“In Ardèche, we don’t speak in kilometers, but in time”

On the roads of Ardèche in summer, tourist vehicles set the pace. Motorhomes, automobiles registered abroad, cars pulling caravans, coaches, cyclists with loaded bicycles follow one another. While sumptuous landscapes take shape on the horizon, the traffic becomes slower. In the middle of the summer, the road that leads from Aubenas to Privas, the D 104, confirms the tourist appeal of this department, wedged between the Cévennes and the Drôme. Sometimes, a “07”, synonymous with Ardéchois, a little in a hurry, interferes in this long line and dares to overtake.

In this sector, holidaymakers seem little concerned by the new regulations, which will authorize, on the 1^er September, the maximum speed of 90 kilometers per hour on the roads of the Ardèche, which, like the Yonne by the end of the year, will join the list of the forty-three departments which have already chosen to raise the speed limit on their secondary networks of 10 km/h. According to a survey carried out in May by the regional daily The Dauphine75% of the 2,800 people questioned approved the decision of the president of the department, Olivier Amrane (Les Républicains), elected in 2021, after twenty-three years of socialist presidency.

Read also: 80 or 90 km/h? The map of the French departments which have returned to speed limits

“It is the great happiness, testifies Florence Lacombe, a resident of the south of the department. The 80 drives you crazy! It irritates drivers. Here we have a lot of winding roads. So when there is a straight line, we would like to be able to accelerate a little. » The Ardéchoise, victim several years ago of a serious road accident and who spent “two years in brackets”, is convinced: “Eighty or 90 km/h is a non-issue and that’s not what increases the number of accidents. On the other hand, it helps those who travel by car to work. »

“We are locked in”

Installed further north, in Privas, Jean-Loup Blachier, 63 years old and head of three technical control centers, also applauds: “This speed of 80 km / h oppresses motorists, it stresses people. You can’t even overtake trucks, people get nervous driving. » For cyclist Guy Astier, a resident of Chomérac, the return to 90 km/h is also ” a good thing “. “At 80, people flutter and are not attentive, at 90, they are more focused. And this speed is still interesting to overtake. It sometimes takes me an hour to cover the 32 kilometers between Chomerac and Valence. In Ardèche, we do not speak in kilometers, but in time. »

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