You might see it this summer – this speed camera is so long that drivers forget to slow down
Raise your hand if you've never slowed down at the sight of a speed camera? All drivers do it, even those who obey the speed limit. A gentle brake application before reaching the box is somewhat reassuring. It's unnecessary when you're driving at 85 km/h on a road with a 90 km/h speed limit, but reassuring nonetheless. The signs indicating speed cameras, placed several hundred meters upstream, also allow drivers to adjust their speed to avoid being flashed. Instantaneous speed control offers drivers the advantage of being able to brake at the right moment. But this "trick" doesn't always work.
Not all the radars installed along our roadsides—around 4,500 of all types combined—work the same way. Some "last" longer. Sometimes even much longer. This is the case with this speed camera installed on the A89 motorway, which connects Bordeaux and Lyon via the Massif Central. Commissioned in 2014, it monitors the speed of all cars over a distance of... 17 kilometers! It's the longest radar in France, straddling two departments, the Rhône and the Loire, between the towns of Pontcharra-sur-Turdine and Violay.
On this section of highway that takes drivers from Clermont to Lyon, the speed limit is set at 110 km/h. But you can happily exceed it without necessarily risking a fine. Unlike a conventional radar, which measures speed at a specific moment, this radar, known as a section radar, calculates your average speed between two points. There's no need to brake if you exceed 110, or even 120, but your average speed over the 17 kilometers must not exceed 110 km/h. There are about a hundred devices of this type in France, but the particularity of this one, which covers three tunnels, is that it is so long that it is very easy for drivers to forget they are being monitored.
This exceptionally long section radar is no exception in France. You don't have to go far to find an even larger one. Just head to the north of Spain, to Palencia, a city in Castile and Leon located between Valladolid and Burgos. On a road limited to 90 km/h, a device measures the average speed of cars over a distance of 33 kilometers! Enough to keep drivers under pressure for about twenty minutes.
To avoid causing yourself a scare - and getting a ticket - the best solution is to respect all speed limits on the road, whether in France or abroad.
L'Internaute
