In an interview given to Le Parisien, the Interministerial Delegate for Road Safety Florence Guillaume took stock of the activity of speed cameras in 2021. She notably mentioned the case of on-board speed cameras which should soon be extended to the entire national territory. .
While the year 2020 had significantly reduced the number of motorists on the roads, especially during confinement, it started to rise again in 2021 and with it the activity of speed cameras. Florence Guillaume, Interministerial Delegate for Road Safety, gives some figures this Friday in the columns of the Parisian.
“In 2021, fixed speed cameras generated 14.6 million offense messages (flashes), on-board speed cameras (outsourced or driven by the police) 1.4 million”, she indicates, rejoicing that the annual number deaths on the roads has fallen from 8,000 to less than 3,500 in barely 20 years.
“The threshold of 4,700 radars had been set in 2015 and we do not intend to have more, also declares the general of the gendarmerie. We do, however, intend to continue this public policy of modernizing radars which contributed greatly to reducing the number of deaths on the roads.
More urban speed cameras and fewer point withdrawals
Florence Guillaume mentioned several forms of speed cameras, including the latest: urban speed cameras which are still at the experimental stage in the cities of Toulouse, Montbéliard, Marseille and Montpellier but where they should finally generate reports in the first months of the ‘year.
“In 2023, there should be 200 active urban radars throughout the territory, and four to five times as many cabins to be able to move the radars from one to another. For the moment, these urban radars are approved to control speed and crossing red lights”, she recalls, mentioning the detection of the telephone while driving and the non-wearing of the seat belt as food for thought.
One of the other major areas of reflection concerns the degree of sanction linked to slight speeding, with more particularly the idea of eliminating point deductions for those under 10km/h outside built-up areas. “The idea would be to maintain the fine so that everyone is aware that it is an offense, but not to take a point in this case”, she underlines while specifying that more than 80% of motorists have at least 11 points out of 12. On the other hand, Florence Guillaume rules out the hypothesis of an end to the points permit.
Mobile radars outsourced in all departments by the end of the year?
Already present in nearly 40 French departments, the radar cars should reach the roads of the last five regions still spared: Corsica, Île-de-France, Occitanie, Paca and Rhône-Alpes. “We imagine that it will be in 2023, but at this stage the green light has not been given, explains Florence Guillaume. It is not planned for the Overseas Territories.” There are currently 381 radar cars circulating in France, especially in the western part of the country. Nearly 60% of them are operated by private companies (outsourced roadside checks).
According to data from the Automated Control Department of the Road Safety Delegation, the 538,000 offenses recorded by these unmarked radar cars in 2021 led to the withdrawal of 782,000 points for a fine of around 54 million euros. The figures show that speed limit violations increase as the speed limit decreases. “When 37% of checks on 70km/h roads are measured above the limit, this is only the case for 22% of those on 90km/h roads and even less on motorway sections at 130km/h (16%)”, notes Le Parisien.
Disparities also appear between departments. Overall, it is the Bretons and Normans who are the most subject to controls with generally more than 300,000 in the year 2021 and peaks beyond 400,000 for La Manche and Ille-et-Villaine. On the eastern part of the territory, the department of Haute-Marne lists less than 8,000. Disparities also remain in terms of verbalization. The Landes and the Somme act as poor students here with nearly 15% of checks 10% higher than the speed limit, unlike Pas-de-Calais and the North where this share is only 6%.
