How much trouble can you get into driving in Europe?
Discussion
optimate said:
as long as you dont get pulled at road side if car is hired just report you credi card lost when you get home and don't worry about any other fines
Terrible advice - any pre-agreed conditions can still be charged to a 'lost' card. Even if you close the account, you can find banks will chase you through debt collection to get their money back.NDA said:
The Sanef tag is definitely worth getting - you can then drive straight through.
As has probably been pointed out previously, the French have had a major sense of humour failure with speeding - so you need to be careful. I try and keep vaguely to speed limits, but sometimes with a 2 mile visibility on a clear peage, it's tempting to give it the beans. Don't. They can confiscate the car.
And not forgetting the lower speed in the rain.As has probably been pointed out previously, the French have had a major sense of humour failure with speeding - so you need to be careful. I try and keep vaguely to speed limits, but sometimes with a 2 mile visibility on a clear peage, it's tempting to give it the beans. Don't. They can confiscate the car.
I asked a French policeman what the definition of "rain" was... "whatever we decide" was roughly the reply.
Amateurish said:
BTW - priorite a droite is still a "thing" and it applies by default to all junctions in France unless otherwise indicated.
applies in Germany tooalmost all roads have priority signs on them though, but in smaller residential streets for example, give way to the right if there's no sign (or a red triangle sign with an 'X')
havoc said:
If you know the places they loiter that's fine, but if you don't, it's a risk.
The article posted previously on Driving.co.uk seems pretty accurate - the gendarmes don't have ANY tolerance above the speed limit, so France is not a place to play anymore - not in the North, certainly.
Belgium is getting as bad (and that's before the roadworks and the traffic) - they employ the same sort of laser-traps followed-up by bike-cops as France, and as in France their word is the law and you don't get shown any evidence.
Germany seem to have got very good at disguising new static speed cameras too.
In short, if you're planning on speeding at all in Europe I'd invest in an up-to-date GPS camera database and obey it to the letter, AND probably a mobile app like Waze where people update on the location of mobile traps...
But keep it hidden or the Gendarmes will roger you thoroughly, or so I've heard. SatNavs with camera locations can be confiscated, and if you've got a car with a built-in SatNav, bye-bye car (again, this is theoretical but I wouldn't like to test it).The article posted previously on Driving.co.uk seems pretty accurate - the gendarmes don't have ANY tolerance above the speed limit, so France is not a place to play anymore - not in the North, certainly.
Belgium is getting as bad (and that's before the roadworks and the traffic) - they employ the same sort of laser-traps followed-up by bike-cops as France, and as in France their word is the law and you don't get shown any evidence.
Germany seem to have got very good at disguising new static speed cameras too.
In short, if you're planning on speeding at all in Europe I'd invest in an up-to-date GPS camera database and obey it to the letter, AND probably a mobile app like Waze where people update on the location of mobile traps...
Halmyre said:
But keep it hidden or the Gendarmes will roger you thoroughly, or so I've heard. SatNavs with camera locations can be confiscated, and if you've got a car with a built-in SatNav, bye-bye car (again, this is theoretical but I wouldn't like to test it).
Sat Navs with Danger Zones, which may or may not be a camera location, are legal in France. The Sat Nav manufacturers do not provide camera locations any more only Danger Zones.rewc said:
Halmyre said:
But keep it hidden or the Gendarmes will roger you thoroughly, or so I've heard. SatNavs with camera locations can be confiscated, and if you've got a car with a built-in SatNav, bye-bye car (again, this is theoretical but I wouldn't like to test it).
Sat Navs with Danger Zones, which may or may not be a camera location, are legal in France. The Sat Nav manufacturers do not provide camera locations any more only Danger Zones.And if you turn your satnav off when stopped they can't compel you to hand it over / turn it on - it's classed as a personal electronic device and the data on it is subject to the French equivalent of the Data Protection Act.
That MAY upset them if they're in the wrong mood, of course, so make sure your car/paperwork is squeaky-clean otherwise...
That MAY upset them if they're in the wrong mood, of course, so make sure your car/paperwork is squeaky-clean otherwise...
Vaud said:
rewc said:
Halmyre said:
But keep it hidden or the Gendarmes will roger you thoroughly, or so I've heard. SatNavs with camera locations can be confiscated, and if you've got a car with a built-in SatNav, bye-bye car (again, this is theoretical but I wouldn't like to test it).
Sat Navs with Danger Zones, which may or may not be a camera location, are legal in France. The Sat Nav manufacturers do not provide camera locations any more only Danger Zones.In the uk ?
Just got a brand new Juke (for the wife, she likes them ! actually, it drives pretty well.....) and that has speed cameras on its sat nav, not danger zones, actual pictures of cameras.
I thought I would update this with my experiences.
Back from the epic road trip, now and much of this advice was very useful.
Despite only doing a tiny amount of Austrian motorways there wasn't really a way to avoid it, so we got the Austrian 10 day vignette before we crossed the border. They do actually sell them at the border though if you forget. We avoided Switzerland entirely except to nip in using local roads from Cernobbio for cheap petrol when we were staying on Lake Como, so no need for a vignette there. We never fell foul of the ZTLs in Italy, but I would never have known about them except for this thread.
