Around 400 radar cars are circulating in France today, including 110 operated directly by law enforcement. As reported by TF1, they targeted around 1.2 million motorists in 2024, thus bringing in more than 150 million euros for the state coffers. Currently operational in eight regions, they will be deployed from next spring in Occitanie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
Concretely, these cars are configured so as to travel at the maximum speed authorized on a road, and to flash all vehicles which exceed them. In order to correct their lack of precision, due to the fact that the radar is mobile, a margin of 10% or 10 km/h is applied. On a secondary road limited to 80 km/h for example, the flash is only triggered from 91 km/h, specifies Road Safety.
Questionable effectiveness
For many experts, private providers will soon manage the entire fleet of radar cars. “The ministry realized that the police had other things to do than to sit in cars doing nothing,” explains Pascal Pennec, automotive specialist, to our colleagues. You might as well put private people in and the police will be assigned to other missions, in particular controlling drunk driving. » Note that private companies are paid according to the number of kilometers traveled, and not according to the number of violations detected.
-The rise of radar cars is causing many motorist associations to cringe, starting with the Drivers’ Defense League. “With this unspeakable arsenal of repression, where ordinary individuals are transformed into guards to train you, you will be forced to comply, to radically change the way you drive, even if you have never caused the slightest accident. Even more than currently, your journeys will be anxiety-provoking and stressful,” laments a spokesperson for the Progress. According to the latter, the generalization of radar cars would not make it possible to reduce the number of deaths on the road.
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