After the Toulouse conurbation and the Doubs, a third national zone for testing urban radars has just been launched in the Territoire de Belfort. This formidable new generation of radars operating only in the city will hurt a lot.
It has been almost a year since the first urban radars began to be deployed in France. This is a whole new generation of equipment whose technology is close to that of the (huge) turret radars, with the difference that these “ETUs” (Urban terrain equipment) take place in a much more compact cabin, destined to go unnoticed in town to better trap motorists.
Two different materials in the north and south of France
Until now, these new devices have been content to operate discreetly (no visible flash) without verbalizing within the framework of national tests intended to allow them to obtain their certification. Unlike turrets, of which one and the same model is already widespread in more than a thousand copies throughout France, including overseas, the urban models exist in two different versions, supplied by two competing manufacturers:
- Parifex – known for its discriminating black booths – the northern half of the country;
- Idemia (the champion of radar in France already supplier of classic cabins, owls, medium speed, turrets) the southern half.
TO READ. Urban speed cameras. New for inner city terrors
23 cabins in the Doubs, 6 in Toulouse
From July 2021, Parifex began to deploy its first cabins in the Doubs, in and around Montbéliard: to date, 23 are active, but it is not known whether all of them have a radar. Because this equipment is intended to act as a decoy, that is to say that a single radar can alternately occupy five cabins. As for Idemia, after having installed two devices in Toulouse in December 2021 (and not in Montpellier as originally planned), it has placed four others in recent weeks: two in the north of the agglomeration (rue Fédérico-Garcia- Lorca and avenue des Etats-Unis) and two to the northeast (avenue d’Atlanta).
About twenty in the Territoire de Belfort
New stage today with the announcement of eight new cabins this time in the Territoire de Belfort, by Parifex, therefore. Two were already installed last week in Meroux-Moval and one in Essert on the D19. Six other towns will quickly follow – Bavilliers, Belfort, Denney, Lachapelle-sous-Rougemont, Saint-Germain-le-Châtelet and Valdoie – for a total of around twenty cabins.
%uD83D%uDE97%uD83C%uDFCD #ForASaferRoad : act on road behavior thanks to targeted checks on the most accident-prone and dangerous sectors %u26A0%uFE0F Installation of the 1st d%u2019ETU cabins at Meroux-Moval and Essert. %u2139%uFE0F%u2795 https://t.co/qLBw2LWG5O @RoutePlusSure pic.twitter.com/sW5W4YGGF2
— Prefect of the Territory of Belfort %uD83C%uDDEB%uD83C%uDDF7%uD83C%uDDEA%uD83C%uDDFA (@Prefect_90) April 28, 2022
There is no doubt that this new salvo of equipment installations will enable its manufacturer Parifex to very quickly have its urban radar approved, knowing that Idemia, for its part, has already obtained its certification for the two simplest functions: control speed and respect for red lights.
No minutes before next fall?
Therefore, once these technical and legal issues have been resolved, All that will be missing is the green light from the Ministry of the Interior for the verbalizations to begin. But given the current very tense situation in the country, it is hard to imagine that it could be before the legislative elections and the formation of the new government which will follow. At best next summer, therefore, but perhaps even later if the return to school in September is too tense.
Be that as it may, the verbalization of burnt out red lights and speeding will only constitute a first stage which promises to be, of course, already formidable as respecting the 30 km/h in increasingly widespread areas is often difficult. And it will be worse later on when these urban speed cameras automatically penalize other offenses specific to the city, such as failure to respect a bus lane or a bicycle locker (which, let’s remind those who don’t are not aware of it, can be likened to failure to stop at the red light line, i.e. a €135 fine and 4 less license points).
TO READ. Road safety. 58% of speeding offenses are less than 5 km/h