Why have so many areas of France reverted to 90km/h speed limit?

An increasing number of departments in France are reverting their speed limits back to 90 km/h, eight years after the government changed the limit to 80 km/h on certain roads, with some calling the change a “mistake”.

Under then-Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, the government introduced the change from January 1, 2018, in what was touted as a measure to improve road safety.

Eight years after the change was first implemented, Mr Philippe is still associated with it. 

He recently told Sud Radio: “Perhaps I would do things differently today. I probably failed to explain, and that is my responsibility, that this regulation was not intended to annoy people or make money, but to prevent accidents.”

Unpopular ‘mistake’

The change was immediately unpopular, with some driver associations claiming that it unfairly affected people in rural areas.

This is a major reason that the government enabled local departments to reverse the decision soon after in December 2019 (this was also criticised, however, with local authorities having to spend hundreds or more to implement the change, as switching a road sign costs at least €80, La Dépêche du Midi reports).

More than 61,000 kilometres of road across France are now understood to have a speed limit of 90 km/h. Now, roads may have a limit of 70, 80 or 90 km/h, depending on the type of carriageway.

More than half of the nation’s departments have now reset their limits to 90 km/h where possible, but the spread varies significantly. For example, 87% of the roads in Lozère now have the higher limit, compared to just 1% in Haut-Rhin.

Even neighbouring areas may have quite different rules; for example, in Occitanie, the departments of Gers, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne have reverted to 90 km/h, but Haute-Garonne and Lot have not.

Nationally, Eure is the latest department to have reversed the change, and has since February 9 raised the limit to 90 km/h on certain sections of road.

“The decision to limit the maximum speed on secondary roads was a mistake,” said Arnaud Viala, president of the Aveyron departmental council, to La Dépêche. “The reform served no purpose other than to create confusion.”

Lifesaving measure?

Critics of the measure say that it has not made roads safer; but proponents disagree. 

“To say that the 80 km/h [limit] has been useless is false and irresponsible,” said vice-president of road safety campaign group la Ligue contre la violence routière, Pierre Lagache. 

He has estimated that the change had saved around 350 lives over a period of 20 months, a figure that comes from a 2020 report.

Yet, since 2013, the number of deaths on roads in France has remained between 3,000 and 3,500 per year (with the exception of 2020 which saw less road use due to Covid-19 lockdowns).

In 2025, the number of deaths in mainland France rose slightly in comparison to 2024, with 3,260 victims compared to 3,193 respectively (an increase of 2.1%), show provisional data from road safety body l’Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière (ONISR).

Campaigners have said that speed is not always the defining factor in road deaths; recently, the government has been targeting nitrous oxide use and users of other drugs, as well as prioritising the usual targets of excess speed and alcohol misuse.