The City of Cape Town has deployed smart speed limit signs to good effect and is now looking to couple these with camera traps to further reduce speeding in the city.
This is according to Cape Town mayoral member of the committee (MMC) for urban mobility, Roberto Quintas, who told Cape Talk that the smart signs display motorists’ speeds and prompt them to slow down.
He added that coupling these smart signs with camera traps, roughly 100 metres after the signs, would help to capture motorists who accelerate beyond them.
The smart speed signs have been deployed along High Level Road and Ocean View Drive, as well as along the Main Road area in Green Point, explained Quintas.
Councillors in the Southern Peninsula have also been rolling out these signs in their wards, after the system has proven to be effective in the Atlantic Seaboard already.
“It certainly is a very powerful tool. It’s a technique called nudging, which nudges better driver behaviour for motorists, and we are certainly seeing that, where deployed, they are decreasing average speeds,” said Quintas.
He said that the city has noticed a drop in the number of vehicles exceeding the speed limit once the displays are switched on, as well as an increase in motorists braking when they see the speed they are travelling at.
Quintas further explained that the smart speed signs were also designed to mitigate reckless driving on as many of the metro’s routes as possible, with the city deploying these where serious crashes have occurred in the past.
“The data we have been able to see so far is that in general, where deployed, the average distance over time speeding of motorists has decreased,” he said.
He is also recommending to the MMC for safety and security, JP Smith, that speed traps be installed around 100 metres after the smart speed limit signs.
“Just to see if people do accelerate after they’ve slowed down. We can catch them there,” Quintas explained.
Employing AI to do the work
The City of Cape Town is looking to roll out artificial intelligence (AI) powered cameras to crack down on motorists driving without seatbelts and using their mobile phones.
The system has been trialled and has issued fines to motorists, which were subsequently overturned once challenged.
In November 2025, Smith said the 77 already-installed cameras included speed enforcement and red-light cameras, adding that there is a need for a “significantly larger number” of cameras.
He added that the new cameras are more modern and use newer technology that makes them less conspicuous, while motorists are also less likely to see a visible flash.
The metro is now seeking approval from the National Director of Public Prosecutions to implement the system permanently, but this has been met with resistance.
Research ICT Africa technology law consultant Dr Andrew Rens has raised concerns over the system’s legality.
In an interview with Cape Talk, he questioned whether AI identification of alleged illegal behaviour can be considered sufficient evidence before quickly answering his own question, saying “no”.
“There’s certainly nothing in our law which makes it likely to be accepted as evidence. The prosecution would have to go quite a long way to establish that,” he explained.
Rens also questioned whether it would be acceptable for a public body to use AI to detect infringements
“It’s not an AI-generated image. Instead, it’s what’s known as image recognition technology, which takes an existing image and analyses it to recognise something,” he said.
Finally, Rens explained that when a motorist receives an infringement notice, they cannot test whether they were travelling at the claimed speed themselves, adding that “number plate recognition is pretty bad”.
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