NZ's highest-earning red light camera rakes in nearly $650,000 in fines in first year
Motorists on Auckland’s North Shore have kept a red-light camera extremely busy in its first year of operation.
In the 12 months from June 2018 to June to 2019, $642,000 in fines were issued by the fixed-position camera.
It's a figure that even the AA, which supports the use of red-light cameras, says is concerning. “A camera issuing that many tickets, your're just not getting the right road safety result,” AA advisor Barney Irvine told Seven Sharp.
The camera was installed at the intersection of Esmonde Road and Fred Thomas Drive, near the Northern Motorway on-ramp, as part of a wider rollout of cameras across the city. Each new single camera costs $46,828, generally purchased by Auckland Transport and is monitored by police. “The camera there issued two-thousand tickets in the first four months of the year, and that’s way ahead of what we’re seeing on other roads with the same amount of traffic. It’s just far too high,” Mr Irvine says. The AA is now calling on Auckland Transport to investigate other options for cracking down on red-light infringements. In a statement, Auckland Transport says that it is aware that “this intersection is a high infringement zone” and that they are looking at ways to make signage and signals clearer. “This will include additional traffic lights (one that sits over the intersection) and flashing studs in the road seal to warn people of the upcoming red signal.” Mr Irvine says sometimes a red-light camera by itself just isn’t enough.
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Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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37.5% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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62.5% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
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