The speed management situation in Austria

Problem description

Injury accidents in Austria, after a couple of years of decrease, increased again in 2007 to 41,096. Within these, 53,211 persons were injured and 691 were killed. The official police record does not systematically collect information on accident causation. However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior collects on-the-scene assessment of the most likely cause for all fatal road crashes. For 230 out of 644 fatal road crashes (i.e. 36%), inappropriate or excessive speed was considered to be the main reason.

The Kuratorium fuer Verkehrssicherheit carries out speed surveys twice a year (more than 30,000 readings). The latest results from early 2008 show:

• 81% of passenger car drivers exceed 30 km/h limits in urban area,
• 53% of passenger car drivers exceed 50 km/h limits in urban area,
• 39% of passenger car drivers exceed 80 km/h limits in rural area,
• 23% of passenger car drivers exceed 100 km/h limits in rural area,
• 18% disregard the general 130 km/h limit on highways.

Existing measures

A lot of new speed limits were introduced in Austria due to ecological reasons in the recent years and strongly discussed in the public. No need to say that this has a significant impact on safety as well, however, safety was never an issue in these discussions.

Austria was one of the first countries to apply section based speed measurement ("section control"). There were major legal constraints, e.g. legal implementation of the device and data protection. Section control may now be used on sections with a particular risk. Currently, 4 devices are in operation in Austrian highways. Speed enforcement has significantly been improved in the recent years. In 2007 the number of radar detection based tickets was increased by 52% compared to 2006 to 2.9 million. From laser gun detection, almost 800,000 tickets were issued in 2007. The major problem is prosecution of drivers from foreign countries. In some areas they account for 75% of the offences.

Austrian police in 2007 operated 183 mobile stationary radar devices in 457 radar cabins (consequently 274 of them empty) at 555 prepared sites, 82 cars equipped with radar devices, 188 unmarked police cars with video, 1316 laser guns and 53 speed testers for mopeds.

Infrastructure measures are implemented in various ways. Most frequently, roundabouts replace conventional intersections particularly in rural areas. Main roads of smaller villages are frequently rebuilt using e.g. gateways (with or without central traffic island) at the end of villages, narrowing the road, table-junctions, speed humps, land use planning avoiding 4-direction intersections.

Policeman puppet ("Vinzenz") and mobile speed feedback devices are used increasingly, however still with local and timely limitations.

The city of Graz (226,000 inhabitants) was completely made a 30 km/h zone with 50km/h on priority roads only.

There has not been a major campaign on driving speed in the recent years. "Bleib am Leben, geh vom Gas" (reduce speed, stay alive) was run a couple of years ago using a couple of shocking images (persons injured in road crashes) for couple of weeks and then replacing them by black background with small white inscriptions.

Success stories

30 km/h zone in Graz was implemented in 1992 and evaluated several times. It is well accepted by the public (76% of passenger car drivers agree, 84% of pedestrians), the number of accident in total decreased by 18%, severe injuries were reduced by 26%, slight injuries by 18%.

One of the very beneficial circumstances around speed management in Austria is the existence of vehicle holder responsibility and an obligation to name the driver on demand of the authorities, even if one has to accuse him/herself.

The campaign Apfel/Zitrone is applied in Austria for more than two centuries very successfully.

Mobile speed feedback devices are more and more frequently used.

Section Control in the "Kaisermühlentunnel", a two-tube (three lanes each) urban tunnel was evaluated by KfV; a benefit-cost ratio of 5.3 was found, which is excellent. Nevertheless, this does not automatically mean that section control can be applied successfully; the local circumstances have to be considered.

What is needed for the future?

• Aside seat belt and cell phone use, speed violation need to be added to the catalogue of offences of the Austrian penalty point system.
• The general speed limits in Austria (50 km/h urban, 100 km/h rural and 130 km/h on highways) are among the highest throughout Europe and should be reconsidered.
• The existing system for toll collection for trucks could be used to monitor HGV driving speeds or for enforcement.