The Ministry of Transport has mandated the police to use new speed cameras that measure the average speed of cars on certain road sections. It is not yet clear what the speeding fines will look like.
Power to impose penalties on the basis of average speed cameras has been granted under new agreements between the ministry and the National Police Commissioner, the Icelandic Transport Authority and the Icelandic Road Administration.
The new technology has been tested in recent months both in the Norðfjörður tunnel and on the Grindarvíkurvegur road.
The same speed cameras are currently being installed on the Þingvallavegur road, and in the future they will also be installed on other roads in the country, for example in the Hvalfjörður tunnel.
How do the new speed cameras work?
Cameras will be installed at both ends of the tunnel and when the car enters the tunnel, the camera takes a picture of it.
The journey through the Hvalfjörður tunnel should take the driver over 5 minutes, so anyone who covers this distance faster will break the rules.
The Hvalfjörður tunnel is just over 5.7 km long. The maximum speed is 70 kilometers per hour.
This means that if the car is passing through the tunnel at the permitted speed, it should not cover the distance faster than five minutes.
When the vehicle leaves the tunnel, a second camera takes a photo of it and then calculates the average speed of the car along the road section to be tested.
If the vehicle passed through the tunnel in, for example, four and a half minutes, the driver broke the rules and will be fined.
However, it is not yet clear how drivers who exceed the speed limit will be punished.
Currently, all ticket-related criteria relate to maximum speed, and the new technology does not show the speed at which the vehicle is currently driving. It is not possible to check whether someone is driving at a speed of 110 km / h for a minute on some road section, or even 140 km / h for half a minute.
mmn / visir.is
Source: Yle
