Transport Administration launches pilot to measure average vehicle speeds

Transport Administration launches pilot to measure average vehicle speeds. Photo: Margus Ansu

The Estonian Transport Administration will conduct a study from Friday to Oct. 8 to measure the average speeds of vehicles on four road sections in a bid to find the best way to improve road safety and control offenders.

The director general of the Transport Administration, Priit Sauk, said that the purpose of the pilot project is to find out whether exceeding the average speed is a problem in Estonia.

«The study will be carried out using existing speed camera booths and the measuring systems installed in them,» said Sauk. «Our aim is to find new and effective measures to improve road safety and reduce the number of fatalities and injuries.»

The measurements will be done during daylight hours on a 4.4-kilometer section of the Tallinn-Narva road, kilometers 177.2-172.8, in the direction of Tallinn; on a 4.9-kilometer section of the Tallinn-Tartu road, kilometers 94.9-88.8, in the direction of Tallinn; on a 9-kilometer section of the Tallinn-Parnu road, kilometers 111.1-120.2, in the direction of Parnu; and on a 13-kilometer section of the Aasmae-Haapsalu road, kilometers 16.1-3.1, in the direction of Aasmae.

The locations where speeds are measured are indicated by road signs and information boards placed before the start of each section. The locations of the sections are also visible on the Tark Tee (Smart Road) app and on the website of the Transport Administration.

Under the pilot project, no cases will be forwarded for the conduct of procedures, even if a speed camera detects speeding at a specific location. The flashes of the cameras included in the pilot project have been switched off.

The registration plate of the vehicle is not used to retrieve data on the vehicle or to identify the owner or the user of the vehicle. In the course of the pilot project, no queries will be made to registers, databases or information systems, and the recordings made will not be transferred to any other database and information system.

The results of the pilot project will be available in the second half of November. The purpose of the measurements is not to find ways of penalizing anyone, but to assess the appropriateness of one of the measures to improve road safety and to test its implementation.

In August, the Transport Administration commissioned a survey asking respondents about their attitudes to measuring average speeds on the road to improve road safety when the measuring system precludes the collection of information for other purposes. Sixty-five percent of all respondents, and 61 percent of drivers, took a positive view on the prospect. Men aged 25-34, who sometimes or always exceed the speed limit, were the most negative.