RE: UK Speeders In France Could Soon Get Points
Discussion
Its all a bit bleedin depressing.. Im sure there was a time when i could drive at a reasonable pace (and i mean reasonable, not ludicrous) in my car and not need 34 different eyes looking out for speed limit signs, guessing where there aren't any and looking out for pedal bins with cameras hidden in them..
Us motoring enthusists do come across as enemy number 1 these days..
And all this to protect me from hurting myself.. Think i'd rather take my chances with everyone going as fast as they like to be honest.
Us motoring enthusists do come across as enemy number 1 these days..
And all this to protect me from hurting myself.. Think i'd rather take my chances with everyone going as fast as they like to be honest.
I am a little surprised they are going after this, last time I heard a UK police spokesmen talking about information sharing and cross border penalties it was the French who were the worst at sharing info for offences committed in the UK. Harmonisation means they shouldn't be able to wriggle out of it. As said earlier plus side of harmonisation is the UK have some of the tougher penalties so are due a little relaxation. 
The fixed sites are exremely well signposted and are omnidirectional ie only trigger on receeding doppler even is you are dumb enough to overtake past one.
On the other hand it really is open warfare on the mobile front with the motorbike cops being quite devious along with the old "double" trap being very popular.
On the other hand it really is open warfare on the mobile front with the motorbike cops being quite devious along with the old "double" trap being very popular.
The days of being able to speed in France are long gone.
I got arrested and banned for speeding on an empty autoroute in 2005, and since then I've been very careful. I used to live in Amiens and go over a lot, and had a total disregard for country and autoroute limits - not any more. They are very much more likely to nick a foreigner, and given that the number of speed traps they have in astronomical it's only a matter of time before they get you.
Anyone else noticed how much the French have slowed down, by the way. It's very noticeable.
I think that if you're going to speed in sensible circumstances (if you get my meaning) you've a lot more chance of getting away with it over here - and if you get caught you're an awful lot more likely to meet a reasonable copper who is allowed to and capable of using his own discretion. I was very, very unimpressed with the gendarmes; very poor quality policing.
I got arrested and banned for speeding on an empty autoroute in 2005, and since then I've been very careful. I used to live in Amiens and go over a lot, and had a total disregard for country and autoroute limits - not any more. They are very much more likely to nick a foreigner, and given that the number of speed traps they have in astronomical it's only a matter of time before they get you.
Anyone else noticed how much the French have slowed down, by the way. It's very noticeable.
I think that if you're going to speed in sensible circumstances (if you get my meaning) you've a lot more chance of getting away with it over here - and if you get caught you're an awful lot more likely to meet a reasonable copper who is allowed to and capable of using his own discretion. I was very, very unimpressed with the gendarmes; very poor quality policing.
audidoody said:
I drive in France two months of the year. Practically every fckr who drives at excessive speed (usually in a clapped-out Clio at 95mph two inches off the back bumper) is French
Good statistical survey. Maybe because most of the drivers are French. Brain engaged?Edited by audidoody on Tuesday 7th October 14:32
I find the driving standards in France slightly better than in the UK, at least most drivers there know what lane to use on a motorway and don't use the middle lane as the deafult lane, unlike 80% of Brits.
Don't see where the problem is. Europe is getting pretty harmonised, t
ts everywhere, especially those with the systematic anti-foreigner knee jerk reaction whatever the subject.This article is probably misleading - I can believe that there will be information exchange for fining foreign drivers, but the bit about points is dubious. Some EU countries don't even have points systems, e.g. Belgium, so this would be blatantly unequal treatment of EU citizens. Until they have harmonised the licence rules, they will probably stop at taxing you.
By the way, the rules in France concerning identification of the driver are different from the UK. You are not legally obliged to say who was driving, and if they can't prove that it was you then the penalty is limited to a fine, no points. Furthermore, if you can PROVE that you weren't driving then they can't fine you either.
By the way, the rules in France concerning identification of the driver are different from the UK. You are not legally obliged to say who was driving, and if they can't prove that it was you then the penalty is limited to a fine, no points. Furthermore, if you can PROVE that you weren't driving then they can't fine you either.
