Average Speed Camera's French Autoroutes

[MartH]

My friend who lives in the South of France visited me in his new old Austin Healey as he was driving it back to his home in the South of France last Monday

We were discussing my annual trip to the Le Mans Endurance race, he advised me that the French Authorities are fitting average speed cameras on the Autoroutes everywhere, and that it had been on the French news, he confirmed that he had seen them being fitted around Carcassonne and Toulouse at the Toll booths, fuel stops, etc.

Can any of the members traveling or living in France report on if they have been fitted yet on the Northern French Autoroutes?

[bmac]

Why is this necessary? I thought they could use the times on and off the autoroute provided by the tolls or is this another urban myth?

[SteveMarsdin]

Good afternoon MartH,

Can't help with your specific query but I have come across more "hidden" cameras in cars which appear to have been left on the hard-shoulder. Unlike our high-profile mobile speed camera vans these are just small unmarked family cars that you perhaps would think have run out of petrol.

One other point: if you think you've been speeding on the autoroute and pass a parked marked police vehicle with speed gun, don't necessarily think you've escaped if they don't give chase. I've seen on several occasions, particularly on the last section before Calais, UK drivers accelerate away thinking they've got away with it, only to be pulled over by their police colleagues, tipped off by radio, at the final toll booths

[Ken Lees]

I don't think it matters what speed detection devices are in use unless you intend to go to France and break the law.

[healdav]

I haven't come across average speed cameras, but there are more and more speed cameras and they are often placed in the most difficult places for a driver to see.

Also, the tolerance limit has dropped, so you are more likely to be stopped. It used to be 6 km above the limit, but is now down to 3 km above the limit - not much over 1 mph.

What is more this applies to camera flashes as well and the camera has no soul. There have been many, many complaints that people are flashed by the camera doing what their speedo says is 130 kmh and the camera says is 135 and therefore over the limit or even worse that they are said to be doing 134, deduct the obligatory 3 and they are in fact being done for being 1 kmh over the limit!. A Gendarme with a camera gun could shrug his shoulders if someone was speeding a bit overtaking a truck belching smoke (happened to me) so as not to get smothered and ignore you and pull over the truck, but the camera just sees a speeding car.

Remember that now there is an agreement between France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg about mutual enforcement of traffic violations, so foreign plates won't necessarily protect you (and certainly won't if you are stopped). So far Britain is refusing to join the system - not wanting to get mixed up with smelly foreigners - while at the same time complaining that other countries won't enforce British camera flashes.

Oh, and on normal roads, remember that the town or village speed limit ends AT THE END OF VILLAGE SIGN, not the end of the houses. You can be pulled up for speeding when you are surrounded by fields (happened to me a couple of years ago). The Gendarmes often hide near the sign knowing that people let rip when there are no houses.

I spend a lot of time on French motorways and I have found that the best speed is 125 kmh. This is 5 below the limit, but is the best as the traffic rarely travels much above this on average and you are not accelerating and braking continually, thus saving fuel as well, and the time difference is zero.

[SiegeGunner]

If you get flashed but not stopped, and hear nothing because the UK doesn't subscribe to the reciprocal enforcement arrangement, is the incident logged and recorded, potentially to be held against you on a future visit?

Average speed systems are a pain because they lead to tailbacks of vehicles dawdling along well below the limit because they think they have gone over it at some point and want to adjust their average downwards.

[eltoro1960]

I don't think it matters what speed detection devices are in use unless you intend to go to France and break the law.

I would indeed agree in principle, however I got a letter through the post for driving at 73kph in a 70km zone,(is the speedo that accurate on a car?) I googled earth the location and did indeed find that the camera appeared to on an empty stretch of road with not a building in sight. I think they are a tad over zealous.

[healdav]

If you get flashed but not stopped, and hear nothing because the UK doesn't subscribe to the reciprocal enforcement arrangement, is the incident logged and recorded, potentially to be held against you on a future visit?

Average speed systems are a pain because they lead to tailbacks of vehicles dawdling along well below the limit because they think they have gone over it at some point and want to adjust their average downwards.

Yup. You can be arrested as a wanted criminal (bit unlikely though).

I have just been reading not that the French are introducing these average speed cameras, but that in future a sign will simply say 'Speed Camera area', not 'warning speed camera' i.e. the warning will only be that there are speed cameras -in the plural somewhere in front of you, and there won't be just one but several on a stretch (and hidden to the maximum extent). The idea is to catch people who go slow past a camera and then accelerate.

[Rob Gray]

I'm continually amazed at the numbers of UK, French, Dutch and Belgian drivers who totally disregard the speed limits on the French Autroutes.

I'm not a slow driver, I will always drive at or about the maximum safe speed within the law, but I'm continually being overtaken by a stream of cars doing well in excess of the 110 / 130 kph limit, they seem oblivious to the ever present speed traps now in use everywhere on the French road network.

Speed limits in France are enforced much strictly than here in the UK, I can't understand how these people get away with it..??

Rob.

