New roadside boxes puzzle drivers in south-west France: what are they?
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Four aluminium boxes installed beside roads in south-west France at the end of February and now removed have left drivers puzzled.
The boxes were installed in Foix (Ariège) on busy roads, leading some to think they were a new kind of speed camera.
However, they were in fact temporary traffic counters being used to record density of traffic through the town rather than the speed of vehicles.
The information has now been compiled and may be used to make improvements to traffic conditions in the area.
It is the first time the monitors have been used in such a built-up area but they have been installed elsewhere in France before.
They are likely to have been redeployed in the south-west to record traffic levels across other rural and urban areas.
“We installed the counters because we did not have information about driving habits inside Foix centre,” said Ariège’s road director Serge Castillon to La Dépêche (paywall article).
“We wanted to have more precise information about traffic flows [on certain key roads],” he added.
Despite collecting the information, departmental authorities do not currently have any plans to make changes for drivers.
The information, whilst useful, “offers only few opportunities given the structural dimension [of the local road network] to be preserved.,” Mr Castillon said.