Point-to-point average speed cameras might soon keep track of all cars and not just heavy vehicles, leading to speeding fines and other penalties if a new trial proves successful.
NSW Roads Minister John Graham announced the state would trial a six-month change along two highways soon at a media conference on Sunday.
Point-to-point speed cameras, also known as average speed cameras, track the time it takes a vehicle to travel from one distance to another.
Mr Graham said these cameras prevent motorists from momentarily slowing down as they would for a mobile traffic camera which only records a vehicle’s speed at the time it passes by.
The trial locations will be a 15km stretch on the Pacific Highway between Kew and Lake Innes in Port Macquarie, and the another 16km stretch between Coolac and Gundagai on the Hume Highway.
If the trials prove successful the change may be rolled out to the entire state in an attempt to lower its climbing death toll.
‘NSW is the only jurisdiction in the world to use average speed cameras but restrict their use to heavy vehicles only,’ Mr Graham said.
‘In the context of a rising road toll, now is the time to trial these cameras for light vehicles and understand if we can keep more people safe on the road more of the time.’
Mr Graham said NSW is behind other states and countries which already use point-to-point speed cameras on all vehicles.
‘All other mainland n states and countries like the UK, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands have found average speed cameras to be effective and we aim to be as rigorous as possible to be sure they will also reduce road trauma in NSW,’ he said.
The trial will focus on regional NSW because speeding ‘is a bigger problem’ in those areas and the infrastructure is already in place.
Mr Graham said that despite only a third of the state living in regional NSW, two thirds of road deaths happen there.
Between 2018 and 2022 the two trial areas recorded six road deaths and 33 serious injuries.
Speeding has been linked to 44 per cent of the state’s road fatalities in 2023 and again, three-quarters of these deaths occurred in regional areas.
As of September, 227 deaths have been recorded on NSW roads compared with 225 at the same point in 2023.
In the 60 days leading up to the point-to-point speed camera trial, drivers caught speeding will receive a written warning instead of a fine.
After that time however, financial and licence penalties will kick in.
The start dates of the trials have yet to be announced but Mr Graham said there will be clear signage in the affected areas to alert drivers to the rule change.
Legislation is required to start the trials or make them the new law but Mr Graham said he was confident this would happen and that they would become permanent.
Sydney already has 37 existing point-to-point camera systems covering the city’s tollways through to a 94km stretch of the Newell Highway in the state’s west.
These cameras will continue to only monitor heavy vehicles for the time being.
Tasmania is the only other state in that does not use point-to-point cameras but the state government has floated the possibility of introducing a trial of its own.
NSW’s changes were suggested during a road safety forum involving 155 experts in Sydney in April.
Another recommendation provided by the experts was removing warning signs on approach to fixed and mobile speed cameras but that proposal has not been discussed since.