Fire99 said:
Its all a bit bleedin depressing.. Im sure there was a time when i could drive at a reasonable pace (and i mean reasonable, not ludicrous) in my car and not need 34 different eyes looking out for speed limit signs, guessing where there aren't any and looking out for pedal bins with cameras hidden in them..
Us motoring enthusists do come across as enemy number 1 these days..
And all this to protect me from hurting myself.. Think i'd rather take my chances with everyone going as fast as they like to be honest.
I wonder if we can do a calculation of some sort, does Joe bloggs spend more time looking in mirrors and in places other than straight ahead more than the speedo?Us motoring enthusists do come across as enemy number 1 these days..
And all this to protect me from hurting myself.. Think i'd rather take my chances with everyone going as fast as they like to be honest.
What a load of rubbish.
According to this report there are 1,800,000 German, English and Italian drivers' flashed by speed camera's in France each year. And this is just 27% of the total.
France has about 1,000 fixed speed camera's so are we really to believe every single one is flashing 1.25 foriegn drivers every minute and 3.37 French?
Almost 5 drivers a minute being flashed?
Hardly likely.
Drivers' Alliance
According to this report there are 1,800,000 German, English and Italian drivers' flashed by speed camera's in France each year. And this is just 27% of the total.
France has about 1,000 fixed speed camera's so are we really to believe every single one is flashing 1.25 foriegn drivers every minute and 3.37 French?
Almost 5 drivers a minute being flashed?
Hardly likely.
Drivers' Alliance
ardcomp said:
What a load of rubbish.
According to this report there are 1,800,000 German, English and Italian drivers' flashed by speed camera's in France each year. And this is just 27% of the total.
France has about 1,000 fixed speed camera's so are we really to believe every single one is flashing 1.25 foriegn drivers every minute and 3.37 French?
Almost 5 drivers a minute being flashed?
Hardly likely.
Drivers' Alliance
Exactly/. I think Wildy has linkls to foreign press on this story .. but it's been on the cards since late 2002. According to this report there are 1,800,000 German, English and Italian drivers' flashed by speed camera's in France each year. And this is just 27% of the total.
France has about 1,000 fixed speed camera's so are we really to believe every single one is flashing 1.25 foriegn drivers every minute and 3.37 French?
Almost 5 drivers a minute being flashed?
Hardly likely.
Drivers' Alliance
Think a Poruguese MEP first mooted the idea.
But the EU at the time stated that all member states would have to harmonise the test and penalty pointing systems.
Now one start seems to be the redressed Euro-wide L-test planned to be introduced in 5 years' time. This test is the one which brings UK more into line with France and Germany in that it will be longer and require the candidate to drive "to his/her own plan" for about 20 minutes - after a random test of all the current elements. I gather they now plan to include the parallel park.three pint turn and reversing around a corner.. but they intend the basics to be like the "unseen exam paper" in that any one or more current "required element" could be tested in the "quided 20 minutes".
This test is planned to be Euro wide per a "green paper" .. thereafter will come about a harmonised penalty pointing system . and only then would EU states be able to impose sanctions.
We are .. quite a way off.
Story in Le Figaro.France is like a haven of yester-year in real terms of
It's only when we arrive in UK port in the south and drive on UK roads that we meet ..the .. idiots.
Fortunately - the further north we travel.. the less idiots we find.
neil-f said:
MillWheel said:
At least whe we go there we have 80 limits on the motorway, and cameras that are clearly signed, AND placed at obvious hazards (at least in Normandy and Brittany!) while French drivers will have to get used to 70 limits and SCP's hiding in the bushes, or blatting away at long range with a dodgy scope for no good reason.
You still get them hiding on N roads in France with mobile cameras and no warning signs (just locals flashing you).One was set up by my parents house one day (La Motte, D724). The camera was set up on a tripod about 18 inches off the verge (just past the brow of a hill) and the gendarme was sat in the car reading his paper. When a car went past well over the 90kmh limit, he picked up his radio and called his mates who were waving offenders into a side road about a kilometre away.
At one stage they had 8 drivers waiting to be processed - all of whom had been over 110 kph.
