Top 10 Victorian red light speed cameras for 2020-2021

I thought it would be a good a good idea to compile the top 10 Victorian red light speed camera locations for 2020-2021. This is the most recent financial year's data provided by the Victorian government.

Why a top 10 compilation?

The top 10 red light speed camera locations catch a lot of people out. With 170,225 fines out of 1,216,979 these cameras represent around 14% or roughly one in six fines. Lots of people make the same mistake and if you don't know the area, you may make the same mistake too.

Half of the locations are 40 km/h speed zones for part of the day. People often don't expect 40km/h zones near schools to operate extended hours or even on weekends, so it's easy to make an error in judgement. Rosanna Road has a number of relatively recently installed cameras and whilst people who drive that way regularly, got a period of warning, if you don't regularly drive along Rosanna Road you may not be expecting the speed change. I know I've driven through areas and wondered when the speed limit changed. In fact I was completely unaware for quite a long time the entire central city area had become 40km/h. If you're driving according to the speeds you remember (as many of us do) and don't pay attention to the speed signs (called being change-unaware and it's very common) you will pay the price.

North Road is another major road where you really can't see there's a school coming up.

Warrigal Road and Batesford Road has extended 40km/h times Monday to Saturday (yet not Sunday) and up to 8pm at night. Personally I think the government should use some of the tens of millions of dollars raised in fines to improve the pedestrian infrastructure (car/pedestrian separation) to make this area better for drivers and pedestrians. There's a useless pedestrian overpass to the north of the train line (goes way to far east making it inconvenient) and a redundant pedestrian crossing to the south of the train line. Build a shorter/better pedestrian overpass to the south of the train line, get rid of the pedestrian crossing and provide barriers to stop pedestrians crossing at any other point. Perhaps even remove the car parking on Warrigal Road and provide better parking at the rear as most of the shops now are restaurants.

The Melbourne Airport red light speed camera is an interesting one. People come off a higher speed freeway and perhaps that affects their perception of speed. I know that's happened to me and resulted in a speed fine. Also there's a very high level of traffic, more cars generally means more fines.

Fitzroy Street St Kilda is a nice big open road and it makes little sense for the lower speed limit quite a distance from pedestrian activity. Unfortunately, Victoria mainly has speed cameras at intersections so there's quite a distance where the speed limit doesn't make sense.

The Western Ring Road west of Sydney Road is bound to catch out many people due to the variable speed signs. A research article I read recently showed 58.3% of people who drive a road regularly where the speed signs are often the same, won't see one or more variable speed signs have changed. It would be interesting to see what percentage of people are caught out by variable speed sign changes. I can't help wonder perhaps if variable speed signs at the default speed of the freeway (in this case 100km/h) then when the speed is changed the annulus should always be flashing. Flashing does alert people to a change.

Geelong Road, Footscray goes from 80 km/h to 60km/h, 40km/h school zone then back up to 60km/h with a huge three lane highway so easy for people to creep up in speed with speed perception issues after a long drive along a major road.

Eastlink, Rowville is interesting as it is the only speed camera on Eastlink in the top 10. My guess is the long downward slope will catch many people out as cars speed up when there's a downward slope if people aren't proactive. Of course there's always going to be those travelling in the right lane who speed past the rest of the traffic as well. The right lane on major freeways nearly always catches more people than the other lanes.

Hopefully sharing these thoughts and the locations of the top 10 red light speed camera locations help people to adjust their driving for the benefit of everyone including their hip pocket.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Aussie hero Beau Jackson helping motorists avoid mobile speed fines gets fine from EPA.

A short while ago I read about a young man from Sydney, Beau Jackson, who regularly warns drivers of a mobile speed camera by displaying a sign before the mobile speed camera.

Speed camera locations: Teen hailed as hero for hunting hidden cameras and warning drivers | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

I couldn't help think at the time of reading the article that one of the lessons I've learnt in life is when you attack the system, the system will attack you back. It's a sad lesson as it's really a way to keep people in line and we shouldn't have to live in such a system. Perhaps it's just human nature. If someone attacks you would you attack them back? Probably. So why do we think the system should be any better than us since we are the system.

Now just a few weeks later we've found the "Aussie hero" has been hit with a fine for littering from the EPA.

