Increasing the effectiveness of mobile speed cameras on rural roads in Victoria based on crash reductions from operations in Queensland

Mobile speed cameras on Victoria’s rural roads are not as effective as they could be due to the site selection criteria, the limited number of sites, and the visibility and predictability of their enforcement operations. Queensland’s overt mobile speed cameras achieve substantial crash reductions up to 4 km from rural camera sites due to site selection based only on crash history and randomised scheduling of operations to those sites. New sites in Victoria should be selected as in Queensland and camera visits should be randomly-scheduled. The Victorian Government’s announcement to increase mobile speed camera hours by 75% should take the form of at least 75% increase of rural sites. The new sites should be selected on the basis of a serious crash history within 2.5 km. Mobile speed cameras operated at these new rural sites could be expected to save 22.5 fatal crashes and 172 serious injury crashes per year.