Last month I blogged about an experiment in Sweden where a speed camera records all the cars keeping to the speed limit with all the legal drivers going into a prize draw for cash prizes. The trial has now been carried out and here’s the result (quick version – the average speed of traffic fell from 32 km/hour before the trail to 25 km/hour during the trial):
Also on YouTube here.
Hat-tip: the Nudge Blog
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
The law has never told you which door to use (Tanya Park)
Lincolnshire – a flawed reform of local government and why it matters (Nigel Lindsay)
Welcome to my day: 3 August 2026 – some thoughts on migration… (Mark Valladares)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Observations of an Expat: Gaza Sceptic (Tom Arms)
Before Paddington Bear there was Mary Plain
Burnham and the devolved national governments
Ian Christie on the pioneer British filmmaker Robert Paul
Huge wasp nest takes over wildlife trust's office
Ravensworth Castle visit
Kemi Badenoch's dismissive attitude towards local government
Cornerstone community fair
GUEST POST In praise of outgrounds: How cricket in small towns made a roaring comeback
Ellen Wilkinson: the first female Minister of Education
Tories select former neo-Nazi activist for Somerset council election
David Evans David Evans 
Sandy Walkington 
Jana 
cim 
4 Comments
Was there a speed monitor there before they set up the experiment (ie, the same display and smileyface but without the reward system)? Or, if any such system was new to that road, are the reductions significantly more than you’d get from setting up a regular visual speed monitor, or even just a regular speed camera?
It’s a good idea but you can’t really draw any conclusions from it without those bits of information.
Interesting result. Still, I’m not too keen on rewarding people for simply refraining from breaking the law. Can I get a prize for not murdering anyone?
@Louise there are definitely some people who one deserves a prize for not murdering
It’s a nice idea. But I suspect that it’s likely to encourage the tendency of drivers to stamp on the brakes when they see a camera, which not only slows traffic down unnecessarily but can also be dangerous and increase the accident rate. So it depends on what you’re actually trying to achieve.
If the aim is simply “reduce average speeds”, then yes, it will work. But if the aim is “reduce accidents and improve safety”, then it may not. And I’d argue that only the latter is a valid goal of traffic management.