Five speed-over-distance cameras, such as on the R61, will be installed around Cape Town
|||Super-smart camera networks - to nab speeding drivers - are to be installed in five sites across Cape Town.
New plans for “average speed over distance” cameras were announced by the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith on wednesday.
Among them are the M3, Table Bay Boulevard, Nelson Mandela Boulevard and other roads yet to be decided. There is already an Asod system on the M5 - but no further exact sites have been identified other than somewhere on the M3, which runs between Hospital Bend and Lakeside.
A new Asod network has also been launched on one of the province’smost dangerous, just outside Beaufort West and 31.7km towards Three Sisters.
NO FATAL CRASHES
The project was initially implemented in October 2011on a 71.6km stretch of road between Beaufort West and Aberdeen on the R61 - the longest camera network of its kind in the world.
Transport MEC Robin Carlisle’s office said of the plan: “Prior to the initial implementation on the R61 stretch from Beaufort West to Aberdeen, there had been a reported 509 crashes in total, 75 of which being fatal crashes resulting in the loss of 149 lives - this over the previous 12 years.
“Since the implementation of Asod on the R61 stretch, we have received no reports of any fatal crashes on that stretch.”
“We are very proud to add yet another weapon to our law-enforcement arsenal.”
“This new Asod now means that 103.3km of the province’s most dangerous roads are now covered by this camera enforcement network,” Carlisle said. “This will have a profound effect on our continued battle to reduce the carnage on the road.
“The figures show that our efforts are working; we have achieved the fastest and most significant road death reduction in the world, a reduction of 28 percent since we started with Safely Home in 2009.
“A major challenge has been the ill-discipline that exists among motorists on the road.”
“Vehicles driving below the speed limit of 120km/h have risen from 61 percent to 74 percent, and conversely, those driving over the speed limit have gone down from 39 percent to 26 percent.
“This is a remarkable improvement that shows that more and more drivers are in fact slowing down.”
Carlisle said his department and partners Sanral were looking at extending the network to Touws-rivier and the R27.
“Roads are becoming increasingly dangerous, and slowing down is often the difference between life and death,” Carlisle said.
HOW IT WORKS
The Average Speed Over Distance system calculates the average speed of a vehicle from the time it passes the first camera until it passes the second camera.
The average speed is then determined by what it has taken a vehicle to travel from point A (where the first camera is located) to point B (where the second camera is located).
Reaching point B in a time shorter than is determined by the distance and the speed limit, means that the driver is speeding. - Cape Times