Fixed cameras highlight Gib’s ‘speed problem’

A total of 1,700 drivers were logged breaking speed limits on Gibraltar’s roads within the space of a weekend, it was revealed yesterday as new fixed speed cameras became operational in three speeding hotspots.
Officials testing the cameras in the run-up to the launch clocked hundreds of drivers exceeding the speed limits, with Transport Minister Paul Balban stating bluntly: “Gibraltar has a car problem.”
“It’s part of our culture, we drive around instead of sitting in our living rooms watching TV,” he told the Chronicle.
“And the more you drive, the more prone you are to speeding because you get used to the speeds…especially so [after] driving in Spain and [coming] across the border.”
“You’ve been driving at 120 on a motorway and it’s automatic pilot.”
According to the Gibraltar Government, statistics show that speed limits are constantly being exceeded throughout many roads in Gibraltar, with areas of concern being Devil’s Tower Road, Rosia Road, and Europa Advance Road among others.
As part of the Sustainable Traffic, Transport, and Parking Plan, the Government has already put in place some speed management measures by way of electronic speed display signs.
These have been installed at various speeding hotspots.
In conjunction with this initiative, speed limit road markings have recently been painted on approach to the speed cameras to further alert road users of the maximum permitted speed.
These are fixed devices that have been set up, as a Pilot first phase, at Devil’s Tower Road, Europa Advance Road and Rosia Road.
The initiative, which forms part of a pilot scheme, will be monitored and tested to see how best to proceed with the Gibraltar Government’s speed campaign in the near future.
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