Thirty-seven departments in France have re-introduced a 90km/h speed limit on some of their roads.
Since 1st July 2018, a maximum speed limit of 80km/h has been in place on all French highways that have no central barrier, and where road signs indicate no other speed limit applies. The limit on autoroutes remains the same (130km/h) - at least, for the time being.
Improving road safety has been a key priority of most French governments since the early 1970s, when there were around 17,000 deaths each year, one of the worst records in Europe.
As a result of the introduction of safety belts in 1973 and other later safety measures, the number of road deaths is now down to around 3,500 each year (3,289 in 2019), a figure that has remained relatively stable since 2013.