Little tip

[Val_2]

....from a gendarme. When coming to a Stop sign, stop completely and count to four. This is roughly the amoount of time they reckon you should wait for before pulling out.

[BJSLIV]

 

As its says in the Code de La Route

Vous devez vous arrêter au niveau du panneau (ou de la ligne blanche), puis marquer un temps d'arrêt (quelques secondes) puis céder le passage aux éventuels véhicules vous barrant la route, puis, une fois les contrôles effectués (gauche, droite, en face, ...), repartir

 

 (My emphasis on the duration of the Stop)

 

An almost imperceptible stop isn't good enough!

 

[Iceni]

But as usual it's different in our bit of 46 - we have to wait for 5 seconds.

The tricky bit for UK "trained" drivers seems to be understanding the word STOP. Many of them appear to interpret this as "slowing down to almost nothing and if there is no imminent danger then drive on" which is not the French definition.

How dare they treat OUR word in this way ? Sir Humphrey Appleby was right.

John

not

[Alcazar]

As usual, as an English driver, I used to roll slowly up to the stop sign, then move on if it was clear..........at least I did at those where you have a good field of view.

Then someone posted about getting done for the same, last year, and it gave me pause for thought. I also saw another posting with the "code de la route" in it, and now do as it says.

After all, what do you lose by so doing? A few seconds of your life. Better than lining some Gendarmerie pockets, as they KNOW this is another revenue earner, at least at junctions with a good view.

As far as junctions with little or no view, I tend to come to a halt anyway, and to hell with the people behind me. Make a mistake, and you could be talking a bit more than a few seconds off your life, or off someone else's..............

Wifey STILL says "there's nothing coming" in an accusatory tone when I do stop though...................

Alcazar

[chicfille]

On my school run there's a double stop - one for vehicles to give way to oncoming bikes, and 2 metres further on a 2nd one for  oncoming vehicles. At both the view is completely clear at all times of year in both directions from at least 50m before the signs.

So what is the point of coming to a complete halt, whistling for 5 seconds whilst doing damage to my neck looking needlessly up and down an empty road before finally pulling out? Why are there Stop signs here when all that is needed for such junctions to be perfectly safe is a Cedez le Passage?

If safety is the issue (and not replenishing the coffers), why haven't they abolished the ridiculous Priorité à Droite system which is responsible for countless accidents?

[Washy]

In the back streets behind Lidl in Narbonne, there is a terrible junction...well for little cars anyway.  It is at a stop sign, the road it crosses being marginally more busy, but there is a very high speed bump right at the junction. Great because folk have no option but to stop, but it proved awkward for a tiny electric car yesterday.  There was a diversion in place and all traffic was directed along this road.  We were behind this very small car which seemed to have two people and a dog in it, it slowed down so much it did not make it over this mountain of a speed bump, it in fact rolled back towards us.  Fortunately we had left plenty of space, there was much waving of arms in the sans permis, I think they were lucky not to beach themselves.

[Boiling a frog]

[quote]But as usual it's different in our bit of 46 - we have to wait for 5 seconds. The tricky bit for UK "trained" drivers seems to be understanding the word STOP. Many of them appear to interpret this as...[/quote]

These people are just bad drivers It has always been the case that in the UK you STOP at a stop sign look left look right look left and proceed if way is clear Sec 36 RTA 88 makes it an offence to fail to obey this sign

[Clair]

In my French school, we had to learn all the road signs, demonstrate our road skills in the playground using bicycles and roads marked in chalk, under the watchful eyes of the local gendarmes, before being tested and marked!

As I understand it and remembering from my school days, your car should come to a complete halt.

This was demontrated when my (English) husband rolled up to the stop line and, seeing the road was clear, drove off (they call that "un stop à l'italienne"!) then was almost immediately pulled up by the gendarmes for not marking a complete stop.

The way they looked at it, the brake lights were glowing, so he was using the brake pedal and not the handbrake, therefore, the car was not at a complete halt.

My tip would be to mark a few seconds stop, just as the sign says, using your handbrake, not your brake pedal.

[Jsey]

[quote]These people are just bad drivers It has always been the case that in the UK you STOP at a stop sign look left look right look left and proceed if way is clear Sec 36 RTA 88 makes it an offence to fai...[/quote]

Would agree, this was the reason UK Halt signs were changed many years ago, because it was decided ,that Halt and Stop have different meanings.

[Nelson]

[quote]These people are just bad drivers It has always been the case that in the UK you STOP at a stop sign look left look right look left and proceed if way is clear Sec 36 RTA 88 makes it an offence to fai...[/quote]

Hi Boiling

I think you have spent to long in france.

In the the U.K it would be far safer to look right look left look right again before proceeding if it is safe to do so.

regards colin