French police roadside ban for speeding

[LancieArmstrong]

Bad luck, especially on a D road, that's really, really rare. I live in the Beaujolais near Lyon and now drive a diesel Scenic slowly on the Nationale Autoroute after getting 4 fines in 6 months with the temptation of a Megan RS under my foot, but I'd always thought it was pretty safe to hammer it on the small roads in Burgundy.

Two bits of info that could help - blablacar.com is a great car-sharing app in France, so give that a try for getting to where you need to go, it's cheap and works well from my experience. And a bit of a longshot, but cocolis.fr is a non-professional person to person parcel delivery website in France - I used it to get a bicycle sent from northern France to my door for peanuts. No idea if anyone on there would move a motorcycle around for you, but you can always ask...

[MikeDB1]

A table of penalties. :

https://www.french-property.com/guides/france/driv...

"Accelerating while being overtaken €135 (1) 2 3 years"

Now this IS a good idea we could import from the French. I'm really fed up of overtaking someone quite legally and ending up over the limit by the time the overtake is finished.

Edited by MikeDB1 on Tuesday 29th May 22:08

[bad company]

MikeDB1 said:

A table of penalties. :

https://www.french-property.com/guides/france/driv...

"Accelerating while being overtaken €135 (1) 2 3 years"

Now this IS a good idea we could import from the French. I'm really fed up of overtaking someone quite legally and ending up over the limit by the time the overtake is finished.

Link not working.

[Pericoloso]

SuperTwig said:

I feel for you. Here's a suggestion: Find the nearest French van hire place, drive yourself there, hire a van, put your bike in van, drive back for the missus, put her bike in too and then set off for Blighty.
Good luck

He's got his Mrs' bike back already.

Epic 1st post in 107 months.,well done....

[Rick1.8t]

Good to hear you got the bike back OP, crap situation to be in.

I know the general sentiment here is that the penalty / situation caused by the French police is disproportionate to the offence - something I 100% agree with, it is a little confusing to see people say it wasn't 'Warp speed' or not too far over the limit - where does that line lie?

If we got caught doing 80mph in a 55 (almost 50% over the speed limit) in the UK though I wouldn't expect to be left on the side of the road (which is ridiculous) but I would expect the book thrown at me.

I would agree that static cameras are largely money makers but you can't expect a police officer to ignore somebody so blatantly breaking the speed limit if it happens in front of them, the punishment / law is a different matter and surely leaving someone on the side of the road is in itself creating a potential danger.

I'm not looking down on this from a high horse as being guilty myself, as I am sure most others of similar, just find it a little odd that people think this amount over the speed limit isn't a lot - though it may be safe if you get caught I would think a doing over is expected.

[feef]

bad company said:

feef said:

The OP was treated in accordance with the law of the land. I know several French folk who have found themselves in a similar situation.

Whether the law is fair is a different issue.

IME, having driven to and around France during numerous summers and to the Alps in winter, the majority of those travelling at warp-factor muppet tend not to be French, but are Brits, Belgians or Dutch. The ones travelling at warp-factor muppet in the thick fog without any lights on, never mind fog-lights between Reims and Calais in February this year were almost exclusively Brits.

But the op wasn’t driving at warp speeds, he was over the limit but not by a huge margin.

The margin was sufficient under French law. There's little point in comparing the laws of different lands and saying it's unfair.

[bad company]

feef said:

The margin was sufficient under French law. There's little point in comparing the laws of different lands and saying it's unfair.

That’s stating the bleeding obvious. Why debate laws at all?

That particular French law sucks.

Edited by bad company on Wednesday 30th May 09:42

[SteelerSE]

A993LAD said:

...has probably put me off bothering to do a tour through France ever again.

I completely understand that point of view OP. While the punishment is "legal" it feels incredibly draconian and I would feel exactly the same as you about the whole thing. It's a shame as I love France but this sort of story is what puts me off touring holidays there.

[vonhosen]

SteelerSE said:

A993LAD said:

...has probably put me off bothering to do a tour through France ever again.

I completely understand that point of view OP. While the punishment is "legal" it feels incredibly draconian and I would feel exactly the same as you about the whole thing. It's a shame as I love France but this sort of story is what puts me off touring holidays there.

Surely that's only if exceeding the limit by a considerable margin is an integral part of your touring France?

[bad company]

vonhosen said:

Surely that's only if exceeding the limit by a considerable margin is an integral part of your touring France?

Have you ever exceeded a speed limit by a considerable margin?

[vonhosen]

bad company said:

vonhosen said:

Surely that's only if exceeding the limit by a considerable margin is an integral part of your touring France?

Have you ever exceeded a speed limit by a considerable margin?

Yes, but that's not really relevant to the point being made though.

[bad company]

vonhosen said:

bad company said:

vonhosen said:

Surely that's only if exceeding the limit by a considerable margin is an integral part of your touring France?

