Pounds, radar, tickets: the car hunt in the cities | M6 | Enquête Exclusive

Hyperactive car pounds, futuristic, automatic traffic ticket systems, plain-clothes police to hunt down infringements: the pressure is growing on city dwellers. The municipalities have more or less assumed one ambition:  see a decrease in the number of cars in city centres. In Paris the pounds tow away an average of 1,000 cars a day; police and tow trucks carry out veritable commando raids in certain neighbourhoods. The tow truck drivers are even more zealous as they receive a commission on the number of vehicles towed. A practice that can be challenged which sometimes pushes them to bend the traffic laws considerably. In Nice it is now impossible to avoid fines. The city hall has introduced an ultra-modern system of remote ticketing. Through the use of surveillance cameras, any parking longer than 3 minutes or double parking, an instant ticket is issued without there being a single enforcement agent in sight. Is this system really infallible? Is it sufficiently profitable to be widely used in other cities? To avoid being caught, some drivers are trying every sort of scam, even totally dishonest ones. At the moment, fake handicapped cards are springing up on windscreens. What risks are run by those who produce fake papers? Are the forces of law and order sufficiently trained to foil this latest swindle? Another trick, 100% legal, is to rent your car in Luxemburg or Germany. In reality, foreign cars are only very rarely pursued and, even though they represent only 5% of traffic, they are the cause of 25% of excess speed infringements. To escape the pound, more and more city dwellers are resorting to parking attendants. Formerly the preserve of hotels or expensive restaurants, this service has now been extended to beauty salons and even fashion boutiques. Some companies specialise in the sector. What little arrangements have these parking attendants gone into so that your car doesn’t get a ticket? Is there complete transparency?