What is the programme about?
The Static Camera Expansion Programme was part of the Government’s Safer Journeys road safety strategy.
Safer Journeys established a vision for New Zealand of “a safe road system increasingly free of death and serious injury.”
Research shows that Police enforcement is a crucial part of improving compliance with speed limits and reducing death and serious injury on our roads.
The Static Camera Expansion Programme is now complete and Police has 48 static safe speed cameras at high crash risk locations across the road network.
How were safe speed camera sites selected?
The Static Camera Expansion Programme selects sites for static safe speed cameras where there is an identified crash risk, and/or where research shows a history of crashes causing death and/or serious injury.
Police in conjunction with New Zealand Transport Agency’s (NZTA) Safety Team and an independent transportation sector expert, Abley Transportation Consultants, have developed the Static Camera Site Selection Methodology to identify locations on the road network that have a proven history of crashes or potential for crashes resulting in death or serious injury.
What information is used by the methodology?
The methodology uses two sets of information, basic road and mapping data as well as crash data.
Road and mapping data
The road and mapping data is sourced from Terralink, which is a New Zealand-based property and analytics company. The road and mapping data was analysed resulting in 108,180kms of road network being used to inform the methodology.
Crash data
The crash data is sourced from the NZTA's Crash Analysis System (CAS). CAS is an integrated computer system that provides tools to collect, map, query, and report on road crash and related data. It contains data collected from all traffic crashes reported by Police.
The methodology uses all injury crashes that occurred in the ten years between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2014 (inclusive). Injury crashes cover the following types of crashes:
- crash resulting in fatality
- severe crash resulting in serious injury
- minor crash resulting in minor injury
The crash, road and mapping data analysis helps enable a camera site to be determined. The following characteristics also need to be met.
For the placement of a camera, the road must:
- be at least 300m long
- not be too curved, as cameras need a relatively straight length of road to operate
- have a deteriorating trend in crashes occurring in the last five years
- have the ability for vehicles to travel above the speed limit
- have a majority of crashes that are not intersection related
- have crashes that indicate a high probability of a fatal or serious injury crash in the future
How are the methodology results used?
The analysis conducted based on the described methodology has identified various camera sites across the road network where static cameras could potentially be placed.
However, before a camera can be installed, Police and relevant experts undertake a thorough evaluation of the identified camera sites to determine whether the site is physically and operationally suitable for a camera.
In consultation with relevant stakeholders, the camera site is then agreed and the process to install and operationalise a static camera is initiated.
Where are the safe speed cameras located?
The locations of cameras (PDF 94KB) under the Static Camera Expansion Programme.