There’s no escaping speed cameras in Australia, and that also applies to Australia’s second smallest and third-least populous state or internal territory.
Larger than only the oft-forgotten Jervis Bay Territory, the Australian Capital Territory is home to 13 fixed speed cameras at nine locations.
It also has 13 combination red light/speed cameras and eight mobile camera vans.
A single pair of point-to-point cameras exists on Hindmarsh Drive, with another pair having been decommissioned in 2016.
A mobile camera location must be at least 200m from a change of speed limit unless it’s in a school zone or roadworks zone and, unlike a fixed speed or red light camera, it doesn’t need to have an advance warning sign.
Fixed cameras are installed to address ‘black spots’, with locations determined from survey data on traffic volumes and speeding if not crash data. They all have three advance warning signs before you reach them.
The ACT government says it’ll determine future speed and red light camera locations based on a weighted crashes per kilometre approach.
Specifically, it will look at 10 years of crash data, with crashes resulting in a fatality or injury being multiplied by five. Then, for speed camera locations, the total count is divided by the length of the road.
These were the top five speed camera locations in the ACT in 2020:
| Location | Number of infringements | Total revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Monaro Highway between Lanyon Drive and Sheppard Street | 3433 | $1,260,529 |
| Barton Highway between Gungahlin Drive and Ellenborough Street | 3294 | $1,150,165 |
| Barton Highway between Curran Drive and Gold Creek Road | 3047 | $1,162,131 |
| Drakeford Drive/Boddington Crescent/Bardoni Crescent | 2719 | $996,184 |
| Monaro Highway between Mugga Lane and Isabella Drive | 2665 | $989,474 |
If you go over the speed limit or run a red light in the ACT, here’s what you’re looking at paying.
| Violation | Fine | Demerit points |
|---|---|---|
| Exceeding speed limit by up to 15km/h | $297 | 1 |
| Exceeding speed limit by up to 15km/h in a school zone | $321 | 1 |
| Exceeding speed limit by over 15km/h but under 30km/h | $438 | 3 |
| Exceeding speed limit by over 15km/h but under 30km/h in a school zone | $477 | 3 |
| Exceeding speed limit by over 30km/h but under 45km/h | $700 | 4 |
| Exceeding speed limit by over 30km/h but under 45km/h in a school zone | $799 | 4 |
| Exceeding speed limit by over 45km/h | $1841 | 6 |
| Exceeding school zone speed limit by over 45km/h | $2136 | 6 |
| Running a red light | $484 | 3 |
