thirty-seven departments are passed at 90 km / h

Thirty-seven departments have returned to 90 km / h on some of their roads outside the city, after the lowering of the speed limit to 80 km / h at the national level, according to a ministerial report, revealed Friday, November 26 by the Defense League drivers.

These departments are mostly “predominantly rural and [ont] low population density “ on an axis going from Calvados to Hérault, but also in certain departments of the Grand Est, according to the report sent by the Ministry of the Interior to parliamentarians, consulted by AFP. Almost 33,428 kilometers of roads are concerned in total, over portions ranging from 5,284 kilometers in the Allier to 22 kilometers in the Haut-Rhin.

The lowering in July 2018 from 90 to 80 km / h of the maximum speed, on two-way secondary roads without a central separator, where fatal accidents are concentrated, was followed by strong protests, in particular from the yellow vests . At the end of December 2019, the Mobility Orientation Law offered the departments a possibility to derogate from 80 km / h, after consulting the departmental road safety commission on each of the road sections concerned.

To justify their decision, the departmental councils mainly mentioned the need to “to fluidify traffic and remedy the increase in queues of accumulation of vehicles, especially behind heavy goods vehicles, generating risk-taking when overtaking”, and “to reduce travel times to fight against the isolation of the territories “.