Skip to main content

Switzerland expands flexible speed limits

The Swiss department for roads, Astra, is to expand its flexible speed limit systems. It already runs flexible speed limits on the approach to the Baregg tunnel and on the Zurich western bypass, but it is planning to expand this to include whole routes, such as the motorway between Zurich and Bern or Geneva and Lausanne.
June 19, 2013 Read time: 1 min

The Swiss department for roads, Astra, is to expand its flexible speed limit systems. It already runs flexible speed limits on the approach to the Baregg tunnel and on the Zurich western bypass, but it is planning to expand this to include whole routes, such as the motorway between Zurich and Bern or Geneva and Lausanne.

The system uses sensors which measure the volume of traffic, and if the number of cars reaches a certain level, the system can either lower the speed limit itself automatically or alert a traffic control centre.

Astra emphasised that it was important that this took place before the volume of traffic leads to a traffic jam. The capacity of the roads is the greatest when cars travel at a constant speed of 85 km/h. Astra is also using other congestion reduction measures, such as using the hard shoulder as an additional lane, and banning lorries from overtaking in certain areas.

Related Content

  • The importance of going with the flow
    April 6, 2018
    Ensuring worker safety and up-to-date driver information is crucial to ensure that roadworks are not a source of danger and delay. Andrew Williams looks at a scheme on the A14 in Cambridgeshire, UK. In recent years, portable workzone ITS solutions have emerged as important tools in the management of major roadworks and system upgrade projects - and are viewed as an increasingly vital means of ensuring any ongoing traffic flow disruption is kept to a minimum. The technology forms a central component of an
  • Seven things you may not know about Wales’ new 20mph default speed limit
    October 7, 2022
    Improved road safety and environmental benefits are key reasons for 20mph (30km/h) limit
  • In-vehicle automation of safety compliance and other traffic violations
    January 24, 2012
    David Crawford explores new initiatives in enforcement. Achieving the EU’s new road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 depends on removing legal and institutional barriers to the deployment of new enforcement technologies, stresses Jan Malenstein. The senior ITS Adviser to Dutch National Police Agency the KLPD, and a European-level spokesperson on road and traffic safety, points to the importance of, among other requirements, an effective EUwide type approval process for fr
  • Utah Department of Transportation: How we’re using traffic analytics software
    February 4, 2025
    Our use of Iteris ClearGuide lets our traffic operations engineers interpret critical probe traffic data without the need for statisticians and software developers