The way speed cameras are set up to catch drivers varies "massively" around the country, researchers have found. Motorists can drive up to 15mph over the speed limit before they are flashed by a camera in some areas, and in others, they will rarely be pursued to pay their fine. Researchers at Oxford University's Said Business School embarked on the study of the nation's speed cameras as part of an investigation into how our activities are increasingly regulated by technology.
They will also look at the Government's proposed ID card technology, airport security and the waste management technology such placing chips in wheelie bins to see how much homeowners are throwing away. The speed camera study, according to one researcher, turned up 'shocking' evidence of how different speed camera partnerships interpreted the Department for Transport's guidelines.
Senior research fellow Dan Neyland said he was particularly concerned to find that one of the partnerships - all of which participated in the study on condition of anonymity - set the cameras only to capture vehicles travelling over 45mph in a 30mph zone because it only had enough staff to process so many prosecutions.
He said: "There was a massive variation to the extent that some of the partnerships interpretations of the rules were right on the limits and went against the spirit if not the letter of the guidelines."
Mr Neyland and his colleague Professor Steve Woolgar, who headed the research, worked with postgraduate students and found that far from a uniform policy which ensures those who drive too fast are caught and prosecuted, the system can be "complex and messy".
He said he was "surprised" to find that much of the process is carried out manually, from staff examining photographs to identify number plates to changing films in the machines.
Most partnerships, he said, seemed to care equally about the safety cameras provided and the revenue they generated, but overall only 60 to 70% of drivers would end up paying their fines.
"There was an interest in revenue in that they wanted to maximise the amount of revenue they were getting from drivers who were driving too fast," he said. "The odd aspect is that people working at the partnership have no incentive to do it well because if they did, drivers would not speed and revenue would not be generated so they would be out of a job."
The study was based on interviews with representatives of all the key stakeholder groups around the issue, including drivers and management consultants involved in setting up the system, and raised "fundamental policy questions", he said.
But Mr Neyland said he has found the Department for Transport "resistant" to discussions about the findings. He said: "Whether it's because they are not particularly interested or because it's politically sensitive I don't know.
"If you are going to have speed cameras and continue to expand the network around the country then we need to look at some of the more alarming aspects of this research."
Professor Woolgar said proper consideration of the study would be in the Government's interest as it showed the extent to which weighty problems of governance and social control "actually centre upon ordinary mundane activities such as driving".
He said: "People feel their lives are increasingly being controlled by ordinary objects and everyday technologies, and traffic regulation - especially by speed cameras - is one area where passions are aroused.
"We need to understand why this is happening. The research reveals an extraordinary variation in the use of speed cameras and the application of speed limits, and it is not clear that this is helping to win motorists over."
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