EVALUATION OF THE CRASH EFFECTS OF VICTORIA’S FIXED FREEWAY SPEED CAMERAS by Stuart Newstead Kathy Diamantopoulou Max Cameron & Nimmi Candappa May, 2019 (Released February, 2021) Report No. 350 MONASH UNIVERSITY ACCIDENT RESEARCH CENTRE REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Report No. Date Release Date ISBN ISSN Pages 350 May 2019 February 2021 978-1-925413-20-5 1835-4815 (online) 48 Title and sub-title: Evaluation of the crash effects of Victoria’s fixed freeway speed cameras Author(s): Newstead, S., Diamantopoulou, K., Cameron, M. and Candappa, N. Sponsoring Organisation(s): This project was funded through the Centre’s Baseline Research Program for which grants have been received from: Department of Justice and Community Safety, Department of Transport (VicRoads) and Transport Accident Commission Abstract: This aim of study was to evaluate the road safety benefits of fixed speed cameras in operation in Victoria in terms of their impact on crash frequency and severity. Evaluation focused on camera installations on two roads; fixed spot speed cameras at 4 locations on the Geelong Rd (Princes Freeway) and the point to point speed camera system on the Hume Freeway covering the freeway from Epping to Broadford. These road sections were chosen for evaluation based on sufficient before and after installation crash history and being free from other confounding influences at the camera sites. Analysis results showed that the estimated proportional crash reduction effects associated with the cameras at fixed spot camera sites were statistically the same as those estimated for the point to point system. The only difference between spot speed cameras and the point to point system was the geographical area of influence over which associated crash reduction effects were estimated. Evaluation results estimated a 27.7% statistically significant reduction (p=0.016) in all casualty crashes associated with fixed speed camera installations. A corresponding 30.2% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes was estimated however, this was not statistically significantly different from the estimate for all casualty crashes. Absolute crash savings associated with the Hume Freeway point to point camera system were much greater than those estimated on the Geelong Rd spot speed camera network with annual estimated reductions of 21 and 6.8 casualty crashes respectively associated with the cameras. This reflects the greater crash population covered by the point to point system compared to spot speed cameras. Key Words: Disclaimer Enforcement, Speeding, Fixed Speed Camera, This report is disseminated in the interest of Evaluation, Point-to-Point Speed Camera System, information exchange. The views expressed here are Casualty Crashes those of the authors, and not necessarily those of Monash University Reproduction of this page is authorised. Monash University Accident Research Centre, Building 70, Clayton Campus, Victoria, 3800, Australia. www.monash.edu.au/muarc Telephone: +61 3 9905 4371, Fax: +61 3 9905 4363 ii MONASH UNIVERSITY ACCIDENT RESEARCH CENTRE Preface Project Manager / Team Leader: Associate Professor Stuart Newstead Research Team: Kathy Diamantopoulou Professor Max Cameron Nimmi Candappa Contributor Statement A/Prof Stuart Newstead – project management, research design, data analysis, manuscript preparation Kathy Diamantopoulou – data preparation, manuscript preparation Professor Max Cameron – study design, manuscript preparation Nimmi Candappa – data extraction and preparation Ethics Statement Ethics approval was not required for this project. EVALUATION OF VICTORIA’S FIXED FREEWAY SPEED CAMERAS iii Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................. VI 1. BACKGROUND AND AIMS ....................................................................................... 1 2 REVIEW OF EXISTING EVIDENCE ON FIXED SPEED CAMERAS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS ...................................................................................................... 2 2.1 FIXED SPOT SPEED CAMERA SYSTEMS .................................................................. 2 2.1.2 Fixed Spot Speed Cameras in Victoria ................................................................... 2 2.1.2 Fixed Spot Speed Cameras in New South Wales .................................................... 2 2.1.3 Fixed Spot Speed Cameras in Queensland ............................................................. 3 2.1.4 Fixed Spot Speed Cameras in the United Kingdom ................................................ 3 2.1.5 Fixed Spot Speed Cameras in Norway ................................................................... 4 2.1.6 Fixed Spot Speed Cameras in Other Jurisdictions .................................................. 