Speed camera alerts in France: danger zones explained

If you ride to France, leave your speed camera warnings at home, or switch them off. French law bans owning, carrying or using any device that detects speed cameras or tells you where they are. What a sat nav or an app may show instead is a danger zone: a stretch of road of at least 300 m in built-up areas, 2 km outside them and 4 km on motorways, which may or may not contain a camera. Whatever you use, the speed limit remains the only rule that counts.

What the law says

Article R413-15 of the French Highway Code (Code de la route) punishes owning, carrying or using a device designed to detect speed enforcement equipment or disrupt it: radar detectors and jammers. A decree of 3 January 2012 extended the ban to devices that warn of or show the location of that equipment: speed camera warning devices and app features. France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, upheld it in 2013 (NAVX decision).

What you have or do	Status	Penalty
Radar detector	Banned (R413-15)	Fine up to €1,500, 6 points off a French licence, licence suspension up to 3 years, device seized; the vehicle can be seized if the device is fitted to it
Device or app showing camera locations	Banned since 2012	Same penalties
Jammer used on the road	Banned	Same penalties
Navigation aid showing danger zones only	Allowed	Nothing

Sources: ANTAI penalty scale and the official commentary of the Constitutional Council’s 2021 decision. The fine applies whether or not the device is switched on when you are stopped.

Where 300 m, 2 km and 4 km come from

Those lengths are not in the Highway Code. They come from an agreement signed on 28 July 2011 between the French Interior Ministry and the association of driving-aid providers: its members stopped showing the exact location of fixed or mobile cameras and police checks, and show instead “dangerous road sections” of at least 4 km on motorways, 2 km outside built-up areas and 300 m in built-up areas, which may or may not contain a camera. As TomTom’s guide puts it, the camera “can be anywhere in the zone”, and nearby cameras may be merged into one longer zone.

A danger zone isn’t always a camera, either: it can also be a level crossing, a road with a bad accident record or a school.

Reports of police checks

Since 1 November 2021, during certain roadside checks (alcohol and drugs for up to 2 hours; some identity checks and searches for wanted persons for up to 12 hours), the local prefect can order navigation apps to stop relaying user reports within 10 km outside built-up areas or 2 km inside them. Speed checks are not covered by this blocking. The Constitutional Council upheld the scheme in November 2021.

Good to know. Rules differ across borders. In Switzerland, for instance, speed camera warning devices, including sat navs with that feature, are banned outright, and customs can seize them (FOCBS). Check before each country.

How RideKit handles it

RideKit (iPhone, French interface) shows danger zones in France during guidance, for free: a red banner with the zone’s speed limit. They are computed on the phone from the official list of fixed speed cameras published by the Interior Ministry on data.gouv.fr, as 300 m, 2 km or 4 km stretches. RideKit never shows where a camera is, nor its type, and does not report police checks. Mobile cameras and camera cars are not covered. More in French: GPS moto.

Watch out. A danger zone is not permission to speed elsewhere. Mobile cameras can be anywhere, and the limit applies everywhere. The sign is your guide.