This is how Cape Town’s new speed cameras work!
The City of Cape Town has installed an average speed over distance (ASOD) system on Nelson Mandela Boulevard in its latest attempt to address speeding and to promote road safety.
The city of Cape Town said that the new camera initiative will ”compel motorists to slow down”. The ASOD system will be going live over the coming weeks.
The ASOD system consists of three sets of cameras that will cover all of the incoming and outgoing lanes and will measure the speed of all vehicles travelling inbound and outbound between the bottom of Nelson Mandela Boulevard and the N2 and M3.
The first set is on the footbridge over Nelson Mandela Boulevard in the vicinity of District Six; the second set is on the Main Road bridge over Settlers Way; and the third set is on the footbridge at Mostert’s Mill on the M3.
An ASOD system uses specialised cameras which record every vehicle that passes – meaning if you are speeding in between the cameras – you will get a fine. There is also a GPS receiver connected to each camera to accurately relay the time.
Are you wondering how? The camera uses the number plate of a vehicle as its trigger. Once a number plate has been detected, one camera takes a snapshot of the number plate and the other takes an overview snapshot of the vehicle. At this point, the exact time that the vehicle passed the camera is also captured.