With more than 500,000 fines handed out, this traffic offense has seen a very sharp increase in one year.
More than 30 million traffic violations were recorded last year. According to a survey conducted by Auto Pluswe must add to this new record figure the 13.6 million post-parking passes (FPS) to arrive at the 43 million reports drawn up in 2023. Obviously, among the nearly 1,200 reasons for being fined in car, some take the lion’s share. Thus, speeding below 20 km/h recorded in built-up areas and outside built-up areas by automatic radars alone represents more than 50% of the total offenses giving rise to fines. But among the most frequent infractions, some have experienced fairly strong variations in one year, whether upwards or downwards.
This is particularly the case for the one appearing in ninth place in the ranking of the most frequently observed offenses. With exactly 521,461 cases identified, this fault follows closely behind the use of the telephone while driving, a bad habit which cost 555,146 fines last year (+5.1%). What are we talking about? Driving on a lane reserved for buses, an offense most often observed in urban areas, where public transport traffic is most significant.
In the ranking of the most frequent offenses, it is by far the one that has increased the most over the last 12 months. It experienced an increase of 27.6%, or roughly 110,000 more cases compared to 2022. What explains such a difference? Are motorists increasingly in a hurry behind the wheel? It’s possible, but the explanation lies elsewhere. Municipalities have massively equipped themselves with surveillance cameras to scrutinize their streets, which inevitably helps to catch drivers guilty of using lanes allocated to buses to avoid idling in traffic jams.
The sharp increase in fines for this reason is a boon for state coffers. Much less for the French wallets. Driving in a lane reserved for buses is expensive: the fine amounts to 135 euros for motorists and bikers found at fault. With the hundred thousand additional fines issued in 2023, the circulation of unauthorized vehicles in bus lanes brought in around 10 million euros more. A real jackpot.