Eight more regions of France will use unmarked, private vehicles installed with speed cameras to check on speeding vehicles this year.
Fifty additional radar cars will be deployed, bringing their total number to 200, reports French road transport site Les Routiers. According to the plans, there will be 440 private speed cameras in the country by the end of 2023.
France started testing the concept of privatising speed radar operations back in 2018. First, the cameras were only used in Normandy then, since the beginning of 2020, they also patrol traffic in Brittany. Later last year, the system was implemented in the regions of Centre-Val-de-Loire, Pays-de-la-Loire, Hauts-de-France, Grand-Est, Burgundy-Franche-Comté and New Aquitaine, according to France Connexion.
As the French government seems to be satisfied with the results of the project, it has given green light to its continuation. By 2023, such cameras installed in private cars will operate all over the country.
In the first step, the project will be extended to eight other regions with 50 vehicles and in the next two years, France also plans to have the entire country covered with a total of 440 private vehicles with cameras.
Why is speed control privatised?
As we have earlier reported, plans for the deployment of private ‘mobile speed cameras’ were first announced in 2015. The authorities intention was to relieve on services such as the police and gendarmerie.
The route taken by the unmarked vehicles is determined in advance. These mobile speed cameras may be on the road seven days a week, day or night. On average, each such car is used between five and six hours a day.
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