Experimented since 2022 in certain cities in France, this new type of radar will issue its first tickets in a few months.
The increase in the number of radars in France slowed down in 2023. Barely 200 more machines were installed in the territory but the “fleet” has largely been renewed with increasingly powerful devices. Among the new radars, a few should particularly attract your attention. Some motorists have already encountered them since they were tested experimentally for several months in 2022 in seven municipalities in France (Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Bron, Saint-Lambert, Rueil-Malmaison, Villeneuve-le-Roi ). With their large antenna equipped with several sensors, they have a very different design from that of the devices you are familiar with. Why such a metamorphosis? Quite simply because they are not classic radars.
These radar prototypes – developed by several companies, including one, called l’Hydre, by Bruitparif, the technical evaluation center for the sound environment in Île-de-France – were not designed to measure excess noise. speed. Thanks to their acoustic device, these radars have the ability to measure the number of decibels produced by each vehicle. In France, approved vehicles generally do not exceed 80 decibels. The State, which wishes to hunt down noise pollution caused in particular by modified exhaust pipes, most often the prerogative of two-wheelers, has decided, at the end of the first phase of tests, to set it at 85 decibels the limit not to be exceeded.
The second phase, with fines, was initially planned for the end of 2022 but the approval of the radars was delayed. Now approved, the boxes will be able to be reinstalled above the roads in the coming months. We even know the date for the sound radar in Bron, a town in the Lyon suburbs. From the next school year, no more prevention, this anti-noise radar will be the first to distribute tickets! All drivers of vehicles that are too noisy will receive a 4th class fine, as provided for in article R318-3 of the Highway Code. This corresponds to a fixed fine of 135 euros, reduced to 90 euros in the event of payment within 15 days.
The reinstallation of these new sound radars in the six other cities which have already tested the system should follow. Before, normally, being deployed on a larger scale on the roads of France. A new device that probably hasn’t stopped making noise!