Speed limits are set to be obeyed. I hope every driver realises that. However, there are those who break the rules. Some simply don’t want to drive slowly and would rather risk a fine, others are just late and in a hurry to get to an appointment. Are the cameras in Poland lenient or not?

Honestly. Who among us hasn’t ever exceeded the speed limit. I confess that it happens to me, for example, at the beginning of a village and at the end, before the sign I tend to speed up already. Sometimes I don’t even slow down just because I’m preoccupied. That shouldn’t happen, of course. Although I do occasionally break the speed limit, I agree with the fact that a violation should be punishable by a fine.

Tolerance of cameras

Speed cameras in Poland are said to be tolerant of drivers. Some articles even talk about speeding up to 20 km/h over the limit being tolerated. This is indeed true, as confirmed by the Supreme Audit Office’s reports on road safety. For example, the July 2021 report states, “The speeds at which offences were recorded (device trigger thresholds) were often set at much higher levels than the legal speed limits.”

The report also states that the NIC has previously intervened with the Inspector General of Road Transport on this matter to discourage the practice. Despite this, the findings of Inspection No. P/20/038 confirmed that the stationary recording devices were still programmed with trigger thresholds above the upper limit (i.e. 11 km/h) stipulated in Section 129h(5)(3) of the Road Traffic Act.

━━ ( Source: Chris Liverani /  Unsplash+ )

Camera operation in Poland

Speed cameras play a key role in enforcing rules and improving safety. Today’s cameras use modern speed measurement technology to effectively identify speeding drivers. The Automatic Road Traffic Monitoring Centre is responsible for the operation of speed cameras in Poland.

It operates within the General Inspectorate of Road Transport and manages a network of stationary as well as mobile speed cameras and speed measurement systems in individual sections. Thanks to modern technology, the data is processed automatically. However, fines must of course be sent to drivers by staff.

Why not everything is recorded

Why are the limits set so leniently? This is often attributed to a lack of staff, yet many things work automatically thanks to technology. However, it is also an unofficial decision that only the most serious offences will be dealt with by company staff. Otherwise, the number of time-barred offences would be enormous.

Again, this is confirmed by reports from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO). According to a 2019 report, up to 60% of recorded offences were forfeited before CANARD staff could verify them and impose a fine. However, just two years later, the NIK noted that the efficiency of work in this regard had improved significantly.

Operational safety

Unfortunately, Polish roads are not among the safest in Europe. Cameras that are too tolerant of drivers may contribute to this. It is one thing for notorious offenders to be happy that driving fast costs them nothing. When they find out that they won’t get a penalty for driving faster, they will drive fast again next time on a section with a camera. What reason would they have to slow down either?

On the other hand, anything can happen and money is definitely what matters most. However, the level of safety has been increasing in recent years. In the last 10 years, the number of traffic fatalities has decreased by 41 percent and the number of people injured in traffic accidents has decreased by 31 percent. The downward trend has continued throughout the decade, despite the ever-increasing number of cars on Polish roads.

How to tackle the situation?

I understand that the problem may indeed be that the officials in charge of fines simply do not keep up. Nevertheless, the situation must be addressed. If it is not possible to recruit additional staff to deal with the fines, then other systemic solutions will have to be sought. Nowadays, the solution could be to automate the process even more, if possible.