Measuring how fast vehicles travel between different speed cameras could ultimately prevent at least seven deaths per year, according to the Swedish Transport Administration.
But the proposal was rejected by the government last week.
We have announced in the infrastructure bill that we will not proceed with this type of proposal at present, said Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson (KD) on Thursday.
Tough goal
According to Maria Krafft, traffic safety director at the Swedish Transport Administration, the decision risks making it more difficult to achieve the government's own milestone of halving the number of road fatalities by 2030.
It's a very tough goal, and then we need to work with all possible measures, she says.
This would have been a very cost-effective way to make a difference. But now we need to do more in other areas instead.
"Leveled out"
It was in 2020 that the then government set a milestone of halving the number of road fatalities. To achieve the milestone in road traffic, no more than 133 people per year may be killed – last year it was 229.
Maria Krafft has already warned that the milestone may be difficult to achieve at the current pace. After the government's no to the new speed cameras, it will become even more difficult, she fears.
The decrease in the number of fatalities has leveled out, so more things need to happen, she says.
But we need to sit down and see how we can turn it around. There are more ways to work on it, but this would have been a way that could have had an effect fairly quickly.
