French police roadside ban for speeding
Discussion
Unfortunately the UK seems to be following the same trend regarding speeds. They're definitely pushing it as an anti-social thing to do, a little like they have done with changing the mentality of drink driving.
Personally I generally speed, usually around 10mph over limit which seems comfortably safe but obviously different roads and conditions determine the speed. My mentality is very difficult to change, it just feels so frigging unnecessarily slow at times. Speed traps are all over the place where I live and they're very random too, although they do like to hover around bottom of hills.
Saying that, its also hard to argue against the "well don't speed and you won't get caught" brigade. It's scary that a leisurely ride out can now cost you an insane amount of money if caught going over the speed limit.
Personally I generally speed, usually around 10mph over limit which seems comfortably safe but obviously different roads and conditions determine the speed. My mentality is very difficult to change, it just feels so frigging unnecessarily slow at times. Speed traps are all over the place where I live and they're very random too, although they do like to hover around bottom of hills.
Saying that, its also hard to argue against the "well don't speed and you won't get caught" brigade. It's scary that a leisurely ride out can now cost you an insane amount of money if caught going over the speed limit.
Dog Star said:
(Remember 20 to 30 years ago? The French would all be belting along at 100mph plus on the autoroutes? It was great. They've become a nation of speedometer watchers now).
Did some great bike trips across France in the 80s and 90s and never really worried about le cops. I do remember heading to the Bol D'Or on the autoroute de soleil and it had been bucketing with rain.I would be in the outside lane at 100 with French bikers overtaking at much greater speed between me and the armco
and I was already going much quicker than the traffic in lane 2.Every 50 miles or so on the whole route down we'd come across carnage. Cars and bikes, as well as bodies, strewn all over the road.
Maybe it was all this that has turned them against speeding now. I'm sure I read that back in the 80s the French death toll for their roads was far higher than the UK's.
Cbull said:
Unfortunately the UK seems to be following the same trend regarding speeds. They're definitely pushing it as an anti-social thing to do, a little like they have done with changing the mentality of drink driving.
Personally I generally speed, usually around 10mph over limit which seems comfortably safe but obviously different roads and conditions determine the speed. My mentality is very difficult to change, it just feels so frigging unnecessarily slow at times. Speed traps are all over the place where I live and they're very random too, although they do like to hover around bottom of hills.
Saying that, its also hard to argue against the "well don't speed and you won't get caught" brigade. It's scary that a leisurely ride out can now cost you an insane amount of money if caught going over the speed limit.
I've not done much riding lately but it is so bloody hard just to make some progress and be safe with having to look for signs, cameras, vans etc.Personally I generally speed, usually around 10mph over limit which seems comfortably safe but obviously different roads and conditions determine the speed. My mentality is very difficult to change, it just feels so frigging unnecessarily slow at times. Speed traps are all over the place where I live and they're very random too, although they do like to hover around bottom of hills.
Saying that, its also hard to argue against the "well don't speed and you won't get caught" brigade. It's scary that a leisurely ride out can now cost you an insane amount of money if caught going over the speed limit.
In the car I have just accepted it and it's easier what with Waze and other tech to help warn you. All these 20mph zones that have sprung up in London lately. I feel a fool sticking to them in a car but on a bike you'll probably wobble and fall over
Lee540 said:
Will have to start taking Hull to Belgium/Holland ferry instead if you want to avoid France..
Or down to Santander, through Spain, Barcelona to Genova..
Within reason I can only agree - to be honest this really isn't that recent a thing, I stopped Euro touring in 2012 (3 weeks to and from Greece mainland via Italian ferry) and we were on our best behaviour in France back then with regards to speed limits - mates had been stopped driving cars and somehow talked down 900Euro fines for taking the p*ss speed limit wise Police used the terms Grande Vitesse lol. We were already on guard in Switzerland having been stopped a couple of years earlier for a dodgy tunnel overtake and not for speeding but frogmarched and 300 Swiss Francs extracted from 3 of us each at the nearest ATM.Or down to Santander, through Spain, Barcelona to Genova..
In the early 2000s you could still just get on with it as soon as you got to French soil and certainly we used to.
Personally if I was planning a route now which involves the tunnel or calais ferry I'd plot a route to get us out of France ASAP, our fave for a few years before I stopped touring was via Belgium along the E40, you get the France bit done at the Speed limit via an Autoroute sticking religiously to the posted Speed Limits. Again that only worked if you were heading in that direction
There's that balance of freedoms. Freedom to speed, get places quicker, do as one pleases. Versus the freedom of others who might be affected by one's speeding - innocent by-standers and the costs of clearing up the mess when it goes wrong. That is all fair enough, and lower speeds will generally mean less danger. However, that balance seems to be getting unreasonably low in places, if safety is the main objective. But governments, the French and British ones are prime examples, are skint and being crushed by a mountain of debt. So it's probably become a de facto tax to some extent, masquerading as a safety measure.
Put it this way, if everybody stopped speeding from tomorrow, stopped drinking booze, and stopped smoking - does anybody believe governments wouldn't be desperate to plug the gap in some way? They need the money, that's for sure.
Put it this way, if everybody stopped speeding from tomorrow, stopped drinking booze, and stopped smoking - does anybody believe governments wouldn't be desperate to plug the gap in some way? They need the money, that's for sure.
Ho Lee Kau said:
cmaguire said:
This daft Worldwide anti-speed thing is just becoming plain ridiculous now, this nonsense in France really takes the shine off using the roads there. They've threatened to ban me twice recently.
I would go through the motions, come back later and drive/ride anyway. And then hope my next visit was after the ban expired.
Being a biker myself and knowing how quickly 90 can turn into 130...I still wonder, do you only like the roads when you can go 50% faster than the legal speed limit?I would go through the motions, come back later and drive/ride anyway. And then hope my next visit was after the ban expired.
Obeying the speed limits is soul destroying
ks.
.keirik said:
It's unfortunate your wife got banned but 50% over the limit in a 90kmh area isn't an accidental aberration, it's taking the piss.
In the UK it would be roughly 80mph in a 50mph ....likely you would get at least 6 points, possible a short ban depending on existing points. But you have to go to court first, its not dealt out at the roadside....the French do seem a bit Judge Dredd on the speeding front, I wonder if they apply the same criteria in other areas of Policing with the guy on the street dishing out the punishment on the spot
Rushjob said:
croyde said:
I presume she is banned as per their computer or do they take your actual licence off you?
Both of the above.You get your licence back through the post after a week or three.
cmaguire said:
Ho Lee Kau said:
cmaguire said:
This daft Worldwide anti-speed thing is just becoming plain ridiculous now, this nonsense in France really takes the shine off using the roads there. They've threatened to ban me twice recently.
I would go through the motions, come back later and drive/ride anyway. And then hope my next visit was after the ban expired.
Being a biker myself and knowing how quickly 90 can turn into 130...I still wonder, do you only like the roads when you can go 50% faster than the legal speed limit?I would go through the motions, come back later and drive/ride anyway. And then hope my next visit was after the ban expired.
Obeying the speed limits is soul destroying
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