Yellow peril, or sustainability gold?

Continuing our explorations of links between ICT and sustainability that are low on glamour, but high on impact, our latest subject is image capture vehicular-velocity management solutions – or speed cameras to you and me.

I suspect that this may be a subject that generates greater extremes of passion than tropical deforestation and indeed, until recently, I was a frothing camera curser myself. In the last few weeks, however, three things have happened to reconcile me to the yellow sentinels and convince me that one class of speed camera at least – the average speed check – may in fact be a powerful tool in the climate change armoury.

The first was attending a presentation of work commissioned by the Sustainable Development Commission, and conducted by Jeremy Green into the interface between transport and technology. This included a piece of research by the UK Energy Research Council which found that simply enforcing current speed limits would save a million tonnes of CO2 per year, with another million achievable if the maximum limit was dropped by a further 10 mph.

The second eureka moment came at a public services conference into intelligent transport solutions - the headline sponsor of which was Speed Check services. As usual, towards the end of the first plenary session there was the ‘word from the sponsors’, and I settled back and began to switch off. However, instead of the thinly-veiled sales pitch I was expecting, I learned about plummeting accident rates (down 60 per centin average speed check areas), largely through reduced variability of traffic speed, and reductions in the number of motorist penalty fines.

My conversion was completed on the road to Bristol whilst moving my growing family to our new home. There are currently about four sets of temporary average speed check cameras in either direction on the M4 between London and Bristol, and I went back and forth through them repeatedly during the move. These didn’t bother me too much in the underpowered and overloaded van, but tested my resolve a lot more during the final excited family run to our new house in the car. I could feel my newfound camera goodwill beginning to evaporate at the indignity of being asked to put literally minutes on my total journey time. . . . and then sunshine broke through the clouds of fury and frustration in a moment of enlightenment. . . . .

Cruising along at a sedate 50 I realised that the previous few days had been delightfully . . . predictable. They had involved no unexpected delays caused by other peoples’ accidents – a tragic but expected part of most long car journeys – and had actually allowed me get where I needed to be when I wanted to be there. In fact, the logistics of the previous two days would have been impossible were it not for the ability to plan and marshal help precisely when it was needed, and get to and fro in sufficient time to complete the move within the tight timescale.

So there we have it. Emissions saved by driving at more optimal speeds, emissions saved from reduced congestion, emissions saved from reduced wear on road surfaces, emissions saved from avoided infrastructure repairs following accidents. Taxpayer costs saved from disruption, lost earnings, highways services, and clean-ups. More predictable journey times, and less stressful journey experiences. . . . . . brothers and sisters, what sane person amongst ye can still continue to harden your hearts to these unsung yellow heroes of the road?

Image: Russ Witherington