Speeding Tickets in France

I had one yesterday and another today at 45 euro a pop. I am not complaining as bother were justified but do they keep a record?

i guess they can't put points on a UK licence but when they catch me Monday will they know about Friday and Saturday? Will I get nailed big time?

Why will they catch you Monday if you don't drive like a ****?

Ticket for doing 135kph in a 130kph zone. Cruise control set to 130kph. Driving along in a light queue of traffic with no-one overtaking anyone else.

This only difference? I had Swiss number plates. As I was being released another police bike pulled in with another victim. Guess what? English number plates.

Now we have cleared that point up pull your head out of your arse and lets see if there is any answer to the actual question.

My Honda civic speedo shows 75mph when I do 70mph when I borrowed my fathers sat nav. I was wondering why everyone was passing me every where. Mind you I do stick to the speedo. Which I thought generally overestimate your speed.

catnash – that was my expectation as speedos normally underread up to about 30-40mph and then start to under read.

I was going to try and explain that to the French policeman but that would mean accusing him of making up the speed and just nicking me because of the non-French number plate. I am sure the French police would never do that would they?

As a foreigner, normally I think it does not change anything being pulled over 2 or 3 times in a row. If you had a french driving license, they would take points out of the license. Also I think they have a 10% allowance to allow for radar errors, so you might have been going faster. And yes the police like in every country in the world loves foreigners

I am not worried about the tickets I had. the first was possibly justified. The second felt like absolute tourist tax. I was the 3rd car in a line of about a dozen cars all travelling at the same speed.

What I need to know is if they do the same thing on Monday, is there some kind of accumulator system that will leave me in deep sh1t.

Here's half a tale.

I'll call you names when you don't know what I'm on about. Then give the other half.

Weird.

Can we assume that I 'am/am not'* a 'hero/****'* and the French police are 'corrupt/exemplary'* and just answer the question.

*delete as applicable

Ticket for doing 135kph in a 130kph zone. Cruise control set to 130kph.

Well lower the setting then and don't assume your car is perfect!!

Why not answer his question? Or are you Smee in disguise?

He's right though. Simple question asked, yet everyone who has no clue as to the answer feels the need to spout a load of bilge to prove how much better they are then the OP.

zokes – Member
Why not answer his question? Or are you Smee in disguise?

POSTED 4 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

PeterPoddy – Member
He's right though. Simple question asked, yet everyone who has no clue as to the answer feels the need to spout a load of bilge to prove how much better they are then the OP.

a) You've both been here long enough to know that people like an argument here (even if you are WCA's mates)

b) Everyone else has been here long enough to know that sometimes WCA posts things just to provoke this kind of reaction

Sorry ,bloke gets done for speeding and then moans about it so I suggest resetting the cruise control what's the problem?

FFS I am not moaning about getting nicked (even if it was unfair). I just want to know if they bust me again, will I spend a night in a cell with some special friends.

I know I have a history of trolling and am suffering the consequences. I don't have an issue with that, just like being nicked for speeding when I am…

I JUST WANT SOMEONE TO ANSWER THE FKING QUESTION

I JUST WANT SOMEONE TO ANSWER THE FKING QUESTION

Which question?
Do the French police specifically target foreign drivers?
or
Are you a pillock for being caught breaking the law twice?

Not an issue for small amounts over the speed limit based on my knowledge.

The main issue is when you get done at 20 kph the motorway speed limit – at which point they take your license off you and there are all sorts of issues with local courts etc. If you a doing serious speeds they can impound the car.

The French gendarmes often set up their radars on downgrades where cars on the cruise control will run over the set speed (cruise controls don't apply the brakes). You'll find the fixed radars on autoroutes are also often placed on downhill sections. They often set up thier mobile radars a couple of kilometres after a fixed radar and I've noticed it tends ot be cars on foreign plates that get caught out whilst the natives are wise to the fact.

You'll note they're out in the road flagging you down long before they can read your plate so cut the xenophobic slurs please.

………… where cars on the cruise control will run over the set speed (cruise controls don't apply the brakes)

mine never runs over

What car do you drive uplink? And is the cruise control linked to the brakes?

It's a diesel Toyota – don't think it applies the brakes

maybe some sort of engine retardation?

Toyota brakes don't work at all do they? isn't that what the recall notice was for?

Toyota brakes don't work at all do they? isn't that what the recall notice was for?

could be – although mines never been recalled 🙂

There are some steep descents on some of our autoroutes which I have to brake for, I suspect you'll find the same applies to your Toyota uplink. I can think of a few sections at 5% or so and the odd one or two at up to 7%.

I've had speeding tickets in France before (on my French registered car) they sent me the form asking me to pay the fines and send my licence in for my two points. Paid the fine got receipt, nothing ever heard from again.

Oh and its France, they all drive like loonies, and get points all the time, I do notice the best time to drive around is during lunch 2 hours and the worst time seems to be Sunday afternoons ( I reckon they earn their overtime then and the fines pay for it).

OP has left the building.

Oh and its France, they all drive like loonies, and get points all the time

I don't drive like a loony and have no points.

Made it down to Berne without any more tickets.

What car do you drive uplink? And is the cruise control linked to the brakes?

I drive lots of different cars all the time. I've never seen one go over the set speed when on cruise control no matter how steep the hill I'm going down is. And I travel over the pennines, a lot. Probably the steepest motorway in England coming down Windy Hill, and the A66 which is even steeper. Engine retardation.

The main issue is when you get done at 20 kph the motorway speed limit – at which point they take your license off you and there are all sorts of issues with local courts etc. If you a doing serious speeds they can impound the car.

40 kph over the limit on any roads in France can lose you your licence up to 3 years. 20 kph = €90 on the spot.
Repeat offenders get a rather heavy book thrown at them.

Linky for fines and penalties to win in france

I've used cruise in a few cars and I've never seen one that applied the brakes. They do just over-run when you go down a steep enough hill.

Ticket for doing 135kph in a 130kph zone. Cruise control set to 130kph.

Heard rumours that the french recently set the trigger limit on cameras etc to a lower figure, because so many people are using SatNav indicated speed rather than speedo indicated speed (which contains a few % built-in margin). Whether they can nick someone on the grounds that their speedo must have been indicating that they were speeding by 5kmh is a different matter. Maybe it's just to trigger a flash and scare the poop out of people?

allowing for speedo inaccuracy – surly the OP is doing 135kph + 10% to allow for the speedometer's margin of error?

anyway ditto other people's comments regarding cruise control – it doesn't go above or below the target speed by a significant amount regardless of road terrain.

strangley enough my satnav also records a lower speed than my 96 Laguna Green Machine, by approx 3-4 mph at around 30-40mph. As you get faster the difference between speedo and satnav increases, to the point where there is approx 10mph difference (i'm not saying how fast as you'll tell me off)

However – i get in nearly any Beemer and the sat nav is nigh on spot on with the speedo!!!

RE fines points – France and the UK will or already are arranging reciprocal arrangments for the recovery of fines and points – there is info on the DVLA website about it and a report was shown on one of the more informed driving websites!

In ever car I've tried the speedo was 10% under satnav. I thought they were designed this way. Note that that was using a bike or walking GPS, not a car one – car ones may be designed to match the in-car speedo.

I know I am going to get flamed for this but I know that 100mph on cruise control on my Mercedes is 96mph on the plain clothes police officer's car who was following me.

He was good enough to let me off with a talking too though.

They do just over-run when you go down a steep enough hill.

Well as I say, I doubt there's a steeper motorway in England than the M62 (and where else would you really use cruise control but on a motorway?) coming down from the top of Windy Hill and the engine retardation is enough to keep all the cars I've driven down there at the appropriate speed.

I'm sure in the Alps things are different.

I might want to make this clearer, the 1st time I was nicked fair and square.

The 2nd time I was not driving up or down a hill. It was dead flat and the cruise control was set to 130kph, The speedo read about 130kph. The average speed on the sat nav read about 130kph.

I am sure the police radar read 135kph but every control I had disagreed.

I am not arguing about speed, I just want to know if they run an accumulator system here

Less relevant since I heard they have opened British airspace