The police have announced that the radars will be installed – in secret locations – and activated starting Monday. No checkpoints will be erected to mark the radars and violating vehicles will be photographed and referred to regional authorities for notification. [DailyStar]
I really don’t understand why the locations are kept as secret? What is really the purpose behind those radars? to steal money from us or lower accidents and enhance road safety awareness?
In places where there’s no speed limit, the limit will be 50KM/h inside cities which is absurd in many places and 100KM/h on highways which is reasonable. I also heard there will be a website where we can check if we received violations or not.
I am sensing those measures are going to cause big problems if not carried on properly, and so far no minister of interior has been able to do so.
I agree – if the goal is to get drivers to obey speed limits, then installing speed cameras AND signs warning motorists that they are entering a stretch of road where speeds are monitored is essential. Nevertheless, in a few days, the locations of all these cameras will be known; their flash is quite bright.
I though they are the ones that are mobile and kept in the police vehicles, so you really don’t know where they are. The best way is to monitor vehicles from the sky with flying unnamed radars (I remember they had those in Florida on a huge stretch of road and we never even dared going over the speed limit, you never know if the plane is above you or not)
these will accomplish 2 things:
1. raise a shitload of revenue for the government
2. reduce speeds on the road and also reduce fatalities/accidents
they really do work – the fines should be high enough to sting!
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Liliane
From what I heard, the radars were installed after a young boy was hit and killed my a speeding car. Apparently his parents lobbied for the installation of the radars in an effort to get people to slow down especially in highly pedestrian areas..I too hope that it is carried out properly, for everyones sake.
Radars are usually kept a secret so that drivers are constantly on their “best behavior”
Radars will be useless if the violations are not extreme. Speeding fines of 50,000LL is a crappy theory. Any idea of the what the fines will be? Will there be penalties? For example, 5 fines and your drivers license is confiscated?
Radars should also be posted at traffic lights as well.
For those of you who want to cheat the system, download an application for your phone called Trapster. Its basically peer to peer. If I discover a radar some place, I’d post it on the map and as a result anyone else using trapster would get the notification as well.
(thats how me and my friends do things in Kuwait although recently radars have been posted EVERYWHERE here)
I think that knowing where radars are defy the point of having radars in the first place. In a lot of cities (e.g. Dubai), people know where radars are located. They drive at 160 km/h, slow down to 119km/h when they reach the radar, then go back to 160..I believe that’s why locations are kept secret.
also .. they should put speed bumps in highly pedestrianised areas – if you speed over them – you damage your own car!
Someone will do a brisk business selling radar detectors.
Maybe they should consider FIXING the freaking roads before putting radars on them.
Najib:
Maybe people should consider the shitty roads before speeding on them.
True Patrick but as i said earlier, some speed limits are absurd and someone following them might be going too slowly and cause an accident.
I tried once to drive 50 kph on the bridge parallel to Yassou3 el Malak highway, it more dangerous than driving 100 there.
You have to keep in mind some speed limits are truly idiotic, so drivers would not be really speeding.
If everyone follows the speed limits then its actually not dangerous, but when you’re trying to follow the limit and some idiots are zipping past you, its obviously going to be risky.
It’s to steal money from the people not to decrease accidents
If it is just a photo radar; then it will not do much to alter the driving habits of the offenders. Also, it does not penalize the driver but the owner of the vehicle. In that case it simply is a cash grab.
If the units were to be operated by cops; and stiff penalties levied after a number of offences; then the habits could be seen changing.It seems a haphazard patchwork of laws and arbitrary enforcement.
i have to disagree with you
cz if the zones where the radars were installed r revealed the very cool lebanese drivers “yali deyman dabtina” will slow down in the stated zone then speed up in other places without any regards to peoples lives…
i think this is the best way to go !!!
Hope the money raised from this will be used to arrange roads in leb…but we can dream i think…
Spotted the radar tonight. Was on the highway on my way towards the Tunnel, I passed ABC and thats kids toy store and spotted a police SUV parked on the right hand side. The camera was located in the front passenger seat and it was flashing as speeders drove by. Note: The speed limit on the sea side road is 80KM, I was driving around 90 and it didn’t shoot me so I am guessing its got the 20km like in other countries.
