Speed cameras / radar

Not as fast as they want. As fast as the car allows.

I’m not really bothered by them either, the majority of them are where they are for a reason and if they improve road safety then I’m all for it.

The huge money spinner near us is on a motorway slip road where there were frequent accidents, several a week and on one particular Saturday we saw four in one day. Most drivers tried to take the bend too quickly and just hurtled off up the bank.
There have been barely any accidents since the installed the camera.

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Not as fast as the skill of the driver allows?

No. The driver needs to be out of comfort zone. Only then learning takes place.

Go-kart track?

Just a heads up… This week and especially Friday is a Europe-wide Blitzmarathon, it will be all hands on deck for the speedcameras and radar guys.

I know dozens of people who own ooono radar warning devices. They are as small as an airtag and are hooked to blue tooth. I think they’re great.

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Not today, they failed to light it.
They claimed due to the 80Km wind.

Interestingly there used to be a loophole in Germany that the driver couldn’t use one, but the passenger could. That was closed in 2022 from what I’ve read. In Switzerland the 2013 ban seems ironclad and even extends to possession or trade, so really not worth the risk.

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One could argue that if the fine for possession, as mentioned earlier, is less than the possible fines for speeding then it’s a risk that some would consider well worth taking.

And although theoretically the ban on devices covers phone apps as previously mentioned I’ve never heard of anyone being prosecuted for having such apps on their phone. Anyone know of any examples.

You have been fooled (easily apparently) by the false propaganda believing that speed cameras have little to do with road safety (including pedestrians crossing).

Just to show your complete ignorance on the subject with this post. Here are some speed cameras around Luzern:

They are mostly in busy tunnels, outside schools or at complicated motorway junctions which experience congestion:

Screenshot 2024-04-16 112632

Screenshot 2024-04-16 112600

Screenshot 2024-04-16 112710

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Screenshot 2024-04-16 112753

But your remarks are at least not as ludicrous as Komsomolez’s suggesting that rather than speed limits, car drivers should be allowed to drive as fast as the car is able to go (so the driver can drive outside his or her ability for practice).

Some of them are, sure, but even then there’s been a lot of thought about maximising the number of motorists caught. One of them that I recall going through Luzern is strategically placed at the bottom of a dip within a tunnel, which rarely gets congested and if it is will generally be so before the start of the tunnel. The point about it is that you’ve been through lots of busy junctions, traffic joining left right and centre, then just when it starts to flow you get into the tunnel, relax a bit and take your eye off the speedo for a second, while just maintaining speed, to find that you’ve suddenly gained 10kph on the downhill section just before the camera. D’oh!

That’s the sort of thing that I find objectionable about the Swiss approach in general; by all means try to slow the traffic approaching the busy complicated junctions, but forcing people to brake within a tunnel just when the traffic has started to flow doesn’t help anyone, except for those counting the income generated. It’s actually counterproductive, leading to a much less smooth and safe flow of traffic.

Not saying you are wrong but I’ve always understood that there are no cameras in tunnels. At the entrances and exits, but not in.

Between Geneva and Lausanne on the A1 there are 26 cameras in just over 50kms. Now are they there to reduce speeds or to collect money? If it was the later then, I think, they would arm the cameras 24/ 7 but they don’t.

Mobile speed cameras are often used inside the Isliberg tunnel (north bound) parked and hidden at the beginning of the car shelter. And I remember there being a fixed camera inside the tunnel between Sissach and Arisdorf.

This is the narrowest tunnel while going below the city. It is not necessary to brake. Just lift the foot from the gas, or use cruise control.

I’m not a professional driver. We just pass by there on the way to the Alps, Ticino or Italy. Even though, we’ve been stuck in slow traffic because 80 kmh was too fast for someone to keep control of the car and somehow found a way to crash with tunnel walls. The whole point of tunnels is to avoid being stuck in city traffic. Anyway, a genius finds a way to add one hour to the trip of thousands of people.

Another consideration with tunnels. Concrete does not yield a single centimeter when a car crashes. This leads to serious consequences because where not driving around in cars with roll-cages a 5-point harness while wearing a HANS device.

Ironically, there’s a radar in canton Solothurn on the A1 near the Härkingen intersection in the direction of Bern. It’s flat long straight, it’s the damned open road and anyway people brakes when they see the radar. Long queues form because people scared of radars brake on the f***** overtaking lane.

It could be a Cantonal matter.

I found this bad boy the other day when walking the mutt.

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Wonder how much it would fetch on Ricardo?

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Don’t bank on it. I know of quite a few. I can think of at least five without really trying.

One of the reasons I insisted on Cruise Control when I bought a new car back in 2008, when we were travelling between Engelberg and Basel at least a couple of times a month, more in the winter. Yes, you don;t need to brake if you’re careful, but the problem was it was very easy to drift over the limit, without using the accelerator pedal at all, then you get close to the camera and panic. I’m talking about drivers in general, not me specifically.

There are loads of cameras across the country that cause this phenomenon, often causing bunching traffic, which is IMO much more dangerous than if they just carried on at slightly over the limit on their speedo, which means that they would have been perfectly safe from the camera (e.g. an indicated 110 in most cars will be around a real 102, with the camera set on 105).