road traffic
Canton of Vaud tests Tempo 60 outside of town against road noise
Vaud is the first canton in Switzerland to lower the speed on three sections of cantonal road outside of built-up areas from 80 to 60 km/h. The authorities want to test whether this measure is suitable for combating road noise.
Against road noise: The canton of Vaud is testing Tempo 60 on three cantonal roads. Buses should not be distributed, the vehicle drivers should be sensitized. (archive image)
The authorities have selected three road sections in the municipalities of Aigle, Assens and St-Cergue. A total of 3.5 km of roads along which 2,000 people are affected by road noise. The tests are conducted from May to October.
With this pilot phase, Vaud wants to demonstrate that speed reduction is the most practical, efficient and cost-effective measure to combat road noise, said State Councilor Nuria Gorrite (SP), responsible for infrastructure, on Thursday to the media in Lausanne.
Installing sound-absorbing coverings and noise barriers is also useful, but installing them is yours, detracts from the landscape, and isn’t always enough, she continued. She recalled the canton’s responsibility to comply with the federal noise protection ordinance and to combat road noise.
With the introduction of Tempo 60 on these cantonal roads, the aim is to save one to three decibels, emphasized Laurent Tribolet, head of the maintenance department at the Office for Mobility and Roads. The test sectors were selected primarily because of their population density, with at least 100 inhabitants per kilometer of road where the noise limit values are exceeded.
During the testing phase, no penalties are foreseen for people who do not comply with the new limit. Only “friendly” speed cameras are set up to tell drivers if their speed is correct. “We want to draw the attention of road users and not fill the canton’s coffers,” said Gorrite.
If the test phase proves successful, Tempo 60 could be introduced on certain out-of-town roads from 2024. The canton has already targeted 23 of a total of 1,500 kilometers of cantonal roads on which the speed could be reduced to 60 km/h in the long term.
(SDA)