The Automobile Club du Luxembourg (ACL) has joined the debate on the French government’s decision to lower the speed limit from 90km/hr to 80km/hr.
Regarding the decision to reduce the speed limit over some 400,000 kilometres of sideroads in France, the ACL has commented that whilst it would never oppose measures to improve road safety, it is not sufficient to automatically transpose new foreign measure into Luxembourgish law.
The ACL has based this claim on the fact that the new measure has been much criticised in France. Opponents point out that speed does not necessarily hinder drivers who do not respect the current limitations. Another argument is that national motorways and departments are not all the same size and this would require a differentiated treatment according to the danger of different roads.
The ACL has also reiterated the need to study the circumstances of all serious and fatal accidents in order to draw meaningful conclusions. For example, while other European countries cite inattention as one of the main causes of accidents, it does not appear in the top four presumed causes cited annually by the Luxembourg authorities. Therefore, instead of continuously tightening the repressive arsenal, the ACL has advised the State to invest more in the study of accidents and in the development of the national road network.
