HIGHLY visible speed cameras may not be the best way to slow down traffic.
Instead, researchers in New Zealand have found that hidden cameras both reduced
the number of crashes and speed of drivers in camera zones and cut the average
speed of drivers on all roads.
Their results fly in the face of British plans announced this month, with
police backing, to increase the numbers of overt cameras on the country鈥檚 roads.
鈥淭hey ought to be bright yellow,鈥� says Richard Brunstrom, chief constable for
North Wales.
Michael Keall and colleagues at the Land Transport Safety Authority in
Wellington found that hidden cameras led to an 11 per cent drop in open road
accidents and a 19 per cent drop in casualty rate. 鈥淐ompared with the localised
effect of visible cameras on speeds and crashes in speed-camera areas, the
hidden cameras had a more general effect on all roads,鈥� says Keall.
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Although motorists could not see the cameras, publicity and warning signs
alerted them that they were entering a speed-camera zone. The researchers think
that the uncertainty of not knowing exactly where the cameras were made drivers
more cautious.