Have you ever exceeded a speed limit by a considerable margin?

Yes, but that's not really relevant to the point being made though.

The point surely is that if you were caught exceeding the limit by a considerable margin let’s say by the amount the op and his wife were, is it not draconian to impose an on the spot ban?

[black-k1]

SteelerSE said:

A993LAD said:

...has probably put me off bothering to do a tour through France ever again.

I completely understand that point of view OP. While the punishment is "legal" it feels incredibly draconian and I would feel exactly the same as you about the whole thing. It's a shame as I love France but this sort of story is what puts me off touring holidays there.

I agree completely. I love France as a bike touring destination but I expect the Old Gits trip in a few weeks will be my last touring trip to France for some time.

While 50kmh is quite a lot over a limit of 80kmh, it doesn't address the fact that there are MANY D roads in France where exceeding 130kmh is both easy and, most importantly, safe. I don't tour in France specifically to break the law and ride with excessive speed but I do ride faster than the limit on more than a few occasions. (Always when I believe it is safe to do so.) The implementation of, what for many, me included, are ridiculously low speed limits combined with real enthusiasm to enforce those limits removes a significant part of the enjoyment of bike touring in France.

[CivicL]

Having been to Porto last weekend, I can say you can drive/ride pretty freely there and relax.

For true fun, Peninsular Malaysia takes some beating. The cops couldn't give a damn, beyond their next Roti Canai-and-curry-level bribes. Some good roads up into the highlands, and in general pretty good road surfaces.

[Kewy]

Going down to Italy/Switzerland in the car this time next year and I'll almost certainly be doing Belgium>Germany as opposed to through France after reading all this.

[The Mad Monk]

Kewy said:

Going down to Italy/Switzerland in the car this time next year and I'll almost certainly be doing Belgium>Germany as opposed to through France after reading all this.

That's really going to upset the French.

Are you sure you don't want to rethink that decision?

[bad company]

The Mad Monk said:

Kewy said:

Going down to Italy/Switzerland in the car this time next year and I'll almost certainly be doing Belgium>Germany as opposed to through France after reading all this.

That's really going to upset the French.

Are you sure you don't want to rethink that decision?

Mrs BC and I came to exactly the same decision some ago for the same reason. Yes it’s futile but it’s something we can do.

[pomodori]

bad company said:

The Mad Monk said:

Kewy said:

Going down to Italy/Switzerland in the car this time next year and I'll almost certainly be doing Belgium>Germany as opposed to through France after reading all this.

That's really going to upset the French.

Are you sure you don't want to rethink that decision?

Mrs BC and I came to exactly the same decision some ago for the same reason. Yes it’s futile but it’s something we can do.

Pros to using Germany......No toll roads,until Austria or Switzerland.

Cons........Germany and Belgium can really do big jams,road surface in Belgium,awful.
Big queue of trucks on Brenner pass entering Italy too.

[vonhosen]

bad company said:

vonhosen said:

bad company said:

vonhosen said:

Surely that's only if exceeding the limit by a considerable margin is an integral part of your touring France?

Have you ever exceeded a speed limit by a considerable margin?

Yes, but that's not really relevant to the point being made though.

The point surely is that if you were caught exceeding the limit by a considerable margin let’s say by the amount the op and his wife were, is it not draconian to impose an on the spot ban?

The point posed was whether it's only possible to enjoy touring a country by exceeding limits by considerable margins.

An on the spot ban is a , but I guess that's kind of their intention in order to deter it. They want people to enjoy touring without exceeding limits by considerable margins.

If it's not possible to enjoy touring without exceeding limits by considerable margins then France doesn't look like a good touring destination.

[moto_traxport]

black-k1 said:

I agree completely. I love France as a bike touring destination but I expect the Old Gits trip in a few weeks will be my last touring trip to France for some time.

While 50kmh is quite a lot over a limit of 80kmh, it doesn't address the fact that there are MANY D roads in France where exceeding 130kmh is both easy and, most importantly, safe. I don't tour in France specifically to break the law and ride with excessive speed but I do ride faster than the limit on more than a few occasions. (Always when I believe it is safe to do so.) The implementation of, what for many, me included, are ridiculously low speed limits combined with real enthusiasm to enforce those limits removes a significant part of the enjoyment of bike touring in France.

Eloquently put and my thoughts in a nutshell. Given up on bike trips there and this year is my last in a car.

Used to be 4 or 5 of doing a week long trip at £1200 ish each. Car trips with missus are generally £200 a day with a grand's worth of Sancerre, Chablis or fizzy pop in the boot.

French restaraunts, Gites, hotels, bars, wine caves etc are going to feel the pinch if people get frightened off motoring trips to France. It won't entirely be replaced by rambling, cycling, horse riding, canal boating or whatever more socially acceptable holidays they want people to take in place of the demonized petrolhead.