Cambridgeshire County Council is a member of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Partnership which includes the operation of the county’s speed enforcement cameras at locations with a history of speed related personal injury accidents.
There are currently 53 fixed cameras within the partnership of which 34 are on County Council roads. The Highways Agency has installed a system of average speed cameras on both carriageways of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon. In addition there are 2 mobile enforcement vans that operate at specific accident sites around the county.
The overall aim of the camera network is to reduce casualties on the roads of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. This is done by high-visibility enforcement of speed limits – the idea of cameras being to slow drivers down rather than to punish them.
The current partnership has superseded a Safety Camera Partnership which was brought into being on the introduction of the government’s cost recovery initiative. Cost recovery as a system of financing the operation of the camera enforcement ceased on 31 March 2007 and has been replaced by a general increase in government funding for road safety activities including camera enforcement.
Since the original Partnership was formed in 2001, safety cameras have contributed to a 55% reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured in collision hotspots around the county. There has also been a 17% reduction in average speeds at new camera sites - this equates to a reduction of around 7 mph on average. (Source: “The National Safety Camera Programme – Three-year evaluation report”, published by DfT/University College London in June 2004)
Fixed Safety Cameras
There are two types of fixed safety camera in use in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – Truvelo and Gatso. Further details about how the cameras work and their locations can be found on the website (see below for address) set up for the Safety Camera Partnership which is being maintained for the present.
All of the county’s fixed camera sites conform to the government’s guidelines that were in force for the safety camera partnerships. The camera housings are yellow and signed in advance. There is no intention at present to move away from the original guidelines regarding conspicuity and signing.
Mobile Safety Cameras
In addition to the fixed safety cameras, two liveried police vans currently operate at 40 accident sites in the county. Locations vary from day to day – an up to date list can be found on the Partnership website. The locations are also broadcast on local radio and published in local newspapers.
The safety camera vans are blue and yellow with police markings and display a camera logo on the side. They park in places where they can be easily seen, not behind any obstacles. Vans operate at site where people have been killed and injured in the past and there is a history of excessive speed.
Who’s In The Partnership?
The Road Safety Partnership is made up of Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council, The Highways Agency, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Public Health Network and East of England Ambulance NHS Trust.