Skip to main content

France targets speeding drivers

The first of three hundred cars carrying speed camera systems are due to start operations on France’s roads on 15 March in around twenty regions. Installed in an ordinary-looking Renault Megane is a new-generation speed camera built into the dashboard with a vehicle detector radar behind the licence plate. Each is capable of detecting speeding vehicles and photographing them, without flash, while on the move at motorway speeds. Although unmarked cars are used, the officers driving them will still be in uni
February 28, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The first of three hundred cars carrying speed camera systems are due to start operations on France’s roads on 15 March in around twenty regions.

Installed in an ordinary-looking 2453 Renault Megane is a new-generation speed camera built into the dashboard with a vehicle detector radar behind the licence plate.  Each is capable of detecting speeding vehicles and photographing them, without flash, while on the move at motorway speeds.

Although unmarked cars are used, the officers driving them will still be in uniform and for the initial period only drivers who overtake the unmarked car will be penalised.

The cars will also only target high-speed drivers, according to senior Sécurité Routière official Aurélien Wattez, who said they were aimed at motorists who ignored restrictions everywhere except where there were road-side cameras. They are set to catch drivers speeding at more than ten per cent above the road’s limit, above 143 km/h on the bulk of French motorways.

It is intended to bring in three hundred equipped vehicles over the next three years in a bid to cut road deaths, with excess speed blamed for twenty-six per cent of fatal road accidents in 2012, around 1,000 deaths.

Related Content

  • On the road with France’s dream peddlers
    September 5, 2022
    Connected cycling is becoming more important in France as the way to keep cyclists from giving up their Covid habit of taking two wheels to work and for pleasure
  • Spot speed deterrent proved to be transient
    October 18, 2013
    As research and trials show the benefits of average speed enforcement - David Crawford reviews developments on two continents. August 2013 saw the switch on of the Australian State of Victoria’s latest combined point-to-point (P2P) average speed enforcement (ASE) and spot camera control system. Installed on the 27km Peninsula Link to the south-east of Melbourne, the system uses high-resolution automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and optical character recognition (OCR) technology developed b
  • Average speed cameras reduce injury collisions, says report
    October 31, 2016
    Research carried out into average speed camera (ASC) effectiveness by the UK’s RAC Foundation concludes that the implementation of ASCs in the locations that have been assessed in its report has had the effect of reducing injury collisions, and especially those of a higher severity. Even taking into account other influencing factors, the report says the reductions are large and statistically significant. Researchers analysed detailed accident data taken from 25 sites where average speed cameras were inst
  • Radar reinforces detection efficiency
    March 16, 2016
    Radar can have distinct advantages in some transport-related situations as Colin Sowman found out during a visit to Navtech Radar. Despite tremendous advances in machine vision techniques, the accuracy and reliability of camera-based detection systems suffer during periods of poor visibility where other technologies may offer an alternative. Radar is one such technology. It too has seen significant development in recent years and according to Navtech Radar, the technology can often fulfil detection and moni