The mobile enforcement site at the Medway Tunnel between St Mary’s Island and the Medway City Estate will be upgraded to a new average speed camera system provided by Jenoptik enforcing the current speed limits.  The new system is currently being installed during overnight works.

Average speed camera systems work using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) software to record each vehicle as it enters the enforcement area, and then again as it leaves.  The system knows how far apart the cameras are, and using the time it took to get between the two it can calculate the average speed for each vehicle.  When a vehicle arrives at the second camera faster than expected for the speed limit to have been obeyed the system advises Kent Police that an offence has been recorded and sends images of the vehicle concerned to be considered for prosecution.

As well as continuing to help reduce the number of injury crashes in and around the site, the system being installed is expected to help with incident management in the tunnel and  improve traffic flow.

A Medway Council spokesman said.  “The new average speed cameras are being installed as part of our work to improve traffic flow in the area of Medway City Estate. The new cameras will also help with incident management and improve road safety. The work to install the cameras will take up to four nights from 27 June.”

Kent & Medway Safety Camera Partnership Manager, Anne-Marie Penny, said “Average speed camera sites have proved very successful at reducing crashes and casualties.  This site upgrade will also contribute to efficiently managing Medway’s local highway network and improve local journey reliability in addition to the road safety benefits.”

Useful information and links:

Evidence of the effectiveness of average speed camera systems in reducing casualties and injury crashes can be found in the evaluation of the A9 system at http://a9road.info/

Medway Council Transport Plan can be found at http://www.medway.gov.uk/parkingandtransport/transportplansandpolicies/localtransportplan.aspx

The Transport Committee at Westminster conclusions and recommendations on enforcement from March 2016 can be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmtrans/518/51811.htm