Anger as another area of France decides to return to 90 km/h on many roads

An environmental association in France has condemned the return of its local department road speed limit to 90 km/h as “anti-environmental” and “politically-motivated”, according to actu.fr. 

The Brionne Eco-mobilités association - which is a strong supporter of the use of public transport over private vehicles - has criticised the department president’s plans to raise the speed limit on departmental roads in the Eure department (Normandy) back to 90 km/h.

“To go from 80 to 90 km/h is first and foremost to send a message of an ‘additional competitive advantage’ for road transport, to the detriment of public transport and rail,” said the association in a press release. 

“Increasing speed on the roads also means increasing greenhouse gas emissions, since these and fuel consumption increase with speed.”

‘Working people hit hard’

Yet, president of the Eure département, Alexandre Rassaërt, has said that reducing the speed limit to 80 km/h (a measure brought in by former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in 2018) “hit working people in France hard, particularly in rural areas”. 

Mr Rassaërt also said that lowering the speed limit did not reduce the number of people killed on the roads.

Read also: Speed limits now raised back up to 90km/h by most French departments 
Read also: 80 or 90km/h? French speed limit changes continue to cause confusion 

The lowering of the speed limit is set to be put to a vote in February 2025. If the vote passes as expected, Eure will become the 53rd department to revert back to a 90 km/h speed limit

Following the vote, no fewer than 420 mandatory accident studies will be launched in the spring on the areas concerned, before the advisory opinion of the Departmental Road Safety Commission is announced in autumn 2025. If it goes ahead, the change is set to come into force in 2026.

The department council said it had taken the time to assess the “real impact” of the measure before reviewing it again. 

“We now have six years’ experience of the measure,” said Mr Rassaërt to l’Eure en Normandie. “What we can see is that limiting speed to 80 kph doesn't work: the psychological shock hasn't had any effect on changing drivers' behaviour. There has even been a significant increase in the number of people injured on the roads.”

‘We expected more’

But Brionne Eco-mobilités said that his comments showed “contempt” for the many working people in Eure who already travel to work on foot, by bike or by train.

“Losing 30 seconds on a 30 km journey - is that the kind of thing that hits workers hardest? We expected a little more seriousness from the president of the department,” the group said.

It also contested Mr Rassaërt’s safety claims. “Based on a few scattered pieces of data, carefully isolated from any context, he uses simplistic and incoherent reasoning,” it said. 

“Deaths have been getting worse in recent years. He is saying that ‘reducing speed is ineffective, so we need to increase speed’. It's appalling.” 

The association cited figures from the road safety observatory l’Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière, which state that road deaths have increased by 13% in departments that have switched back to 90 km/h.

Read also: MAP: French departments where roads are back to 90km/h speed limits 

Political appeal

It also said that Mr Rassaërt’s decision to revert back to 90 km/h was “a political choice”, and made what it called a “solemn appeal” to regional representatives, calling on them to consider the environment, the need for better public transport, and improved road safety.

“They need to take a stand against this project,” the association said.