French Police Step up Watch on British Drivers

[fastandcurious]

The good news is that the UK Govt has opted out (for now) for motoring fines to be traced back to the UK but 'on the spot' fines are harsh and can include having your car impounded:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23619783

[bad company]

Yet another reason not to go to France.

[RichB]

I enjoy driving in France, open roads maintained in good condition with decent restaurants and cafes to stop at. Just don't take the piss with speed limits not hard is it.

[longfellow]

RichB said:

I enjoy driving in France, open roads maintained in good condition with decent restaurants and cafes to stop at. Just don't take the piss with speed limits not hard is it.

Amen to that.

I would chose a French autoroute over our shoddy motorways any day of the week.

Motoring in France is a far more relaxing affair than driving over here. People use the middle and outside lanes for overtaking only and most of the services are a fairly decent.

[bad company]

I agree that French roads are generally better than ours BUT their police do seem to have a reputation for targeting tourists.

[dcb]

longfellow said:

Amen to that.

I would chose a French autoroute over our shoddy motorways any day of the week.

Motoring in France is a far more relaxing affair than driving over here. People use the middle and outside lanes for overtaking only and most of the services are a fairly decent.

+1

Average driving standards are far superior in France than in the UK.

French coppers have a much more civilised attitude to speeding than Brit coppers.
Speeds in the UK that would be so fast a court appearance would be required
won't even have French plod reaching for their book of tickets.

Massed ranks of speed cameras on overhead gantries seem non-existent in France, too.

All in all, given that something will be happening by November, something
of a silly season non-story.

[Barry38]

Nice way of those town to generate some extra income since the accounts must be running pretty low. No other reason to it than to make some money.

[plenty]

RichB said:

Just don't take the piss with speed limits not hard is it.

It can be hard, when the roads and traffic densities can easily accommodate safe progress at well above the speed limit. I personally hate French autoroutes with a passion - they are the most incredibly boring roads at 130 kph and driving at the speed limit is without fail guaranteed to make me drowsy (not exactly conducive to safety).

anonymous said:

[redacted]

There's a difference between driving like a clown and driving to the conditions. Speeding in villages and poor driving should be punished, but speed on the open road =/= automatically equal poor driving. And as has been pointed out, let's not be under any illusion that French policy is anything other than a revenue raiser.

[anonymous-user]

longfellow said:

RichB said:

I enjoy driving in France, open roads maintained in good condition with decent restaurants and cafes to stop at. Just don't take the piss with speed limits not hard is it.

Amen to that.

I would chose a French autoroute over our shoddy motorways any day of the week.

Motoring in France is a far more relaxing affair than driving over here. People use the middle and outside lanes for overtaking only and most of the services are a fairly decent.

I'll third that. It's a real shock driving on UK roads after a driving holiday in France.

[trashbat]

Regardless of whether fines can be imposed in the home country or not, it shouldn't surprise anyone that British drivers are the subject of more police attention; they're the only ones in RHD cars.

[plenty]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That raised a smile!

I'm not going to perpetuate a fruitless S,P+L style debate about speed and safety. (Especially not against such a master of rhetoric and witty invective.) I was simply offering a rebuttal to the claim "it's not hard is it". I avoid the French autoroutes because it is hard to not speed.

[matrignano]

Can les Flics apply a different rule to foreign motorists than to French ones?
i.e. oblige a foreigner to pay a fine on the spot or else seizing the vehicle, as opposed to letting a French driver go?

[XJ Flyer]

dcb said:

longfellow said:

Amen to that.

I would chose a French autoroute over our shoddy motorways any day of the week.

Motoring in France is a far more relaxing affair than driving over here. People use the middle and outside lanes for overtaking only and most of the services are a fairly decent.

+1

Average driving standards are far superior in France than in the UK.

French coppers have a much more civilised attitude to speeding than Brit coppers.
Speeds in the UK that would be so fast a court appearance would be required
won't even have French plod reaching for their book of tickets.

Massed ranks of speed cameras on overhead gantries seem non-existent in France, too.

All in all, given that something will be happening by November, something
of a silly season non-story.

That's how things were once but no longer.Firstly French roads are subject to even worse unrealistic speed limits proportionally than British ones when road and traffic conditions are taken into account especially autoroutes.The levels of enforcement have now been increased to the point where there's a good chance of being caught and the penalties are not as lenient as they once were.The only advantages over driving here are that we're immune from prosecution there by fixed cameras and uk licences can't be endorsed or entitlement removed by the French authorities.Which is really the only thing left to say about the place and which still makes driving there just slightly better than here.It's probably just a matter of time though in that regard.

[XJ Flyer]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

[XJ Flyer]

matrignano said:

Can les Flics apply a different rule to foreign motorists than to French ones?
i.e. oblige a foreigner to pay a fine on the spot or else seizing the vehicle, as opposed to letting a French driver go?

That's an interesting question.The on the spot fines probably apply in all cases domestic or foreign.But it wouldn't be surprising if they're using vehicle confiscation to compensate for the fact that they can't actually endorse or remove British licence entitlement.One probably being as bad as the other depending on the type of speeds involved.For us,at least,getting caught at anything around 100 mph France is still probably the best place to be.Above that speed it becomes a greyer area in which we're probably trading risking our licence with risking the car instead.

[budgie smuggler]

garyhun said:

longfellow said:

RichB said:

I enjoy driving in France, open roads maintained in good condition with decent restaurants and cafes to stop at. Just don't take the piss with speed limits not hard is it.

Amen to that.

I would chose a French autoroute over our shoddy motorways any day of the week.

