More than 100 motorists per day in Canberra are being detected using their mobile phones while driving, with Haydon Drive in Belconnen the biggest hotspot.
However, the ACT government is in no hurry to start fining errant drivers, with a fresh delay flagged which will now have fines issued from the cameras early next year.
Parkes Way in Acton, one of Canberra's busiest sections of road, has registered the highest daily offences, with 66 recorded in one day.
However, Haydon Drive, despite a lower traffic volume, has registered the highest rate of offending with 0.71 per cent of drivers infringing.
Flemington Road in Mitchell is the second most prevalent offence zone, with Horse Park Drive in Forde ranked third.
The mobile traffic cameras leased from Acusensus were first rolled out from February 14 in a "commissioning phase".
Around 3.7 million ACT motorists have been screened by the cameras since February. The highest screening month was March, when 971,956 screenings occurred.
There are three mobile cameras and two fixed. The fixed devices are installed on existing overhead gantries on Hindmarsh Drive and Gungahlin Drive.
The program will cost $9 million over five years.
The data collection period had been expected to run until the end of June when the second phase of the program - the issuing of warning notices to offending motorists - was due to start.
However, the "testing and integration" phase for the cameras has rolled on past the trigger date, with the government now advising it was "likely warning notices will start being issued from the first quarter of this [coming] calendar year".
"At this stage it is expected that infringements will be issued approximately three months after this [warning period]," a government spokesperson said.
"Given the importance of educating the community, warnings will be issued to ensure people are given an opportunity to change their behaviours, including installing hands-free technology in their cars before fines start."
Technical updates to the cameras have now been successfully trialled by Acusensus which extend their capabilities. One of the important new capabilities is adding laser-operated speed detection.
The ACT government has flagged it will add additional capabilities to the cameras - including their ability to detect speeding, seatbelts and unregistered vehicles - after next year.
These capabilities are already being used in other jurisdictions such as Western Australia.
"The government will provide updates to the ACT community when these additional capabilities are introduced," the spokesperson said.
"We have been conducting extensive community campaigns to make sure Canberrans are aware of the new mobile phone detection technology and their responsibility to drive safely and legally and we will continue to do this ahead of the detection of other offences."
Once the fines begin, drivers who use their hand-held mobile device to make or receive a call will receive an infringement notice penalty of $480 and three demerit points.
The penalty for a driver who uses a mobile device for messaging, social networking, a mobile app or accessing the internet is an infringement notice penalty of $589 and four demerit points.
Mobile phone detection camera data for February 14 to June 17, 2023:
Highest detection rate zones (percentage of offences per traffic volume):
- Haydon Drive, Belconnen - 0.71
- Flemington Road, Mitchell - 0.57
- Horse Park Drive, Forde - 0.56
Lowest detection rate zones (percentage of offences per traffic volume):
- Ginninderra Drive, Evatt - 0.24
- Athllon Drive, Greenway - 0.25
- Coulter Drive, Cook - 0.25
Highest detections per day:
- Parkes Way, Acton - 66 offences per day, 0.49 per cent detection rate
- Tuggeranong Parkway, Molonglo Valley - 64 offences per day, 0.31 per cent detection rate
- Horse Park Drive, Forde - 56 offences per day, 0.56 per cent detection rate
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