Inaugurated on October 27, 2003, by Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, France's oldest speed camera is located at Ville-du-Bois, Essonne. This device will be the very first of the more than 4,500 automatic speed cameras currently in operation in France (according to France Inter).
The radar was originally designed to enforce compliance with the Highway Code, which stipulates that motorists must not exceed 90km/h on roads (before the current 80km/h limit) and 50km/h in town. Following the application decree of July 11, 2003 on law n°2003-495 of June 12 of the same year, France took numerous measures to reduce road insecurity. Finally, on the same day, an interministerial decree dated October 27, 2003, enabled the introduction of a system to automate the recording of certain offences and the delivery of fines to the car owner's home address. On the same day, Nicolas Sarkozy and Gilles de Robien (Minister of Transport at the time) inaugurated the very first automatic radar, on the Nationale 20, near Ville-du-Bois.
In its 20 years of existence, the radar has flashed motorists more than 553,000 times, according to the French road safety authority, penalizing drivers who drive too fast: twenty years later, the device is still in service and continues to flash those who have the misfortune to drive a hair too fast at this point.
