Marseille's overzealous radars have motorists seeing red

Careful how you drive if you happen to be paying a visit to the southeastern French city of Marseille.

Recently-installed radars are doing their work - and then some - and not always to the benefit of the law-abiding motorist it would appear.

In a manner of speaking they're going into overdrive to such an extent that they're even flashing stationary motorists...or nothing at all.

The "culprits" - for let's call them that - are radars installed at traffic lights at notoriously busy junctions in the city.

There are five of them so far and their arrival was greeted with something of a fanfare when they were first made an appearance in France's second largest city last October.

The intention was and remains not to measure whether drivers were keeping to the speed limit, but simply to ensure they respected the traffic lights.

There were a few (inevitable) teething problems in the first couple of weeks, when some of the radars were taking their job a little too seriously and flashing any and every passing vehicle, no matter what colour the light.

But as it was a test phase during which no fines were being handed out for motorists "caught on camera", their installation was greeted with what could perhaps be called a certain degree of "favourable sceptism".

According to a poll conducted at the time by the regional newspaper, La Provence, 58 per cent of those questioned said they welcomed the new radars.


Admittedly there were of course some who thought that the whole scheme was just another way of the local authority to increase its coffers with each infraction carrying not only a loss of points but also a €135 fine.

Those initial problems don't seem to have been solved though, and the radars are still flashing in cases where there has been no infraction and that opens up the way for anyone to make a challenge as far as a local lawyer, Arnaud Attal is concerned.

"The system just isn't reliable," he says.

"I dread to how often people who cross these junctions several times a day such as local traders are being 'flashed' (for no reason at all)," he continues.

"Sometimes the radars go off when there isn't even a car around."

Whatever the problems drivers in Marseille might currently be facing, the problem could get worse.

The scheme is due to be widened to include 150 similar radars being installed in the whole of the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) in south-eastern France.

Happy driving?

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur - it's all in a name

France could soon be bidding farewell to the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA for short).

Only the name though, rather than the actual geographical area.

The region, located in the south of the country (as the name suggests) is one of 26 in mainland France, with another four overseas.

Plans are afoot to change its name from the apparently poetic but cumbersome current mouthful to something a little more snappy and up-to-date.

Well that's if the president of the region, Michel Vauzelle, gets his way.

Vauzelle says the naming of the region, and in particular the use of the epithet "PACA" since the time of Charles de Gaulle, has been the butt of many a joke, to the detriment of the local population.

As far as he's concerned it's far from being funny and time for a change to something that better reflects the area and its population.

"Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur is a beautiful name," he says. "But it's too long and not very practical."

In his search for an alternative, Vauzelle commissioned an Internet poll during the second half of July in which 10,000 local people were asked their views on what would be a preferable replacement, and the initial results are in.

"Provence" (well that certainly is short) and "Provence-Méditerranée"" apparently topped the list, with "Alpes Méditerranée", "Provence Azur" and "Sud" (even shorter) also remaining in the running.

The next step will be to set up a committee of experts or so-called "wise men" (and women presumably) who will examine the results before drawing up a short list to be put to the local population (at large) some time in the autumn.

For those of you still scrambling to locate Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur or PACA on a map, it incorporates six departments in the south of France: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes-Alpes, Var, and Vaucluse.

And of course it also includes some of the major cities in the south, among them Marseille, Nice and Toulon

It boasts a population of over 4.8 million, which, if you do the maths, means that less than 0.2 per cent have so far expressed an opinion on the name change.

But that evidently is enough for Vauzelle and the rest of the regional council to press ahead with the campaign.