The following is an extract from the securite-routiere.gouv.fr.
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From 2021, each year, during the winter period (extending from November 1 to March 31), it will be compulsory to equip your vehicle with winter tires or to have snow chains or socks, in certain towns in the mountain ranges. (Alps, Corsica, Massif Central, Jura massif, Pyrenees, Vosges massif).
Why this new regulation?
The objective of these new regulations is to strengthen user safety by reducing the specific risks associated with driving on snowy or icy roads.
It is also a matter of avoiding blocking situations in mountainous regions, when unequipped vehicles find themselves across lanes, unable to free themselves, immobilizing an entire traffic axis.
All four-wheeled vehicles and more are affected by this regulatory change: light vehicles, utility vehicles, buses and heavy goods vehicles.
New signs will inform you of entry into a compulsory equipment area. In the absence of snow or ice, removable devices – chains or snow socks – are kept on board the vehicle.
What are the affected areas?
Local consultations, at the scale of each massif, are underway to determine the list of municipalities on which the vehicle equipment obligations in circulation will apply.
This is a non-definitive map, of a provisional nature, to help professionals and individuals anticipate the content of the prefectural decrees which will be taken in each department and which will list the municipalities concerned by the measure.
