Africa-Press – South-Africa. Motorists in Cape Town may have noticed more speed cameras popping up across the city.
While these cameras aim to reduce speeding in high-risk areas, officials say the number of devices is still far below what’s needed to match the city’s growing traffic volumes.
JP Smith, City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, explains that speed cameras change driver behaviour in the immediate vicinity of the camera. People will slow down before the camera and speed up immediately after passing it.
Therefore, speed cameras are placed in areas where speed needs to be reduced, in accident ‘hot spots’.
“We haven’t really increased the number of cameras substantially. Five years ago, there were 26 cameras. At the moment, with traffic volumes having increased significantly with the number of registered vehicles on our roads, we now have 77 cameras, and those are the speed and traffic light cameras. So, it’s probably not enough. We should probably have a significantly larger number of cameras if you compare us to other cities around the world.
“The prevailing position of the public is that they’re very earnest for those cameras not to be concealed. You should, of course, never speed, so you shouldn’t be worried about where the cameras are.
“Our own speed enforcement policy emphasises the need for the camera to be visible in response to that prevailing public sentiment, but I don’t think it aids the cause of road safety, and we are slowly but surely deploying more officers.”
To listen to Smith in conversation with Lester Kiewit on CapeTalk’s Breakfast Show, use the audio player below:
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