Flemish Minister of Mobility, Annick De Ridder (N-VA), is cancelling 72 planned section controls on regional roads. De Ridder only wants section controls at ‘black spots’, where serious accidents occur, which reduces the list to about ten of those speed checks. The decision has sparked outrage among experts.
The number of section controls in Flanders has increased significantly in recent years. In 2017, the Flemish regional roads had only 26 section controls. Seven years later, there were already 317.
Today, the Agency for Roads and Traffic (AWV) manages 360 of them at 225 locations on highways and regional roads. An additional 40 are currently being installed, and 80 more are planned. De Ridder has now announced that 72 of these planned checks will be cancelled.
‘Absurd’
It appears that Minister De Ridder is susceptible to the common perception that many share, that speed checks are only intended to generate additional income for the government. However, part of the money is allocated to the road safety fund. She says she wants to gain public support for section controls on proven dangerous spots where needed, but not wherever.
According to Professor Johan De Mol of Traffic Engineering (UGent), it is absurd to scrap the planned trajectory controls, writes Flemish newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen. “You should install them preventively in places where people drive too fast to prevent accidents from happening. Not afterwards.”
‘One of the most efficient measures’
Stijn Daniels, researcher at Transport & Mobility Leuven, agrees. “International studies show that the number of accidents on roads with section controls decreases by 30 percent. For serious accidents, that is 56 percent. Section control is, in terms of safety, one of the most efficient measures you can take.”
Minister De Ridder is first waiting for the results of a study, which will continue for another year. Earlier, De Ridder had also indicated that she wanted to announce speed checks again with signs on the side of the road. This signage had been removed by her predecessor, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), but would now be reintroduced.
