The Automatic Speed Control pilot project was originally carried out in two Danish areas. The largest area has been the metropolitan area of Copenhagen. On the island of Funen the city of Odense, Svendborg and some smaller villages have been appointed proving ground. The control equipment is placed in the back of a van. The assigned police officer is able to move the equipment between several sites during the day. A site for traffic control is chosen from a list of roads where many accidents occur. The list is made from accident statistics and compiled in co-operation between the police and the municipality in question and the Road Directorate. The police officer drives the van to a chosen site on the road network. At the site the radar measures the speed of the cars driving by. If a car is speeding, the camera takes pictures of the car showing the licence plate and the face of the driver. When the police has got the name of the driver, the driver receives a fine corresponding to the driven speed. An important component of the project was information and campaigns. After examining the results, the Danish Parliament has decided to permanently implement automatic speed control in the entire country. The process of implementing speed enforcement technology began on the 1st of July this year and will continue for the next 2 years. The speed enforcement will be carried out from 9 regional offices that will be established one by one during the transition period. In 2001 13 of the 54 police districts will carry out the control, covering around 20 per cent of Denmark. More than 50 per cent of the inhabitants live in those areas. All major Danish cities will have speed enforcement technology by March 2002. Each of the regional offices will have 3-4 sets of equipment for controlling the speed in an area of on average 10.000 km2 with a total of on average 7.500-km of roads and streets. During the first couple of months the permanent implementation of automatic traffic control has been very successful in the areas in question. In one of the new areas the average running speed was reduced with about 2 km/h during the first month. That is to be considered a sizeable reduction especially when you take into account that it was during the holiday season. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD no 207828. The reprints are also available at the web - http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart1.pdf; http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart2.pdf and http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart3.pdf.
Samenvatting