Mobile speed cameras often lie in wait for traffic offenders in inconspicuous places. © Funke Photo Services/Imago
For cities and municipalities, income from speed camera fines is sometimes a lucrative source of money. There are particularly many in seven NRW metropolises.
Dortmund – They are intended to contribute to greater road safety, but they are often a thorn in the side of drivers: Speed cameras for speed monitoring lie in wait across Germany for inattentive or consciously speeding drivers. A study has now found out how many there are on average in the 40 largest cities in the country – particularly piquant: seven NRW cities are in top positions in a German comparison.
There are particularly many speed cameras in these seven NRW cities
In the NRW cities of Wuppertal (3rd), Bielefeld (8th), Mönchengladbach (9th), Cologne (10th), Gelsenkirchen (12th), Bonn (13th) and Oberhausen (14th), drivers have to be particularly careful be careful. This is the result of the study for 2024 by the consumer law firm Goldstein Rechtsanwälte.
In Wuppertal, on a street area of 1,403 hectares, an average of 36.36 speed cameras – 34 of which are fixed and 2.36 mobile speed cameras – lie in wait for careless drivers. That’s around 25.92 speed cameras per 1000 hectares of road, only Wiesbaden (33.89) and Freiburg im Breisgau (35.37) top this value for the NRW city in the Bergisches Land (more news about accidents and traffic in NRW at RUHR24 ).
NRW cities are making a lot of money thanks to speed camera fines
A special feature: There are comparatively many fixed speed cameras in cities, said lawyer Alexander Voigt, managing director of Goldenstein Lawyers. “Normally, however, these speed cameras are triggered relatively rarely because drivers who are familiar with the area are already familiar with them.” In contrast, “mobile or partially stationary speed cameras” are particularly dangerous.
Several cities sometimes make a lot of money with their speed cameras. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Dortmund in particular earned significantly more than other metropolises in 2022, with around 6,473,500 euros from “speed camera ads”. And this despite the fact that there are still comparatively few speed cameras in the largest cities in the Ruhr area.
Video: A1, A2 and Co. – The most important highways in NRW
There are comparatively few speed cameras in a NRW region
But how exactly is the density of speed cameras in the Ruhr area, the traffic epicenter in North Rhine-Westphalia? In their current study, the initiators found that “in the six cities analyzed in the Ruhr area, there are on average only 5.6 fixed, mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras per 1,000 hectares of road area.”
The nationwide average value is more than twice as high at 11.47. The highest speed camera density in the Ruhr area is in Gelsenkirchen (14.15, 12th place nationwide), the lowest in Duisburg (2.91, 38th place nationwide). This means: Despite the high volume of traffic, there are comparatively few speed cameras in the Ruhr area.
Speed camera ranking 2024: NRW cities do not pursue a uniform strategy
There is a simple reason why there are such big differences in speed camera density not only in North Rhine-Westphalia, but throughout Germany as a whole. Ultimately, there are “no fixed guidelines as to how many speed cameras should be set up per street area in individual cities to improve traffic safety,” said Voigt. As a result, every major city pursues its own strategy.
To avoid fines, drivers can use speed camera apps – before the journey and not during it, of course. However, the ban on these apps was already expanded in 2023: The road traffic regulations stipulate that, in addition to the driver, the other occupants of the vehicle are not allowed to run the flash apps while driving.
2024-01-21 14:06:57
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