Dutch roads with a speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour are now allowed to be monitored with speed cameras. This comes after a successful trial in Amsterdam where speeding was reduced in monitored areas.
In December last year, Amsterdam introduced a lower speed limit of 30 km/h on around 80 percent of the city’s roads. Then in June this year, the Dutch capital installed fixed-speed cameras on Stadhouderskade as part of a trial to see whether this would be a good way to enforce less speeding.
According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), the six-month trial has been successful and is now ready to be rolled out across the Netherlands. The average speed on Amsterdam roads with the lower maximum speed dropped by 5 percent, while straight stretches saw speeds reduced by 10 percent.
During the trial, almost 40.000 speeding fines were issued on 30 km / h roads in just three months, amounting to around 320 a day - a sharp increase compared to before the speed camera trial. In the first four months of 2024, 23.000 fines were given to drivers and after the trial commenced this increased to almost 60.000 fines.
Additional cities in the Netherlands have followed Amsterdam’s lead and are already planning to implement lower speed limits. Earlier this year, Rotterdam announced that from 2025 the speed limit would be reduced to 30 km / h on 115 of the city’s streets.
The Hague also recently confirmed that it has plans in the works to bring the lower speed limit to 110 roads by 2030. This means that there is potential for speed cameras to be installed on all these roads with new 30 km / h speed limits.
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