The speed management situation in the Czech Republic

Problem description

Inappropriate speed causes the highest number of fatalities in road accidents on Czech roads (approximately 40 - 50 %). Speed Management and its enforcement is weak and drivers do not respect traffic rules. Further, progress is deterred by the fact that Road safety is not considered a public priority. Choosing one's speed is considered an act of personal freedom and drivers are typically concerned only as much as the problem affects them personally. Appropriate legislation is also missing; and the problem is rendered even worst by the limited capacity of the traffic police to enforce existing legislation.

Speed limits are 50 km/h (urban), 90 km/h (rural) and 130 km/h (motorways). The level of speeding is approximalely as follows - 30 % on urban and rural roads (2005 - 2006) and 40 % on motorways.

Existing measures

Since 2004, the Czech road safety strategy has been included in Ministry of Transport's document called "National Road Safety Strategy" - it sets both short and long term goals and presents a government philosophy on road safety. Its final objective is to achieve the EU goal of halving the number of fatalities by 2010.

Considering three road safety pillars (driver, infrastructure, and vehicle), most action is being taken within infrastructure area. Drivers' behaviour and vehicle technology are still rarely open to change: drivers are very little informed about new technologies such as ITS/ISA and are afraid of using them.

Most infrastructure measures implementation is being carried in urban areas: including traffic calming measures (eg. islands, chicanes, 30 km/h zones) and speed camera installations. Their effect depends on frequency and thoroughness of police control - eg. chicanes, islands and policeman figurines were found to decrease speed by 5 - 20 %.

Success stories

There have been two major successes in reducing speeding:

• The introduction of the 50 km/h speed limit in urban areas (1997) led to a reduction of about 25 % in annual road deaths in urban areas. Unfortunately, Its positive effect has been reduced in 2001 by the Road Act, which has introduced a series of new measures, among which the right of way (also called "priority") for pedestrians on pedestrian crossings which has increased the road death toll. Followed by a lack of enforcement, compliance with this traffic rule is very low.
• With introduction of penalty point system (2006), the level of speeding decreased. But once again: after a few months, fear of sanction disappeared due to a lack of enforcement and mean speeds increased again (to 20 %) though they have not exceeded 2005 levels.

What is needed for the future?

Concerning road safety, Czech Republic is 20 - 30 years behind the developed EU countries.

• Drivers should be more educated and motivated to use ISA/ITS.
• More speed cameras should be installed and police controls should be done more thoroughly.
• Effective campaigns should make road safety a public priority.