Something I've seen a lot in Europe is speed cameras in places that have a specific good reason for people to slow down. Several seconds before encountering the camera is a sign with the speed limit and a camera icon or the word "radar". The purpose isn't to issue tickets, but to get people to slow down for the dangerous section of road.
Alternately, a device that encourages users to comply with the law via particularly well-timed, targeted reminders. :)
I don’t recall if it’s Germany or Switzerland (or elsewhere in Europe somewhere) where I’ve seen official signs warning of a speed camera just ahead. Are those signs encouraging breaking the law elsewhere?
There are no speed cameras on the highways though.
But on principle, Sweden does it best with the cameras. Before the camera, there is warning sign that gives you plenty of time to slow down(unless you are seriously speeding) which makes much more sense than hidden cameras IMHO. It makes people slow down at dangerous spots on the road, which is the whole point with the cameras right?
Some people do, but you can easily put speed cameras where there are some accidents. It's more honest that way in my opinion. I've driven in Germany and their cameras don't make me go much slower, just annoy:
- A series of 80-60 speed changes on straight road, then just when you are annoyed and don't slow, there is a speed trap.
- Badly marked school zone, I was doing 40km/h already, then a black painted camera hidden in bushes caught me.
Portuguese here. Speed cameras are definitely legal, although it's mandatory to have a sign indicating their presence x meters beforehand (if I'm not mistaken). Also mobile police units with speed cameras in very discreet places is a common thing. What happened in Lisbon some time ago though was that most of the radars ended up dying due to lack of maintenance (due to lack of funds/attention/whatever). A lot were recently reactivated I heard.
But yeah these speed sensitive red lights are common and I agree that they work pretty well. Social pressure is good for behavioral nudging. Reminds me of those led signs that show a sad face if you go over the limit on certain residential areas for example.
However I must say that nothing beats Belgium in speed radars. Especially in Flanders, there are so many of these damn Gatso speed traps... What really makes the whole thing work though is a very good system behind it. Here in Belgium, if you're caught by a speed camera, you'll get the fine within 2 weeks tops. In Portugal however you might not even get it because the pile of fines to process is too big and the system isn't prepared for it.
I can confirm the roundabout obsession too :) those can be really annoying but they sure slow people down.
Some countries in Europe have average speed cameras. They photograph you at two points along a highway, and if your average speed is over the limit you get a fine.
It's worth noting that French speed cameras may work a bit differently to what Americans expect. They're a revenue generation mechanism over here, not a safety measure.
Imagine you're driving down a divided motorway at freeway speed, when for no evident reason there's a single 90kph speed sign visible for a couple seconds behind a bridge. That's the signal that 100 yards further on there will be a hidden speed camera. Then the speed limit will go back up to 130kph immediately afterwards.
So when you move to a new area you find out about these things when a series of fines arrive in the mail. Often for being recorded going 91kph in that 90 zone.
It's maddening as a safe driver, having to keep constantly alert and ready to slam on the brakes going down any unfamiliar piece of road.
I'm not overly saddened to hear there are fewer of those things around for a while.
I was totally fine with the way I saw speed cameras set up in Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania etc. in those places you generally see them only when you are genuinely passing through a place that it is unsafe to be speeding, most often this is the main crossing point in a small village where one of the only the bus stops is. A totally reasonable place you don’t want people rocketing by at 100 kmh. The key is that in Europe you are almost always warned exactly where, in meters, the speed trap is, often multiple times. So you have ample time to slow down and it’s not a “gotcha” like speed traps you might see in the States or the infamous red light cameras that you would only know they are photo enforced as you are driving through them because the barely visible sign is right before the light.
In short, the key thing about European speed cameras in my experience that makes them reasonable and effective is that they are actually designed and implemented as a way to slow people down, not as a moneymaking agenda
Side note I think Norway has gone just a bit too far with them. Especially in Oslo area
In NL they claim the speed cameras are for safety. I'd believe that if they put them in places where people go faster than the 'safe speed', but instead they put them in places where there is a ton of traffic. I suspect that there is an economical motive at work here rather than a safety motive but I can't prove that.
All I do know is that I spend too much time checking that damn dial. So I fixed that by setting the GPS to warn me with an audible alarm when I get to 1 km over the GPS measured speed compared to the posted limit of the road I'm on (it adjusts those automatically). Very useful.
We have these in the US too. Lots of times around schools zones or areas where residents have complained about speeding. They look a lot like a speed sign but have a crude screen with numbers that flash when you go over. There are other signs that show the speed limit and then flash yellow lights if you’re going to fast.
Thankfully I don’t think it’s legal for speed cameras in my state although they do have ones at stoplights.
In Norway they put one of those radar boxes with a camera in places like this. They even put a sign a mile before saying there is going to be a box since the objective is not to catch people but to make the average traffic slow down.
Unless you move them around drivers will just slow down at the camera and then commence speeding. What works is strategically placed cameras that measure average speed over a distance. We have these a few places in Norway and most people stick to the speed limit or a bit below between the cameras.
Regarding speed cameras. I was driving around the Netherlands and saw speed cameras for the first time (I'm from the US) in Apeldoorn. There were signs that warned drivers about them. In the US, in several rural areas have electronic signs at the edge of town, just outside of the limit change, which warn you when you are exceeding the limit through town. I would have no problem at all with permanent enforcement systems provided they were accompanied by advance warnings. If I am so inattentive to my driving that I miss the warnings and get a ticket, so be it. It is much safer (and should be much cheaper) than randomly placed patrol cars performing radar/laser speed enforcement.
There is such camera based enforcement in many countries on highways in Europe. Conceptually, it isn’t different than toll gates, just stopping isn’t needed. There are also speed cameras everywhere in Europe.
The only conspiracy theory is that there would be anybody who cannot leave from somewhere no matter what, but that’s just a very stupid assumption.
They have them in a lot of European countries, we call it "the green wave".
There's also another trend on the rise: cameras that take photographs of license plates at an interval of several miles. If the calculated speed (the average) is larger than what's permitted you get a ticket.
I have not lived in a time when there were no speeding cameras where I lived, so it's not some kind of weird nostalgia.
I have no doubt that speeding cameras make the road safer, but they are being abused in the Netherlands, because they are a very good source of income.
For example, driving 4 kmh (2.5 mph) over the limit causes a €37 fine. The threshhold for fining has been lowered from 10 kmh to 4 kmh. Fines have quadrupled over the last 3 decades.
This all gets worse because we have 4 (80, 100, 120, 130) + dynamic as common limits on the highways, which change every few kilometres on some roads with only minimal signs. A large amounts of fines was actually declared invalid by court because of this reason.
You probably don't need to go crazy with stuff like that. Speed cameras seem like effective deterrents. When I drove around the UK, speed cameras were everywhere and people generally all did the speed limit or below.
The USA has a weird cultural obsession with being able to break certain laws. We need to rethink that. If we aren't enforcing laws, then we need to get rid of them, if we don't want to get rid of them, then we need to enforce them.
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