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Could speed cameras save cyclist lives?Speed cameras - image CC licensed via Amanda Slater on Flickr.jpg

Could speed cameras save cyclist lives?

A new study from Imperial College London finds that speed cameras reduce crashes by 30%
by Elliot Johnston
Sun, Apr 02, 2017 17:23
36

According to a new study from Imperial College London the number of road traffic collisions falls by 30% in areas that feature speed cameras.

The study is the first of its kind in road traffic accident analysis to use a particular type of statistical analysis that takes extra variables into consideration, other than the basic factors of whether an accident happened in a particular location.

The findings come from the Department of Civil Engineering at ICL. A team of scientists from the department took data from 771 camera sites across England, from Sussex and Dorset all the way up to Lancashire and Greater Manchester, alongside a control sample of 4,787 points randomly sampled across the same areas.

>Read more: West Country faces complete fixed speed camera switch off

The method employed by the team led by Proessor Dan Graham was called a Bayesian doubly-robust estimation method, which they say offers "a promising approach for evaluation of transport safety interventions."

The Bayesian method allowed the team to consider not only measure the statistical likelihood of an accident happening in the areas that happened to have cameras, but whether the fact that speed cameras were present had an impact in the accident happening or not.

>Read more: Watch Cardiff cyclist trigger speed camera

The paper concludes that the model the team used could be used more generally to estimate crash factors and their distributions, to better understand how our roads work.

“Our case study results indicate the speed cameras do cause a significant reduction in road traffic accidents, by as much as 30% on average for treated sites," the paper reads.

“This is an important result that could help inform public policy debates on appropriate measures to reduce RTAs.

“The adoption of evidence based approaches by public authorities, based on clear principles of causal inference, could vastly improve their ability to evaluate different courses of action and better understand the consequences of intervention.”

Speed Camera
Road Safety GB

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36 comments

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wycombewheeler | 7 years ago
6 likes

anyone who 'struggles to keep below 30mph' should not be driving.

Avatar
DoctorFish replied to Gourmet Shot | 7 years ago
5 likes

Gourmet Shot wrote:

That assumes it isn't a copper hiding in a bush.  Plenty of them where I live usually on stretches of road where pedestrians are non existing but where there's a nice big juicy road that 99% of cars would struggle to keeping below 30mph...it very much smells of gouging the average motorist. 

Why would a car struggle to keep below 30mph?  I've heard the excuse from someone who has been caught twice by the same camera that it is because the camera is at the bottom of a hill and the car doesn't slow down that much.  So what are they saying?  Their car doesn't have brakes?

Getting fed up when I stick to speed limits of people over taking me, who I then gererally catch up with at the next junction anyway.  I've taken to waving to them, but of course this kind of driver doens't look in their mirrors.

Avatar
keirik | 7 years ago
4 likes

As well as my 4 bikes I have a 1200cc motorbike and a 5.7 litre V8 car.

Funnily enough they are all equally capable of sticking to the speed limit, and do so.

 

Both the car and motorbike can of course get there quicker and more effectively than the bikes, but who cares if your car can go at 140mph, I've done that on a track and its much more fun than doing it where they have pedestrians, cyclists and street furniture to hit.

 

 

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oldmixte | 7 years ago
1 like

To be fair, if the cameras are used properly then they can be very effective. Devon have installed them on major roads with cross roads. Just before the junction is a speed camera warning sign, prominently displayed with plenty of time to slow down or check your speed before you pass the very visible camera.

Now that’s intelligent use of cameras for road safety and if you get done at one of these, then it’s obvious that you are not intelligent enough to hold a driving license.

I quite like the idea in France where on some roads, just before the junction is a speed limit reduction just to cover the junction, again in my opinion an intelligent use of speed limits.

Whether or not you like it the safest speed is the speed at which 85% of drivers would proceed at if there were no limit.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to oldmixte | 7 years ago
0 likes
OldMixte wrote:

Whether or not you like it the safest speed is the speed at which 85% of drivers would proceed at if there were no limit.

What is the reasoning behind this?

Like, there's a particular road here where there effectively are no speed limits because they aren't enforced. And in the early hours, and sometimes in the evenings, a majority of drivers choose speeds that make it far too scary to cycle on. Cycling through choke points and around the door zone of parked cars when vehicles may be coming up behind you at 60mph is not pleasant.

There are also frequent crashes, judging from the smashed-in road-side fences, knocked-over traffic lights, demolished walls, and wrecked cars awaiting the tow-truck (there's one such been sitting there all this week, creating another hazard for cycling). So I don't get the logic of your point.

Why should I trust the judgement of 85% of drivers on such a topic? At certain times of day, 85% of drivers appear to be idiots.

Of course, give me somewhere else to cycle and walk, and the 85% can do what they want and cause whatever havoc they wish.

Avatar
alansmurphy | 7 years ago
3 likes

"Whether or not you like it the safest speed is the speed at which 85% of drivers would proceed at if there were no limit"

 

I like your logic, can we apply it to bike shopping. I reckon 85% of us on here would pay £100 for a Cervelo S5 Dura Ace, make it happen people!

 

Average speed cameras could work but doesn't appear to have prevented total dickishness up the Cat and Fiddle. The sun was shining on Sunday and we were passed by every tool on 2 or 4 wheels at way beyond the limit and spotted a fair few parked up looking at their watches near the top. One Audi driver even beeped at a responsible (yes we found one) driver who amazingly didn't think it was a great idea to pass crossing double white lines on a sharp blind bend on the brow of a hill...

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