Périphérique speed cut: tickets rise

THE NUMBER of tickets issued for speeding on Paris’s Périphérique has risen 20% since the limit was cut to 70kph in January, police have revealed.

Radars have caught 1,200 speeding motorists a day in the past three months, compared to 1,000 per day prior to the cut, new figures show.

Police, responding to a request from French motoring magazine Autoplus, said that this figure was less than one vehicle per thousand using the road.

Every day 1.3million vehicles use the Périphérique.

But the Drivers’ Defence League labelled the rise in fines a “feast” and a “jackpot for the authorities” on its website and reiterated its plan to fight the reduced speed limit in court.

They have already called it a “manifest error of judgement”, and insisted that “no study validates the good effects of such a reduction”.

“Drivers have called us to complain,” a spokesman said. “They are being caught driving at one, two or three kph over the limit.”

Anyone caught exceeding the speed limit by less than 20kph is liable for a €68 fine.

The speed limit on the Périphérique was cut in January in a bid to cut air and noise pollution, and reduce the number of accidents.

The Mairie de Paris said at the time that the new speed limit would cut noise pollution by 1.7 decibels for light cars and 1.2db for lorries and this was the equivalent of cutting traffic on the Périphérique by 15-20%.

Motoring organisations are concerned that the speed limit cut on the Périphérique may be echoed across France, as the government considers cutting speed limits on certain roads from 90kph to 80kph.

Last weekend, more than 60 go-slow protests organised by the Fédération des Motards en Colère took place in towns and cities across France.

Photo: IK’s World Trip