Speed camera hero fined for bizarre reason | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

The EPA wouldn't have issued such a notice without some cause. It may be as simple as someone going past, not agreeing with what Beau Jackson is doing, saw the sign and some drink cans on the ground whilst he was there and reported him for littering. Even though Beau could have cleaned up everything from the site when he left, a report could have been made. It may even be there's a regulation we wouldn't normally know about that could be used. For example is having a sign on a vehicle illegal in some way? Most people just wouldn't know.

The problem is Beau Jackson either pays the fine or fights it potentially in court. Having recently fought a parking ticket (signs were not seen as they exceeded the Australian standard for distance between signs) and had the parking ticket withdrawn, this was nearly a two year saga that created undue stress. The government losses nothing when they raise an infringement against you but you can lose a lot of sleep, get stressed and potentially be faced with a considerable increase in penalty if you're ruled against.

Sometimes I think the best thing Beau Jackson could do is provide a link for donations to pay the fine. Pay the fine from donations and move on. This isn't the right thing to do but sometimes it can be the prudent thing to do. As a council officer said to me when I was much younger when I questioned my fine, "you can take the fine to court and lose a day of work if you want". My car had broken down and I pushed it into the gutter by myself in front of my house, but that meant it was parked facing the wrong way so I was fined for parking on the wrong side of the road. I paid the fine. I've now learnt if you fight a fine it's not just one day. The recent fine was multiple visits to the council, multiple visits to the site gathering evidence, online hearing, in person hearing, telephone meeting where fine was dismissed, all over nearly a two year period. So it isn't just one day in court.

I wish Beau Jackson all the best and would be more than happy to chip in a 20 to help with the fine. We really need people who stand up for what they believe. We don't need to destroy the spirit of the young.

For those who think people shouldn't speed (and they shouldn't), I'm finding through my research, that a driver driving normally within the speed limit, when there's a small two degree decline in the road after a rise in the road can easily exceed the speed limit for a short period of time before readjusting their speed. Mobile speed cameras placed near or after a steeper decline is common and picks up people who are making a common mistake but often would not be deliberately speeding. Most of us would make the same mistake but we are lucky there's no speed camera when we do.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Why do people go so slow through Burnley tunnel?

The Burnley tunnel has two speed cameras, one located approximately 430m from the entrance and the other located approximately 2,140m from the entrance. As I investigate speed cameras I often find interesting information I'd not considered.

I found this article which felt like there were a lot of frustrated drivers.

Why the hell do people go so slow in the Burnley tunnel?! : melbourne (reddit.com)

However, unexpectedly I found this article which goes a long way to explaining the issue.

Transurban's data efforts drive changes in motorist behaviour - News - IoT Hub

It appears people have no issue going down the hill at the speed limit but once the grade starts to go up people don't increase their speed quickly enough and that causes traffic to slow down behind them.

You can see two things are in play. The first is the slope of the road which initially goes down and then goes up. The second is people trying to keep within the speed limit because there's two speed cameras and very hefty fines waiting for those who infringe.

The slope of the road. If you check my driving speed along Foote Street/Reynolds Road you'll see that even though the speed limit is 70km/h and I try to drive near the speed limit, in fact as I go down the hills I have to brake and then accelerate to go back up the next hill and the driving speed can easily drop by around 10km/h.

Real-time drive - Driving speed, Real-time drive Melbourne - Driving speed (onlineconnections.com.au)

Speed cameras. I don't know about others, but normally I drive with my speedometer showing that I'm driving near the posted speed limit. Often the needle is slightly below. That means I'm really driving about 2 km/h below the speed limit. But where there's a speed camera I slow down even further as I have no trust in the government's facilities. So perhaps I'll be driving now at 4km/h below the speed limit according to my speedometer. But legally all speedometers show a speed that is higher than my actual speed. My speedometer is out by around 4km/h. So when I drive where there's a speed camera I'll be driving around 8km/h below the speed limit.

When you add the upward gradient change at the bottom of the Burnley tunnel plus my desire to drive and not get booked, I'd slow down to possibly 18km/h below the speed limit and whilst some of this is by conscious choice, most of it isn't. That means every car behind me would need to slow down so they don't run up the back of my car and that could easily cause the speed to drop a little further.

As you can see, with a posted speed limit of 80km/h, this can easily result in people needing to slow down to around 60km/h to match the speed of the traffic.

So what people are getting frustrated about and calling Australians bad drivers, is really a lack of knowledge on their part as to how the car operates and how others drive. I really wish my car speedometer showed the exact speed and then I'd drive perhaps 2km/h below the speed limit for caution around speed cameras. The government has legislated so that doesn't happen so that's their fault. The angle of the slope in the Burnley tunnel is by design so again the government's fault. A much smoother curve could assist in smoothing out people's speed.

