speed detectors in europe
Discussion
Silver968 said:Anyone with any direct experience of how the French treat Road Angels (and similar GPS gadgets)?? It's not a radar detector, but the plug-in laser detector would be handy on the autoroutes
GPS detectors are generally legal, but ones with laser or radar sensors are generally banned. However, with the GPS ones you would probably need to buy a camera position database subscription from a provider for each country: this could become expensive. So no easy answer I think.
Are the cops adequately au fait with the devices to know what is GPS, and what is a laser/radar detector - or do they simply assume anything electronic stuck to the windscreen is illegal? I'm not fluent enough in french to argue with some pissy gendarme about whether the RA is illegal in France or not - anyone been in this situation?
On my mad blast back from Switzerland early Jan, luckily I spotted the gendarme hanging out of a blue car at the side of the autoroute near Calais from a decent distance away, and seriously slowed down. My cousin following later didn't and got fined. Because of all the hoo-haa about french cops destroying detectors, I'd removed my RA and hidden it in the door bin.
The cop was using what looked very much like a laser speed gun (we cruised past *very* slowly and got a good look - those french cops have a nice line in scowls don't they
). Presumably the RA w/laser pod would have caught this earlier than my mk1 eyeball. Any Euro PHers here with GPS units? Or are they particularly a UK phenomenon due to the camera plague?
I live in spain and plan to go to Austria to pick up my car in April when the weather gets a little better is it worth buying a speed detector for the journey.Or will the cops know that you have a detection device and stamp on it and get a double fine .So basically you end up paying three times 
On the Road Angel site www.blackspot.com/ if you click on the flags at the bottom it takes you to the web sites of their subsidiaries/partners in France and Australia and you can read about it there. As I said earlier, the GPS part of a Road Angel is useless for speed camera detection in France unless you purchase the subscription to the French database and download the camera locations. It will still display your speed though. For Classic Road Angel, the laser detector plugin is not sold in France or Australia. For Road Angel 2, the laser detection function is (I presume) disabled. Therefore the gendarmes should have no problem with it if it is found in a French-registered car. However, they may well know that UK versions can have laser detection, and so if they see it in a UK car they are liable to investigate.
Silver968 said:
the GPS part of a Road Angel is useless for speed camera detection in France unless you purchase the subscription to the French database and download the camera locations.
May I add that (nearly) all radars automatiques are indicated and one has to be pretty unattentive no to spot them and not to take the time to slow down. Nearly all of them are located on "easy cash" positions such as 100% safe straights and high flow axes and you'd be a bit of a knob not finding out why everybody brake down for no apparent reason.
For those who have not noticed yet, there is not enough room inside to put a twin direction set up, so you can blast past them when you are not in the flashing direction.
Some further info on their locations here
I'm happy to report some were shot down by hunters in the south of the country.
>> Edited by Thom on Saturday 5th February 13:26
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