By Heather McNeill
Western Australia is a step closer to getting its first point-to-point speed cameras, with the first trial location to be along Forrest Highway.
The cameras, also known as average speed enforcement cameras, calculate the amount of time it takes a vehicle to travel between two points, and compare the average speed with the speed limit. If a driver is found to have exceeded the limit then a ticket can be issued.
The trial found 90 per cent of those speeding were exceeding the limit by between one and nine kilometres, while around 10 per cent were exceeding 120 kilometres an hour.
WA Police began reviewing tender submissions to install the camera technology in December, along with accompanying bids to install additional intersection cameras, fixed speed cameras and mobile cameras across Perth.
Point-to-point speed cameras are common in other Australian states with Victoria being the first to implement the technology in 2005.
The trial found 90 per cent of those speeding were exceeding the limit by between one and nine kilometres, while around 10 per cent were exceeding 120 kilometres an hour. Credit: Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure SA
Since then New South Wales [2010], Queensland [2011], the Australian Capital Territory [2012] and South Australia [2014] have also installed the cameras.
Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia are yet to adopt the technology, which has been used overseas for about 20 years.
WA's Road Safety Commissioner Kim Papalia said the tender for WA's first point-to-point cameras had only closed recently.
"The trial will be a first for WA and will be around integration with our existing infrastructure," he said.
A report compiled by Austroads in 2012 to review the effectiveness of the cameras internationally showed the use of the systems in the Netherlands resulted in a 47 per cent reduction in all crashes and a 25 per cent reduction in fatalities at a Rotterdam location.
It also revealed the proportion of vehicles exceeding the speed limit in Amsterdam dropped by 90 per cent at a point-to-point camera zone in Strathclyde.
Another report by Monash University Accident Research Centre Professor Maxwell Cameron in 2008 estimated the camera technology could reduce fatal and serious car accidents in some WA areas by a third.
The below video explains how new point-to-point cameras installed in South Australia in 2015 work.