Drivers behaving better where cameras are installed

PETALING JAYA: More than 50,000 road users have been caught on camera speeding and running the red light since the Automated Awareness Safety System (Awas) came into place almost two months ago.

The stretch along Kilometre 375.9 of the North-South Expressway (NSE) near Slim River, Perak, has been identified as the spot with the highest number of offences recorded.

More cameras are also coming up - focusing on danger hotspots - after a study by Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) showed changes in driving behaviour as a result of the 14 currently installed.

The speed demons were recorded in the act by the Automated Enforcement System (AES) cameras installed around peninsular Malaysia under Awas.

Between its launch on April 15 and May 25, the Road Transport Department (JPJ) issued 46,455 summonses for speeding and another 6,023 summonses for running the red light.

Miros director-general Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon said consistency was important in ensuring the effectiveness of the seven new AES cameras in regulating behaviour.

“We believe that the 14 AES cameras have been effective in changing behaviour on the road. So, we want to focus on the seven new AES spots.

“If we do it properly and if the system remains consistent, we will see more than 90% compliance rate in these seven areas. The challenge is in duplicating the same positive results for the rest of Malaysia,” he said.

The study found that road users’ compliance rate with the speed limit had almost doubled in the three and a half years since AES cameras were installed in Sungkai, Slim River, Taiping, Kajang, South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE) and Leboh Sentosa in September 2012.

The overall compliance rate increased from 51.1% before the AES cameras were implemented in 2012 to 95.9% in mid-2015.

Miros also found that the rate of traffic light violations in Jalan Klang Lama, Jalan Ipoh, Sungai Siput and Jalan Pasir Putih had reduced in the two years since the AES cameras were installed in these four areas.

The overall rate of traffic light violations also went down from 4.29% before the installation of AES cameras to 2.16% two years later.

At the same time, road users were found to have become increasingly wary of being caught for speeding and running the red light.

Under Awas, an integration of AES cameras and the traffic offence and demerit system (Kejara), traffic offenders will be given incremental penalties for every 20 points picked up, ranging from a warning to having their licences suspended.

The whole objective of Awas, said Dr Wong, was to get motorists to self-regulate instead of focusing too much on summonses.

“This is not about punishing people. It’s about educating them to change their behaviour for the better.

“For now, they’ll only behave in front of the cameras. Otherwise, they would not care.

“We only have 21 cameras across the country. We need motorists to cultivate a behaviour where they will drive properly, regardless or not if there are cameras around,” he told The Star.

Under the Awas system, Kejara demerit points will be automatically added to an offender’s record once he settles the JPJ summons.

Those who refuse to pay the summons will be hauled up to court.

At present, the Awas summons and demerit system only applies to traffic and speeding offences caught on AES cameras.