Swedish Speed-Camera Pays Drivers to Slow Down

In January, Kevin Richardson won Volkswagen's The Fun Theory, a contest for ideas to make obeying speed-limits fun. Now, less than a year later, his entry is in use in Stockholm, Sweden.

Is it possible to make road-safety fun? Yes, it turns out. Kevin's idea is both smart and simple. As well as ticketing you when you run through a speed-radar too fast, Kevin's "Speed Camera Lottery" also notices you when you come in at or under the speed-limit. It then automatically enters you in a lottery. And here's the really smart part: the prizes come from the fines paid by speeders.

This would probably never work in the U.S, where speeding fines and red-light cameras exist as revenue streams for the police rather than as deterrents to bad driving, but the Swedish National Society for Road Safety, which worked with Kevin, has found it to be a success. The average speed of cars passing the camera dropped from 32km/h before the experiment to 25km/h after. Now, if only there were a way to pay car-drivers to be polite to cyclists.