French Plod

[Mr Lobster]

'kin ell.

 

You moan about French plod - I assume you have been driving in England and experienced the way motorists here are treated?

 

I came back from France very late last night. Did 600 miles there yesterday mainly on autoroute. In that 600 miles I saw maybe six speed cameras on the motorway, all of which had big signs a few hundred metres before you hit them and one Gendarme with a speed gun who was visible from about 0.5 km off. Got back to Angleterre and the M20 is festooned with 'traffic management' cameras enforcing a 50mph limit for no obvious reason. Same through M42 / M6 at Birmingham.

 

In so far as the chap in the linked article - I have no sympathy. I've no problem with speeding to an extent but he was stupid. Everyone knows that the plods on the French autoroute are on overtime around the time of the Le Mans 24hrs, this guy was in that region going 60kph over the limit and would lose his licence over here too for that sort of speed. Same as anything, if you are going to speed then don't start crying when you get caught. He was going quicker that would be sensible, got caught and is being held up as an example before the big influx of tourists over summer.

 

Incidentally, those with none EU issued licences - make sure you also have an International Driving Permit as well and be carrying your passport to prove when you entered the EU - if you can't prove you have been in the EU for less than 12 months and are driving on a licence issued outside EU then they can seize the car / your licence anyway even if no offence has been commited.

[gtd2000]

Incidentally, those with none EU issued licences - make sure you also have an International Driving Permit as well and be carrying your passport to prove when you entered the EU - if you can't prove you have been in the EU for less than 12 months and are driving on a licence issued outside EU then they can seize the car / your licence anyway even if no offence has been commited.

 

I normally have my UK license and passport with me as well as the non-EU issued license.

 

Last time I got stopped by the cops in Holland, they didn't really know what to do seeing a RHD UK registered car and US issued license

 

In all honesty I don't speed very often these days - I'm more interested in keeping up my MPG's, plus half the roads are now so full, it's an exercise in futility.

[504GL]

 

Tbh I've never seen the big problem with speed camera's in the UK.

 

If you lived in Australia you'd know why!

 

They have these and somehow they always seem to be set up behind bushes and so on..... plus they're mobile

 

Spot the speed camera in this......

 

 

I'll happily deal with brightly coloured speed cameras on top of big poles that never move!

 

The fact that I got caught for speeding 3 times in Australia and never in the UK when I've driven in both countries for 5 years says something

 

From what I understand the cops in Oz have very little tolerance for speeding - it was the same up in Washington state earlier this year - you set the cruise control to the exact speed. One guy at the office got hauled over the coals for doing 61MPH in a 60MPH limit - cop must have been a complete dickhead of course! No fine but just the usual cop threats....yawn.

 

The traffic cops are sneaky bastards in Holland too - hiding behind flyovers and using those long range "sniper" cameras etc - the UK cops do give you a fair chance when setting up speed-traps.

 

The thing is, what is the point installing a fixed "safety camera" which no doubt costs a ridiculous amount of tax payers money to install and maintain and to my knowledge doesn't really have anything to do with safety.

 

I'd be more inclined to have them go and catch some real criminals at the end of the day.

 

Yeah, there's little tolerance for speeding but luckily for minor offences you don't get points which I think is very fair. I think I got caught speeding 4 or 5 times and 2 times I got what amounts to a £30 fine and no points, once I got a £60 or £90 fine (can't remember which) and a point (you get 12 points) and the other time I got caught doing 140 in a 100 zone by a police officer going the other way, it was Rally Australia time and they're particularly bad around then. I stopped as soon as I saw his lights go on in the rear view mirror. He really appreciated the fact that I didn't try to get away and upon telling him that I was in a hurry to get back to the service park to take photos (I had a media pass for the event) he let me off with the warning that if I got caught speeding again that weekend I'd be taking pictures of trees

 

Tbh I don't subscribe to the "they should be catching real criminals" line. If there were no speed cameras then the idiots would just speed and drive even more dangerously than they do already.