MOTORISTS will soon be unable to dodge speed cameras on one of East Yorkshire's busiest roads.
Safer Roads Humber is planning to install the region's first average speed cameras along the A1079.
It will mean an end to the practice of so-called "camera surfing", where speeding drivers slow down as they approach a camera.
Ruth Gore, of Safer Roads Humber, said the existing 14 cameras – installed in August 2006 – are nearing the end of their shelf life.
She said: "We are finding some people 'camera-surf', which is dangerous and causes cars to 'bunch up' around cameras.
"Average speed cameras mean people have to comply with the national speed limit along the entire stretch of the route."
The cameras will be installed along the Beverley bypass and Arras Hill near Market Weighton.
Ms Gore said average speed cameras are safer for road users and have been proven to create a "smoother" traffic flow.
Such camera systems are commonplace on the UK's motorway network, where they are used to protect workers when maintenance work is taking place, said Ms Gore.
Motorists will have an extra incentive to comply with the speed limit – nationally, fines rose from £60 to £100 last month, which is in addition to the usual three penalty points.
Safer Roads Humber is still in the early stages of planning the roll-out of average speed cameras along the A1079 – a mix of 60mph and 70mph zones – and Ms Gore was unable to give costs or say how many would be installed.
However, she expects the Beverley bypass to require fewer cameras than the area around Market Weighton.
Ms Gore said: "For average speed cameras to work, you need a minimum of two cameras.
"There are only a few places to get on to the bypass, so we will not require a significant number of cameras here."
Following a trial earlier, Safer Roads Humber installed average speed cameras on a major road in Grimsby last month, but it will be the first time they have been used in East Yorkshire.
Figures obtained by the Mail show the number of people being caught speeding on the A1079 has been decreasing since they were installed.
In 2006, the fixed cameras caught 821 people speeding on the Beverley bypass.
According to the most recently published data, 424 speeding drivers were caught on the same stretch in 2011.
It is a similar trend for the stretch around Market Weighton, where 294 drivers were caught in 2011, compared with 788 in 2006.
Ms Gore says she expects the downward trend to continue once the average speed cameras are installed as people will be less inclined to put their foot down.
She said: "People feel it is a better system of enforcement."
But Phillip Cawkwell, a Hull driving instructor, believes people will be caught out.
He said: "It can be really hard to stick rigidly to a speed limit – you need to be concentrating very hard.
"Sometimes, drivers can be pushed into speeding up when someone is behind them. I can see this catching a few people out."
Ms Gore said Safer Roads Humber was "nowhere near" the stage of deciding if new signage to alert motorists to the presence of the average speed cameras would be installed.
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