Older-generation speed cameras removed but still plenty of cameras

The site of the speed camera which has now been removed, in Pakowhai Rd, Hastings. Photo / Duncan Brown

The days of playing spot-the-camera at speed-traps around Hawke's Bay have gone with the removal of the last of the pole-mounted boxes which possibly acted as more of a deterrent than the cameras themselves.

Eastern Police District road policing manager Matt Broderick confirmed "old generation" cameras have been removed from Meeanee Quay and Kennedy Rd, Napier, and Pakowhai and Karamu Rds in Hastings.

At the same time there are no Hawke's Bay, nor wider Eastern District, locations on a recently-established list of 56 Safe Speed Camera Sites nationwide, Mr Broderick revealing several sites assessed for the project had not met the criteria for the higher-risk sites, including the degree to which unsafe speed was a factor.

The Eastern Region does, however, have three van-based cameras, and "heaps" of other speed detection units in police vehicles.

The four sites which have been removed were four of the oldest safe-speed camera sites in New Zealand, where static speed cameras were introduced in 1993, initially as "wet-film" cameras, requiring the periodic gathering of film from the sites. Later technology enabled details and images to be relayed direct from sites to central computers.
Despite the number of sites, there was often just one camera operating in the area, or none at times when repairs were necessary or when cameras had been commandeered for use in other regions.

The advent of digital technology enabled details to be transmitted to central computers, and speed-camera programmes expanded with the use of cameras in parked vans and others such as hand-held speed detectors.

While the establishment of the original fixed sites throughout New Zealand was reported to have contributed to cuts of more than 20 per cent in the vicinity of urban sites in the first year, the site on Meeanee Quay, a sector of State Highway 2 through Napier, was one of the most active in New Zealand.

The traffic flow diminished with the opening of the Hawke's Bay Expressway northern extension at the end of 2003, but thoughts of abandoning the site were rejected, supported by figures in 2006 showing 4113 tickets had been issued in 12 months — 1000 more than the next busiest camera in the area, mobile unit site on Taradale Rd.

At the time it was reported 33,061 speeding infringements at static and mobile sites had been detected in a year in the police Eastern District, which stretches from East Cape to Norsewood. There had been a peak of 41,424 in the year to mid 2004.

In the year to mid 2013 just 805 infringements were detected at Meeanee Quay site, the camera in Kennedy Rd, between Riverbend Rd and Konini Cr had assumed top-box status with 833, albeit more than 400 down on the previous year.

According to latest statistics, there were 23,479 camera-issued offence notices in the Hawke's Bay police area last year, compared with 18,007 the previous year, which Mr Broderick would reflect camera "deployment matters" rather than any great swing in driver behaviour.

He said yesterday the technology at Meeanee Quay, and Kennedy, Pakowhai and Karamu Rds had "reached end of life" and the fixtures were decommissioned and removed since June last year as part of the Static Camera Expansion Programme.

The concept of speed cameras has been around almost as long as the motor vehicle, Wikipedia quoting Popular Mechanic reporting on a 1905 patent for a "Time Recording Camera for Trapping Motorists."