As to the paranoia with speed cameras that's because the government has legislated speed cameras can be out by up to 2 or 3 km/h (2 km/h is used in the Burnley Tunnel) for inaccuracy of their equipment. Now unfortunately if feels like the government gives themselves an error for margin but not us. Actually the government does give a margin for error but they do not publish that margin as they don't wish for that to become the default speed limit people start using.

As for relying on your cruise control to maintain the speed limit, if you haven't tested your cruise control you should think twice. My cruise control (an older Toyota Avensis) does not slow me down, but only keeps me at the speed. Thus when going down hill my car will exceed the speed limit. A Mitsubishi I tested keeps the car at the speed limit and slows down going down a hill, but when reaching the bottom of the slope can lose 15km/h as it adjusts to go up the next slope as in the Burnley Tunnel. Until I tested a number of cruise controls I would have thought cruise controls all kept you at the set speed and that's not been the case in my testing.

So to answer the question "why do people go so slow through the Burnley Tunnel" is not because they're not bad drivers. They're actually driving as people would expect them to. Slightly lower than the speed limit to ensure they look after their own financial interests, braking when they should on the downward slope to ensure they don't break the law and accelerating when the road starts to go up but unfortunately the upward slope slows the car before the person's acceleration returns the car to the desired speed. All cars following need to match (or usually go slightly slower) to ensure they keep a safe distance. There is nothing untoward going on. People aren't bad drivers. It's just the way cars and people work.

International travellers no longer need a COVID test for departures to Australia.

In this latest change to the COVID testing regime it really makes me grimace. Now international travellers who could possibly bring in the latest COVID variants no longer need to be tested before heading off to Australia. It makes me shudder.

Australia to scrap Covid test entry requirement for overseas arrivals | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Yes, these people need to prove they're double vaccinated, but being vaccinated (even with four doses) does not stop you getting COVID or reduce the peak infection. Being vaccinated just helps the body to respond and shorten the period of infection.

If you were booked for an international trip and someone around you had COVID would that stop you from travelling? Most likely not.

Surely a RAT test could be completed whilst people wait. Anyone who travels knows there's a lot of waiting time involved.

To make things even more confusing this is a Federal government change, but each states still have it's own rules, whatever they may be.

Kelvin Eldridge

Is being "change-unaware" causing motorists to get speed fines near Sydney Road on the Western Ring Road?

Thanks to a couple of people posting comments on my Speed Camera Locations site I became aware that people were getting speeding fines on the Western Ring Road near Sydney Road they didn't expect. A lot of people would say they should just obey the speed limit, but there's far too many people getting fined at that location for it to simply being people deliberately speeding. If you read the online stories from many people they didn't think they were speeding and often haven't receive a speeding fine in years.

Could it be they are "change-unaware".

I stumbled across a fascinating research paper on variable speed limit signage which showed 58.3% of people who participated in the research were change-unaware. That is, when people travel a regular route where the variable speed limit signs showed 80 km/h and then some signs were changed to 100 km/h, some 58.3% of the participants failed to notice the speed limit change.

Dynamic traffic management on a familiar road: Failing to detect changes in variable speed limits - ScienceDirect

I found the research quite fascinating as I found many things mentioned I've found in my own experience.

For example:

1. How often have you travelled your regular route home only to think did you notice things such as the traffic lights. You must have otherwise you'd probably have an accident. But after a while many of your driving decisions are less conscious and more sub-conscious.

2. Where there's two speed signs indicating a lower speed limit people can miss the first sign and notice the second. I've done that when I was testing the Amigo speed app.

3. Often I don't know what speed I should be driving even though I obey all speed signs. You just go into semi-autonomous. You are alert and aware so there's no danger, it's just some tasks are actioned (like keeping to the speed limit) but not really remembered, so I have to focus and be conscious of the next speed limit sign.

4. I have some reservation on their methodology because if a person was driving in the simulator they'd keep the car ahead 3 seconds ahead. That may have biased the results by leading people to go faster than they would in real life. We often use the clues of others around us as one source of input. Of course that can lead to people getting fined because they simply drive with the traffic flow.

5. It appears in the article that as people become more familiar with a road they tend to increase their average speed, and unfortunately that meant a lot of people speeding. It could be in the simulator there's no consequences so driving faster once familiar with the route would be people's normal behaviour.

