Speed ??increases the accident rate and the severity of injuries caused in the event of an accident. For this reason, a priority objective in terms of road safety and road control is to put an end to excessive speed by drivers through the installation of fixed radars and the placement of mobile ones. In this regard, Catalonia is going to strengthen its fight against excessive speed with the arrival of autonomous radars.
Although they are already used in other European countries, with a special presence in France, autonomous radars will arrive in Catalonia as a pioneering system in our country, with the aim of reinforcing road safety on the community’s roads. The Government approved the purchase of four autonomous radars last summer and the Servei Català de Trànsit has reported that two of them will begin to operate this April, while the other two will be operational before the end of the year.
The autonomous radars, created by the company Vitronic, are a type of wheeled trailer that weighs more than a ton and are armored, with the aim of protecting them from vandalism and other possible damage. They work using a wide-range laser that can reach a distance of 75 meters and detect violations in several lanes simultaneously.
In addition, they distinguish between the type of vehicle and the speed limit for each of them on the road they are on. They work via WiFi connection, so it manages violations immediately.
They are called autonomous because, thanks to their wheels, their battery and their technology, they can move alone along the road on which they are located and have ten days of autonomy. If necessary, they can be towed. In this way, they play with the surprise factor to be able to catch offenders unprepared, unlike fixed radars whose location is known and compared to mobile radars whose location can be broadcast by users on certain applications or social networks.
For all these reasons, these speedometers fine more than mobile and fixed radars. Specifically, in France each registers an average of 14,000 fines per year, which is five times more than a mobile radar and almost triple that of a fixed radar.
Two of the four mobile radars acquired will be operational in April 2024, while the other two do not yet have a scheduled start-up date. The Government reported that they will be placed on roads where a higher concentration of accidents is recorded and where excessive speed is a recurring factor.
The investment for the four devices amounts to 1,067,391.02 euros. The contract also includes the supply of the necessary equipment for the Servei Català de Trànsit to carry out centralized management of the infractions captured by these radars, which will be included in the SCT’s integrated cinemometer system.
