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Vasco da Gama Bridge
A controlled zone sign is seen… but where exactly does it begin and end? ANSR does not respond but there are three “tricks”.
Os average speed camerasa novelty here, already on Portuguese roads last year. But they still leave drivers confused.
There are 25 radars of this type across the country. Two of them have been – since June this year – on the same bridge, the . They are controlled by the National Republican Guard (GNR).
“They serve to provide a greater guarantee of speed compliance on larger stretches of the road. Sometimes accident sites are not concentrated in one place; they are along a certain route”, begins by recalling Pedro Ares, lieutenant colonel of the GNR.
The official told Revista that the radars controlled 7 million vehicles, between June and October this year alone, with 787 speeding violations reported.
And the “objective was fully achieved”: fewer accidents and especially fewer serious accidents – the vast majority of accidents now only record damage to vehicles, with no injuries or deaths.
The radars also lowered the average speed (which is now 100 km/h), on a bridge that has areas where the maximum speed limit is precisely 100 km/h and other areas where the maximum speed limit is 120 km/h.
The other 23 kinemometers, average speed radars, are included in SINCRO, the National Speed Control System, of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR).
Unlike traditional radars, these kinemometers do not measure the instantaneous speed of vehicles: calculate whether drivers traveled two points on a route faster than allowed.
But there are still many drivers for whom these devices cause doubts, mainly because of the end of controlled zone.
O H42 sign indicates that will start (a few tens of meters later) an area with an average speed camera – but there is no more signal. I.e, where does it end?
When the signs were put up, “there was no provision for placing an end of controlled zone sign“, replies Pedro Ares.
The lieutenant colonel of the GNR indicates that this question should be asked to the ANSR – that didn’t respond to the ACP’s questions.
However, there are three tricks: on the road in question, look up and see where the (small) chambers start and end speed control; consult the site from ANSR itself; and take a look at , the navigation app that identifies the speed limit and the start and end points of the controlled route.
