New laws surrounding speeding in France?

[Solocle]

Dixy said:

You have mistakenly logged in to Piston Heads, mumsnet is somewhere else.

Just go to germany and try to break the limit there... they do have one.
It's 671,000,000 mph.
If you can break that, then the whole world will reward you rather than punish you

I am not responsible for any deaths, serious injuries or nuclear explosions and/or miscellaneous apocalypses that result from trying exceed this speed limit.

[Perik Omo]

vsonix said:

Ah yeah, wasn't that the loophole that the various providers used to get round the legislation... It's been a while now I'd forgotten the ins and outs of it.
The overzealous speed policing kinda ruined driving in France for me too. It's not made a jot of difference to how people drive over there, if anything it's actually got worse... which in the South is no mean feat. People drive slower but also pay less attention to the road itself. I got rear ended on the Autoroute just out Marseiile last time I was over there

Yep, and despite the mahoosive increase in cameras (fixed/mobile/stealth) the fatality rate last year increased by 6% and the revenue from fines increaed 14% after costs, in reality it's just a money making machine and has done nothing to improve road safety.

[heebeegeetee]

vsonix said:

cmaguire said:

This'll be interesting then.
I go tomorrow for a week, usually sat at between 90-130 the whole way to near Limoges.
I'll make sure Waze is on and I do slow for the cameras it and I see.

iirc it's actually illegal in France to use any kind of device that alerts you to the presence of a camera, either radar/laser scanner boxes or GPS based devices including TomTom alerts, Road Angel or similar.

I thought Waze had removed it's camera database, as otherwise it's illegal, and Les Flics may feel obliged to confiscate one's smartphone.

[Perik Omo]

Nope, Waze has fallen into line with the safety zone workaround so it highlights a camera zone up to 1km before the camera and 1km after in France. Proved useful yesterday afternoon when police had set up a camera and Waze reported "Police Ahead" and sure enough they were there.

[Ken Figenus]

Perik Omo said:

Yep, and despite the mahoosive increase in cameras (fixed/mobile/stealth) the fatality rate last year increased by 6% and the revenue from fines increaed 14% after costs, in reality it's just a money making machine and has done nothing to improve road safety.

Perik Como - can you link to something to back that up please? Its an useful bit of intel when they are killing us softly with their lies...

[Perik Omo]

Ken Figenus said:

Perik Omo said:

Yep, and despite the mahoosive increase in cameras (fixed/mobile/stealth) the fatality rate last year increased by 6% and the revenue from fines increaed 14% after costs, in reality it's just a money making machine and has done nothing to improve road safety.

Perik Como - can you link to something to back that up please? Its an useful bit of intel when they are killing us softly with their lies...

Yes, here's the link to an article that I came across recently:

https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Speed-...

[cmaguire]

Back today and didn't manage to get stopped en route this time. Had Waze running both ways ( a bit shy of 1000 miles in total in France) and did between 90-120 odd as a cruise the whole way, slowing for the cameras Waze flagged, and a couple it didn't show. Waze flags up several average speed zones but I couldn't see any evidence of that.
Ironically, after a fairly uneventful journey in France, getting back in Blighty the st started on the M20 and continued to the first part of the M11. Crap lane discipline, daft speed reductions, the disaster that is the Dartford Tunnel (far worse than with the booths, how nobody has been taken to task over that is mystifying), and cars now elephant racing. When freedom finally presented itself some way after Stansted I ended up going faster than I had all week in France I was so bored of being held up.
If no French letters roll up I'll take that as confirmation of normal service continuing uninterrupted.

[nickfrog]

Kawasicki said:

I drove to the south of France at Easter. Two weeks after I got home I got 4 letters in the post for speeding. 45€ a shot, for speeds between 2 and 6 km/h over the limit. Yes, I'm that crazy.

I think you were probably doing 2 to 6 km/h over the limit PLUS the allowance, not 2 to 6 km/h over the actual limit. Still not shocking and quite similar to how it would work in the UK.

I maybe wrong but that's how I remember the wording being like when I got a similar letter.

[paulwirral]

nickfrog said:

I think you were probably doing 2 to 6 km/h over the limit PLUS the allowance, not 2 to 6 km/h over the actual limit. Still not shocking and quite similar to how it would work in the UK.

I maybe wrong but that's how I remember the wording being like when I got a similar letter.

I'm not so sure , a few weeks ago I travelled from the Dordogne to Perpignan to do some work for a mate in a hired Vito van , my speedo was reading 109 kmh passing a camera and the car crawling past me and the very visible camera set it off , I swear it couldn't have been exceeding 112kmh . I've heard a couple of other French residents complaining of the same thing . A mates wife also got done for not quite stopping at the stop sign whilst joining and empty road , apart from the gendarme behind her !
My French neighbours now call the police tax collectors .