[bmac]

Thankfully I have a vehicle with a digital speedo that can be changed from mph to kph and cruise control. Set it to 129 kph, point and steer (relax and put the feet up on the dashboard). Excellent.

[healdav]

I would indeed agree in principle, however I got a letter through the post for driving at 73kph in a 70km zone,(is the speedo that accurate on a car?) I googled earth the location and did indeed find that the camera appeared to on an empty stretch of road with not a building in sight. I think they are a tad over zealous.

This is the problem, but naturally, politicians don't want to recognise it (their drivers will NEVER be stopped). A year or so ago the Gendarmerie were given a god rap over the knuckles for sending men out with hand held speed guns with no training and pointing them anywhere, with reflections off fences, etc. I don't think anyone actually got their money back, but they are certainly much more attentive now as to where they put themselves to check speeds.

When I was stopped (I have to hold my hands up, I wasn't paying attention to my speed - no one on the road at all) I pointed out to the Gendarme that in nearly 50 years driving I have never ever seen or herd anything about calibrating speedometers. I have written here before that the speed signs here that give your speed ever give the same speed as the speedo.

[Peter Bennett]

I have written here before that the speed signs here that give your speed ever give the same speed as the speedo.

Should that read "never" ?

[Ken Lees]

Speed detection devices used for enforcement in the UK must be calbrated annually and checked before and after any use (i.e. start and finish of the day).

Speedometers must be accuarate to within 10% to be legal. That, as I understand it, is the reason for the "10% plus 2" guidance for enforcement that was in use some years ago in the UK.

I find that driving well within the speed limit on motorways and autoroutes avoids all problems with the law and I have no sympathy for those who find themselves in breach of those laws, whatever the excuse proffered.

[dycer]

I just wish my Sat Nav and Car speedometer agreed.

It's a pig driving past a speed camera, at home or abroad, with the car speedo reading within limit and the Sat Nav squealing it's head off.

George

[healdav]

Speed detection devices used for enforcement in the UK must be calbrated annually and checked before and after any use (i.e. start and finish of the day).

Speedometers must be accuarate to within 10% to be legal. That, as I understand it, is the reason for the "10% plus 2" guidance for enforcement that was in use some years ago in the UK.

I find that driving well within the speed limit on motorways and autoroutes avoids all problems with the law and I have no sympathy for those who find themselves in breach of those laws, whatever the excuse proffered.

Apologies, yes.

[Terry_Reeves]

Thankfully I have a vehicle with a digital speedo that can be changed from mph to kph and cruise control. Set it to 129 kph, point and steer (relax and put the feet up on the dashboard). Excellent.

Ahh, M. bmac. We av been looking for you for a long time. We av an international arrest warrant for you, complete with pictures of the soles of your feet reflecting the camera flash. We know it is you because you av seven toes on your left foot. When you av served your prison term, perhaps we might write a book together telling of your adventures and ow I tracked down you down. We will of course become rich and famous by selling the images of your soles. I av a contact who can turn your pieds into saleable religious icons, most appropriately in plaster of Paris. They could appear on every dessus du cheminee en France, with luck and the right pricing.

Alphonse le Forte

Capitaine

Division d' apperiel - photo de vitesse

ps. we may av to airbrush the corns out, the catwalk demands slim body parts you understand.

pps. desole au sujet du "H" relache.

[SiegeGunner]

I just googled Alphonse le Forte and cannot say that I was surprised to find that he is the French franchisee of an outfit called Transport Routier Entreprises, or TR Entreprises for short.

If Capitaine le Forte does indeed have a speed camera photo of M. Bigmac exhibiting the soles of his pieds, he should of course also throw in the charge of affronting the cultural sensibilities of French personnes of Arabic descent ...

[dycer]

Oh blooming heck

Frainglais,Vive La differnence.

"When in Rome?" or France.

Just enjoy the difference or applying British Rules to driving,in France.

The French have lived in the Country for a lot longer than we Brits have,and passed their Driving Test?

Speed Traps,etc.

Just enjoy British,experience of driving,and having the French drivers,not appreciating, what it means to be a British driver.

George

[healdav]

I should point out that if you are stopped on the roads in France for speeding (or anything else) and are subjected to an on the spot fine, this is referred to a tribunal somewhere for review.

This tribunal has the power to increase the penalty, nd then you can be arrested for non-payment of a fine - en though you may not know about it!

I know two people who were, in the old days, stopped at Orly airport (coming from Luxembourg, so today no passport check) for not paying a fine, and a neighbour eventually got a notification that he had been banned from driving in France for a couple of months. Trouble was the period was past and he had been driving illegally all over the country during his ban.

And if you are really going over the limit they can take your car away on the spot. You walk.

[Doug Lewis]

Speed detection devices used for enforcement in the UK must be calbrated annually and checked before and after any use (i.e. start and finish of the day).

I find that driving well within the speed limit on motorways and autoroutes avoids all problems with the law and I have no sympathy for those who find themselves in breach of those laws, whatever the excuse proffered.

I totally agree with you Ken..cuts out all arguments.

Regards Doug.