I also disagree. THe Lebanese shatreen bil na2 only. Follow the law and things will slowly get better. At least someone is trying to change something for us.
Never in my life have I felt asleep while driving!! yesterday was just unbelievable, I was trying to test myself under 90 km/hr on the Jbeil highway and I nearly crashed in the wall two times..and now I hear the limit is 80 km/hr, I think I rather start collecting tickets…
I havent been in leb since the summer, and apparently things have changed a lot since then… i am really not liking what im reading here!!!
I can’t believe people are complaining about driving at a decent speed. Typical Lebanese attitude.
um… im in the states right now, and the speed limit here on highways is 65mph, which i think is the equivalent of 104.6km/h. and since no one respects the speed limit, everyone goes at about 80mph, which is around 128.7km/h. i think that is pretty decent for a highway. 80 and 90km/h is really too slow in my opinion. if u wanna put speed limits, at least put smthg logic.
wlak dakhil l lebanese attitude taba3ak ana…
Every Lebanese complains about other drivers and driving laws in Lebanon, when the government tries to do something about it, all of a sudden, they’re “stealing”.
If you drive at a reasonable speed, you have nothing to worry about. At least the government is trying to move forward and do something to improve driving laws.
Liz: If you compare the highways there with the highways in Lebanon, then 80KM/h on Lebanese highways are decent.
However, I think that the highways from Jounieh to Tripoli and from the Airport to Saida could be increased to 100KM/h.
I live in Kuwait and some of the highways here have 120km/h speed limits whilst the others have 80km/h. It depends on the highway itself.
I think its sad people are complaining about these speed limits when we all know that hundreds of people are dying every year in Lebanon due to speeding (highway or inner streets). We always nag and complain that the ministries don’t do anything, and when they decide to take action, and it affects us, we start whining.
El 7ala taba3 Lebnen is bil speed ,why should it change, and for your info ,most accidents occur in the narrow roads more than the highway and they’re not the result of speed often but recklesness while driving in the narrow roads
Annie:
I’ve seen the worst, most gruesome accidents on the highway to Jbeil/Tripoli, I can assure you it was because of speed and recklessness.
Also, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen accidents on the highway where ABC Dbaye is, especially at the tunnel (especially driving towards Beirut). Are you telling me those weren’t because of speeding?
People don’t die from speeding. People are dying because they’re driving death traps. Cars that aren’t being taken care of, tires that haven’t been changed since the civil war, truck drivers driving faster than cars downhill. Those are bigger issues than speeding. Before putting speed cameras they should setup a proper mecanique testing system and fine and impound cars that fail to pass simple tests.
People don’t die from speeding? Drive to jbeil and back and check out the cars that get into these horrible accidents, they’re usually relatively new cars, and not trucks or ancient cars.
I think that one of the major problems on the highways in lebanon are the lanes. no one friggin respects them. i really think that some people believe that the car is supposed to be ON the lines, and not IN the lanes. maybe the government should think about how the drivers lisenses are given away for $ instead of being obsessed with robbing people 😉
finally the interior ministry have done something positive but we hope that the revenues from the tickets goes into special funds to improve road safety which is the only way fatalities will go down … like lighting the freeway , filling potholes and marking the outer edges of the road
there are much more needed improvement to be done but wait …it is lebanon after all and someone will be benefiting from those revenues !!!!!!!!!!!
Enno Im not against the idea of the speed traps, but the fact that they havent placed speed limit signs everywhere is confusing.
initially the problem isnt with the speed which everybody is drivng, its the recklessness. if cops would spread out and heavily penalize reckless drivers, who streetrace, DUI, drift on corners, double and sometimes triple take other drivers. only then will our roads be safer. the speed traps are a good start, but poorly executed, as they rnt everywhere, and the signs r less obvious than the radars themselves