Blue pillar: Drivers do not have to fear a speed camera

Created: 10/13/2022, 06:00

By: Simon Mones

Since 2018, many streets have had blue pillars.

Some drivers brake abruptly for fear of speed cameras.

But this concern is unfounded.

For several years now, more and more streets have been lined with high blue columns with several small mirrors, some of them red.

Despite their eye-catching color, drivers often mistake them for speed cameras.

Many people brake abruptly for fear of a fine and thus provoke rear-end collisions.

But the fear is unfounded.

The blue pillars are neither speed cameras nor are drivers their target.

Instead, these are there to control the toll on trucks.

Since July 1, 2018, for trucks over 7.5 tons, this no longer only applies to motorways, but also to federal highways.

The blue columns are not speed cameras, but checkpoints for the truck toll.

© BildFunkMV/Imago

Blue pillar: Drivers do not have to fear a speed camera

The blue columns check whether the toll has been paid properly.

The eye-catching color scheme was deliberately chosen by the operator Toll Collect to prevent confusion with all-round speed cameras.

At least in parts of northern Germany there is still a risk of confusion, as there are blue speed cameras there.

But Toll Collect's plan doesn't always seem to work in the rest of Germany either.

Catalog of fines: what fines traffic offenders have to reckon with

View photo gallery

But why do the blue columns have so many small discs with cameras behind them?

It's quite simple: for the recording, the passing trucks are recorded from three perspectives.

However, cars completely ignore the control stations, as Toll Collect explains.

"Based on size and number of axles, the control columns can sort out vehicles that are not subject to tolls... such as normal cars," emphasized the West Hesse police in a Facebook post.

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Blue column: No conversion to speed cameras planned

This will not change in the future either.

Corresponding rumors that the blue columns are to be converted into high-tech flashes have been dismissed by the ADAC as a myth, as reported by the Rheinische Post.

So drivers can sit back and relax instead of trying to disable the blue columns - for example with a flower graffiti.