PDF | Print | E-mail

All of our cameras are installed at sites where it is safe and legal to load/unload camera film (or park a mobile camera van) and in line with three common considerations:
 
1)   Can anything else be done?
Installing any kind of safety camera is a last-resort tactic to modify speed. Before any camera is installed, we have to be satisfied that there are no educational or cost-effective engineering tactics that can be used to achieve the same outcome.
 
Full site surveys are undertaken by the relevant local Highway Authority (i.e West Sussex, East Sussex County Councils, Brighton & Hove City Council and the Highways Agency) to ascertain what needs to be done to improve the local road safety record. Only if no engineering or other solutions can be used will a safety camera be considered.
 
2)   Speed survey and traffic flow information
 
(Note – this does not apply to red light camera sites)
 
There are two different categories here – one for built up roads (40mph or less speed limit) and one for non-built up roads (50mph speed limit or more). All of the data is analysed over a three-year period to give a true picture of conditions on the road.
 
Built up roads are generally urban environments in and around cities, town and villages. The DfT class these roads as having a speed limit of 40mph or less. On these roads, we need to be certain that the top 15% of free-flowing traffic speeds are equal to – or higher than – the national enforcement thresholds as set out by the Association of Chief Police Officers.
 
Therefore, in order to site a fixed or mobile safety camera in a built up area, the top 15% of road users need to be travelling at least:

• 35mph in a 30mph zone

• 46mph in a 40mph zone.

Put another way, this means that more than 150 vehicles in every 1000 exceed 35mph or 46mph.
 
Non-built up roads are generally those roads outside of urban areas, including national speed limit single/dual carriageways. The DfT consider these roads to have a speed limit of 50mph or more. For this category, we need to be certain that the speeds are equal to or higher than 5mph above the stated speed limit before we would consider installing a fixed or mobile safety camera. This equates to:

• 55mph in a 50mph zone

• 65mph in a 60mph zone (national speed limit single carriageway or a speed limited dual carriageway)

• 75mph on a national speed limit dual/triple carriageway.

3)   Points System
 
All of the sites considered for camera enforcement are given points according to the number and severity of collisions per kilometre, as well as points for the type of road users injured in those collisions. The points are calculated using data from the previous three years.

• Each fatal collision on a site is given 15 points;

• Each collision resulting in serious injury is given 10 points and

• Each collision resulting in a slight injury is given 5 points.

These points are worked out per kilometre – so if a site is 1km long and has four collisions resulting in slight injuries on it, this equates to 20 points per kilometre.
 
If there are two slight injury collisions within a 500m stretch, that also equals 20 points per kilometre.
 
(Note – these are very simplistic examples given for illustration purposes only)
 
Other points are given for the type of road user injured in the collisions and these can be seen in the table below.

Additionally, we also take concerns from local residents into account as well as looking at the local road environment to assess other risks – are there playgrounds, doctors’ surgeries, shops etc nearby for example.
 
Points needed per kilometre for each camera type
 
Again, the points required per camera depend on whether the road is classed as built up or non-built up.
 
The summary table below shows the points requirement for camera installation.