Radars – How the CNSR wants to prevent a return to 90 km-h –

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How the CNSR wants to prevent a return to 90 km / h

Radars - How the CNSR wants to prevent a return to 90 km-h -

Under pressure in the face of demonstrations by bikers (a little) and the impressive mobilization of yellow vests (especially), the elected representatives of the Republic voted for a relaxation of 80 km / h. Except that the National Road Safety Council wants at all costs to prevent the local authorities from returning to 90 km / h, by setting out a list of technical recommendations and administrative hassles that are almost impossible to comply with…. Explanations.

Despite Parliament’s desire to make 80 km / h more flexible by leaving the choice to local elected officials on the roads for which they are responsible, the National Road Safety Council (CNSR) recommends a six-step procedure which, if adopted , would make it practically impossible to return to 90 km / h…

The 6 impossible steps

In a document entitled "Derogation from the maximum authorized speed of 80 km / h on a two-way road without central separator: decision-making aid elements" and written in a tasty technical-administrative dialect, the CNSR Committee of Experts (see list below) explains in fact that the return to the 90s – sorry, "the exercise of modulating the maximum authorized speed from 80 to 90 km / h"! – must respect a procedure guaranteeing "the highest possible level of road safety", according to the wishes of Prime Minister Edouard Philippe himself.

This six-step procedure is so restrictive that even a homologation file from the Carole circuit to FIM MotoGP standards to host a second French Grand Prix would have a better chance of passing….

1. Carry out an inventory of accident issues

For each "two-way road network of the department concerned" by a possible return to 90 km / h, the local authorities will have to provide a report on "the mortality it represents, the identification of the type of road that contributes the most to the number of deaths) and uses (traffic and speeds practiced according to the type of road). The accident analysis will specify in particular the seriousness of the accidents (fatal accidents, number of deaths, number of hospitalized injuries) compared to the linear of the different types of roads of equivalent category ", recommend the experts, specifying that" a period of five years is generally retained for the analysis of accidents on interurban roads ".

2. State the 90 km / h goal

The departments will have to explain why the return to 90 km / h is justified and how it would be beneficial.

3. Make a first list of sections likely to go back to 90 km / h

But beware: "in order to avoid the multiplication of VMA changes on the routes, the list will only offer homogeneous sections of length greater than 10 km", specify the experts !

4. Evaluate the risks of the sections concerned according to the uses (traffic, speeds practiced, soft modes)

Local elected officials who have the self-confidence to oppose the government’s good word will have to demonstrate perfect knowledge of the sections concerned: traffic of usual motorized vehicles and private users (agricultural machinery, vulnerable users including pedestrians and cyclists), etc.

They will also have to carry out in-situ speed measurements to "obtain distributions of the speeds practiced and calculate indicators, in particular the V85 (speed practiced by 85% of users) which must be less than 90 km / h".

5. Define the compensatory measures to be adopted to limit the risks linked to the modification of the MAS on the sections envisaged. 

The departments will have to carry out a "physical separation of traffic flows" (in clear: build a central separator or paint a continuous double line with sound alert), "prevent road exits and their consequences", remove intersections with roads secondary and prohibit left turns. At worst, we can admit "a very limited number of roundabouts" (the famous roundabouts dear to yellow vests: the circle is complete!)

In addition to these arrangements, operating measures should be implemented, in particular "a maintenance policy making it possible to guarantee a level of service compatible with the VMA" and especially "an automated control system making it possible to ensure compliance with the VMA at 90 km / h by all motorized vehicles "(and of course automatically reducing by 90 euros drivers who are more focused on their driving than on their speedometer).

6. Organize the follow-up before / after the return to 90 km / h

Finally, elected officials will have to keep statistics to assess user behavior and local accidents before and after the modification of the MAS..

Clearly, for a section of departmental road to regain a limit of 90 km / h, it must be at least 10 km long, without any intersection or crossing of a hamlet and without an agricultural vehicle….

A colossal budget for 10 km / h more…

But as if that were not enough, the road managers of each department would also have to find the budgets to build:

  • A central separator between the two directions of traffic to prevent overtaking (at worst, the prohibition of overtaking can be materialized by "a continuous double horizontal marking with sound alert", agree the experts in their great kindness).
  • A 3.5 m wide lane in each direction (i.e. 7 m of two-way lanes) bordered by audible warning devices to avoid leaving the road.
  • A 2 m wide "recovery zone" on the side of each lane
  • A "safety zone" 4 m wide
  • A median outside each track to isolate a "multifunctional strip"
  • A 2 m wide "multifunctional strip" (on the other side of each exterior median) in order to promote gentle circulation

So many technical requirements that could be materialized by this diagram developed by:

BM = multifunctional belt / TP = central reservation / ZR = recovery area / TPC = central reservation

Several elected officials denounce "the hypocrisy of the government", like the president of the Departmental Council of Yvelines: Pierre Bedier (Les Republicains) deplores on RTL that the government "sets conditions such that it will be almost impossible for the communities concerned to return to the previous situation. We are being invented rules while decisions for speed limits must be made on the ground ".

"Among the 500 kilometers of departmental roads which could return to 90 km / h, the risk is that there are very few kilometers, if at all, which return there", confirms Jean-François Raynal, vice -President of the Yvelines Departmental Council interviewed by France Info.

CNSR Experts Committee

The CNSR expert committee is made up of Laurent Arth, Jean-Pascal Assailly, Anne-Claire d’Apolito, Thierry Fassenot, Sandrine Gaymard, Marie-Axelle Granie, Benoît Hiron, Sylviane Lafont, Emmanuel Lagarde, Marine Millot, Manuelle Salathe, Marie-Laure Seux, Nicolas Simon, Helene Tattegrain and Eric Violette.

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