Thames Valley Road Safety Speed Camera Scheme.

Based on Thames Valley Police data and FOI disclosures discover how the Scheme operates.

Checkout the location and performance of fixed and mobile speed cameras in Buckinghamshire. This website provides independent analysis of:

• Number of road collisions at camera locations. 
• Number of penalties issued per camera.
• Income generated per camera.
• Road Safety vs. Income Generation

 Questions and Answers:

The motivation in publishing this website arises out the Government's direction that Police Services should in the interest of greater public openness and accountability publish performance information relating to speed cameras in their area.

This independent study is solely based on road collision data and offence rates (1992-2010) supplied by Thames Valley Police, variously via their website and from requests made under The Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In 2010 a total of 935 people, including children were recorded as killed or seriously injured in road collisions in the Thames Valley.

Typically speed cameras in Buckinghamshire saw no year-on-year change or improvement in the number of recorded road collisions.

Over their lifetime the majority (77%) of fixed and mobile speed cameras show a rated performance* of either weak or poor.

The study reveals an extremely weak correlation between the location of speed cameras and the year-on-year change in road collision; that is to say where a change in the number of road collisions has occurred it is just as likely to show an increase as a decrease. [Analysis]

* Rated Performance = Net cumulative year-on-year change in road collisions over life-time of camera. 

Qu 4: In Bucks how much income do speed cameras generate?

During 2010 a speed camera in Bucks (fixed & mobile) typically generated £18,180. The highest amount generated for any given camera in this year was £132,662.

The total income generated from mobile devices alone equated to a figure of £980,280.

This figure if raised through the Council Tax Precept would equate to an additional Council Tax levy of £4.75 per household in Buckinghamshire. Or put another way TVP would have had to raise the Council Tax Precept in Buckinghamshire by 3.2% to compensate for the equivalent shortfall in income. [Calculation]

Under current legislation such a proposed Council Tax increase would necessitate a local public referendum.

The above figures assume a 100% conversion of all Fixed Penalty Notices issued.

For income generated for any given  camera, see under Qu.6 below.

• 1 in 5 mobile speed cameras are situated at locations where no road collisions have been recorded. Click on the 'Name & Shame' icon under Qu.6 below.

• Thames Valley Police (TVP) confirm that the Scheme operates with no performance measures or targets being set at either the strategic or operation level. This calls into question TVP's ability to show what contribution, if any, the Scheme is making to road safety.

• Disclosures made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 reveals that the scheme operates without any published risk assessment criteria in respect of the establishment or removal of speed detection devices. The absence of any objective criteria calls into question TVP's ability to show that the Scheme follows best practice in terms of risk management, serves to frustrate proper scrutiny of the Scheme, but more over fails to safeguard against abuse of the Scheme in terms of income generation. 

Click on  the links below to access the performances and offence rates of individual cameras, ranked within County and District areas.

Source Data - Thames Valley Police: