Speeding band brackets.

[DevonPaul]

As we're off to France next week, possibly involving a long late drive frmo a ferryport, I wondered what speed was feasible on the deserted Autoroute (including some toll road) for the few hours during which we see nobody else.
In the past I've tended to cruise at about 150 kph, but it seems that the advent of on the spot fines is growing.

We're not looking at tanking across at insane speeds, but wondered what sort of speeds will result in the following scenarios...

1) Merci Monsieur, ici est vos recu. Avez vous une belle jour, mais pas plus vite maintenant.

2) Il est un cashtill au village. Returnes avec l'argent pour vos licence.

3) Bonjour Bubba, je suis vos nouveau ami pour le weekend. Est-ce que mon couchette a dessus ou dessous.

Obviously I'd like to avoid the last scenario, especially as you'll have guessed my French isn't fluent, and if there's ever a time NOT to get dessous and dessus mixed up then this would be it.

Thanks

[PottyMouth]

No more than 40 km/h over the limit and you'll just get a fine.

Any more than 40 over and you're looking at licence confiscation.

[Le Pop]

By legend les flics are less willing to let you off these days (government needs all the money it can get), the question is how likely you are to be detected speeding.

Certainly the autoroutes are policed but i think you'd be unlikely to be busted under 145. In villages there are lots of gendarmes who like easy overtime on sunny Saturdays, that's when they are all out and they will bust you for 60kph or even high fifties in a 50kph zone. Also scameras are not so well marked now and I recently got a ticket after speeding in an unmarked rural average speed detection zone.

[smifffymoto]

Why not just stick to 130 like most people,the roads are that empty do you really gain that much by speeding?

[paulwirral]

As above , I used to be lucky to save half an hour from the dordogne by the time you make an extra stop for fuel , this was years ago compared to today at the limit , also you arrive fresher by not constantly looking out for speed traps .

[paulwirral]

As above , I used to be lucky to save half an hour from the dordogne by the time you make an extra stop for fuel , this was years ago compared to today at the limit , also you arrive fresher by not constantly looking out for speed traps .

[DevonPaul]

smifffymoto said:

Why not just stick to 130 like most people,the roads are that empty do you really gain that much by speeding?

About 40 mins if I do limit + 25 kph. That 40 mins is a big difference when you've worked 1/2 a day, been travelling since lunch, get off a ferry at 10pm and have the option of a 4 hour drive or one that takes nearer 5, and need to be up and out before 09:00 the following morning. If I'm risking the offchance of a £30 fine for a 20% longer in bed then it is worth it :-)

Same as in the UK, if I'm just going 20 miles along the M6 there's little to be gained, but if I'm setting off at 7pm to do the 300 miles between Yorkshire and Plymouth then there is quite a benefit to 95mph on the quiet bits compared to 70.

[magooagain]

DevonPaul said:

As we're off to France next week, possibly involving a long late drive frmo a ferryport, I wondered what speed was feasible on the deserted Autoroute (including some toll road) for the few hours during which we see nobody else.
In the past I've tended to cruise at about 150 kph, but it seems that the advent of on the spot fines is growing.

We're not looking at tanking across at insane speeds, but wondered what sort of speeds will result in the following scenarios...

1) Merci Monsieur, ici est vos recu. Avez vous une belle jour, mais pas plus vite maintenant.

2) Il est un cashtill au village. Returnes avec l'argent pour vos licence.

3) Bonjour Bubba, je suis vos nouveau ami pour le weekend. Est-ce que mon couchette a dessus ou dessous.

Obviously I'd like to avoid the last scenario, especially as you'll have guessed my French isn't fluent, and if there's ever a time NOT to get dessous and dessus mixed up then this would be it.

Thanks

Go as fast as you dare! Its your life!

[DevonPaul]

magooagain said:

Go as fast as you dare! Its your life!

Why is it, when you ask a simple factual question about something on the internet, there's always someone who comes up with a reply like this?

It's "Pistonheads", the clue is in the name of the forum. It is used by and for people who are enthusiastic about cars and driving. Having been on meets and met several people on here, it is pretty much exclusively used by those who enjoy driving and making progress. I have a long drive, and in common with well over 50% of the people in the UK who do long drives, I intend to speed to cut the journey time down. I'm in a capable modern car designed to travel long distances at high speed. I just wanted to know if 18 mph over some arbitrary limit set 50-odd years ago would cost vastly more than 15mph.

IME in France nobody slows down when it rains, so pretty much everyone speeds by 10 or 20kph (depending on road type), so why should you get on your high horse about me wanting to do 20 over at 1am on a straight empty motorway if it is dry?

I suppose it is inevitable that it will be infiltrated with people who spend their evening pouring through the RoSPA merchandise catalogue and abusing themselves over back issues of "Brake" magazine.

Edited by DevonPaul on Thursday 8th May 09:05

[Russwhitehouse]

In 11yrs of living here and many hours spent on autoroutes, I have found plod pretty thin on the ground especially in the early hours. They seem far keener on policing the A roads with there hand held speed guns, particularly on sunny afternoons. I (allegedly) maintain about 15 km over the 130km limit if it's along haul and have yet to have any bother. It's a chance you take I guess. Off tHe auto routes the speed camera thing is getting ridiculous however.

[magooagain]

DevonPaul said:

Why is it, when you ask a simple factual question about something on the internet, there's always someone who comes up with a reply like this?

It's "Pistonheads", the clue is in the name of the forum. It is used by and for people who are enthusiastic about cars and driving. Having been on meets and met several people on here, it is pretty much exclusively used by those who enjoy driving and making progress. I have a long drive, and in common with well over 50% of the people in the UK who do long drives, I intend to speed to cut the journey time down. I'm in a capable modern car designed to travel long distances at high speed. I just wanted to know if 18 mph over some arbitrary limit set 50-odd years ago would cost vastly more than 15mph.

IME in France nobody slows down when it rains, so pretty much everyone speeds by 10 or 20kph (depending on road type), so why should you get on your high horse about me wanting to do 20 over at 1am on a straight empty motorway if it is dry?

I suppose it is inevitable that it will be infiltrated with people who spend their evening pouring through the RoSPA merchandise catalogue and abusing themselves over back issues of "Brake" magazine.

Edited by DevonPaul on Thursday 8th May 09:05

If you want to speed and break French road law just get on with it! If you are caught speeding while making progress then you know its your own fault or if someone gets hit by you because you were speeding then you know thats your fault also.
You seem to think its ok to speed on a long distance haul. You must have great concentration skills and think you are above law.

I keep my speed for the track. I try not to speed here in France as my car has a French registration plate and i know what the score is if caught speeding.

Sorry for not being a petrolhead because i try not to speed on public roads.

In my opinion your op was asking advice on speeding and so breaking the law. So the reason for my original comment was because every now and then someone comes up with this type of tiresome question (imo) and honestly expect replys that should be helpfull without opinion.

Edited by magooagain on Thursday 8th May 12:31

[Le Pop]

DevonPaul said:

....IME in France nobody slows down when it rains

That's because the gendarmes disappear in the rain and scameras can't yet tell when it's raining. It's another French 'theoretical' law, rather than one that is actually policed

[DevonPaul]

Russwhitehouse said:

In 11yrs of living here and many hours spent on autoroutes, I have found plod pretty thin on the ground especially in the early hours. They seem far keener on policing the A roads with there hand held speed guns, particularly on sunny afternoons. I (allegedly) maintain about 15 km over the 130km limit if it's along haul and have yet to have any bother. It's a chance you take I guess. Off tHe auto routes the speed camera thing is getting ridiculous however.

Thanks, I'd figured about 15-20 over still wasn't going to attract too much attention. I also knew there was a sharp cutoff where things escalated pretty quickly, rather the same as over here, and didn't want to find that doing 150k on a Peage with a Belgian 3 feet off my bumper was going to lead to the wife driving for the rest of the holiday.

Over here it is pretty clear what you are allowed, there's guidelines (10% + 2 mph), and above that the thresholds for summons are also made public, but I couldn't find anything over there.

[GurneyFlap]

The tolerances for the fixed speed cameras are:

-5km/h for speeds under 100km/h
-5% for speeds above 100km/h

That's what was printed on the back of the wife's speeding ticket, anyway!

[emss]

Hi,

GurneyFlap said:

The tolerances for the fixed speed cameras are:
-5km/h for speeds under 100km/h
-5% for speeds above 100km/h

Numbers are good, but are not tolerance related, it only covers error of measure margin.

In the most pessimistic speed camera setup (bad measure angle), you can be fined for 1 km/h excess...

Coming from a country that doesn't have an agreement with France regarding traffic offenses, driving speed doesn't matter in absence of interception by cops.

I've been flashed 2/3 times with cars registered in UK and never got any speeding ticket in snail mailbox.

Éric Masson

[rdjohn]

This is from an article in the Sunday Times


Police officers in France have the power to impose on-the-spot fines for speeding

EUROPEAN POLICE forces are to be given access to British drivers’ details so they can pursue fines for motoring offences committed on the Continent. It will be the first time that information, including a driver’s name, address and previous con–victions, has been made widely available to authorities outside the UK, writes Joseph Dunn.

The new law, being drawn up by the European Commission and due to come into force next May, will give police in 27 countries the power to demand British motorists’ details from the DVLA if they suspect an offence has been committed and has been caught on camera.

Offences include speeding, driving without a seatbelt and driving while using a mobile phone. Once the DVLA has received the demand and the car’s registration number, it will supply the registered owner’s name and address, allowing European police forces to send a penalty demand through the post. The letter will be written in English.

At the moment, British drivers can be fined for most offences in Europe only if they are stopped by an officer, who can issue an on-the-spot penalty. The new rules mean that speed and CCTV cameras can be used to capture the licence plate of the car, allowing police to trace its owner across the Channel. Parking offences are not covered by the new rules because they are not regarded as a road safety problem.

According to Brussels, the move is a response to concerns that foreign drivers were getting away with many offences when driving on the Continent. “This is the result of 10 years of frustration with blatant abuses of traffic laws,” said Helen Kearns, a transport spokesman for the European Commission. “Figures show that foreign drivers’ offences are relatively high and this measure is necessary to say: you can’t just get away with it.”

Police in most European countries have been sharing driver information since November 2013 under a European policing directive. Britain exercised its right to opt out of the directive on the grounds that the penalty notice applied to the registered owner of the car — so-called owner liability — rather than the person who was driving the vehicle at the time the offence was committed. Under British law, the driver at the time is responsible.

Earlier this month the European Court of Justice ruled that the law had been in–correctly drafted and should have fallen not under the policing directive but under the road safety directive, an area where Britain has no right to opt out. “Transport safety is part of EU rules where everyone is involved,” said Christopher Fretwell, a spokesman for the court. “There are no opt-outs. If re-adopted, it will apply across the board to member states.”

Some MEPs are furious that the directive will now be applied to British drivers: “The UK decided that on balance it was not in our interests to take part [in the previous law] because the directive prosecutes vehicle owners, rather than the offending driver, and it seeks to implement fines when other deter–rents — such as points on a licence — may be more effective,” said Timothy Kirkhope, a Conservative MEP who sits on the transport committee.

“If the commission brings forward a similar piece of legislation then we will oppose it when it reaches the European parliament.”

Experts say it is unlikely the legislation can be stopped since it would mean blocking the entire road safety directive. Foreign police forces have no powers to enforce the fine — that remains a matter for British courts — and British drivers could ignore the demand for payment. However, the next time they visited the country where the offence had been committed they would run the risk of being issued with an on-the-spot fine, or in extreme cases having their car impounded. British drivers issued with speeding fines in France have been escorted by officers to cash machines where they are expected to withdraw money to make the payment.

