New Gold Coast speed cameras may be revenue raisers but police have a very different agenda

They’re going to make the State Government an absolute motza. But that’s not all you need to know about the new speed cameras dotted around the Gold Coast, writes Keith Woods

SOMETHING a little odd has happened to Gold Coast traffic.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed. It’s a little surreal, barely noticeable until you think about it, but very real.

The whole city has slowed down. Cars pass slowly and steadily as if in a funeral cortege. But there is no hearse.

The reason is not congestion or crashes or any of the usual causes.

No, the reason became clear to me when cruising down a near-empty Smith St towards Southport during the Christmas break. The car in front of me could not have been doing more than the low 60s, and in front of it was an empty road.

But as we approached the junction at Kumbari Ave the driver suddenly applied the brakes. Why? The presence of yet another new speed camera, which has been recently added to the red-light camera already on the street.

The new combined red light and speed camera set-up at the corner of Smith St and Kumbari Ave in Southport. Picture: Glenn Hampson

So we found ourselves trundling along at just over 50km/h on a near-empty six-lane street.

It’s the same story throughout the city. Cameras are suddenly everywhere and fear of the flash has taken hold.

The camera at the intersection of Bermuda and Rudd streets at Broadbeach Waters has become notorious. Thousands of motorists have been caught in its gaze since it was upgraded to become a combined speed and red light camera last March.

Many report being stung for $174 for tripping slightly over the 60km/h speed limit because they panic when the lights turn orange – something that happens after only the briefest of flirtations with green.

“Never in my life have I had a fine for anything,” one local told the Bulletin. “You can see in the image they sent me the lights are orange and I know it’s a red light camera so I freak and I went above 60.”

A lot of motorists have been caught by the cameras on Bermuda Street. Photo: Richard Gosling

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A Gold Coast Bulletin study showed the Bermuda St camera making the State Government $19,000 an hour – a government we know is desperate for every dollar it can get its hands on.

It would be naive to believe that behind all the fine talk about road safety, Brisbane didn’t relish the cashflow.

Forward estimates show the Palaszczuk Government expects revenue raised from speed cameras to go up by almost 50 per cent over four years, from $160.6 million in 2017-18 to $237.2 million by 2021-22. Installing extra speed cameras on the Coast is part of the plan to reach that target.

Figures like these have prompted LNP Leader Deb Frecklington to accuse the Government of treating motorists as “cash cows”.

“A single speed camera costing Queenslanders almost $5000 an hour is not about road safety – it’s blatant revenue raising for Labor Government coffers,” she said.

It is not just the new fixed speed cameras catching people out.

Police officers conducting a road-safety operation in Varsity Lakes. Picture: Jerad Williams

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On my travels around the Gold Coast I have also noticed something else new going on: covert police cars, rigged with speed cameras, parked so deep in bushes by the roadside that leadfoots will not see them until too late.

It’s a far cry from only a few short years ago when “speed camera in use’’ signs had to be used.

Even some police officers have raised concerns about the “sneaky” new tactics.

But there is another side to this story.

I have also seen mobile speed traps appear in two areas in recent weeks where I have not seen police activity before.

Both were at locations where I know there had been serious accidents in which speed was a factor in the preceding days. And neither was an area of high traffic where large numbers of motorists would be caught.

The police officers operating these cameras are not revenue raisers.

Remember, these are the people who attend crashes where death and injury occur. They are the ones who have to knock on the doors of family members and break horrific news.

Do that a couple of times and I doubt you’d give two hoots about raising revenue.

If more speed cameras mean less accidents like this, then so be it. Picture: Steve McCully

But they do care about road safety. And they know – because numerous studies prove it – that clamping down on speeding is the best way to reduce the toll of deaths and injuries on our roads.

Driving around in what feels like one giant school zone isn’t the most fun. But what some of these cops have to deal with is a lot worse.

So you’ll be five minutes later getting to your destination. So what?

You might be busy. You might be running late. I know I usually am.

But I’ve decided not to care.

Instead I’ve been inspired by something else I’ve seen on our roads lately. Number plates with a jolly surfboard logo and the words: “Relax, it’s the Gold Coast.”