Speed ​​cameras: The greatest danger is in these cities

With 35.37 speed cameras per 1,000 hectares of road surface, Freiburg im Breisgau takes the top spot. Only in five other cities is the speed camera density above a value of 20: Wiesbaden (33.89), Wuppertal (25.92), Karlsruhe (25.81), Hanover (22.56) and Stuttgart (21.4). Accordingly, three cities in Baden-Württemberg are represented in the top six. On average, 11.47 fixed, mobile and semi-stationary systems are installed per 1,000 hectares of road space at the same time in Germany’s 40 largest cities.

Free travel in Magdeburg

A particularly coarse-meshed network of systems for speed and/or red light monitoring currently exists in Magdeburg. In the urban area of ​​the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt there is not a single fixed speed camera and on average only 0.6 mobile or semi-stationary speed cameras are set up per 1,000 hectares of road space at the same time. In Krefeld (1.84), Duisburg (2.91), Nuremberg (3.01), Bochum (3.17) and Braunschweig (3.18) there are also comparatively few fixed, mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras. If you consider the above-mentioned average of 11.47 speed cameras per 1,000 hectares of road surface, these places are far below that.

The first city to exceed this value is Frankfurt am Main in 17th place in the rankings with an average of 11.62 speed cameras per 1,000 hectares of road surface. If you look at the other major German cities, Cologne is in 10th place with 16.15, Hamburg is in 19th place with 10.83, Düsseldorf is listed as number 21 with 9.8, Berlin is in 29th place with 5.62 and Munich with 4.78 as 32nd.

Where is the greatest risk of encountering a speed camera?

In the first category of the survey, the analysts recorded both fixed, mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras. As everyone knows, the locals have a big advantage because they mostly know exactly where these systems are installed. What does it look like if you just look at the mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras? Where is the greatest risk for non-local drivers of being caught speeding? A completely different picture emerges in this category.

“If you just look at this type of speed camera, Freiburg is one of the ten German cities with the lowest density of speed cameras. On average, only 0.68 mobile or semi-stationary speed cameras are set up at the same time per 1,000 hectares of road area in Freiburg,” explains lawyer Alexander Voigt, managing director of Goldenstein Rechtsanwälte. When it comes to mobile or semi-stationary speed cameras, Bonn holds the top spot with an average value of 3.87 per 1,000 hectares of road surface.

That’s how many red light and speed checks there are in Germany’s 20 largest cities

Oberhausen comes in second (2.7), closely followed by Mannheim (2.6). The next three cities are Hamburg (2.19) and Mainz (2.12). The density of mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras is lowest in Munich (0.47), Braunschweig, Rostock (0.42 each), Kassel (0.38), Dresden (0.37) and Bremen (0.31). On average, 1.3 mobile or semi-stationary speed cameras are set up simultaneously per 1,000 hectares of road space in the cities examined. However, these systems are sometimes only in one place for a few hours.

The number of mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras differs significantly

Interestingly, you have to scroll down quite a bit before you see this cut. Mönchengladbach is in 20th place with 1.24. Let’s look at the big cities that haven’t been mentioned yet: Frankfurt am Main is seventh with 1.85, two places behind, followed by Cologne with 1.73. Berlin is ranked 14th with 1.46, Düsseldorf is ranked 27th with 0.95.

To create these rankings, Goldenstein Rechtsanwälte analyzed the number of fixed speed cameras in the 40 most populous German cities using the traffic app blitzer.de. Fixed measuring devices that can flash on both sides were counted as two speed cameras. In order to verify the information, the law firm then wrote to the responsible press and police offices in the respective cities and made the necessary corrections.

Mobile and semi-stationary speed checks in Germany’s 20 largest cities

In addition, the law firm’s team determined the number of mobile and semi-stationary speed cameras set up at the same time in Germany’s 40 largest cities once a day between November 28, 2023 and January 11, 2024 based on data from the traffic apps Waze and Blitzer.de. All forms of non-stationary speed monitoring were taken into account. In order to make the determined values ​​comparable across cities, they were compared to the existing road area (as of December 31, 2022) in the respective cities using data from the regional database of the Federal Statistical Office.