ANTT suspends tests of average speed cameras on federal highways

The National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) has temporarily suspended average speed control tests on federal highways under concession.

The decision was formalized in acts of the Superintendence of Road Infrastructure (Surod) published in the Official Gazette of the Union this Monday (21) and interrupts the pilot projects authorized in early September in stretches of eight states.

According to the agency, the pause will allow new technical analyses and adjustments in procedures, operation, signaling and communication with drivers. The resumption depends on an express statement from Surod itself, and the agency has not stipulated a deadline for a new stage of evaluation.

The experiments were planned for highways in Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo.

No driver was penalized during the experimental phase. “From the beginning, the acts that authorized the tests expressly determined that the data measured could not be used to apply penalties to users,” ANTT said in a statement. Conventional radars and other forms of inspection continue to be valid normally: the suspension only affects medium-speed pilot projects.

How the average

speed radar works The model differs from the traditional fixed radar, which catches the vehicle at an isolated point on the road. In average speed control, two or more monitoring points record the car’s passage, and the system calculates the time spent on the route between them.

If the route is completed in less time than compatible with the road limit, it is characterized as speeding.

It is precisely this operation that motivated the review. For the inspection to be understood, the driver needs to know where the monitored stretch begins and ends and what is the regulated speed in the segment – points that ANTT wants to detail better in signaling and communication before releasing new tests.

Technology has already run in Brazil

The concept is not unprecedented in the country: on BR-050, EcoRodovias has been using average speed monitoring since 2022. According to the concessionaire, accidents with injuries on the stretch fell by 35% in the comparison between the first half of 2022 and 2026, a period that ended with no deaths recorded — a reduction of 100% compared to the same interval four years earlier.

The company considers that the results reflect a set of actions, including educational campaigns and operations in partnership with the Federal Highway Police (PRF).

ANTT states that the pilot projects are part of efforts to increase road safety in the country, in line with the commitments of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.