Nearly €700 million in traffic fines in 2022
Simultaneously with the total fine income for 2022, the Ministry of Justice and Security publishes the proceeds of the ‘flex speed cameras’. These are new and movable speed cameras that have been temporarily placed at various locations since November 8 to penalize speeding traffic. What seems? Up to and including mid-February, the ten flex speed cameras that have been used so far have yielded an average of almost €9,000 each.
Speed cameras are a significant source of income for the Dutch treasury. In 2022, 3,014,680 speeding fines were issued to drivers who were flashed by a pole. With an average fine of €62.88 per speeding offence, this yields just under €190 million. Part of this was generated by the new ‘flex strobes’*. These are speed cameras that – the Public Prosecution Service writes – are always at a location for two months to fine speeding traffic.
Ten flex speed cameras have been deployed since November 2022. Nine of these are in North Holland, South Holland and North Brabant and one in the province of Utrecht in Soest. Where regular speed cameras will eventually be known to the local population and who will therefore be careful if they know there is one somewhere, flexible speed cameras can always tap into a new target group.
Although the Public Prosecution Service speaks of terms of two months each time, the ten flex speed cameras deployed so far have been in the same place since November. The data was collected on 15 February, so the results of the new instrument are now known for the first time. In total, the mobile poles flashed 4,958 speeding drivers in the period from November 1, 2022 to February 15, 2023 (3.5 months). With an average speeding fine of €62.88, this gives an estimated revenue of €311,759. If we divide that amount by ten poles and 3.5 months, we arrive at €8,907 per month per pole. We are therefore guessing that the Ministry of Justice and Security can speak of a successful new instrument. That is why it plans to use a few dozen additional flex flash units this year.
More than 8 million violations in total
If we look at the other fine figures for 2022, we learn that a total of 8,153,043 traffic fines were handed out in 2022. That is 1.6 percent more than last year, but then there were still temporary corona measures that resulted in a lower amount of traffic. Of the more than 8 million fines, the vast majority were for speeding: 6,512,086 in total. The number of speeding fines due to speed cameras was almost 200,000 higher than the year before. This increase is undoubtedly partly due to the use of the new flex flash units.
The average fine amount for all traffic violations together was €84.16 in 2022. Multiply that by the total number of violations (8,153,043) and you know what the state treasury ‘won’ in 2022 thanks to the traffic rule violators among us: more than €686 million.
* The image above the article shows a regular speed camera and no flex flash.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl