Skip to main content

Czech Republic deploying smart traffic lights to combat speeding

Municipalities in the Czech Republic are increasingly deploying smart traffic lights with radar that detects the speed of approaching vehicles and turns the signal red to slow them down to the required speed limit. Currently there are about 100 installations because mayors believe they are more efficient than speed cameras or speed humps. According to one mayor, over 90 per cent of drivers slow down because of the technology. The traffic light system contains a microwave radar sensor which measures speed. I
May 4, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSMunicipalities in the Czech Republic are increasingly deploying smart traffic lights with radar that detects the speed of approaching vehicles and turns the signal red to slow them down to the required speed limit. Currently there are about 100 installations because mayors believe they are more efficient than speed cameras or speed humps. According to one mayor, over 90 per cent of drivers slow down because of the technology.

The traffic light system contains a microwave radar sensor which measures speed. If an approaching vehicle is travelling at lower than 50km/h, the light changes to orange and then green. If it is higher, the light remains red.

"The speeding driver sees the red and the throttles back. Red lasts until the car has achieved the required speed," explains Radomil Saiml Autron, the company which has supplied Czech municipalities with more than fifty of the new traffic lights.

Europe’s increasing use of this technology, which is widely deployed in Spain and Portugal, was the subject of a recent ITS International feature article - Traffic signals turn red to stop speeding drivers – by David Crawford which is available at this link.

Related Content

  • Live demonstrations at 2010 ITS annual meeting
    August 2, 2012
    The practical, day-to-day co-working which goes on at Houston TranStar will form a major part of the demonstrations at the 2010 Annual Meeting, says co-chair of the organising committee Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Chief of Police Thomas C. Lambert.
  • Argo AI Lidar to help realise ride-hail AVs
    May 12, 2021
    Argo collaborating with Ford and Volkswagen on development of autonomous vehicles
  • Global perspective on the acceptability of road pricing
    May 16, 2012
    As part of its activities, the UK RAC Foundation (Royal Automobile Association) has published a research report, 'The Acceptability of Road Pricing' by Dr John Walker, which shows that paying for roads as you use them is common across the globe and that a significant number of schemes in operation have met a broad range of objectives without being prohibitively expensive. They have also been largely technically successful and once in place tend to gain public acceptance and support.
  • Video sensor system collecting traffic data at service stations in Ireland
    July 4, 2012
    Citilog is deploying XCam-td video sensors at Topaz, which has over 300 service stations throughout Ireland, in order to gather traffic data at the entrance and at multiple locations on roads leading to a service station. This gives Topaz accurate traffic counts and comparison data on vehicles traffic passing and entering the service station forecourt.