[justacodefan]

One thing that the author may not be aware of is that, despite the light turning red for you and oncoming traffic, it may turn green for any side streets. Running the red light has potential consequences much more severe than just a ticket (such as crashing into another driver) so no one ever dares to do so.

I completely agree that these are better than speed bumps because people speed through those too. And there's no need to slow down to 15 Km/hr either, you can do it at the speed limit with some margin of error (around 15% iirc).

[soundjack]

Portuguese here. Speed cameras are definitely legal, although it's mandatory to have a sign indicating their presence x meters beforehand (if I'm not mistaken). Also mobile police units with speed cameras in very discreet places is a common thing. What happened in Lisbon some time ago though was that most of the radars ended up dying due to lack of maintenance (due to lack of funds/attention/whatever). A lot were recently reactivated I heard.

But yeah these speed sensitive red lights are common and I agree that they work pretty well. Social pressure is good for behavioral nudging. Reminds me of those led signs that show a sad face if you go over the limit on certain residential areas for example.

However I must say that nothing beats Belgium in speed radars. Especially in Flanders, there are so many of these damn Gatso speed traps... What really makes the whole thing work though is a very good system behind it. Here in Belgium, if you're caught by a speed camera, you'll get the fine within 2 weeks tops. In Portugal however you might not even get it because the pile of fines to process is too big and the system isn't prepared for it.

I can confirm the roundabout obsession too :) those can be really annoying but they sure slow people down.

[soundjack]

This reply was meant for mig39, its a bit late sorry.