Red Light Cameras Might Be Used to Catch Motorists Who Speed

Motorists, we have some news for you (hopefully, you’re not reading this while at the wheel).

Red light cameras will now be used to catch motorists who speed. The catch here is this — you won’t know which red light cameras will double up as speed cameras.

Here’s everything you need to know about it.

Red Light Cameras to be Activated When Needed to Catch Speeding From Q2 Onwards

Fun fact (that might not be so fun for speedsters): red light cameras in Singapore are also fitted to catch speeding.

In the past, these orange-and-white-striped red light cameras were not activated to catch speeding — that was the job of your usual speed cameras. However, these red light cameras will be activated from the second quarter of this year onwards to catch speeding.

The trouble for speedsters is this: you won’t know whether a particular red light camera is activated to catch speeding until you see that lightning flash in your rearview mirror.

According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the speed enforcement function in these red light cameras will be “dynamically” activated from the second quarter of this year, “prioritising locations that are accident-prone and violation-prone”.

This means that unless you have the SPF’s list of “locations that are accident-prone and violation-prone”, you won’t know exactly which red light cameras will be able to catch you for speeding.

Or, you could take one for the team and speed past every red light camera in Singapore to collate a list of which ones flash. The speeding community in Singapore thanks you for your contributions.

Decision Came About After Surge in Speeding Violations Last Year

On a serious note, the SPF has a good rationale for activating the speed enforcement function of red light cameras.

If you passed your BTT at the driving centre or have just a shred of common sense, you probably have this drilled into you — speeding is dangerous.

And statistics reflect this as well. Fatal accidents rose from 104 in 2022 to 131 in 2023. These are attributed to several causes — running the red light, speeding, and drunk driving.

However, this doesn’t mean that speeding, on its own, isn’t a problem even when it’s not fatal. Every speeding accident could potentially lead to a loss of life.

Separate from those caught speeding by speed cameras, the number of speeding violations detected by other police enforcement operations had risen from 52,016 cases in 2022 to 63,648 in 2023.

It’s pretty clear that speeding is an issue.

To tackle the speeding issue, the SPF looked to current statistics for their solution — a peculiar statistic was that the number of violations detected by traffic enforcement cameras at known places had fallen in 2023 from previous years.

“This suggests that motorists choose to speed at locations where they think there is no enforcement presence,” the SPF shared.

Now, it seems that the most straightforward solution to deter motorists from speeding is to have more traffic enforcement cameras. So why not utilise the speed enforcement functions already fitted in existing red light cameras to detect speeding?

According to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Alex Au, the enforcement cameras will help to “shape driver behaviour” at specific locations.

This frees up capacity for traffic police officers to undertake other enforcement duties in other parts of the nation, meaning that the enforcement cameras can complement traffic police officers’ island-wide enforcement operations.

ASP Au added: “Motorists should adhere to the speed limit and obey the traffic law regardless of whether they think there is enforcement presence. The Traffic Police will not hesitate to take stern enforcement actions against those who pose a danger to others on our roads.”

The traffic police not play play one, okay. You better start slowing down if you’re a motorist with speeding tendencies.