In France we kept the speeds down anywhere north of Paris and had no problems. We did see a British registered BMW X5 and a French registered Caterham get pulled by a motorcycle cop after tearing up the Autoroute des Anglais at what must have been over 180km/h. Further south was fine, if you just let other cars run interference for you and tagged along a little way back.
I didn't think priorité à droite still existed but we found some in the villages around Epernay, and got some of that priorité when we were approaching from the droite. That messed with my head more than being on the main road and having to give way.
Belgians drivers were fine, always up your rear no matter how fast you went. Luxembourg was a breeze and very cheap for fuel. Germans and Austrians were usually pretty bad, but with excellent motorway lane discipline. I got 161mph on the Autobahn, but opportunities for anything faster than that were curtailed by the extraordinary amount of roadworks. Past Stuttgart there wasn't really any chance to do anything more than 'making progress' sorts of speeds. Lane discipline across Europe was so much better than the UK, though France wasn't as good as the other countries. French drivers are identifiable by the fact they keep indicating when overtaking, even when they are in the middle lane, which was confusing. They also indicate right to go straight at roundabouts. Italian drivers never seem to indicate ever, for anything.
Driving in Italy was brilliant fun. Everyone routinely exceeded every speed limit by about 20km/h and on decent roads by as much as they possibly could. I'd never go as far south as Naples (the only time I have ever been genuinely scared in a taxi) but everywhere north of Siena was fine.
Interestingly my Garmin HUD didn't report any 'danger zones' in France. It just flat-out didn't have alerts for the country. Maybe the French have decided that they won't tolerate that either.
Back from the epic road trip, now and much of this advice was very useful.
Despite only doing a tiny amount of Austrian motorways there wasn't really a way to avoid it, so we got the Austrian 10 day vignette before we crossed the border. They do actually sell them at the border though if you forget. We avoided Switzerland entirely except to nip in using local roads from Cernobbio for cheap petrol when we were staying on Lake Como, so no need for a vignette there. We never fell foul of the ZTLs in Italy, but I would never have known about them except for this thread.
In France we kept the speeds down anywhere north of Paris and had no problems. We did see a British registered BMW X5 and a French registered Caterham get pulled by a motorcycle cop after tearing up the Autoroute des Anglais at what must have been over 180km/h. Further south was fine, if you just let other cars run interference for you and tagged along a little way back.
I didn't think priorité à droite still existed but we found some in the villages around Epernay, and got some of that priorité when we were approaching from the droite. That messed with my head more than being on the main road and having to give way.
Belgians drivers were fine, always up your rear no matter how fast you went. Luxembourg was a breeze and very cheap for fuel. Germans and Austrians were usually pretty bad, but with excellent motorway lane discipline. I got 161mph on the Autobahn, but opportunities for anything faster than that were curtailed by the extraordinary amount of roadworks. Past Stuttgart there wasn't really any chance to do anything more than 'making progress' sorts of speeds. Lane discipline across Europe was so much better than the UK, though France wasn't as good as the other countries. French drivers are identifiable by the fact they keep indicating when overtaking, even when they are in the middle lane, which was confusing. They also indicate right to go straight at roundabouts. Italian drivers never seem to indicate ever, for anything.
Driving in Italy was brilliant fun. Everyone routinely exceeded every speed limit by about 20km/h and on decent roads by as much as they possibly could. I'd never go as far south as Naples (the only time I have ever been genuinely scared in a taxi) but everywhere north of Siena was fine.
Interestingly my Garmin HUD didn't report any 'danger zones' in France. It just flat-out didn't have alerts for the country. Maybe the French have decided that they won't tolerate that either.
Edited by Sebastian Tombs on Thursday 28th September 11:26
lucido grigio said:
The "green zone" or Umwelt sticker mentioned above ,is it strictly applied ?
I have driven through a few Umwelt zones, Essen and Stuttgart and never had a problem.
No.I have driven through a few Umwelt zones, Essen and Stuttgart and never had a problem.
A recent road trip in 3 cars, only 1 had the green sticker, 2 did not. No fines/stoppages for the two that didn't have them, and that included several overnight stops parked on the street in city centres.
As someone that regularly travels in France, in my experience there is an ever increasing number of speed traps on the dualled roads and Autoroutes. Plus they are often majorly sneaky/devious about it also. This trip they collared me twice, relieved me of 180 Euros and told me 2kph more and they'd have my licence off me. The first time they were hiding up a slip road using bushes for cover and had me from behind (ouch). The second time was a frontal assault, this time hiding behind some greenery on the hard shoulder on a sliproad.
On another occasion on the same trip I exited a dual carraigeway up to a roundabout above the road I had been on, to circle it and onto another road. This time there was another one of them hiding behind a bush on the roundabout checking the road I had just left below. I suppose I got lucky that time.
All very tiresome.
On another occasion on the same trip I exited a dual carraigeway up to a roundabout above the road I had been on, to circle it and onto another road. This time there was another one of them hiding behind a bush on the roundabout checking the road I had just left below. I suppose I got lucky that time.
All very tiresome.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff