A number of mysterious black boxes have been spotted on the roadside in the southern suburbs of the Illawarra.
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The boxes, often chained to power poles, have sparked some concern from motorists who think they may be a sneaky way of catching people speeding.
Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) is responsible for the boxes being there and a spokeswoman said they had nothing to do with catching people breaking the speed limit.
Rather, it’s part of a survey being carried out on the M1 Princes Motorway between Gwynneville and Dapto.
“This survey will inform planning for future improvements on the M1 between Figtree and Dapto,” the spokeswoman said.
“As part of this survey, RMS has engaged contractors to carry out traffic counts which will inform traffic modelling of the M1 Princes Motorway.”
The contractor is Matrix Traffic and Transport Data, whose name is displayed on the boxes – along with the highlighted phrase “this is not a speed camera”.
Senior project manager with Matrix Giles Smith said it wasn’t unusual for people to mistake the survey cameras for a speed camera.
Some people had even destroyed or stolen them, thinking they were speed cameras.
Mr Smith said the box contains a camera that films traffic flow at intersections and along roads.
He said the cameras were more effective than the method of running a “tube” across the road, which only counted the number of vehicles in one direction.
“The cameras are used more for very short-term surveys around intersections, where we can count the vehicles turning left, right, straight on and looking at queues as well,” Mr Smith said.
“We can get more data from the cameras. Years ago it would be done by someone sitting on a deckchair by the side of the road with little clickers.”
Mr Smith said the camera films traffic in real time – usually for two to three hours in the morning peak and again when motorists are returning home in the evening.
When the survey is finished, then the number of vehicles that feature in it have to be counted.
And that’s done by a person sitting in front of a screen and watching the video – though it’s sped up to get the job done faster.
“It’s actually counted manually,” he said.
“We’ve found that while there are programs that will count it automatically they aren’t as accurate currently as having someone count them manually.”
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
