If you have the time and energy to read right through… this is an interesting article.
Around here more than half the radars have been vandalised and are still out of action and that represents a lot of money the state is missing out on. The penalties if caught vandalising a radar are hefty but people take the risk all the same.
Sadly, those who love speeding anyway… know the radars aren’t working and go mad… often causing or suffering nasty accidents.
Surely those people must know that the cameras are there and speed everywhere else anyway. Most of the cameras I know aren’t in places where there presence will increase road safety, they’re where they’re likely to gain maximum revenue. Again that’s a big contrast to Germany where cameras were often placed on stretches of road where there was a lower speed limit because of a potential danger.
It costs quite a bit to provide and put a fixed camera in place… and despite what folk might think… it is not easy organizing to actually get one sited. Can take years…
Some folk speed (just a little)… and some speed a great deal (and dangerously so). Anger at the reduced speed limit has been used (by some) to vindicate the vandalism… but all it means is that those who drive dangerously anyway are even less likely to be caught and stopped. Thus the roads are becoming more dangerous…for the other users.
If it’s that complicated why don’t they place them where they would make a difference?
I wish you had asked me that last week… I would have badgered the folk from the Gendarmerie at our Vœux du Maire on Saturday… 
Actually, it’s not complicated… it simply has to be thoroughly justified before the “order” is given to spend money and get a camera sited.
Edited to say that I do not condone vandalisme, we all pay for that in the end!
The demonstrations here have been well conducted and polite, we are in a rural region and were hit hard by the price hikes.
There is a big element of unrest, people are not happy that the ‘elite,’ as they see them, are making decisions that affect their daily lives.
They are not happy that we are the forgotten regions, that we have a dearth of doctors, other health workers and hospitals and no public transport.
Schools are being closed and children are being transported many kilometers…
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Why is it there??? that is certainly a question for the Gendarmes… 
I know of some spots like that… blasted nuisance… I drop down the gears and watch my speed like a hawk… 
On the N10 between Tours and Chartres many of the cameras are placed on wide open straight parts of the road that go through dips. What tend# to happen is a long line of vehicles, normally reasonably spaced out and obeying the speed limit arrive and the leading driver sees the camera and brakes, often to up to 20kmh below the limit causing the cars to concertina. If there is an6 tailgating going on it can get nasty. There are other places on the same road where traffic calming measures are needed. One is actually on a dual carriageway so in a 110 limit but a couple of hundred meters after the start of the start of the 110 limit the road goes through a viscous S bend where 90 km would be much safer than the 110 allowed. Over the years I’ve seen evidence of several accidents there. Why don’t they put the speed restrictions and cameras where they might actually do some good?