Roadway incidents return to pre-Covid levels; cities want to issue more fines

The Dutch police issued 8,563,917 traffic fines last year, over 300,000 more than in 2022. The vast majority of fines (6.5 million) were for speeding violations. The police attribute the increase, which puts traffic fines back on pre-pandemic levels, to better enforcement of the ban on using your phone while driving. The four large cities have petitioned the government to allow them to put up more of their own speed cameras and let enforcement officers issue traffic fines.

“We want to take decisive action, but we cannot do that now,” Rotterdam councilor Vincent Karremans told NOS. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht referred to the national government’s limited resources for putting up speed cameras and the police’s limited capacity.

The municipalities propose giving municipal enforcers more power to conduct speed checks with mobile equipment. They want enforcers to be able to fine vehicles based on license plate numbers, instead of having to personally stop and give the driver a fine. They also want to install more municipal speed cameras and use the money from these tickets to tackle unsafe streets, cycle paths, and intersections.

That fund should be well funded. The vast majority of fines the police issued last year were speeding tickets. The police fined 6.5 million speeders last year.

“The most prominent increase in traffic violations last year was talking on the phone in the car or on the bicycle,” the police said. The police issued almost 200,000 fines for this violation, over 21,000 more than in 2022. “Over the past year, the police have made significant efforts to enforce the ban on using phones behind the wheel and while cycling.”

Another common violation was driving in areas where cars aren’t allowed, like cities’ environmental zones and car-free centers. The police issued 130,000 more fines for this violation than in 2022. The number of fines for not wearing a helmet increased by almost 50,000.