The Lancashire Road Safety Partnership (LRSP) has given the go ahead for the deployment of new average speed enforcement camera systems on eight high-casualty routes in the UK county, with the hope of reducing the death toll and making the roads safer for all users.
Eight routes, where 13 people have lost their lives in road accidents in almost six years between January 2011 to October 2016, are being targeted in a bid to cut down on the number of casualties. The routes across Lancashire have seen a total of 406 casualties, with 62 people suffering serious or life changing injuries since 2011. The LRSP consists of representatives from: Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Blackpool Council, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, Highways England (HE), and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. The Partnership has decided to adopt a system using average speed cameras, as safety and motorist compliance has consistently improved on a variety of road types using the system in other parts of the UK.
The LRSP has selected Jenoptik’s Specs3 Vector cameras for the deployment, and installation work will begin immediately on the first route, the A6 London Road in Preston, with enforcement likely to begin around March. The seven other routes will have a staggered installation period, with all cameras in force by the end of 2017. Specs cameras are now widely proven to have a demonstrable and consistent influence on driver behavior, driving down casualties through compliance with posted speed limits and a harmonization of vehicle speeds where they are installed. Specs average speed enforcement cameras have been in use in the UK from the year 2000, with more than 85 permanent sites and 400 temporary roadworks installations operated across the country. Where Specs has been installed as a casualty reduction measure, KSI (killed or seriously injured) reductions of >70% on average are seen along those routes.
Developed and supplied by Jenoptik Traffic Solutions UK (formerly Vysionics), the Vector camera system uses automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) to detect vehicles and calculate their average speed by measuring the time taken to travel between two known fixed points. The Vector is a single, compact integrated unit containing two high resolution cameras to provide ALPR and scene overview images, including day/night mode, allowing image capture on a completely dark road. Images can be transferred via a wide range of communications media, or stored on local high capacity memory. A GPS clock, compass, accelerometer and two light sensors allow Vector to dynamically adapt to a changing operational environment. Each vehicle number plate is tracked through the field of view, covering up to two lanes of traffic and flows in opposite directions.
“This contract represents one of the UK’s most significant average speed projects, covering eight stretches of road,” commented Geoff Collins, Jenoptik’s sales and marketing director. “Based on our experience of almost 100 permanent Specs installations, I fully expect these Lancashire routes to become safer as the installations progress.”
