As a concerned motorist, I welcome the Traffic Police’s recent move to expand the use of red-light cameras to detect speeding offences (More red-light cameras to be used to detect speeding from April 1: Traffic Police, March 31).

This is a commendable step towards enhancing road safety in Singapore. Integrating speeding-detection capabilities in red-light cameras will strengthen enforcement and deter traffic offences.

However, I have some concerns regarding the effectiveness of cameras in curbing traffic violations.

The static nature of these cameras might limit their deterrence effect to the specific locations they are in. Drivers familiar with these cameras’ locations might slow down only temporarily or avoid running red lights at these junctions, while potentially continuing to exhibit reckless behaviour in stretches without surveillance.

I am also curious about the broader trends of traffic offences in Singapore. More specifically, can the Traffic Police provide statistics on traffic violations committed, categorised into three groups: commercial vehicles, private-hire vehicles and regular motorists?

Having data on this would be useful to understand which groups might require more focused enforcement or educational measures.

A Straits Times report in 2018, using statistics gathered by motor insurers, highlighted that taxis and private-hire cars were the most prone to accidents (Private-hire cars, taxis most prone to accidents, March 1, 2018). And there has been an increase in the number of private-hire vehicles on our roads since then.

If the data indicates a higher rate of traffic offences among any group of motorists, tailored measures such as enhanced training or stricter regulations could be implemented to supplement enforcement tools such as red-light cameras.

Dylan Lim Heng Hui