Victoria’s road safety camera system includes;
- fixed cameras (permanently positioned at approved locations); and,
- mobile cameras (devices that are rotated across approved mobile camera locations).
Fixed road safety cameras
Fixed road safety cameras may detect one or more of the following offences:
- speed
- red light
- unregistered vehicles.
The specific devices and technology used to detect speed and record offences varies depending on the camera system and location.
Road safety cameras have the capability to:
- capture images of traffic offences
- differentiate between vehicles on a multi-lane road
- calculate the speed of a vehicle
- electronically store encrypted images and incident information
- use independent secondary speed verification technology to verify incidents
- (where applicable) use other traffic data, for example variable speed limits, to detect offences.
Vehicle Detection Technology
In-road sensors
In-road sensors are used by some road safety camera systems to calculate a vehicle’s speed over a fixed distance.
There are specific types of sensors used to detect a vehicle’s presence and subsequent speed:
- piezos (when a vehicle travels over the sensor, kinetic energy from the tyres is converted into electrical energy and the electrical impulses indicate the vehicle’s presence); or,
- inductive loops (a series of electrified wire loops generate a magnetic field that detects the metal of a vehicle as it passes over).
Radar technology
Some fixed road safety cameras send a radar signal that bounces off the vehicle and back to the device.
Optical character recognition
This computer-based system reads a vehicle’s number plate. This technology is used predominantly in point-to-point camera systems.
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