Bugsy Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 What on earth is going on with drivers on French roads of late.You accept that standards generally in rural areas are usually sloppy, thats a fact of life if you live here. I've just got back from a run on the bike and can honestly say I have never seen so many examples of bad driving.Rushing up to stop signs and stopping with two front wheels over the line.Tailgating me doing 70 in a 70 limit so close that I could have slid my bum back and sat on their bonnet.Overtaking on double-whites.Coming around a right-hand bend and finding an oncoming overtaking car firmly on your side of the road.Signals, what signals?The classic cigarette out of the window and straight onto my visor, now those people I would really like to kill.[:@]Be careful out there..........................................[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 As an Ex Biker this is not dissimilar to what occurs on British Roads.If I had not had the training ( Police and IAM ), I'm sure that I would have been killed several times over by now.David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Well, in order to give a bit of balance, I have to say that all bikers are not angels either. Going round Paris on Sunday afternoon, there was a biker (in a tweed jacket in the rain !!) riding at well under the speed limit on the white line between the second and third lanes. Couldn't get past him on either side. Another bike came alongside him and shall we say, remonstrated and persuaded him to move over. Nightmare! and yes, the Peripherique was full of traffic even on a wet Sunday afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 It would ibe nice if it were just seasonal, Bugs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted May 22, 2007 Author Share Posted May 22, 2007 [quote user="Pierre ZFP"]I have to say that all bikers are not angels either. Going round Paris on Sunday afternoon, there was a biker (in a tweed jacket in the rain !!) riding at well under the speed limit on the white line between the second and third lanes. [/quote]from your description Pierre, I would say he soon will be.............................. ps, our Verdun trip was excellent................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 I've also been out on the bike today - great minds think alike....!Rode into Bressuire for my six monthly medical checkup - got the wrong time for the appointment. Rode back home for a cuppa, than back to town again later on.Teatime. Rode down to Cerizay to post a couple of birthday cards. Opened top box outside post office - letters still at home on kitchen table. Rode back home for letters, then back to post office.Local traffic impeccable as usual - I could have done with some action to spice up the boring runs.......[:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Anglia Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 [quote user="Sunday Driver"]Teatime. Rode down to Cerizay to post a couple of birthday cards. Opened top box outside post office - letters still at home on kitchen table. Rode back home for letters, then back to post office.[:P][/quote]Ah.......so it's NOT just me does stuff like that then? Good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 After watching Jo Brand's programme last night on ITV regarding elderly drivers in the UK, I think they have just the same problems here as well. I have never seen so many ignorant really elderly drivers on the road here lately who care for no one else but themselves and ignore all the rules and road markings. As a neighbour once said, it dosn't matter, they know where they are going, the rest of us have to guess. As for silly season in France, I think it last 12months per year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Methinks some of you have not been back to the UK in a long while.Personally, I find our visits to France provide for relaxing driving - the opposite to the UK. I do not get cut up, no one exceeds the speed limit by very much and the volume of traffic is much less. The other big treat is that virtually nowhere charges for parking.Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford Anglia Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Agreed.And I'm slowly but surely coming to the boil with older drivers who do 40 or 50 in a perfectly good 60 limit, AND THEN FLASH THEIR LIGHTS AND GESTICUALTE AT ME WHEN I OVERTAKE THEM[:@]I don't sit ten feet off their bumpers trying to make them go faster, why do they feel they have the right to tell ME what speed I should, or shouldn't do? So long as I'm not breaking any limits, and am driving safely, who else's BUSINESS is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Well maybe it's the old story of anyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster is a maniac.The one's that get me are those who bust a gut to get past then stop or turn off a little way up the road - why?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 My favorites are the 40mph/70kph regardless mob. They keep to this speed no matter what the official limit is.[:-))] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jxedwards Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Enjoy driving in France even with all the nuances you come across.UK:-Drivers who sit in the middle lane on the motorway when not overtaking, really gets me madDrivers who drive really slow between traffic lights as if it does not matter because the lights ahead are red!! If people 'drove' up to the lights then think of how many more could get through the lights you have just gone through. The above should be made serious offences punishable by a some evil form of medieval torture! Speed cameras!!!! In all but 30 MPH areas ban them.hat the UK needs is flexible speed limits, ie 2 in the morning on the M1/4 whatever zero traffic what is wrong with a 100 MPH limit? Sorry folks hijacking th post by 'venting' off! Mr Meldrew! W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 [quote user="Bugbear"]What on earth is going on with drivers on French roads of late.You accept that standards generally in rural areas are usually sloppy, thats a fact of life if you live here. I've just got back from a run on the bike and can honestly say I have never seen so many examples of bad driving.Rushing up to stop signs and stopping with two front wheels over the line.Tailgating me doing 70 in a 70 limit so close that I could have slid my bum back and sat on their bonnet.Overtaking on double-whites.Coming around a right-hand bend and finding an oncoming overtaking car firmly on your side of the road.Signals, what signals?The classic cigarette out of the window and straight onto my visor, now those people I would really like to kill.