A new kind of speed camera is due to start operating soon
Friday, 4 July 2025
Two sets of point-to-point speed cameras are due to be installed on highways in Bay of Plenty, in areas where speeding is rife, as the country prepares to use a new method to catch speeding drivers.
Here’s what you need to know about them.
How do they work?
The average speed safety cameras work by calculating a vehicle’s average speed over a length of road between two cameras.
The system uses automated number plate recognition (ANPR) to match a vehicle number plate as it enters and leaves an average speed measurement zone.
These cameras are the most effective camera type for reducing deaths and serious injuries, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said.
Where are they being set up?
NZTA announced on Thursday two Bay of Plenty sites where sets of the new cameras will be installed: On State Highway 2 between Ōtamarākau and Matatā, and on SH5 at Tumunui, south of Rotorua.
Construction work is due to begin at each site in mid-July, but poles and cameras aren’t expected to be put in place until later in 2025.
Why there?
A survey in June 2024 on SH2 at Matatā found about 45% of drivers were speeding, NZTA said.
A survey that same month at a particular stretch of SH5 at Tumunui found about 47% of drivers were speeding.
Will BOP be the first to use these cameras?
No. The first pair of the average speed cameras expected to actually be used for speed enforcement in this country is undergoing testing on Matakana Rd in Warkworth.
That pair of cameras was installed in late-2023, and NZTA doesn’t have a specific date for when it will start operating, but says it’s expected to be used for enforcement in mid to late 2025.
Are the cameras coming to other parts of NZ?
Another pair of average speed cameras being installed on SH2 between Pōkeno and Mangatāwhiri is also due to start being used for enforcement sometime in mid to late 2025.
NZTA said another six pairs of average speed cameras were being installed in the Auckland region, with five of them due to be used for enforcement from late 2025, and the sixth in 2026.
Far North District Council has announced that it and NZTA are to install four average speed safety cameras on a roughly 11km stretch of the Kaitāia-Awaroa Road.