A new type of radar will be installed on the side of our roads at the beginning of 2024. Fines are expected to increase.
And one more radar! Twenty years after the first, installed on the Nationale 20 in Essonne, a new type of radar will be installed on the side of our roads from the first days of 2024. Its mission will not be to calculate the speed of the cars that will pass in front of it, like the first machines manufactured at the beginning of the 21st century. Increasingly sophisticated, new generation radars offer increased possibilities that are no longer limited to identifying drivers guilty of speeding.
This is the case of thermal radar which will be tested for the first time in France from January. This new technological tool is equipped with sensors sensitive to infrared rays which allow it to detect the number of people inside each vehicle. To what end? That of determining whether motorists respect traffic in carpool lanes. Inaugurated in France at the end of 2020, near Grenoble, these carpooling lanes aim to relieve congestion on the main roads around large cities to reduce CO2 emissions.
However, despite the creation of a new traffic sign – the famous white triangle on a blue background or the luminous white diamond on a black background above certain lanes – traffic in these carpool lanes is still too little respected according to the police. As a reminder, these lanes are reserved for vehicles with at least two occupants on board, those with a Crit’Air 0 sticker – i.e. all electric and hydrogen vehicles regardless of the number of occupants -, emergency and transport vehicles in common, to taxis (even empty) and motorbikes provided there are two people on them.
If you drive alone in a carpool lane with your thermal or even hybrid car, you are outlawed. Until then, only conventional cameras could detect violations. Starting next month, two new generation thermal radars will be tested in Lyon, on the M6 and M7 axes, in both directions of traffic (around the Fourvière tunnel).
The infrared camera will be able to detect the number of people in each vehicle traveling in the carpool lane. If it only spots one then the radar will take a photo of the license plate. After checks, carried out by the Lyon municipal police, according to information revealed by Le Figaro, a fine will be sent to the fraudsters.
And the bill will be very high for the free riders. The Highway Code provides for a fine of 135 euros, reduced to 90 euros in the event of payment within 15 days. These new automatic radars are expected to be deployed quite quickly in large cities, such as Lille, Strasbourg and soon Paris with the lanes reserved on the ring road for the Olympic Games. The noose will tighten on motorists and we would advise you not to use too many stratagems. These thermal radars have the ability to spot “fake” passengers, such as a mannequin for example, and see through tinted windows. To avoid getting caught, it is best, as always, to respect the rules of the Highway Code.