Speed cameras

Both fixed location and mobile speed cameras are used in Victoria to keep roads safer.

Fixed road safety cameras

Fixed road safety cameras may detect one or more of the following offences:

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.

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).