A first radar intended to control vehicle noise was inaugurated on Monday in Paris, where a second will come into action on Tuesday for a three-month test phase without verbalization as part of a national experiment extending until 2024.
Read alsoSound radar arrives on the roads
The device comprising two "jellyfish", these modules with four microphones capturing sound emissions in all directions, and two cameras was fixed on a lamp post in the rue d'Avron (XXth, east), a suburb with heavy traffic double meaning.
The other Parisian radar is installed rue Cardinet (XVII), in the northwest of the capital.
The City of Paris is one of the seven communities, with the metropolises of Nice and Toulouse, the communes of Bron (Rhône), Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine) and Villeneuve-le-Roi (Val-de-Marne) and the community of communes of the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse (Yvelines), which are taking part in this experiment.
Initially, these eight sound radars are tested without finding any infringements, with a maximum sound level set at 90 decibels.
“Heavy goods vehicles, for example, are authorized to emit up to 84 decibels”
, compared Fanny Mietlicki, the director of the Observatory of noise in Ile-de-France (Bruitparif), which manufactured the radar of the street of Avron.
Until now, the maximum sound level was specific to each vehicle, and registered on its gray card.
Only checks at the stop allowed the police to check its compliance.
The verbalization will begin during the second phase of experimentation, planned from spring 2023 after approval of the radars.
Owners of vehicles that are too noisy will then have to pay a fixed fine of 135 euros, reduced to 90 euros in the event of payment within fifteen days.
“A wait” among Parisians
“Road noise represents a loss of eight months of life expectancy in good health for all Parisians, an unbridled motorbike circulating at night can wake up to 10,000 Parisians”
, underlined Dan Lert, the deputy (EELV) of the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo in charge of the ecological transition.
These sound radars respond
"to an expectation",
estimated road assistant David Belliard (EELV), who welcomes the end of a
"blind spot of public policies"
.
Read alsoA record year for radar flashes in 2020, despite confinements
The noise pollution linked to road traffic is
“mainly caused by motorized two-wheelers, often unbridled, a little trafficked”,
underlined the assistant (PS) for security Nicolas Nordman.
"The difference between what is authorized by the gray card and what we see in the streets is what is measured by the sound level meters"
, with which the Parisian municipal police are already verbalizing.
