The Ministry of Transport has finalized the draft changes to the traffic rules to combat speeding between cameras

The Ministry of Transport has finalized and, as Kommersant found out, is preparing for interdepartmental approval draft amendments to the Road Traffic Rules (TRACs), prohibiting exceeding the average speed between several cameras. The agency proposes to put the amendments into effect not on March 1, as originally planned, but six months later – on September 1, 2024. The project has already been supported by the regions and the Ministry of Economy. The next step, the authorities plan to amend the Code of Administrative Offenses with fines for exceeding the average speed – this will return the practice of punishing for this violation, which was stopped two years ago.

The revised version of the amendments to the Traffic Rules, introducing the term “average speed” and the prohibition of exceeding it, was published on regulation.gov.ru. Let us remind you that the traffic police stopped fining people for exceeding the average speed, calculated by the time spent traveling between two (or several) cameras in 2021. Then the Supreme Court (SC) decided that it was unlawful to indicate the stretch of road between the cells, rather than a specific location, as the place where the violation occurred. Many lawyers also pointed out that the traffic rules do not contain the term “average speed” and, accordingly, there is no prohibition on violating it.

In August, as Kommersant told, the Ministry of Transport published draft amendments to the rules on regulation.gov.ru. The agency proposed to consider the average speed as “a value equal to the ratio of the length of a road section with a set speed limit to the time spent by a vehicle to overcome this section.” Paragraph 10.1 of the traffic rules, which states the obligation for drivers to drive “at a speed not exceeding the established limit,” is supplemented with a clarifying phrase – “including average.”

Initially, the Ministry of Transport wanted the amendments to come into force on March 1, 2024; in the new version, the date has been moved to September 1. On the same day, let us remind you, a federal law with new requirements for cameras will come into force (FZ-197, Kommersant talked about it): the department, apparently, has decided to synchronize the documents. Also in the first edition, the Ministry of Transport proposed, in addition to the changes to paragraph 10.1 of the traffic rules, to write down that sign 3.24 “Maximum speed limit” prohibits driving not only at a constant speed, but also at an average speed. This clarification was abandoned as redundant following a discussion with experts. Now, according to Kommersant, the draft amendments are being prepared for interdepartmental voting.

The document has already been supported by the Ministry of Economy as part of the regulatory impact assessment procedure – this is stated in the departmental conclusion (it has also been published). “The current point-by-point control of instantaneous speed does not allow us to eliminate offenses on long sections of roads,” the document says. As a result, drivers in the camera coverage area move “in a braking-acceleration style” in order to avoid receiving fines, the Ministry of Economy notes.

The authorities of Tatarstan, the Moscow and Smolensk regions previously announced support for the amendments; in the published summary of proposals on regulation.gov.ru, they were also joined by the Vologda region, Dagestan and the Krasnodar and Khabarovsk territories. In this summary, the Ministry of Transport also indicated that there will be no additional costs for the regions, but “separate software” will be required to fix the average speed. Let us remind you that about 24 thousand stationary cameras are installed on Russian roads (data as of the beginning of 2023, more recent ones have not been published).

The next stage will be changes to the Administrative Code, which will establish liability for exceeding the average speed, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Economy report. The code also resolves the issue of jurisdiction, which the Supreme Court drew attention to: the place where the violation was committed will be considered the control zone of the last camera in the chain of devices. Additional requirements for recording average speed will be written down in the rules for the use of cameras, the draft of which is already being developed by the Ministry of Transport, but the details of the document are not yet available.

The position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on this project is unknown. In January 2022, the department, responding to a request from Kommersant, stated that it was “premature” to talk about returning the sanction due to “legal gaps,” in particular due to the lack of clarity regarding the location of the offense and jurisdiction.

An expert on photo-video recording systems for violations, Grigory Shukhman, considers the definition of average speed proposed by the Ministry of Transport to be “correct”, while, in his opinion, there is no point in writing down a separate prohibition of exceeding it in paragraph 10.1 of the traffic rules. He also believes that it is necessary to monitor violations of the rule only in areas that cannot be bypassed using a shorter road (in this case, the calculation will be incorrect). “The effectiveness of the average speed control method has been proven by Russian and foreign application practice,” the OKO association (unites camera manufacturers and operators of photo and video recording systems) told Kommersant. “The method is most effective in combating the so-called migrating accident centers, when, after installing a camera in an existing at the source it shifts several hundred meters. It also neutralizes the “kangaroo effect” when drivers brake in front of the camera and accelerate again after passing it. We consider the initiative timely and justified.”

The published summary of proposals for the project contains a lot of negative feedback from citizens. “The cameras are already a mockery of motorists,” one of the reviews says. “With the signs, as well as with the quality of the roads, the issues are unresolved, but here are the next options for extortion.” “This is a corrupt project and has nothing to do with road safety,” another user supports.

Ivan Buranov