[Kawasicki]

nickfrog said:

I think you were probably doing 2 to 6 km/h over the limit PLUS the allowance, not 2 to 6 km/h over the actual limit. Still not shocking and quite similar to how it would work in the UK.

I maybe wrong but that's how I remember the wording being like when I got a similar letter.

Just checked the docs, you are correct.

I was driving at 97 in a 90 zone. The tolerance/allowance is 5 km/h. So I was fined for driving 92 km/h in a 90. The others are all similar.

I was using my GPS to set my cruise, I thought less than 10% or 10 km/h over the limit would be ok. I was wrong. I was speeding intentionally, as I had a very long drive and I wanted to reduce my driving time.

[Amateurish]

Kawasicki said:

Just checked the docs, you are correct.

I was driving at 97 in a 90 zone. The tolerance/allowance is 5 km/h. So I was fined for driving 92 km/h in a 90. The others are all similar.

I was using my GPS to set my cruise, I thought less than 10% or 10 km/h over the limit would be ok. I was wrong. I was speeding intentionally, as I had a very long drive and I wanted to reduce my driving time.

Is your vehicle UK registered?

[Perik Omo]

paulwirral said:

nickfrog said:

I think you were probably doing 2 to 6 km/h over the limit PLUS the allowance, not 2 to 6 km/h over the actual limit. Still not shocking and quite similar to how it would work in the UK.

I maybe wrong but that's how I remember the wording being like when I got a similar letter.

I'm not so sure , a few weeks ago I travelled from the Dordogne to Perpignan to do some work for a mate in a hired Vito van , my speedo was reading 109 kmh passing a camera and the car crawling past me and the very visible camera set it off , I swear it couldn't have been exceeding 112kmh . I've heard a couple of other French residents complaining of the same thing . A mates wife also got done for not quite stopping at the stop sign whilst joining and empty road , apart from the gendarme behind her !
My French neighbours now call the police tax collectors .

Not completely stopping at the stop sign is also a common "trap" around here too. They hide around the corner or just up the road out of sight and nab ypu if you don't completely stop for a few seconds.

[Kawasicki]

Amateurish said:

Is your vehicle UK registered?

Nope, german registered.

[Matthew-unfv7]

Mrs has just received a lovely letter requesting €45 for doing 117 in a 110 limit (apparently assumed it was a 130) She thought it was 111 and they'd added 6kph on, had to point out she'd got it the wrong way round. Possibly even more frustrating knowing that 1kph less and she would have been fine. Is there any way of checking the limit in place on any particular stretch?

[PottyMouth]

Matthew-unfv7 said:

Mrs has just received a lovely letter requesting €45 for doing 117 in a 110 limit (apparently assumed it was a 130) She thought it was 111 and they'd added 6kph on, had to point out she'd got it the wrong way round. Possibly even more frustrating knowing that 1kph less and she would have been fine. Is there any way of checking the limit in place on any particular stretch?

Out of interest, was it for a car on UK plates ?

[Chris944]

Hmm, the net net of all this is (1) don't bother to speed at all in France unless you use Waze and (2) stop completely at Stop signs. The country's road traffic laws are being implemented by aholes who are making it less likely drivers will want to visit. I have a trip coming up to Nice in November and think I'll go via Germany, Switzerland and Italy instead of through France.

[jm doc]

The Dutch will do you for 106 kmh in a 100 limit. 45 euro fine and SiXT charged 50 euro handling fee. Done twice, ouch!

[slk 32]

I just got back Friday from a trip to Northern Italy.

Having heard how the French police like to target UK registered cars and with an aversion to tolls I immediately drove to Belgium after exiting the chunnel

Annoyingly i did get flashed in Luxembourg on the way back whilst following a waze inspired detour via some back roads to avoid some autoroute roadworks. Even more annoyingly it was on a dead straight bit of road with only fields on either side (no junctions). I'll see if I get anything.

The only annoying thing with waze that as my journey was circa 1600 km it wasn't able to provide whole route mapping before the server timed out (over 4g). This meant I had to do 2-300km at a time on waze then add the next leg of the journey

[Chicken Chaser]

I got flashed at the end of June somewhere north of Le Mans. Still awaiting a letter...

[Perseverant]

Oh dear! I got a parking ticket in Spain about 25 years ago. One market day we'd parked with everyone else and the Police ticketed everyone in the street. Returned to car to discover said ticket and lots of confetti from ripped up tickets, with more tickets being shredded to add to the mess and disregard! Will Europolis still have me on their books so that now I owe more than Northern Ireland's GDP? Never mind, I'll borrow some from Teresa's magic money arboretum.