Speed and Technology: Different Modus of Operandi

Abstract

AbstractWithin Vision Zero as a strategy, it is imbedded the fact that injuries occur when the mechanical energy reaches individuals at rates that entail forces in excess of their thresholds for injury. Therefore, according to Vision Zero, there are three main strategies to eliminate fatalities and severe injuries due to road crashes: protect people from exposure of harmful energy, reduce the risk of events with harmful energy, and protect people from harmful energy in the event of a collision. Controlling speed is therefore of the task of utmost importance in a strategy such as Vision Zero.A traffic enforcement camera, or “speed camera,” system has the possibility to control speed in a road system, and it has the possibility to affect its road users both at a macro and a micro perspective. In a micro perspective, it primarily concerns how effective the cameras are locally at the road sections where the enforcement is focused on, while at a macro perspective it is more focused on how the camera enforcement system and strategies, possibly together with the overall enforcement strategy, affects attitudes and norms related to driving with excessive speed. Experience worldwide has proven the effectiveness of automated speed cameras in reducing speed and, in turn, crashes and injuries.In this chapter, firstly the rationale behind speed limits, speed management, and speed compliance strategies will be explored and analyzed, in particular from a Vision Zero perspective. Secondly, various different approaches to speed camera systems in Europe, in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and France, will be analyzed and further explored. Finally, based on similarities and differences in approaches in these countries, in the last section some aspects concerning the setting of speed limits, speed management strategies that underpin the choice of camera technology, and modus of operandi, safety effects of and attitudes toward cameras, will be explored and discussed.