80 or 90 km/h on departmental roads: the French are lost
With the return of 90 km/h on certain roads, nearly 8 out of 10 French people say they have doubts about the speed limits of the departmental roads. In a few days, the 80 km/h limit on the...
11/11/2021
With the return of 90 km / h on certain roads, nearly 8 out of 10 French people say they have doubts about the speed limits of the departmental roads.
In a few days, the 80 km/h limit on departmental roads will already be celebrating its 3rd anniversary. But this rule is no longer the norm! After the revolt of yellow vests and the anger of local elected officials, annoyed at being criticized for a measure passed in force by Édouard Philippe, then Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron had let go of ballast.
The trick to avoid back-pedalling, symbol of disavowal: leave the 80 km / h in force but allow the departments which wish to return to 90 km / h on the axes which they consider less dangerous. Some elected officials, particularly in the right-wing opposition and the most rural departments, quickly seized on this measure integrated into the mobility law, which came into force in the last days of 2019. Haute-Marne opened the ball from the start of January 2020.
Since then, returns to 90 km / h have been linked. A year and a half later, around thirty departments have reinstated this limitation. This creates a two-speed France on the departmental roads! Add to that the fact that the departments which have reinstated the 90 km / h uniformly throughout their territory are rare (there is Allier, Corrèze, Creuse and Cantal). The vast majority followed the recommendations of the government and Road Safety by bringing out the 90 panels on the main structuring axes.
What reinforce the waltz of the panels and create confusion. Moreover, according to a study carried out by Coyote, a specialist in driver alerts, 8 out of 10 French people say they have doubts about the speed limit of 80 or 90 km/h depending on the department (39% regularly, 40% in time and 14% never)!
So be careful if this summer you are going on vacation with your car and you are going to take the secondary network. Certainly, you will go from a road limited to 80 to a road limited to 90 km/h, from a department which has completely returned to 90 to one which wants to stay at 80... Coyote promises reliable information, updated day constantly. To avoid being tricked this summer, the company offers to test its mobile application for free for 30 days. A good plan not to find a ticket in the mailbox when you return from the beach.