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.
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
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