Road safety is not a concept usually associated with fun, unless of course you live in Sweden. In this Scandinavian country, speed cameras reward motorists who drive slowly by entering them into a lottery to win a cash prize. The idea was the brainchild of Kevin Richardson, who won a competition (‘The Fun Theory’), organized by Volkswagen back in 2010. The brief was to invent a fun way to encourage people to obey speed limits, and Richardson’s idea was both brilliant and effective.
In addition to doing their usual job of ticketing people who drive too fast, Richardson’s cameras also take note of drivers who are cruising at or below the speed limit, automatically entering them into a lottery. The winner’s prize money is taken from the fines of motorists who have been caught speeding, and is proving to be an excellent deterrent to dangerous driving.
The Swedish National Society for Road Safety picked up on Richardson’s invention and decided to implement his cameras across the country. The ‘Speed Camera Lottery’ has proven to be a huge success, with average speeds decreasing from 32 km/h to 25 km/h since the cameras were installed. Proof that the carrot works better than the stick? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
