Question 17037 — road safety

Summary

Mr. Aurélien Dutremble questions the Minister of the Interior about the consequences of the possibility offered to local authorities to finance the installation of automatic speed cameras on their roads. From January 1, 2027, municipalities, public intermunicipal cooperation establishments and departments will be able, under certain conditions, to finance the installation of automatic speed cameras on their road network. This development marks a significant break with the principle that prevailed until now, according to which the deployment of these devices fell exclusively to the State, on the basis of objective criteria linked to road safety. In Saône-et-Loire, a rural department crossed by major roads such as the RCEA, the RN 80 or the A6 motorway, tens of thousands of residents depend daily on their vehicles to get to the work, access public services or join the main employment areas. The expectations expressed by users primarily concern the improvement of infrastructure, the securing of dangerous intersections, the maintenance of roadways and the completion of the RCEA to two lanes, rather than the multiplication of automatic fine-tuning devices. However, France already has several thousand radars automatic machines distributed throughout the country, the number of which continues to increase. According to the budgetary documents annexed to the draft finance law for 2026, revenues from automated control are estimated at nearly 700 million euros for the year 2026. In this context, the possibility now offered to local authorities to finance this equipment themselves gives rise to a risk of abuse. She could lead certain territories, faced with strong budgetary constraints, to favor the installation of new radars rather than structural investments making it possible to sustainably reduce accidents. This development is all the more worrying as it blurs the line between road safety policy, which falls under the State's sovereign missions, and the budgetary choices of local authorities. She is likely to reinforce the feeling, widely shared by many motorists, that the speed camera policy now responds more to a logic of financial return than to a purpose exclusively intended to save lives. He therefore asks what guarantees the Government intends to provide so that location decisions remain exclusively based on objective criteria of accidentality and road safety, regardless of any financial considerations. He also asks if the Government intends to make public, for each radar financed by a local authority, the elements having justified its implementation, in particular the accident data which led to this choice. Finally, he asks if the Government can guarantee that this new option offered to communities will not meet any objective of budgetary performance and whether an annual evaluation of the revenue generated by these devices will be published in order to ensure the greatest transparency on their purpose and effectiveness.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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