6. In the study, people who were change-unaware appear to drive at higher speeds, perhaps less compliant. Although even those who were aware of the speed limit change often sped, but not to the same level.

7. Interestingly, for the speed-aware people they increased their speed but did not exceed the speed limit as they did for earlier drives. So they were more compliant when there was a change in the situation.

Overall I thought this was very interesting research.

But there were a few things I wanted to check. 

When did the variable speed limit signs become automated?

Has the variable speed limit signs changed the level of fines at the speed cameras before Sydney Road on the Ring Road?

For question 1, it appears the variable speed limit signs became fully automated in 2016. I can image the software has evolved since then so it may be possible the changing of the speed limits on sign could impact drivers.

For question 2, my Speed Camera Locations site shows the number of fines for the 2017/2018 year and the speed camera in question was not in the top 10 by number of fines with camera 4 having 11,634 fines. The latest top 10 from an article on the 9 News site shows for 2020/2021 the speed camera is now at number 6 in terms of number of fines, but interestingly the number of fines have come down to 9,390.

This is not what I expected. The number of fines has reduced from three years prior. However looking at a number of other sites that were in the top 10 previously, most have reduced the number of fines. In addition more low speed 40 km/h sites (Rosanna Road/3 and Terminal Ave back online) have come into the top 10 pushing others from three years prior out of the top 10. Overall, if I were to guess, I'd suggest drop in fines is on trend so the variable speed signs aren't capturing more than previously. So it really does appear people are making the same mistakes they've done for the last three years.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Risk of pedestrian injury or death with car collision based on the speed of the car.

I read a lot of information pushed by the government which supports their agenda of reducing speed limits to 40km/h. Some of it I simply don't believe. When that happens I seek out other research and confirm or refute what the government is saying.

For example the latest article I read was the following from Transport NSW.

Wooing drivers to slow down on our roads | Transport for NSW

Basically at 40 km/h there's a 40% risk of death and at 50 km/h there's a risk of death of 90%. This information is to justify the reduction of speed limits to 40 km/h from 50 km/h.

However a quick search on the internet locates the following from America.

Impact Speed and a Pedestrian's Risk of Severe Injury or Death - AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

Whilst the figures are in mph, if we convert the speeds to km/h we get 10% at 37 km/h, 25% at 51 km/h, 50% at 67 km/h, 75% at 80 km/h and 90% at 90 km/h.

The real difference reducing the speed limit is not as significant as we're led to believe and if the article above is correct, more like a 10-15% increase in the risk of death if the speed limit is 40 or 50 km/h respectively.

Another figure you'll often hear is that doubling the speed increases the risk by a the square or four in this case. When you hear that figure take it with a grain of salt. The reason is they're mixing up the kinetic energy which does increase by the square of the speed, but research generally shows (from what I've read), it's more of a linear relationship.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Point-to-point speed cameras installed on major Sydney motorways for heavy vehicles.

Sometimes I get asked about speed cameras people have seen on roads where the speed cameras have not been added to the Speed Camera Locations map. Invariably the cameras are for monitoring heavy vehicles to make sure they're complying with driving time. I thought the following article was interesting as it indicates new average speed cameras have been installed just for heavy vehicles in roads around Sydney.

Average speed cameras to be installed on major Sydney motorways, including M4, M5, Eastern Distributor | 7NEWS

At this stage these cameras will not be added to the Speed Camera Locations site as my site is aimed at the general population and speed cameras for heavy vehicles may confuse people as they don't apply to them when driving their car.

Personally I can't see why they'd limit the average speed cameras to just heavy vehicles. I understand the risk of fatality increases with increased mass of vehicles, but large SUVs also increase the risk of serious injury or death for other drivers on the road.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

A collection of interesting notes on mobile phone detection cameras.

 I thought I'd write a post where I can add items I find interesting about mobile phone detection cameras. These cameras also detect seatbelt offences.

1. Images are in black and white.

2. An infrared flash is used.

3. According to the following article in item 14, during 2012 and 2020 there have been  "214 casualty crashes involving a driver/rider using a hand held mobile phone – resulting in 18 deaths and 292 injuries. Of those, 111 casualty crashes occurred in country NSW - resulting in 15 deaths and 149 injuries".

