Professor: Introduce mandatory speed limiters on all cars

Why are cars even designed to be able to drive at speeds that aren’t allowed? That’s the question posed by a professor who would prefer to see all cars equipped with a speed limiter of 120 km/h.

It is the Dutch traffic researcher Marco te Brömmelstroet, professor at the University of Amsterdam, who is stirring up emotions among the country’s motorists with his proposal to cap cars’ speeds.

In a radio interview highlighted by Carup, he criticizes how today’s cars are designed and claims that, in practice, there are two reasons behind the millions of speeding violations recorded and fines issued every year—either the speed limits are set too low, or we systematically drive too fast.

He is convinced that the latter is the answer regardless of the speed limit, and questions why it is even allowed to sell cars that can drive faster than permitted. He also finds it contradictory that the state subsidizes cars that can accelerate to 100 km/h in just a few seconds.

Mandatory speed limiter

Te Brömmelstroet argues that the solution is a mandatory speed limiter—a technology that already exists and can be linked to GPS.

“For example, during the morning hours when children are traveling to school, we should not accept that cars without speed limiters are driving around,” he says.

He believes that the limitation should cover both new and old cars, and that the cost of retrofitting older vehicles would quickly pay off thanks to fewer traffic-related injuries.

It would also be enough if about 30 percent of the vehicle fleet was limited, which in practice would force almost all traffic to keep to the speed limits.