The new law could prove a boon for the Treasury, however: because it works both ways foreign drivers could be traced by British authorities. Although no official figures are available, the number of unpaid fines issued to foreign drivers runs into the millions. According to the most recent estimates, based on a survey of speed camera partnerships in 2012, an estimated 60,000 speeding fines worth £3.6m were written off because there was no effective way to track down foreign culprits.

[Corbeliere]

I always set my cruise to the speed shown on either the Tom Tom in my other halfs car, or the ECU speed shown in my Torque app' when I'm in my car. 130KPH usually translates to around 140 showing on the speedo.
I have been driving to and from France every third week for the past 5 years and never had a problem or set off a camera.

Enjoy your trip.

Les.

[DevonPaul]

Corbeliere said:

I always set my cruise to the speed shown on either the Tom Tom in my other halfs car, or the ECU speed shown in my Torque app' when I'm in my car. 130KPH usually translates to around 140 showing on the speedo.
I have been driving to and from France every third week for the past 5 years and never had a problem or set off a camera.

Enjoy your trip.

Les.

The maser speedo is more for general guidance than absolute information, especially if the car is a bit warm, so I use the satnav and rev counter a lot anyway. However it is very easy to out-accelerate the satnav (and speedo), one reason why I was interested in how strict they are over there.

I got back last weekend, and was amazed at how driving has changed over there, even in the 2 years since my last trip. Previously cruising at 150kph wasn't unusual, but it has changed massively.

Leaving Caen at about 10pm we hit the motorway and I went to the 110 limit and was passing everything. Once out onto the motorway proper I set the cruise at 145 and nothing came past. It got to the point that at 140 on the satnav I was so obviously faster than everything else that it seemed silly to stand out so much.

Once on the A-road equivalents, 90kph had us catching things very slowly or being caught very slowly, and even way out in the sticks I only saw a couple of things going 100+.

In fact the only places I really got hassled at the limits was going through villages on A-roads, where dropping to anything like 50 kph is obviously frowned upon, particularly by people who live or shop there.

The downside of this slavish adherance to limits seems to be a drop in observation and courtesy - there is very much the New Zealand mindset of "I'm at the speed limit so I can't do anything wrong" appearing - coming to a merge with both cars side by side at 90? - just refuse to look right, back off, or pull out to the empty offside lane until the car in the merging lane disappears in a cloud of tyre smoke. Obviously pulling out would leave you stranded there as both cars would be doing exactly the speed limit. I even found cars doing the equivalent of our truck racing, sitting side by side for miles with a 1kph speed differential.

Sat in torrential rain and catch someone up slowly? then sit 4 feet off their boot so you haven't a clue what is going on up ahead because of the spray. The Monday downpour was like a jetwash (it actually cleaned the car) and at one point I was doing 60kph because of the standing water and the wide tyres on the maser. I was caught up by a small hatchback that just sat feet off my bumper - so close I couldn't see their lights. I dropped to 30 kph before they finally overtook, and then they promptly stopped to turn left into a car park.

In 1500 miles I saw one non-fixed speed trap, in a 30 limit village with speed humps. With 70+ bottles of wine in the boot I'd virtually stopped for them, unlike the several people who were parked up next to the police.

[Speculatore]

Me and 3 other Astons start our road trip from Calais to Monaco next Friday so we have all purchased the Tolls Tags through 'Liber-t'. The instructions state that they should be placed in the center of the Windscreen in a small blacked out area near the rear view mirror so that the heating elements in the screen do not interfere with the tag. But, I don't have a 'Small Black Area' so I am just going to place it where told behind the rear view mirror.

Did you use one of those Electronic Toll Tag devices and if so any tips???

Also, Headlight blanking strips. They were not designed for the sloping headlights of a sports car so how did you get around it with your Maser?

Any other top tips??

Thanks

[rdjohn]

Forget the yellow light strips, they are superfluous rubbish sold by the likes of RAC & AA, because there is nothing stopping them from doing so.

All lights conforming to EU regs are acceptable throughout the EU. There is no equivalent product sold on the continent that converts LHD light to a UK spec.