They see the waiting as part of the punishment!
The limit has now been dropped to 70kph - the brow hides an entrance into several farms - scene of two or three crashes, involving high speed impacts with turning tractors - so I cant fault the speed trap being placed there.
MillWheel said:
neil-f said:
MillWheel said:
At least whe we go there we have 80 limits on the motorway, and cameras that are clearly signed, AND placed at obvious hazards (at least in Normandy and Brittany!) while French drivers will have to get used to 70 limits and SCP's hiding in the bushes, or blatting away at long range with a dodgy scope for no good reason.
You still get them hiding on N roads in France with mobile cameras and no warning signs (just locals flashing you).One was set up by my parents house one day (La Motte, D724). The camera was set up on a tripod about 18 inches off the verge (just past the brow of a hill) and the gendarme was sat in the car reading his paper. When a car went past well over the 90kmh limit, he picked up his radio and called his mates who were waving offenders into a side road about a kilometre away.
At one stage they had 8 drivers waiting to be processed - all of whom had been over 110 kph.
They see the waiting as part of the punishment!
The limit has now been dropped to 70kph - the brow hides an entrance into several farms - scene of two or three crashes, involving high speed impacts with turning tractors - so I cant fault the speed trap being placed there.
The only ones we found a bit .. well dodgy" was one behind a large rectangluar sign at St Brieuc with one limit for cars and a lower one for HGVs. The other was in the dip on the Normandy Motorway between Caen and Mont St Michel.
But apart from that - signed BIG and trimmed with hi-viz.
On some other roads .. we had a "home from home" feel with little cam signs which meant a cam van just might be around the corner.
To be honest - me and my wife do not find scams a "problem" abroad. really.
We do not actually find them a threat here really either to be blunt. ardcomp said:
What a load of rubbish.
According to this report there are 1,800,000 German, English and Italian drivers' flashed by speed camera's in France each year. And this is just 27% of the total.
France has about 1,000 fixed speed camera's so are we really to believe every single one is flashing 1.25 foriegn drivers every minute and 3.37 French?
Almost 5 drivers a minute being flashed?
Hardly likely.
Drivers' Alliance
Those numbers don't seem crazy.According to this report there are 1,800,000 German, English and Italian drivers' flashed by speed camera's in France each year. And this is just 27% of the total.
France has about 1,000 fixed speed camera's so are we really to believe every single one is flashing 1.25 foriegn drivers every minute and 3.37 French?
Almost 5 drivers a minute being flashed?
Hardly likely.
Drivers' Alliance
If there are 1,800,000 "foreigners" flashed a year, across 1,000 French cameras, on average each camera is flashing 1,800 foreigners a year, or about 5 a day. When you figure that the cameras near the borders - especially heading towards Calais, where each camera probably flashes 50 a day (2/hour - may even a low estimate) and near Italy (do the Italians slow down for French cameras even when they recognise them?) - then 1.8M seems plausible.
In fact, when put in that context, it seems hard to believe that British motorists only get something like 2M camera fines a year. If there are 5,000 cameras in the UK, that would mean a typical camera will nick 400 people a year, or scarcely more than 1 a day.
No wonder the partnerships like vans that can move around and hide in the bushes.
Orb the Impaler said:
Anyone else noticed how much the French have slowed down, by the way. It's very noticeable.
Yes, I definitely have.When I first drove in France in the 1960s I couldn't believe how fast the traffic was compared with Blighty, where everyone drove around at or below the speed limit (times have changed, for those who weren't driving in the 60s!) The French only used to have 2-position accelerator pedals: On and Off. And On meant foot to the floor. The accident statistics were horrendous.
Times have very much changed and on the whole the French are relatively slow now, although I do find myself being passed by Frenchman after Frenchman on the Autoroute doing over the limit. I don't know how they get away with it since all the tickets are timed and if you reach the end too early there is always a Gendarme there with his hand out and a smirk on his face. The only answer is to stop off for a coffee on the way to bring your average down... Maybe that's how they get away with it!
Edited by neh321 on Wednesday 8th October 09:25
Edited by neh321 on Wednesday 8th October 09:26
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