Citizens

It is not a "driver trap"

Section control and red light violation monitoring is not a "driver trap". Each monitored site is marked and published.

The capital of the Czech Republic - Prague has prepared a longterm investment plan, whose aim is to increase traffic safety on roads and to inform public about cases of drivers disrespecting the driving rules particularly dangerous speeding and red signal light violation. By medialising these violations Prague wants to show that modern telematics are able to monitor these violations and by cooperation with competent administrative organizations these methods are a tool to accident and pointless death or public harm prevention. Source: Informační server hl. m. Prahy, sekce "Sledování přestupků".

The aim is to calm traffic

The term traffic calming or „Verkehrsberuhigung“, firstly appeared in the 70s in Germany as a part of the residential and Tempo 30 zones development (in English speaking countries „traffic pacification“ was initial term in the 80s, describing local traffic management techniques, it was not until the 90s when the term „traffic calming“ started to be used). German engineers found out that by calming particular streets the rest of the traffic will just move to main roads which will suffer from bigger congestions - the calm streets will be calmer whilst the stuffed main roads will become even more stuffed. Therefore they decided to carry out a study of full-area traffic calming practicability, while the calming arrangements would be also applied to main roads. A longterm evaluation in 6 German cities was carried out during the 80s. These arrangements covered large Tempo 30 zones construction, one-way streets were changed to two-way ones, velocity meters were installed, in some cases roads were narrowed, alternative types of travel were supported. The results were:

• Traffic intensities remained unchanged.
• The speed was decreased.
• The number of accidents remained the same but they were less serious.
• Air pollution has decreased.
• The noise level was decreased.
  

These results prompted many towns to apply full-area traffic calming methods; Notable examples: Odense in Denmark; Göteborg and Malmö in Sweden; Groningen, Delft, Tilburg, Haag and Amsterdam in Holland; Bologna and Parma in Italy; Zűrich and Basilej in Switzerland; Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya in Japan. During the 90s the idea spread in the USA and Canada, although some towns applied these principles in the 80s and Berkley in California already in the 70s.

Source: Centrum dopravního výzkumu.

The section control system UnicamVELOCITY distinctively calms traffic

Experience from a monitoring station in Zlín shows that no serious traffic accident has occurred. The number of vehicles breaking the speed limit by more than 20km/h has decreased dramatically by 60% since the system was set up.