France Unleashes Massive Radar Expansion: Moroccan Drivers Beware

A deployment of 3,000 to 5,000 additional automatic radars is planned in France over a period of four to six years. From 2026, around a thousand of these new devices will be installed each year on municipal and departmental roads.

This project is part of the "3DS" decentralization law of February 21, 2022, which transfers the power to install these equipment to mayors, a prerogative previously reserved for the State. The Ugap, the public purchasing center, has already launched the tender to select the manufacturers of these future urban radars.

These new equipment will be added to the 4,750 radars already in service, which will bring the total fleet to nearly 9,750 devices. This volume will place France in the fourth position worldwide in terms of the number of automated control equipment, after Brazil, Russia and Italy.

The future radars are described as being multifunctional, capable of taking photographs of vehicles traveling up to 250 km/h. In the event of an offense observed from the rear of a vehicle with a trailer, the license plates of both elements must appear on the offense message.

One of the technical characteristics of these devices is their ability to read foreign license plates with up to 12 characters. The countries and areas concerned by this functionality include the 27 Member States of the European Union, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, as well as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.