Mobile phone detection cameras - Mobile phone use - Staying safe - NSW Centre for Road Safety

I find those numbers interesting. A large proportion of deaths and injuries occurred in the country area.  Over the 9 year period in the city area there's been an average of  less than 2 deaths and 17 injuries per year. There's no mention as to whether or not the mobile phone caused/contributed towards the outcome  

For the state of NSW there's approximately 2 deaths per year and 32 injuries per year. According to the following site during 2011-2015 there were 1,723 deaths and 129.320 injuries or around 345 deaths and 26,000 injuries per year. Approximately half a per cents of deaths (one in two hundred) and 0.1 per cent of injuries per year (one in a thousand) have been associated with mobile phone usage. Whilst any death or injury on our roads is not acceptable, it does feel like the emphasis on mobile phone usage is perhaps over emphasised. Even more so if we consider city usage only.

The real cost of crashes and deaths on NSW roads | Insurance and Rego | The NRMA (mynrma.com.au)

As more information reaches the press with regards to mobile phone and mobile phone detection cameras that I feel is worth sharing I'll update this post with links.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Red light and speed cameras for Western Australian/Perth have been added to the Speed Camera Locations site.

I'm pleased to announce I've now added pages to my Speed Camera Locations site for Western Australia/Perth\. Speed Camera Locations now covers Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

You can find the pages for red light and speed cameras in Western Australia using the following link or the web address below.

Speed Cameras WA, Red Light Camera WA, Perth, Western Australia (speedcameralocations.com.au)

https://www.speedcameralocations.com.au/wa/

I have to say it's been interesting to see the different types of cameras used in Western Australia compared to other parts of Australia. Fixed speed cameras along freeways often appear as a black and white column and some red light speed cameras don't appear to have induction loops in the road, perhaps indicating the loops aren't required. In time I can't see why induction loops are required. If a police officer can hold a handheld speed camera with no induction loops required, it only makes sense fixed cameras may not need induction loops as well.

As for other states the information available for those in Western Australia/Perth are:

• Red light speed cameras, fixed speed cameras and Point-To-Point cameras
• The published list of mobile speed cameras
• Links to videos of fixed red light speed cameras, fixed speed cameras and PTP cameras
• Map of mobile speed cameras found through various means
• Safety Camera Warning page which can be used as a driver's aid to alert them when they're approaching a fixed camera site.

Hopefully the many hours put in to collate and create the speed camera locations map for Western Australia is found to be useful by others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

Anaconda Fluid ebike no longer recommended as spare parts not available for purchase.

On my YouTube video review of the Anaconda Fluid ebike I'd previously said I'd be happy to recommend the ebike. Last night that all changed.

I went to the Anaconda Bayswater store to purchase a new set of brake pads for the Anaconda Fluid ebike. I asked the people in the bike section and they said I couldn't buy the brake pads. They don't keep brake pads for retail sale and I'd have to pay for the bike to be serviced to get the brake pads replaced.

Personally I find that disappointing. I find it hard to believe a part that should be readily available for purchase isn't and a more expensive service would be required to get the new brake pads.

I decided to speak to the manager and spoke to a temporary manager. I was told there were no parts and a special order would need to be raised. They don't have the parts for retail sale. Whilst they're one of the largest Anaconda stores they don't hold a large range of parts.

To say I'm disappointed with Anaconda is an understatement. I felt comfortable buying with a larger brand store and their website led me to believe spare parts would not be an issue. However this isn't the case. I really feel misled.

Given that spare parts for the Anaconda Fluid ebike are not readily available I am now changing my review on YouTube to NOT RECOMMENDED.

To me the good thing about user reviews is you get to find out what other people find are issues over time. I hope this review helps others to make a more informed decision. Once I find an alternative supplier for the brake pads I'll add an update to this post.

Kelvin Eldridge
Anaconda Fluid Ebike Review

Update: 18/08/2022
I wrote to Anaconda to provide my feedback that spare parts should be available even if they're only available from the website if it's not warranted for stock to be held in every store. Anaconda got back to me and sent a set of brake pads at no cost. I would have been happy to pay for the brake pads but I'm thankful for the brake pads but more importantly, Anaconda listened to me grievance.

Going forward I'll use the brake pads to find an alternate supplier so this isn't an issue in the future.

I can see that many companies will sell products online and if you use those companies, then it's likely you'll need to find spares and service from third party companies. Whilst Anaconda does have a store front it may not carry spare parts you'd expect them to carry to support their products. I could have had Anaconda service my ebike and the brake pads would have been provided. It's just I'd prefer to purchase the brake pads and install them myself.