Professional and Community Acceptance of Automated Traffic Enforcement in France

The introduction in 2003 of automated checking and sanctioning of traffic offences brought a major change to road safety policy in France. What is required now is an appraisal of how it has been ‘accepted’. The first part looks at the need to deconstruct the notion of social acceptance within the framework of an analysis of public policy and points up the interest of the focus group method in understanding this acceptance. The paper draws on recorded discussions by focus groups in the city of Nantes, in western France, in the second half of 2009 and the first half of 2010. The second part shows that the instrument in question is perceived as destabilising for the identity of the professionals in charge of its functioning. The road users questioned seem less bothered by the automated system, this being explained by greater practical adaptability on their part.