New Speed Cameras Planned for Paris

Paris is getting closer to a new phase in its traffic crackdown — not just fewer cars, but more automated enforcement. The immediate news is that City Hall could ask for additional fixed speed cameras starting in January 2027, thanks to a new national rule that lets municipalities request them on their own streets. That does not mean new radars are approved yet. But it does mean Paris now has a real path to add them where the 30 km/h limit still gets ignored. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### What changed here? The big shift is legal. Until now, fixed speed cameras were mostly a state-controlled tool. From January 2027, French municipalities are expected to be able to request new fixed radars themselves. Paris has not formally launched a rollout, but city officials have signaled they are favorable to using that option because speeding remains common even five years after the citywide 30 km/h switch. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### Why is Paris even considering more cameras? Because the lower speed limit did not magically make drivers slow down. Paris cut the default street limit from 50 to 30 km/h in August 2021 for safety and environmental reasons. But the city still sees regular speeding on streets shared by cars, bikes, buses, and pedestrians. One fatal example keeps coming up — a pedestrian was (en.lebonbon.fr)etimes clocked above 70 km/h. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### How bad is the non-compliance? Pretty bluntly — bad enough that the existing radars are already printing huge numbers of tickets. Le Bonbon, citing figures surfaced in 2024, says one Avenue Daumesnil camera in the 12th arrondissement went from 389 tickets in September 2020 to 8,145 in September 2021 after the 30 km/h rule took effect. In 2023 alone, more than 74,000 people(en.lebonbon.fr) The city does not need a theory that drivers are still speeding. It already has the receipts. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### Aren’t there already speed controls in Paris? Yes — but not many fixed ones. Paris currently has only a handful of fixed radars inside the city, and enforcement has increasingly relied on mobile tools. In late 2024, municipal police received 10 radar binoculars, with roughly 20 more due in 2025, bringing the total to 30. Those handheld devices were used experimentally at f(en.lebonbon.fr) already generated more than 6,000 tickets by January 2025. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### So what are “radar binoculars,” exactly? They are handheld speed-measurement devices — cinémomètres — used by officers on the street. Basically, they let municipal police measure speed precisely instead of eyeballing whether someone looked too fast. That matters in Paris because a lot of the problem seems to come from two-wheelers and drivers treating 30 km/h stre(en.lebonbon.fr)d without needing an officer standing there. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### Is this part of a bigger anti-car strategy? Yes, but the city frames it as road safety first. Paris has spent years layering policies that make driving slower, pricier, or less convenient — 30 km/h streets, limited-traffic zones, higher parking charges, and more enforcement. More fixed radars would fit that pattern exactly. The catch is that this is not just symbo(en.lebonbon.fr)has a route to hardwire that approach into the streetscape. (en.lebonbon.fr) ### What’s the bottom line? This is not a done deal today. No new fixed camera map has been published, and Paris has not announced exact streets. But the direction is clear — the city has a legal opening in 2027, a record of persistent speeding, and an enforcement model it already expanded in 2025. If Paris pulls the trigger, the story is not “more radars out of nowhere.” It i(en.lebonbon.fr)drivers actually feel. (en.lebonbon.fr)