[:@]Be careful out there..........................................[:)][/quote]They're all Parisians BB - dodgy folk to be avoided at all times!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I have to agree with BB about the tailgating; it does seem worse here than in UK. You can be the only two vehicles on the road, travelling at the speed limit, but the car behind acts as though it's on a 15 foot tow-rope!That said, I enjoy driving here much more than in Britain. The stress levels are so much lower.Drive safelySid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 Has no-one yet realised that the most efficient way to travel in a car is to get a tow off of the car in front. If you get close enough to the car in front the vortex created by the car is enough to drag you with it. Blimey, you can improve your fuel effiency by a conciderable amount by being dragged along by the car in front.Have you not watched birds on a migration flight, or better still pillocks on push-bikes in road races. They all rush along and when the one at the front gets totally knacked someone else takes the lead and drags everyone else along. Yer average Fiat 600 can do the ton if he can stay with the bloke in front. Sorry 2CV owners, your wonderful vehicles are a bit too big to hide behind the average car these daze.. and the extra 2cc doesn't carry much weight in the go stakes (I doo like the 2CV!!)Total logic to me and what better way can you come up with to help the economy and save the planet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugsy Posted May 25, 2007 Author Share Posted May 25, 2007 [:D][:D][:D][:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 [quote user="Jonzjob"]Has no-one yet realised that the most efficient way to travel in a car is to get a tow off of the car in front. If you get close enough to the car in front the vortex created by the car is enough to drag you with it. Blimey, you can improve your fuel effiency by a conciderable amount by being dragged along by the car in front.[/quote]Lorry drivers do this - especially the owner operator ones. It is fine until the one in front suddenly stops. The one being 'towed' cannot stop then crashes into the one in front normally resulting in the towed driver being killed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 Right on P!! But you must remember that he has saved some money as well as being early for his funeral??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 And it means they can drive faster as only the first or last truck will have its picture taken by a speed camera as the plates of the others are blocked by the one in front/behind ! Also, by travelling so close together they take up less room on the road - the advantages go on and on...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 My first ever visit to France was in 1984 when I and a friend drove to the Monaco Grand Prix in a completely clapped out split screen VW camper whose top speed on a good day was 60mph.We found that by tailgating articulated lorries at a suicidally close distance we could actually knock her out of gear and be dragged along without propulsion!We saved a huge amount of fuel and also travelled much quicker than she would have done under her own steam, the only problem was target fixation, fear and boredom looking at the back of a truck almost touching our windscreen.Oh and some of the truckers sussed us out and brake tested us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 We have just returned from a holiday in Vendee and as usual we loved the driving. No problems from French car drivers either. My biggest problem was with the signposting for Deviations. We had one near Le Touquet where there a couple of signs and then nothing for 10km on a country road. The French drivers were fine compared to the stupid woman on the M25 who was eating a packet of crisps whilst driving at over 80 mph.Final;ly, anyone in Vendee should be aware that the police are lurking around on the N137 between Ste Hermine and Lucon making spot checks on drivers and cars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 The location of police mobile radar checks are published every day in the Courrier de l'Ouest. They print a map showing which roads are being targetted that day.So, no excuse for being snapped....[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 Best way of not getting snapped is DON'T BREAK THE LAW. Unless you are going a very long way speeding will earn you a few seconds and could cost a lot more time if you are stopped!It's up to you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 Traffic past the window today thus far: one red kite, a feral alsatian and a horse. Oh, and me I suppose as, 'pillock on a bike' that I am, I went out this morning to get a paper (1hr 15mins round trip to the paper shop). None of them were tailgating, although the kite was doing a good deal more than 50kph I reckon. I certainly wasn't anywhere near to breaking any speed limit.So not that dissimilar to the Paris peripherique up here in the Ariege Pyrenees....[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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