Confiscation speed in France?

[Somewhatfoolish]

Is the confiscation speed in France still 50k over ie 180k on a motorway? Got a few hours journey tomorrow with friends all of whom will be named drivers on hire car. Nothing particularly worse than a fine will happen if we stick to 179kmh while driving safely right?

Also would a hire car be seized if it went quicker?

[LunarOne]

Somewhatfoolish said:

Is the confiscation speed in France still 50k over ie 180k on a motorway? Got a few hours journey tomorrow with friends all of whom will be named drivers on hire car. Nothing particularly worse than a fine will happen if we stick to 179kmh while driving safely right?

Also would a hire car be seized if it went quicker?

Username is an understatement. Some people just beg for trouble. Stick to 150 and you won’t have to worry too much.

[Whataguy]

LunarOne said:

Username is an understatement. Some people just beg for trouble. Stick to 150 and you won’t have to worry too much.

This, if it's similar to Spain then above 30km over is where fines/etc build rapidly.

[Doofus]

This is why most of Europe think Brits are tts.

Edited by Doofus on Sunday 25th June 09:04

[Vasco]

Somewhatfoolish said:

Is the confiscation speed in France still 50k over ie 180k on a motorway? Got a few hours journey tomorrow with friends all of whom will be named drivers on hire car. Nothing particularly worse than a fine will happen if we stick to 179kmh while driving safely right?

Also would a hire car be seized if it went quicker?

Were you drunk when posting that - or are you generally lacking (in virtually everything) ?

[IJWS15]

If autoroute in France you may find you sit and wait at the next toll booth while they deal with the fine, that will mean losing any time you might have gained.

As above don't take the piss and there won't be a problem - there is a reason you don't see many travelling at over 140 and those I have seen have been english registered.

[Red9zero]

I find that the French autoroutes are so quiet that there really isn't any need to speed excessively, as you cover a greater distance for the time driven than you would do over here.

[normalbloke]

Red9zero said:

I find that the French autoroutes are so quiet that there really isn't any need to speed excessively, as you cover a greater distance for the time driven than you would do over here.

Exactly that. It’s the only place I ever use cruise when heading to the deep south . Almost never in the U.K.

[P675]

Red9zero said:

I find that the French autoroutes are so quiet that there really isn't any need to speed excessively, as you cover a greater distance for the time driven than you would do over here.

Drove to Paris a month ago, I found the limit being just above 80mph was fine and would happily cruise at the limit feeling that it was fast enough. Hardly any traffic though, not sure if that's normal, I guess most people aren't paying €20 a go to get to work etc.

[LunarOne]

P675 said:

Red9zero said:

I find that the French autoroutes are so quiet that there really isn't any need to speed excessively, as you cover a greater distance for the time driven than you would do over here.

Drove to Paris a month ago, I found the limit being just above 80mph was fine and would happily cruise at the limit feeling that it was fast enough. Hardly any traffic though, not sure if that's normal, I guess most people aren't paying €20 a go to get to work etc.

France has a much better motorway network than the UK. Yes, there are tolls on many parts, but they have rest stops every 15km, smooth tarmac without potholes, higher speed limits, lower traffic density, and much better lane discipline. The reason the traffic density is lower is that France has an amazing network of National trunk roads that are not autoroutes, but enable speedy travel around the country without constant slowdowns at towns and villages. This network is so efficient that lots of traffic never needs to use the autoroute, so autoroute speeds are kept high and traffic flows.

[Dog Star]

The ban threshold is 40kmh over the limit.

They will knock off 5% for error.

So for an autoroute (assuming it’s not raining) it’s 130 + 40 = 170 - so knock off 5% from your speed and if it’s below 170 you should be in fine-only territory.

This was my experience - I got a 2 month ban and €135 fine for 188kmh on the A1 near Bapaume. They’d have impounded the car if Mrs DS wasn’t allowed to drive it and they went over the paperwork with a fine tooth comb.

There’s another threshold where they get a bit draconian but I forget what it is now - but it’s not much higher.

Going over there these days and expecting to whiz along at 100mph plus is a daft idea nowadays though - you will stick out like a sore thumb, same as you would in the uk; people seem to stick to the limit (I drove 650 miles in the uk this weekend - I don’t think I saw anyone going at what I reckon would be much over 80-85). Personally I reckon in France an indicated 90mph and you won’t get any bother.

[Muzzer79]

Dog Star said:

This was my experience - I got a 2 month ban and €135 fine for 188kmh on the A1 near Bapaume. They’d have impounded the car if Mrs DS wasn’t allowed to drive it and they went over the paperwork with a fine tooth comb.

116mph.

Totally not judging you - each to their own in my view - but I'm consistently surprised people go that fast, even in a foreign country.

Perhaps I'm Mr Risk-Averse or perhaps I'm so used to our camera-laden-shores but even when I happened upon a quiet de-restricted stretch in Germany in a not-unpowerful hire car, I still didn't get much above 100mph.

[Dog Star]

Muzzer79 said:

116mph.

Totally not judging you - each to their own in my view - but I'm consistently surprised people go that fast, even in a foreign country.

