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Thousands of motorists are being stung for speeding on the WestConnex motorway each month, despite a political consensus the speed limit is too low and pre-election commitments to lift it.
The latest Revenue NSW data shows upwards of 2000 speeding fines a month are being handed to drivers in the various WestConnex tunnels, especially from the twin M4 East cameras in Croydon.
Both the major political parties vowed to increase speed limits on the WestConnex.Credit: Louie Douvis
In March, before the election, the then-Coalition government promised to lift the motorway speed limit to 90km/h from 80km/h in move it said would slash travel times and inject “billions” into the economy. Labor quickly matched the pledge.
That month there was a spike in the number of people caught speeding on WestConnex, with 5484 fines doled out, worth about $1.5 million. There were another 2588 fines in April and 3526 in May, the records show.
Roads Minister John Graham said the government was committed to increasing the limit but Transport for NSW and Transurban were still assessing the "safe implementation" of the change. That entails impacts on traffic volume and flow, and tunnel ventilation.
"Until then, the current speed limit will be enforced as it should be for the safety of all motorists," he said. There was no estimated date for the change.
The proposed speed limit increase was welcomed by the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils at the time, although they said it didn’t go far enough and should be 100km/h, while the Royal Australian College of Surgeons slammed it as an election stunt and “a race to the bottom on road safety”.
Premier Chris Minns announced on Sunday he would expedite changes to the NSW demerit point system to return a lost point to motorists after 12 months of clean driving, instead of three years.
Rather than starting on July 1, the trial will be backdated to January 17 this year. Drivers who have maintained “spotless behaviour” since then – and continue to do so until January 17, 2024 – will get one point returned to them.
Minns said it was an incentive for drivers to obey the road rules. “For a long time in NSW the focus in relation to demerit points and fines was about revenue raising, as well as the stick. No one has ever tried the carrot.
"One point back, particularly if you're on the precipice of losing your licence, is a big incentive."
The top revenue-raising speed cameras around Sydney include the northbound and southbound cameras on the NorthConnex motorway in Pennant Hills and Normanhurst, which catch 2000 to 3000 drivers each month, and a single northbound camera on the Princes Highway at St Peters.
The number of infringements issued from that camera exploded in July 2021 when the speed limit was reduced to 40km/h from 60km/h. It appears to have been switched off at some point in March this year, as there were no fines issued in April, but the number of fines leapt back to 1463 in May.
A notorious pair of cameras at the corner of Oxford and Crown streets in Darlinghurst continues to snare thousands of drivers a month for speeding in the 40km/h zone, though fewer than when the speed limit was reduced in 2020.
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