Wunelli Analysis Finds Speed Cameras May Create Bad Driving Behaviour

LONDON, October 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

New analysis reveals the hard braking black spots created across the UK  

http://www.wunelli.co.uk

Using more than 1 billion miles of driving behaviour data*, Wunelli, a LexisNexis company, has revealed the most frequent braking black spots across the UK created by speed cameras, based on motorists braking excessively just before speed cameras to avoid being caught. 80% of all the UK speed cameras investigated had hard braking activity, with braking increasing six fold on average at these locations. Wunelli defines a hard braking event as a change in speed of 6.5+ mph over a 1-second timeperiod, which is enough to propell a bag on the passenger seat into the footwell.

Speed Camera Sites with most hard braking events in the UK**   

  

    
  Camera         Location   Number of hard  Number of hard   x-Fold       Percentage
                                 braking      braking events  Increase  (Within 50m divided
                               events within   within 50-100m             by within 50-100m)  
                               50m of camera     of camera                                                                       
          M4,Eastbound, near                                       
          Boston Manor train     
     3297 station, London          57               5           11            1140
         
          Rochdale Road,
          Middleton,
          Manchester.
    2362  South of the             43               4           11            1075
          M62 and north of
          Slattocks Link Road
          (A627M) 
                                                                                                                                                                 
          Leighton Buzzard
    3322  Rd (A4146),north out     31               4            8             775
          of Hemel Hempstead
          just past Piccotts
          End.                                                                                                                                                                     
          
          B5206, Shevington,
    1351  Wigan. North out         40               7            6             571
          of Shevington on the
          B5206

          Iver Ln (B470),
    3280  Uxbridge, Middlesex,     39               8            5             488
          near Hayes, London.
          Just past Palmer's
          Moor Lane                                                                                                                                                                 
          
          Garstang Rd,
    3172  Bilsborrow, Preston      33               7            5             471
          
          Chester Road
    3865  (A556), Mare,
          Knutsford, Cheshire      94              20            5             470

          A4010, High
    1845  Wycombe                  86              24            4             358

          Western Avenue
          (A40),
    5158  Ruslip, West of
          A4180 junction          261              79            3             330
          
          Watergate Bank,
    3079  Consett Road
          (A692), Gateshead        29              10            3             290

Wunelli's key findings relating to speeding: 

• 80% of the UK speed cameras investigated are creating braking black spots
• Motorists hard braking activity increases on average by 689% at these locations
• Women exceed the speed limit 12% less than men and hard brake 11% less
• Motorists are most likely to speed at 5:59 am and least likely to speed at 5:16 pm
• Motorists driving in 30 mph zones are found to be speeding 12% of the time and at least 18% over the speed limit
• Motorists in Caithness speed 36% of the time, whilst motorists in Greater London only speed 8% of the time
• A 30% reduction in speeding is achieved by  those provided with feedback via personal dashboards or smartphone devices

The Wunelli analysis also identified that drivers of 4WD gold estate cars are typically the safest drivers as determined by fewest speeding, braking and claims events.

Paul Stacy, Founding Director, Wunelli said: "These findings question whether speed cameras are serving their purpose as a road safety tool or whether they are instead encouraging poor driving behaviour.

"The breadth and depth of data Wunelli can now aggregate and study means driving behaviour analysis is now possible on a range of vehicle factors, if you wanted to identify which car driver is least likely to be involved in an accident based on the driving behaviour we have recorded, they would be the owner of an estate car, gold colour, 4 wheel drive and about £10k in value. Of course, that's not to say gold-coloured 4WD estate owners are all safe drivers."

The analysis also uncovered that residential roads (under 40mph) have significantly more accidents per mile than roads with higher speed limits. This type of information is not only hugely valuable to insurers but immensely important for motor manufacturers and the designers of the cars and the road networks of the future.

Ash Hassib, SVP and GM, Auto and Home Insurance, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, adds, "We have collected over a billion miles of driving behaviour data, and our analysis has provided some extremely important insights. We are building upon these insights to show the potentially dangerous effects of certain speed deterrents on driving behaviour as speeding drivers take erratic measures, such as braking harshly, to avoid being penalised.

"This supports the theory of accidents being 'wake up calls' to drivers to take more care and proof that a carrot rather than a stick approach works in improving driving behaviour."

* Wunelli's analysis of driving data collected over three years (2011-2014), includes 8,809 separate journeys in 5,353 vehicles.

**The table shows where the most hard braking events occur near speed camera sites in the UK, based on the number of hard braking events recorded within 50 metres of the speed camera in comparison with the number of hard braking events recorded within 50-100 metres of the speed camera.

The analysis was based on Speed Camera location data of 2012.The results are of over 5500 cameras analysed by Wunelli, the 10 speed cameras were selected on the following criteria:

• Camera was not a red light camera nor at a railway level crossing
• Braking events near the camera had a low propensity to be caused by other local features, such as side streets, intersections
• There was a significantly higher proportion of braking events within 0-50m of the camera compared to 50-100m of the camera (Braking event cluster)
• More than 25 braking events were recorded within 50m of the camera

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

Wunelli 

Working closely with all major software houses, today, Wunelli provides a complete end-to-end solution to enable insurers and brokers to offer telematics-based motor insurance products, in a fast, efficient and cost-effective manner.

Whether it is hard-wired, OBD2 or smartphone solution, Wunelli offers a completely outsourced solution or an integrated package that links telematics to existing internal systems.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions 

LexisNexis Risk Solutions is a leader in providing essential information that helps customers across industries and government predict, assess and manage risk. Combining cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced analytics, LexisNexis Risk Solutions provides products and services that address evolving client needs in the risk sector while upholding the highest standards of security and privacy. LexisNexis Risk Solutions is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries. http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/

For further media information, please contact Alison Reeson or Ally Redding at HSL on +44(0)208-9779132 or at [email protected].

SOURCE Wunelli, a LexisNexis company