Skip to main content

France to install new average speed camera system

A new average-speed camera, which can measure driving speeds over several kilometres, will be installed near Besançon. By late 2012, roughly 20 cameras will be installed in France. Similar systems exist in Italy, the UK and Netherlands. Over a stretch of two kilometres with a 70km/h speed limit, drivers are monitored twice. Some 13,000 to 15,000 vehicles use the portion of road near Besançon each day. During the test period, 40 speed infractions were recorded each day.
August 28, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A new average-speed camera, which can measure driving speeds over several kilometres, will be installed near Besançon. By late 2012, roughly 20 cameras will be installed in France.  Similar systems exist in Italy, the UK and Netherlands.  Over a stretch of two kilometres with a 70km/h speed limit, drivers are monitored twice.  

Some 13,000 to 15,000 vehicles use the portion of road near Besançon each day. During the test period, 40 speed infractions were recorded each day. Depending on the infraction, photos taken were sent to the main traffic control centre in Rennes. Local authorities claim the stretch of road is dangerous and that they are not looking for extra revenue, but the association 6467 40 Millions d'automobilistes doubts the motivation given.

Related Content

  • Alcohol interlocks aid drink drive adherence
    October 28, 2016
    The use of alcohol interlocks to prevent drink driving and change driver behaviour is gaining ground around the world but needs greater buy-in from authorities as Colin Sowman discovers. The often repeated mantra says that prevention is better than cure - and none more so than in the case of drink-driving. The introduction of the breathalyser provided an objective indication of alcohol consumption instead of having drivers touch their nose or walk in a straight line. Initially breathalysers were used as a r
  • ‘Risky tailgating and speeding rife on UK motorways’
    May 22, 2014
    Six in ten UK drivers own up to risky tailgating (57 per cent) and a similar proportion break the limit by 10mph or more (60 per cent) on motorways and 70mph dual carriageways, with men by far the worst offenders, a survey by Brake and insurance company Direct Line reveals. Almost all drivers say they worry about other drivers tailgating on motorways: 95 per cent are at least occasionally concerned about vehicles too close behind them; more than four in ten (44 per cent) are concerned every, or most, tim
  • High tech approach to improve safety on New Zealand’s state highway 1
    June 26, 2017
    A new high tech warning system, which will help to improve road safety, has been installed on State Highway 1 in New Zealand. The Rural Intersection Active Warning System at the turnoff to Moeraki Boulders is now operational and the variable speed limit is now legally enforceable.
  • VW scandal prompts emissions testing debate
    December 1, 2015
    In the wake of the VW scandal John Kendall looks at emissions testing on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the VW emissions story broke in September, emissions testing has come under greater scrutiny, and none more so than in Europe, where critics have long been highlighting the weaknesses of the testing system. Ironically, changes to the emissions testing process were already under review but the story has pushed it up the agenda.