Do Speed Cameras Change Driving Habits?

Do speed cameras change our driving habits? Anecdotally, yes. For me, at least, they work. In the last three years, the city of Ottawa recently started putting up speed cameras — mostly around school zones, but also in other community safety areas — with the intent of reducing speeding, or at the very least reducing speeding in those particular zones. I can tell you that it has worked for me because in those zones and other areas with similar speed limits or immediate surroundings, I tend to stick to the speed limit.

I’m not going to say I don’t speed anywhere now. On larger roads with higher speed limits (and highways), I will surely exceed the limit. Usually it’s about traveling with the speed of traffic. It doesn’t make sense to travel at the speed limit and potentially cause cases of road rage (I don’t know if that happens but it wouldn’t surprise me if it does). But within neighbourhoods, and in school zones, I stick to the limit (and in cases where I know there are a lot of pedestrians, such as my own neighbourhood, I often go slower).

So yes, overall, I would say the program works. In a lot of areas within the city, these cameras have slowed me down. Since the initial camera installations have been a success¹, the city has begun installing more cameras in other locations the city has determined speeding poses a significant safety issue. This tends to be in a lot of school zones, so hopefully the cameras will work to slow down the speedsters.