Average speed safety cameras

Average speed cameras factsheet [PDF, 3.5 MB]

How average speed safety cameras work

Average speed cameras check how fast you are driving along a stretch of road. They calculate a vehicle’s speed between 2 cameras.

Here’s how they work:

2 or more cameras are set up along a road, some distance apart.
When your vehicle passes the first camera it records the time.
When you pass a second camera it records the time again.
We calculate how long it took you to travel between the cameras (distance divided by time), which is your average speed.

If your average speed is over the speed limit for that stretch of road, you may get a notice (speeding ticket).

Cameras are set up on one side of the road, but as with spot speed cameras, will detect speeding offences from vehicles driving in either direction and from both sides of the road.

Usually, there is only a pair of cameras. If there are more, the system works the same way – using a set of cameras to calculate your average speed between 2 cameras.

How we work out your average speed

We calculate a vehicles average speed using this formula:

Average speed = (distance × 3.6) ÷ time

Distance is the measured length between camera detection points (in metres, rounded down).*
Time is how many seconds it takes your vehicle to travel between those detection points.

If your average speed is over the speed limit, the system sends the information to our enforcement team. Our enforcement officers review the details to confirm if speeding happened.

If the road has more than one speed limit, the system compares your average speed to the Average Weighted Speed Limit. That’s the fastest speed you could legally travel if you followed all speed limits along the way.

* Distances are measured by a licensed surveyor and officially recorded before we start enforcing. We publish these distances and speed limit(s) as part of the average speed camera location information.

Gazette notices for average speed safety cameras

Average speed camera information [PDF, 80 MB]

Camera technology

We are using Redflex Halo 2 cameras for our average speed cameras. These cameras are only being used to enforce speeding offences.

Information our cameras capture

These cameras are legally approved technology.

Land Transport (Approved Vehicle Surveillance Equipment) Notice 2023(external link)

How we use automated number plate recognition (ANPR) technology

We use automated number plate recognition software to match vehicle images from both cameras and confirm it's the same vehicle.

A time-stamped image taken at one end of the stretch of road is matched with a time-stamped photo taken at the other end and the two times compared to work out the average speed a vehicle has travelled.

This is the only way we use ANPR technology on these cameras.

Information our cameras capture