The Transport Agency expects new speed cameras to triple the number of drivers caught, increasing from 1 million to 3 million offences a year.
The most extreme approach to new speed cameras would have saved 2200-3400 lives over 20 years, hundreds more than the recommended option. File pic Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
It could have ramped things up still further but has pulled back from the "saturation" of the roads with speed cameras, even though it calculated this extreme approach would save the most lives.
The cameras are already being tested in Auckland and have snapped 50,000 offences, of drivers using their phone or seatbelts not on.
The torpedoing of what Waka Kotahi called the "Big Bang expansion" is revealed in a business case released to RNZ under the OIA.
It looked at six camera options for "increased certainty of detection", to run alongside "more severe penalties, and faster processing of penalties".
The most extreme approach to "treat all corridors across the country with safety cameras" would have saved 2200-3400 lives over 20 years, hundreds more than the recommended option (1500-2400 lives).
"Maximum investment, saturation of network with cameras with all technology turned on and business intelligence driven in real-time," the report said.
This approach would have transferred all the existing speed cameras from police to the New Zealand Transport Agency and expanded the network "at the same time in the same year".
But it was too hard and costly to build and risked alienating people, the report to the board in March warned.
It "creates an eroding effect on social licence with the public by saturating the network with cameras ... in less than 10 years."
It is instead going for a more gradual approach that will nevertheless add "a lot of new cameras per year", though the actual numbers are blanked out.
Under this somewhat less toll-cutting approach, much more ticketing will still go on.
Waka Kotahi summarised the "desired future state" of "safety cameras", saying: "The number of infringements initially rises significantly (estimated at three times current volumes), but eventually reduces as compliance increases."
The current volume was 1 million infringements a year.
The increase will be in part down to law changes which will allow camera footage to be used against drivers using cellphones or vehicle occupants not wearing seatbelts.
Speed, ironically, was to the fore.
The government wanted the transport agency to hurry up, and, according to NZTA documents, the expanded network was already being built; the documents said: "Building and testing happen in the same stage" from April 2022.
"In response to the [transport] minister's request to accelerate this work" the NZTA board in April opted not to wait for the detailed business case due in September, but to order 26 new cameras to avoid Covid supply chain delays, and nominate Spanish giant SICE to provide the camera back-office system.
These 26 were for speed and red-light running detection only, NZTA told RNZ today.
The others that are being tested in Auckland to spot mobile phone or seatbelt use are different, from Australian supplier Acusensus, which introduced them in NSW in 2019.
A timeline shows camera tests going on all this year.
Photo: Supplied / Waka Kotahi
It will require a separate business case and procurement for these to go ahead, depending on the Auckland trial, the agency said.
The privacy implications are being discussed with the Privacy Commissioner, Waka Kotahi said.
Though the board paper is blanked out, it appears to suggest the board also endorsed a Spanish company SICE getting the camera back-office contract. The agency said that was still being worked on.
The agency will in 2023-24 adop 100 old cameras from police, and adding an unspecified but "significant" number of cameras, including high-tech Halos probably on lease from Australia-based, US-owned Redflex.
The Halos can monitor up to six lanes at once, and 256 objects simultaneously and measure your speed between two points for 'average-speed' ticketing.
A halo speed camera Photo: Reflex
Alongside the new camera network, a new infringement processing system will be introduced to replace a system so old it relies on almost 100 police staff to manually process tickets that are mailed out and cannot handle incidents caught by the new cameras.
Ticketing was destined to get tougher and quicker, going online for the first time.
"The swiftness of the 'punishment' (infringement) is known as one of the three key factors in deterrence [alongside certainty of punishment and severity of punishment] and will be key to driving behaviour change," the Transport Ministry said in its consultation document on the upcoming law change.
The new laws would give people the same options as now to challenge camera-generated infringement notices, it said.
"A clear definition of 'average speed' as it pertains to a corridor with a single or multiple speed limits will be introduced."
The new laws would also make explicit there was no need for a person to check an infringement issued automatically, which would cut costs.
Currently, the legislation required an enforcement officer to believe that an infringement had been committed.
"There is some doubt as to whether this allows for the use of automation technology."
Repeat offenders will be detected
The existing cameras and infringement processing were slow but also 'dumb'. They could not spot high-risk drivers with multiple speed violations - but the new technology will be able to and has "the potential to use advanced automation technologies and artificial intelligence to pre-process images".
"The technology will be tested and gazetted prior to being widely introduced," the Transport Ministry said.
Surveys show about a third of the public believed cameras were for revenue raising and not used fairly, and the documents showed the government was desperate to overcome that resistance.
"Most New Zealanders are generally comfortable with speeding and don't consider speeding a safety risk."
Other countries put camera fines into road safety work and this alternative - instead of just giving it to the Crown, as now - was being looked at here.
This is the first of two reports on the expanding camera network on the country's roads; part two will run tomorrow.
