Watch the gas pedal: they're watching your speed here!
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Vaud drivers will soon have the privilege of being the first to test a new federal highway department system for catching speeders on the A9 autoroute from Aigle to Bex.
An eight kilometre stretch of road will be equipped in September with a new radar system that measures a driver’s speed for that length of road to produce an average speed. Drivers who have gone over 120kph on average will be flashed at the end of the stretch.
The goal is to cut down on the number of drivers who are over the limit then suddenly reduce their speed as they approach fixed radars. The new system is designed to reduce accordeon-type traffic jams.
Aigle to Bex on the A9 is at the entrance to Valais, where the A9 has less traffic and several long straight stretches. The new radar area links the more heavily radar-equipped Vaud highway and Valais,where there are few radars and a noticeable shift in drivers’ speeds.
A similar test programme will be run near Basel, but on a 1.8km stretch of road, and a mobile version will be used. The three are costing the highway department CHF1.6 million, according to the Nouvelliste, and once a report on their effectiveness is published each canton is free to decide if it wants to use the system. Austria, Britain, Italy and The Netherlands already use similar systems.
National Highway Department regulations on radar measurements, pdf
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 22 March 2010.
Filed under: Travel
Tags: Aigle, average speed, Bex, radars, Swiss Highway Department, Switzerland, test, Valais, Vaud
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:41 am
Are anyone talking about the obvious side-effect of measuring the average speed? You have to keep track of ALL cars (i.e. take pictures and analyze license plates of all cars that pass), not just the ones who are speeding when they pass a camera. Sweden (where I’m from, now living in the Geneva region) are thinking about implementing solutions like this as well and no one seem to understand my concerns there either. The government will have a perfect database of where people are going. Hello Orwell.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Actually, there are concerns about data protection and this is one of the issues that the test will raise. Measuring all the cars, which is how the system works, will also allow the police to see who has or doesn’t have an autoroute sticker, and to spot stolen cars, so those are some of the arguments in favour of it, says the highway dept.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:20 pm
take the train
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:20 pm
They do go faster than cars on this stretch of road but getting to their goal faster is apparently not the only reason people speed.
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Good to hear that the issue is being discussed. I see, the slippery slope of what crime is awful enough (speeding, missing autoroute stickers — what’s next? catching people calling in sick and going skiing in Verbier instead? Infidelity?) has already begun. Personally, I don’t believe for a second that data can be protected at all (an issue that the banks here now know … ) and that systems like this are a big mistake, but I won’t start a digital privacy debate here on Geneva Lunch. Thanks for the information that the people in charge are aware of the implications. And also thanks for the high quality reporting in english about the region. A life saver for someone who really should learn more french.