SPEED cameras are nothing more than revenue raisers, a university study shows.

It also says they are not used in notorious black spots, and it is being used to bolster moves for a parliamentary inquiry into their effectiveness.

The report, prepared at no cost as part of the parliamentary intern scheme at the University of Adelaide for Liberal MP Ivan Venning, calls for greater police presence on the roads and for the police to take over management and placement of speed cameras.

Mr Venning has moved in the House of Assembly for a parliamentary select committee to investigate the use of speed cameras and other devices used South Australian police.

Mr Venning said the state's resources needed to be targeted at the most effective safety measures and that "motorists do not become victims of the tax collector".

The report says that a month-long study last year showed that in rural areas, speed cameras were not being used where accidents occurred.

"It can be decisively concluded that 37 per cent of the cameras in the study were placed directly inside a rural town on a rural street even though it is demonstrated only 4.2 per cent of accidents occur in these areas," the report says.

"Statistic released under FoI laws in 2009 further reveal that only two of the top 10 revenue-raising speed camera sites were located in SA's worst black spots.

"Police data found that black spots in Adelaide were on main arterial roads but major revenue-raising roads were in the Adelaide CBD and eastern suburbs.

The report has recommended:

INCREASED police patrols because they can capture more serious accident-causing offences than cameras can.

GREATER transparency so people can more easily access information about the operation of speed cameras and where they are in relation to accident black spots.

TRANSFER responsibility for camera enforcement to local police.

The report highlights that several other factors other than speeding can also contribute to road accidents. In SA, 36 per cent of people who died in road accidents in 2009 had a blood alcohol reading of 0.05 per cent or higher, and inattention was a contributing cause in 52 per cent and 47 per cent of fatal and serious injury accidents.

Road Safety Minister Tom Kenyon said what the Government was trying to achieve through the use of speed cameras was to lower motorists' speed. "Research shows that the more often you are caught, the more effective it is," he said.

Originally published as Cameras ARE just revenue raisers