NSW to conduct speed camera audit

NSW's mobile and fixed speed cameras will be audited to determine if they really are having an impact on road safety, or are simply about revenue raising.

Premier Barry O'Farrell ordered the audit by the auditor-general on Thursday, with the 172 fixed cameras, six mobile cameras and 60 safety cameras around the state coming under scrutiny.

O'Farrell said the audit would address motorists' concerns that the cameras had become cash cows under the previous government.

While he admitted the unpopular devices were useful in curbing driver misbehaviour, he promised to rip out any camera found to have no impact on road safety.

"Fixed cameras can be useful, there is no doubt about that; red-light cameras can be useful," O'Farrell told reporters at the RTA's traffic management centre in Sydney.

"What we want to make sure is that transparently, openly, there is an audit to ensure motorists know whether or not cameras at certain locations are delivering that better road safety outcome, or whether it is just in fact about revenue raising."

O'Farrell said at the very least the audit, expected to take about three months, would "remove scepticism and cynicism about this issue".

"At best it will demonstrate case by case whether these cameras are achieving their outcome," he said.

The audit "ticked off" on another election promise of the new government, O'Farrell said.

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