Motoring in France is a far more relaxing affair than driving over here. People use the middle and outside lanes for overtaking only and most of the services are a fairly decent.

I'll third that. It's a real shock driving on UK roads after a driving holiday in France.

Yep, and what boils my widdle is that the same UK drivers driving perfectly in France, turn back into completely moronic middle lane imbeciles as soon as they get out of the tunnel on this side.

[XJ Flyer]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Using a motorway or autoroute in this case to it's maximum potential has nothing to do with James Hunt type circuit driving.As for 3K per year you can add some to that most years since at least the early 1980's with France usually being just a convenient part of the route to more distant locations in my case usually Italy or it's Islands for different race events and holidays and the old Yugoslavia for holidays too in those better days.Usually 100 mph on most continental motorways,until relatively recently,being seen as hanging about with the German attitudes to motorway use applying in most cases throughout and with the acedemic limits in those places using them being seen as just a technicality with the penalties for exceeding them to match.

I'd guess that the most of the British cars now doing all the crashing in France,just like here,are driven by dumbed down drivers who don't know any better having learn't their 'skills' on the uk's over regulated roads with dumbed down cars because they can't afford to run or insure anything better and would probably have been nicked under the uk speed regime even if they could.It's no surprise either that such dumbing down will now start to affect the French standards of driving too.

Having said that part of those skills required to stay alive at those old realistic speeds have always included the onus being on the overtaker in being able to anticipate what's going to happen ahead wherever it happens to be.Although in France the usual scenario is that it's just going to be a single relatively slow moving vehicle approaching an even slower one with the inevitable possibility that the overtaking driver will need to get rid of the speed just in case.In which case as I've said those well sighted autoroutes make that job so simple that a driver shouldn't be driving anything anyway if they can't handle that situation safely.

[matrignano]

XJ Flyer said:

That's an interesting question.The on the spot fines probably apply in all cases domestic or foreign.But it wouldn't be surprising if they're using vehicle confiscation to compensate for the fact that they can't actually endorse or remove British licence entitlement.One probably being as bad as the other depending on the type of speeds involved.For us,at least,getting caught at anything around 100 mph France is still probably the best place to be.Above that speed it becomes a greyer area in which we're probably trading risking our licence with risking the car instead.

I'm just wondering if that's constitutionally appropriate. Apply different rules to different "kinds" of people. Some pigs are more equal than others?
I drive a UK registered car but have a continental Europeal license (not French), what kind of rules would they apply with me? Assuming I was caught driving at more than 100mph, of course, which would neeeeeeeeeeever happen

[XJ Flyer]

matrignano said:

XJ Flyer said:

That's an interesting question.The on the spot fines probably apply in all cases domestic or foreign.But it wouldn't be surprising if they're using vehicle confiscation to compensate for the fact that they can't actually endorse or remove British licence entitlement.One probably being as bad as the other depending on the type of speeds involved.For us,at least,getting caught at anything around 100 mph France is still probably the best place to be.Above that speed it becomes a greyer area in which we're probably trading risking our licence with risking the car instead.

I'm just wondering if that's constitutionally appropriate. Apply different rules to different "kinds" of people. Some pigs are more equal than others?
I drive a UK registered car but have a continental Europeal license (not French), what kind of rules would they apply with me? Assuming I was caught driving at more than 100mph, of course, which would neeeeeeeeeeever happen

Firstly there's not really any such thing as a 'European' licence 'yet'.They are all issued based on country/state of residence with just harmonisation in regards to categories ( so far ).There are no reciprocal agreements in force between the EU states concerning penalties and licence endorsements/bans.Which in the real world,from the point of view of the licence,means that it's only when driving in the issuing state where getting nicked will affect the licence entitlement and likewise fixed camera offences.Outside of that foreign drivers in foreign EU states are only subject to being caught in mannned speed traps and subject on the spot fines and local bans and/or custodial sentences and/or confiscation of the car in just that state according to local laws.All of which seems to apply to both foreign and domestic French drivers in France in addition to French drivers having their licences affected as usual.

In reality that all seems to be a single edged sword in the case of any foreign driver being nicked in France in that up to a certain speed they will have the advantage of not having their licence endorsed and/or licence entitlement removed as they would at home and vice versa.Whereas over that speed foreign drivers become subject to most of the more serious aspects like custody and car confiscation just as a French driver probably would.

The question is does that issue of not being able to go for a foreign EU state licence mean that the French law would be more likely to confiscate the car than if it had been a French driver caught at similar speeds.On that issue I wouldn't be at all surprised if so.

Also knowing the mindset of the French government,in regard to the EU project,it wouldn't be all surprising if the whole issue,of targetting British drivers,is just a Trojan Horse in respect of both the UK and France pushing for Federalisation starting with driving licence and penalty issues.What better way to do that than to put a ridiculous speed limit on French motorways then enforce it to a ridiculous degree and then use the inevitable contraventions of that,especially by UK drivers,as an excuse.If I'm right expect to see harmonisation of the driving licence penalty regime across the EU with the ability of any EU law enforcement agency to endorse or remove the entitlement of any EU licence holder,for driving offences committed outside of the issuing state,being on the agenda and in the news the near future.Nor should the involvement of the control freak federalists in the uk government be underestimated in all this either considering their track record in maintaining the ridiculous UK 70 mph motorway limit and the ever increasing level of the penalties imposed for exceeding it.

Edited by XJ Flyer on Tuesday 13th August 20:35

[New POD]

Most of my driving in France has been in French Registered Hire cars, (and the odd Luxemburg registered one)

I'll be heading over next year in a mk1 mx5.