of law" that seem to be enforced less than 1% of the time. It leaves the impression that it's just a minor revenue generation scheme masquerading as a public safety action. I think, like so many laws, speed mostly isn't enforced until somebody (somebody the police department pays attention to) complains and asks for enforcement. They enforce until the complainer is mollified, or they are no longer turning a profit by giving tickets in that location, because the regular drivers in an area do catch on fairly quickly even if they're not personally stopped.
As for speed-camera revenue generation schemes, they surely exist, but I think many courts still throw out such tickets if you fight them.
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