Today is the one-year anniversary of the epoch-making flash-camera speed radar in France.
The first speed camera is inaugurated, 27 October 2003, by Minister of the Interior, now Minister of Finances, Nicolas Sarkozy (popularly known as Sarko). He's resigning next month, most people think to run for Président de la République.
There are now more than 200 flash radar cameras on the roads in France, some fixed and some mobile . There is one in a car with plainclothes cops, at a gas station exit on the way in from CDG airport. More than one million flash photos have been taken, the average French driver has slowed down by 10 kilometers an hour, and the number of fatal accidents has drastically declined. The fines from speeders caught by the radars have brought in almost 100 million euros in revenues in a year. So I guess they will be a permanent feature of the landscape. A recent poll showed that the French plan to ""drive more prudently from now on."
Here is the latest map of the fixed radars.
This one is of the Paris area.
Daily Life in Paris
Today I noticed that one of the private tow trucks that trawls my street night and day is painted with the label Chercheur d'Air Pur. Seeker of Clean Air!
Today I also saw my first female bicycle cop in Paris, riding with a male partner. Paris has some very buff bicycle and roller-blade cops. In fact I have never seen a fat policeman in Paris.
Vigipirate
At the moment, my neighborhood is full of camouflage-wearing, gun-toting soldiers, who seem pretty relaxed. The epicier du coin (my local grocery-store guy) says that under the anti-terrorism Vigipirate plan, which has been reinforced lately, there are not enough policemen to guard all the places in Paris that are supposed to be protected. So two soldiers are assigned to work with one cop, and the cop is in charge.
"The soldiers don't like that, I bet," I said.
"Oh, PAS DU tout! "
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