
Confusion still reigns
More than 250 miles of roads in Great Britain are now being regularly monitored by average speed cameras, according to statistics released by the RAC Foundation.
But leading safety campaigners are calling for drivers of larger vehicles to properly recognise the limits specific for their vehicles, especially in Scotland where speed limits for HGVs on single lane carriageways remain at 40mph, as opposed to 50mph in England and Wales, a situation that has led to a large amount of confusion with drivers and operators alike.
Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at RoSPA, said, “Speed limits are lower for larger vehicles because their extra size and mass means they take longer to stop and any impact is more severe, therefore drivers should be aware of the speed limit that applies to the vehicle they are driving and always stay within that limit.”
With the vast major of latest generation safety cameras being directly linked to ANPR systems, the data they record can immediately determine the type of vehicle being driven and, therefore, its appropriate limit for that type of road. For example, an HGV travelling at 50mph within a general 50mph limit, but on a single carriageway road in Scotland, will be recorded as breaking the law.
Research carried out for the RAC Foundation by Road Safety Analysis has identified at least 50 stretches of road which are permanently managed by SPECS and VECTOR cameras, which monitor a vehicle’s speed over a prescribed distance. With a total length of 256 miles under observation across the UK, average speed cameras are also often used on a temporary basis to manage traffic through roadworks but these are not included in the RAC Foundation study.
The 50 stretches range in length from just a quarter of a mile over Tower Bridge in London to 99 miles on the A9 between Dunblane and Inverness in Scotland.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said, “Average speed cameras are becoming a more common fixture on Britain’s roads. Unsurprisingly, the indications are that compliance with the speed limit through stretches of road managed by average speed cameras is high, but the acid test is whether accident and casualty rates have also fallen. That is what the next part of this research project should tell us.”