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Mark Hinchliffe·
Motorbike news
··8 Comments·1 min read

Mobile speed camera we’d actually like to see

UK mobile speed camera

Here’s a mobile speed camera unit we would actually like to see, mainly because it is very easy to see as the UK vans are brightly coloured and not covert.

In Australia, fixed speed cameras are well signposted. Anyone caught speeding by fixed speed cameras is simply not paying enough attention and probably shouldn’t be on the road.

However, many of our mobile speed camera units are concealed and in Queensland last year, the rule about placing a warning sign by the unit was dropped. Mind you, police cynically placed the signs after the unit, rather than before them as an appropriate warning to motorists to slow down.

Covert speed cameras only collect revenue. They do not slow the traffic at a dangerous black spot.

Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party candidate, motorcycle crash widow and passionate rider Judith Kuerschner says these covert speed cameras are ineffective at preventing crashes after a vehicle has sped past.

“It’s like smacking a dog on the nose for pooping on your lawn two weeks after the fact,” she aptly argues.

Judith with her 2016 Can Am F3-S Spyder
Judith with her 2016 Can Am F3-S Spyder

Not only are these British speed camera units easy to see and act as a warning, but drivers caught for low-speed infringements are invited to go on a speed awareness course instead of copping a fine.

We need this sort of dispensation in Australia. Too many motorists who accidentally stray over the speed limit while they are watching the traffic instead of their speedo are being punished by our near-zero tolerance for speed.

The more you ride and drive in Australia, the more chance you have of copping one of these low-level speeding fines. Recreational riders who do a lot of kilometres are probably overly represented in speed fine statistics simply because they are on the road a lot.

Worse still, professional riders and drivers – motorcycle couriers, truckies, taxi drivers, etc – could even lose their licences and livelihoods simply because their time on the road means they are more likely to cop speeding fines from covert speed cameras.

UK mobile speed camera
British-made Truvelo speed camera

The British-made Truvelo speed cameras are also able to detect drivers texting which riders would no doubt welcome as distracted drivers are a major danger to vulnerable road users such as motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.

The clever cameras can also detect motorists not wearing seatbelts.

Similar detection technology is also in use in several states of Australia.

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8 Comments

  1. One point I would like to make on this subject, at least they are operated by the Police, unlike the Victorian mobile speed camera operation, a private overseas owned company. And what, they are not doing it to make a profit? Then that brings into question the private company that administers the speed camera fines, and they are not in it to make a profit? So my question, what percentage of the revenue is made available to the Victorian government, and what percentage of the profits made by private companies, stays here and does not end up overseas.

    1. No they are not operated by the Police, they are employees of a private company in Police vehicles, which makes them illegal, since impersonating a Police officer is illegal in the UK.

  2. If the true goal of speed camera use was to deter excessive speeds which may contribute to road crashes, and I say ‘may contribute’ because the open speed limit zone recently re-established in the NT is without incident, then having them well sign posted would achieve this goal. Unfortunately, the revenue raised from covert and un marked mobile cameras has the government ‘addicted’.
    The introduction of smart cameras to pick up the mobile phone user would go a long way towards eliminating one of the ever increasing distractions which contribute to road crashes these days. While speed camera use is a state issue it is one of the factors stemming from the National Road Safety Strategy, which is a federal strategy, and one which the AMEP is heavily committed to having used effectively for all road users, particularly vulnerable ones such as motorcyclists.

  3. The facts about excessive speed being a killer has long been deliberately misrepresented to reinforce the mistaken belief that exceeding the speed limit is the excess speed that is the problem. Speed cameras can only possibly save a life if used correctly at a genuine black spot. What is a genuine black spot? A place where speeding above the limit has resulted in more than one accident. Not a place where a drunk fell into traffic or someone committed suicide. Covert speed cameras can save lives only if they are used as a tool to target hooning in places where complaints about hoons have been made. Not on main roads at peak hour.
    The fact is speeding fines are now responsible for causing death not preventing them.
    This is because they are being used as revenue and therefore over used.
    Exceeding the speed limit is not speeding unless you are going too fast because you can be going too fast even under the limit.
    If going too fast was call lemons and exceeding the limit limes, no one would be getting lemon fines from speed cameras only when the lemons are also limes would a fine be issued but that would only happen once every fifty lemons.

  4. Speed cameras have nil effect on speeding!
    Point is you dont know you have been photographed till 3 weeks after the event.
    I have been pissed off when i recieve one but all too little way too late!
    So how can it change something that you know nothing about?

  5. Speed cameras have NIL effect on speeding !
    A truer statement than you think.
    Exceeding a speed limit is not speeding it is exceeding an arbitrary limit that often has nothing to do with what speed is safe.
    It is unfortunate for us all that exceeding a speed limit has been called speeding because it fosters the mistaken belief that speeding fines have an educational value in getting people to not speed and supposedly make the roads safer.
    True speeding is driving too fast for the circumstances and most often occurs at speeds below or equal to the posted limit.
    In only one out of every fifty accidents where speed was a factor was the vehicle involved exceeding the limit also.
    Speeding fines only educate people not to exceed the limit in order to avoid a fine;
    they do not teach people what speeding is and therefor to not speed.

  7. Not all UK Scamera vans are so clearly marked, some look like roadworks vehicles complete with amber lights not blue and the ‘POLICE’ as low as possible to hide it with roadside vegetation. Hampshire’s favourite trick is to open both the rear flap windows, on which the Scamera sign is applied 180 degrees to hide the signs and the ‘POLICE’ above them. Then there’s the scamera skips, horseboxes and ‘other’ time/distance methods…

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