Perhaps I'm Mr Risk-Averse or perhaps I'm so used to our camera-laden-shores but even when I happened upon a quiet de-restricted stretch in Germany in a not-unpowerful hire car, I still didn't get much above 100mph.

I’m not going to lie - it was a sunny day, deserted motorway and I just gave it the beans for a short “squirt” as I was coming off at the next junction. I was quite surprised myself. I hadn’t been cruising at that speed by any stretch.

Actually in the interests of accuracy I’ve just dug out the ticket - it was 180, rounded down to 171 (they knock 5% “error margin”) so I got banned for 171.

The observant will notice that the ban threshold was 170. So I got banned as opposed to fined for 1kmh over that threshold

[Rushjob]

Dog Star said:

The ban threshold is 40kmh over the limit.

They will knock off 5% for error.

So for an autoroute (assuming it’s not raining) it’s 130 + 40 = 170 - so knock off 5% from your speed and if it’s below 170 you should be in fine-only territory.

This was my experience - I got a 2 month ban and €135 fine for 188kmh on the A1 near Bapaume. They’d have impounded the car if Mrs DS wasn’t allowed to drive it and they went over the paperwork with a fine tooth comb.

There’s another threshold where they get a bit draconian but I forget what it is now - but it’s not much higher.

Going over there these days and expecting to whiz along at 100mph plus is a daft idea nowadays though - you will stick out like a sore thumb, same as you would in the uk; people seem to stick to the limit (I drove 650 miles in the uk this weekend - I don’t think I saw anyone going at what I reckon would be much over 80-85). Personally I reckon in France an indicated 90mph and you won’t get any bother.

Actually, suspension de permis ( or ban in France in simple terms ) starts at 30kph over the limit.


Going off at a tangent, is everyone who drives in France aware of the speed limit if visibility drops to less than 50m?

50kph, on all classes of road.........

[Dog Star]

Rushjob said:

Actually, suspension de permis ( or ban in France in simple terms ) starts at 30kph over the limit.


Going off at a tangent, is everyone who drives in France aware of the speed limit if visibility drops to less than 50m?

50kph, on all classes of road.........

It must have dropped from 40kph then (you can actually see it in the above (there’s a load more info on it on the rest of my paperwork, however it’s plastered in my personal information)) - however that’s not surprising in these days of ever tightening rules. Mine was a fair while ago now.

[Whataguy]

Red9zero said:

I find that the French autoroutes are so quiet that there really isn't any need to speed excessively, as you cover a greater distance for the time driven than you would do over here.

When I drove to Prague and back over 2 days I just sat at the EU limit of 80mph/130kph the whole way - even through Germany where there were sections with no limit. (They do recommend 80mph though.)

About 10 hours of easy driving per day to do the 800 miles each way.

Edited by Whataguy on Tuesday 27th June 16:29

[Pete54]

For those of the same disposition as the OP it is perhaps worth noting that a great many of the autoroutes are only two lanes. Given the traffic densities this is not normally a problem - particularly at the weekend when the traffic is generally not commercial.

But if a truck on the autoroute indicates left - he is going left. And pretty much at the same time as he indicates. That can give you a really high closing speed. The truckers are used to approaching vehicles doing 130 kph and frankly do not mind cutting up car drivers! They are limited to 90 kph and if you approach at much over 150 - best of luck!

Equally you will find cars driving behind a convoy of trucks will behave in the same manner!

[Rushjob]

Dog Star said:

Rushjob said:

Actually, suspension de permis ( or ban in France in simple terms ) starts at 30kph over the limit.


Going off at a tangent, is everyone who drives in France aware of the speed limit if visibility drops to less than 50m?

50kph, on all classes of road.........

It must have dropped from 40kph then (you can actually see it in the above (there’s a load more info on it on the rest of my paperwork, however it’s plastered in my personal information)) - however that’s not surprising in these days of ever tightening rules. Mine was a fair while ago now.

No, it's been 30kph for a long time.

The 40 kph mentioned in your paperwork just means that your offence is in a higher level ( 40-49kph over )l in terms of the sanctions available (more points taken from your licence of you hold a French permis) as opposed to in the 30-39kph bracket which also merits the suspension.

I seem to recall that the changes to the penalties came in in late 2014......

[Dog Star]

Rushjob said:

No, it's been 30kph for a long time.

The 40 kph mentioned in your paperwork just means that your offence is in a higher level ( 40-49kph over )l in terms of the sanctions available (more points taken from your licence of you hold a French permis) as opposed to in the 30-39kph bracket which also merits the suspension.

I seem to recall that the changes to the penalties came in in late 2014......

Mine was about 2006

[LunarOne]

Dog Star said:

Rushjob said:

No, it's been 30kph for a long time.

The 40 kph mentioned in your paperwork just means that your offence is in a higher level ( 40-49kph over )l in terms of the sanctions available (more points taken from your licence of you hold a French permis) as opposed to in the 30-39kph bracket which also merits the suspension.

I seem to recall that the changes to the penalties came in in late 2014......

Mine was about 2006

"Actually, Sir, it was exactly 2006. On February 11th at 11.45 UTC+1 to be precise. Stardate -316886.3299"




"Oh shut up Data, to be Precise.".............. "Precisely Data. Shut up!"