The year 2023 is a record year in terms of traffic fines, with 2 billion euros collected, according to the Court of Auditors report published in April and discovered by our colleagues at Caradisiac. Automatic radars represent half of this income; in fact, automatic fines have become the norm. The explanation lies in the number of installed units, 4,661 by 2023, and an availability rate greater than 90%.
The fines are raining down and the French are driving less and less. The average annual mileage increased from 14,000 kilometers in 1995 to 10,830 kilometers in 2022, according to figures broadcast on air by BFMTV.
Maintain radars and roads.
What is the income generated from traffic fines used for?
Of these 2 billion, “there is a certain opacity of the system,” says Pierre Lagache, vice president of the League against Road Violence, guest during Live Switek.
Of the amount collected from speed cameras alone, 37% of the revenue is used to restore damaged equipment and 40% goes to road maintenance.
But “a part of the income from speed cameras is allocated to reducing state debt, while it would be better to invest it in road safety,” laments Pierre Lagache.
“38% of the credits are intended to reduce the State debt”
Also a guest on BFMTV, Philippe Nozière, president of the 40 million motorists association, believes that “all the money collected should be allocated to the repair of roads”, recalling that almost one in two accidents has other causes, less related to the state of the roads. .
The report of the Court of Auditors, dedicated to the special allocation account “control of road traffic and parking” says nothing more. This account, created in 2006 to provide transparency on the revenue collected, no longer serves its purpose.
The institution’s report indicates that “38% of the credits in this account are allocated to reducing state debt, a program that has no link with road safety.”
The document recommends greater readability and the presentation in a single annex of all revenues collected and expenses allocated to road safety.
Source: BFM TV
