Denmark to change law to place permanent speed checks on bridges
The Danish government plans to place permanent speed checks from next year on the country’s two largest bridges, the Great Belt Bridge and the Øresund Bridge.
Permanent speed cameras will be set up from next year on the Great Belt Bridge, the 18-kilometre long fixed link connecting Zealand with Funen which was completed in 1998.
The no-less impressive Øresund Bridge, which crosses from the Swedish coast to the artificial Danish island of Peberholm, which is connected to Copenhagen via tunnel, will get the same treatment, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement.
The speed cameras will measure the average speed of motorists on sections of the bridges.
A law change will be required to enable to cameras to be fixed in place, but that appears to be a formality with the equipment already on order.
The government said that installing cameras on the bridges would solving a persistent problem with speeding motorists on the crossings.
“We have unfortunately a very big and general challenge here (in Denmark) with drivers who drive far, far too fast,” transport minister Benny Engelbrecht said in a statement.
“In this context it is natural to give an extra push to the last part of the project with (automatic speed checks) which will help us to catch speed sinners on our two largest bridge connections,” he added.
2020 saw 9.6 million cars and 1.5 million lorries cross the Great Belt Bridge. For the Øresund Bridge, those figures were 3.9 million and 600,000 respectively.
The latter bridge saw less traffic than usual last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
READ ALSO: ‘No consideration for anybody except themselves’: The damning verdict on Danish driving
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Permanent speed cameras will be set up from next year on the Great Belt Bridge, the 18-kilometre long fixed link connecting Zealand with Funen which was completed in 1998.
The no-less impressive Øresund Bridge, which crosses from the Swedish coast to the artificial Danish island of Peberholm, which is connected to Copenhagen via tunnel, will get the same treatment, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement.
The speed cameras will measure the average speed of motorists on sections of the bridges.
A law change will be required to enable to cameras to be fixed in place, but that appears to be a formality with the equipment already on order.
The government said that installing cameras on the bridges would solving a persistent problem with speeding motorists on the crossings.
“We have unfortunately a very big and general challenge here (in Denmark) with drivers who drive far, far too fast,” transport minister Benny Engelbrecht said in a statement.
“In this context it is natural to give an extra push to the last part of the project with (automatic speed checks) which will help us to catch speed sinners on our two largest bridge connections,” he added.
2020 saw 9.6 million cars and 1.5 million lorries cross the Great Belt Bridge. For the Øresund Bridge, those figures were 3.9 million and 600,000 respectively.
The latter bridge saw less traffic than usual last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
READ ALSO: ‘No consideration for anybody except themselves’: The damning verdict on Danish driving
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