If you'll be driving in France, you should know a new set of eyes is watching, and it will be watching much more. In a move that's intended to slow down speeders and save money, France is hiring private contractors to patrol the highways with speed cameras.
Up to now, speed enforcement has been in the hands of two-man police units, but the costs of the program have meant that camera-equipped units were only on the road an average of an hour a day each.
Under the new plan, the cops will turn their time to policing, and a fleet of private cars equipped with speed cameras will take to the roads, recording speeders to be ticketed later. They will be expected to be on the road eight hours a day, following government-specified routes.
Police currently have 383 camera-equipped vehicles; The program plans to have 450, with one-man crews, but if the program succeeds, there could be more.
The main target will be drivers who are 10 km/h over the limit where the limit is under 100 km/h, or who are 10% over where the limit is higher. It's targeted at a road death rate that has been rising for several years while in most countries it has fallen.
There is considerable opposition to the plan, which rolls out in Normandy now, and nationally within a year. The group 40 Million Motorists, which doubts that more tickets will do the job, says that its poll shows that about 80% oppose the plan or believe it should be run directly by police.
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