“Radars actually contribute to reducing speed. In these locations, the number of accidents with victims was reduced by 36% and fatalities decreased by 74%. There is a clear correlation between the existence of speed cameras, the decrease in speed and the accident rate. What we hope is that these radars will also contribute to saving the lives of people who travel on our roads”, says the president of National Road Safety Authority (ANSR), Rui Ribeiro.

The 12 average speed radars will monitor the A1 (Santarém and Mealhada), A3 (Braga and Trofa), A25 (Águeda) and A42 (Paços de Ferreira) motorways, on the complementary routes IC2 (Loures and Rio Maior) and IC19 (Sintra ) and on the national roads EN10 (Montijo and Vila Franca de Xira), EN109 (Figueira da Foz) and EN211 (Marco de Canaveses).


The remaining 25 speed cameras are designed to measure instantaneous speed and their activity will focus on national roads.

Among the locations controlled as of today are: A1 (two in Vila Nova de Gaia), A2 (Albufeira), A44 (Vila Nova de Gaia), A7 (two in Guimarães), EN101 (Guimarães), EN103 (Barcelos), EN105 (Santo Tirso), EN109 (Figueira da Foz), EN119 (Benavente), EN125 (Faro), EN14 (Maia), EN18 (Belmonte), EN206 (Fafe), EN234 (Nelas), EN251 (Coruche), EN252 ( two radars in Palmela), EN260 (Beja), EN5 (Montijo), IC17 (Loures), IC2 (Coimbra and Águeda) and IP7 (Lisbon).

Speaking to Lusa, the ANSR leader assures that “everything is ready” for the 37 radars to come into operation, to which 25 more will be added soon, totalling 62.

These new radars are added to the 61 already existing and represent a global investment of 6.2 million euros, with the institution's investment being 5.8 million euros. However, ANSR's intention is not to stop there.

“The number of speed cameras in Portugal is still small compared to the norm in Europe and especially in countries where accident rates are, for us, a reference, as is the case in Sweden. We have very few radars per million inhabitants, it is an insufficient number compared to what is normal in European countries”, he says, continuing: “I don’t know when, but, probably, in the near future we will have a new ‘wave’ of radars”.