4 2.2 POINT TO POINT SPEED CAMERA SYSTEMS .......................................................... 4 2.2.1 Point to Point Camera Systems in the United Kingdom.......................................... 5 2.2.2 Point to Point Cameras in Victoria ......................................................................... 5 2.2.3 Point-To-Point Camera Systems in Other Jurisdictions .......................................... 7 3. EVALUATION DATA SOURCES ............................................................................... 8 3.1 FIXED SPOT SPEED CAMERA DATA ........................................................................ 8 3.1.1 City Link Domain and Burnley Tunnels ................................................................ 10 3.1.2 East Link and the Mullum Mullum and Melba Tunnels ......................................... 10 3.1.3 Western Ring Road Speed Cameras ...................................................................... 11 3.1.5 Monash Freeway speed cameras ........................................................................... 11 3.1.6 Fixed Speed Cameras on Geelong Road ................................................................ 11 3.2 POINT-TO-POINT CAMERA SYSTEM DATA .......................................................... 12 3.2.1 Point-to-Point cameras on Peninsula Link............................................................ 12 3.2.2 Point-to-Point cameras on Peninsula Link............................................................ 14 3.3 SPEED CAMERA SYSTEMS CONSIDERED FOR EVALUATION ........................... 15 3.4 CRASH DATA............................................................................................................... 15 4. EVALUATION DESIGN AND ANALYSIS METHODS.............................................. 16 4.1 EVALUATION DESIGN ............................................................................................. 16 4.2 SELECTION OF TREATMENT AND CONTROL SITES FOR GEELONG ROAD SPEED CAMERAS ...................................................................................................... 21 4.2.1 Treatment Sites for Fixed Speed Cameras on Geelong Road ................................ 21 4.2.2 Control Sites for Fixed Speed Cameras on Geelong Road .................................... 21 4.3 SELECTION OF TREATMENT AND CONTROL SITES FOR HUME FREEWAY POINT-TO-POINT SPEED CAMERA SYSTEM ......................................................... 24 4.3.1 Treatment Sites for Point-to-Point Speed Camera System on Hume Freeway ....... 24 4.3.2 Control Sites for Point-to-Point Speed Camera System on Hume Freeway ........... 24 4.4 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY........................................................... 28 5 ANALYSIS RESULTS .............................................................................................. 33 5.1 FIXED SPEED CAMERAS ON GEELONG ROAD ..................................................... 33 5.2 POINT-TO-POINT CAMERAS ON HUME FREEWAY .............................................. 34 iv MONASH UNIVERSITY ACCIDENT RESEARCH CENTRE 5.3 COMBINED RESULTS FOR GEELONG ROAD SPEED CAMERAS AND HUME FREEWAY POINT-TO-POINT CAMERAS ................................................................ 37 5.4 ABSOLUTE TRAUMA SAVINGS ASSOCIATED WITH THE GEELONG ROAD SPEED CAMERAS AND HUME FREEWAY POINT-TO-POINT CAMERAS ........... 39 6. DISCUSSION............................................................................................................ 41 6.1 FIXED SPEED CAMERAS ON THE GEELONG ROAD ............................................ 41 6.2 POINT-TO-POINT SPEED CAMERAS ON THE HUME FREEWAY ......................... 42 6.3 COMBINED GEELONG ROAD FIXED CAMERAS WITH HUME FREEWAY POINT-TO-POINT CAMERAS .................................................................................... 43 7 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................... 44 8 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 45 APPENDIX A: SPEED CAMERA-ON DATES FOR GEELONG ROAD SPEED CAMERAS ................................................................................................................ 47 EVALUATION OF VICTORIA’S FIXED FREEWAY SPEED CAMERAS v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This aim of this study was to evaluate the road safety benefits of fixed speed cameras in operation in Victoria in terms of their impact on crash frequency and severity. Fixed speed cameras in Victoria are operated on a number of freeways and toll roads across Victoria and encompass two specific types of technology: fixed spot speed cameras which measure the instantaneous speed of vehicles at the camera site and point to