How Section Control works: How fair is the controversial speed monitoring system?

Anyone who occasionally uses popular vacation routes in our neighboring countries or other European states has certainly encountered it before. It's called "section control" and is also known in German as Streckenradar or Abschnittskontrolle. It's a speed enforcement system that was introduced in the Netherlands in the early 1990s, which is why the country is considered a pioneer in section control. However, the system is also already in intensive use in Italy, Great Britain, Poland, and Switzerland. The same applies to Austria, where it has recently been deployed in the Pfänder Tunnel (see photo gallery) on the border with Germany.

But how does it actually work? And why isn't it used in Germany? We answer these and other questions about the controversial speed camera.

The technology uses a simple equation we all know from physics class: Speed ​​is determined by the time it takes to cover a certain distance. Consequently, radar systems operate with two measurement points: one at the beginning and the other at the end of the route. Depending on how long a car takes to cover this distance, this special speed monitoring system calculates the average speed, minus a measurement tolerance in favor of the driver.

However, the system needs to know which car triggered which measuring point and when. Therefore, when entering the section control, a fully automatic photo is taken of each individual vehicle passing through the zone and assigned a time stamp. The same happens when leaving the section. "If the speed limit is exceeded, a frontal shot of the vehicle and driver is triggered for identification purposes – and the speeder is made to pay," explain the Federal Ministry of Transport and the German Road Safety Council as part of their "Take your foot off the gas" initiative. The vehicle's license plate number is also recorded. We'll discuss the potential problems of this later.

Section control systems are installed over significantly longer stretches of road, often several kilometers long and located near potential accident hotspots such as tunnels or construction sites. An average speed that does not exceed the speed limit must be maintained over the entire route. Unlike speed cameras or radar controls, which measure speed at specific points, it is not enough to drive according to the regulations for a short stretch and then accelerate again. If you don't want to receive a nasty surprise later in the form of a fine, you should adhere to the regulations for the entire monitored length of the route.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Section Control can't be manipulated. Theoretically, it's possible to cover parts of the route too fast and still reach the required average speed. For example, if you drive 15 km/h too fast for half the radar-detected distance, but 15 km/h slower than the speed limit for the other half, you'll reach exactly the speed limit. But that's obviously not the point and requires mathematical skills from the driver, which can distract from the actual driving and is therefore not recommended.

Section control is gaining traction abroad because more consistent adherence to speed limits not only ensures a higher level of safety on the road. What automatically prevents vehicles from suddenly braking just before a speed camera or radar control is detected; there have even been rear-end collisions because the driver behind didn't anticipate them. Furthermore, section control measures are usually announced by appropriate signage, thus eliminating "surprise speed cameras."

In this country, there was exactly one road section where a radar system was used. A pilot project began at the end of 2018 on a 2.2-kilometer section of Federal Highway 6 in Lower Saxony between Gleidingen and Laatzen near Hanover. A good two years and several legal hurdles later, the system went into regular operation in 2021. However, it didn't last long; the Lower Saxony Section Control system has since been shut down.

The legal hurdles already mentioned had less to do with any potential susceptibility to errors, alleged harassment of road users, or the like. The debate always revolved around data protection issues. The authorities once promised that the use of Section Control would "of course" (according to "Runter vom Gas") comply with data protection regulations and adhere to strict guidelines. For example, the data and recordings of all vehicles not found to be speeding were immediately deleted to prevent the identification of the drivers. Even the Federal Administrative Court gave its blessing in September 2020, confirming that the speed camera was operating in compliance with the regulations.

Nevertheless, it was ultimately data protection that led to the shutdown. Since the beginning of 2024, new legal regulations have been in effect regarding the encryption of the data collected by the system, which the Lower Saxony Section Control system could not meet in the version used there. Since the operator, Jenoptik, had no intention of improving the technology, according to NDR, the system was taken out of service. Furthermore, the Lower Saxony police put plans for another system on hold.

The numbers speak for themselves. Before the Lower Saxony system went into operation, there were numerous accidents and four traffic fatalities on the corresponding section of the B6 between 2014 and 2017. According to the ADAC, no further traffic accidents were recorded during its lifetime. The automobile club also reports that the average speed on the section fell from 105 km/h (before Section Control was put into operation) to 95 km/h after its introduction. The number of drivers obeying the speed limit increased by 40 percent. Consequently, only 1,319 drivers were caught speeding on the route in 2023—an average of only about 3.6 per day.

Experiences with Section Control abroad have also been clearly positive. "Section control systems are more effective than radar systems that only measure speed at specific points," states the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. The first section control radar system was put into operation there in 2003; since then, the number of fatalities on the controlled sections has fallen by up to 50 percent. A similar figure was reported in the Netherlands, where the number of traffic accidents on a motorway fell by 47 percent after the system was installed in 2002. Since Great Britain and Switzerland are continually commissioning new section control radar systems, a positive development is likely to be observed there as well.

As the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior announced at the time, the speed cameras there cost taxpayers approximately €505,000. This roughly corresponds to the amounts known from Austria. "A fixed system costs about €1 million, a mobile system between €300,000 and €400,000," the Austrian Ministry of the Interior reported in 2014. This is, of course, many times more than the cost of conventional speed cameras or radar stations. And the systems are unlikely to have gotten any cheaper in the meantime.