Speed limits

[NickP]

There was some talk a while ago that the 80kph speed limit could be returning to 90kph in some departments. Has anybody any idea if this is actually happening and if it has is there a web site that lists the departments that have made this switch?

[PeterG]

Apparently Deux Sevre is returning to 90kph in the first quarter of this year.

I am unaware of any websites though

[PeterG]

Found one

https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Map-of-France-shows-roads-changing-speed-back-to-90kph

[NickP]

Thanks Peter, although even that isn't clear, oh well I'll just stick to 80 unless there's a 90 sign. This really is French bureaucracy at it's best.

[Le martin-pêcheur]

Hi,

Some limited info here for Nouvelle Aquitaine

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/va-t-on-voir-retour-aux-90-kmh-routes-departementales-aquitaine-1775099.html

Hope it helps.

[alittlebitfrench]

[quote user="NickP"]Thanks Peter, although even that isn't clear, oh well I'll just stick to 80 unless there's a 90 sign. This really is French bureaucracy at it's best.[/quote]

Why do you want to stick at 80 or 90 ?

Nobody else does.

Nobody KNOWS what the speed limit is anymore. More importantly, nobody cares.

I will do 110/120/130 in an 80 if its safe. Just like everyone else does.

The police are going to pull you over for driving in a strange manner if you don't.

Just slow down for the cameras.

[Cathar Tours]

I take it your joking?

[woolybanana]

ALBF’s wife took away his car so how he just has the bicycle and a lot of hot air!

[alittlebitfrench]

Ummm...no.

The busy street adjacent to us is 30 KPH.

People drive up that at 80 kph +. They don't care.

We are all being very British here.

Just drive safely, The reality is, the French don't regardless of speed limit.

I drive at a speed that is in accordance with the road conditions.

I'm not driving at 80 kph. Tooooo dangerous.

I have had two accidents in France. Both of which I was stationary.

[Cathar Tours]

I take it your in the 55 to 75 age group?

[alittlebitfrench]

Noo......lol....I am a tad (big tad) younger than that.

What is your point Cathy Tours (best city in France) ?

[Cathar Tours]

Never mind it would be wasted on you.

[alittlebitfrench]

Don't hold back Cathy.

I have seeen it all when it comes to driving in France.

In fact, since passing my test...I driven 8 years in the UK and 23 years in France. 8 years in Paris.

Come on...let's have a debate. Get it off your chest.

[Cathar Tours]

Judging by the years you have given and assuming you got your licence at 17 you need to be around 48 or slightly older. In the UK according to the DVLC puts you in the age group of 45 to 54 which is the worst group for accidents, speeding and drink driving. That's three times more than 17 to 24 year olds and six times more than 75 years or older. Your reaction time is also at it's lowest but good news it will return over time.

In other words regardless of what you may think of yourself you are at your age an accident waiting to happen and if it happens when you are driving at the speeds you say and somebody is killed I suspect we are talking a custodial sentence.

Fortunately for me I will more than like never be in the same place as you at the same time you are driving your car.

[BritinBretagne]

Please provide a link to those statistics because none of the data that I can find confirms what you say.

[Cathar Tours]

You can ask the DVLC under the freedom of information act. I have the information as part of my job.

Reaction times are in the public domain and an example that somebody of your intelligence will be able to follow can be found on the following link.

https://sites.google.com/site/1314s1p4g1/lab-1

The bottom line however is you are perpetual French law breaker and by your attitude are quite proud of the fact. You are basically an accident waiting to happen and I hope you don't take any innocent person or people with you.

I drove once in Paris during the rush hour without a problem. It didn't take me 8 years of practice. Didn't have an accident (never have had an accident come to that nor have I ever broken the law driving or otherwise).

[woolybanana]

Touch wood for the accidenrs, CT.

But I doubt you have not ever broken a driving law or any other.?

[alittlebitfrench]

Cathy said...

"Fortunately for me I will more than like never be in the same place as you at the same time you are driving your car"

What a silly thing to say. You best stay off the roads full stop in France because I tell you that off duty pompiers speed; off duty policeman speed; the transport ministers who introduced the 80 kph speed limit.... speed !. Everyone speeds. EVEN YOU...whether it is intentional or not. You do SPEED ! So get over yourself.

Now, I drive like an English grandpa but I drive to the road conditions. It is safer that way. Never had a speeding ticket or an accident.

Which leads me to a story. Last year I drove up to Paris in horrendous rain. You could not see a thing and the A10 was like a river. Speeding ALBF was doing 70-80 kph where the legal limit is 110 kph. That is as fast as you could go safely....even in a 4x4 with super dooper winter tyres.

I got overtaken by a young girl doing 130 kph +. She had an 'A' on the back of the car so she had only recently passed her test.

I saw her face as she passed. I wanted to shout at her to slow done. Please slow down you are going to aquaplane.

Sure enough, 20 kpm's up the road there was her car crashed upside in a metal tangled mess. She did not get out of that car alive.

I can still see her face.

[Cathar Tours]

Firstly I don't speed because my car cannot speed. It has technology that does not allow it to speed.

The same technology that is already installed in some cars but currently is only optional to use but that will change more so with electric cars.

The only time I guess you could say I speed is on a test track but that's not on a public road and it is only me, another engineer and nobody else. Personally I could lose my job if I were ever caught speeding so it's just not worth the trouble.

I do not have a need anymore to drive in France.

You do know that some insurance companies already give cheaper insurance for those of us that drive more safely and within the law. Also that if you have an accident when speeding you may not be covered by your insurance and in some countries driving with no insurance is a criminal offence.

Because people speed does not mean everyone else needs to speed and it is against the law and that's what you seem blind to. I take it that if you saw a group of people with their heads in lighted ovens you would do the same.

Still you do what you want even if you break the law I really don't have anything else to say to a self confessed criminal.

Here are a couple of stats for you which indicate why there is EU pressure to control the speed of cars.

The number of people caught for speeding has increased by 83% since 2011.

I can't put a table into a post because it is too wide and anyway the information really belongs to my employer but I will give you these figures for 2019 which show how many endorsements were put on peoples licences in the UK and how much over the speed limit they were traveling.

This does not show how many were caught and attended speed management courses which do no attract an endorsement.

Your group (45-54 years old)

+10mph - 7,904

+20mph - 443

+30mph - 283,859

+40mph - 198

+50mph - 44,154

+60mph - 2

Total number of endorsements issued 336,559

From the information you have given not only are you in the age group that is most likely to offend but you are also in the speed group who get the most endorsements.

17-24 years old

+10mph - 2,011

+20mph - 117

+30mph - 85,983

+40mph - 22

+50mph - 17,994

+60mph - 0

Total number of endorsements issued 106,127

Other totals by age.

25 to 34 - 263,229

35 to 44 - 300,490

45 to 54 - 336,559

55 to 64 - 207,562

65 to 74 - 114,236

75+ - 51,959*

*Possibly a false positive because there are not that any drivers at 75+ although with people living longer this figure has gone up a bit above the average.

So it seems you are a follower and not a leader.

[alittlebitfrench]

Cathy says..

"Firstly I don't speed because my car cannot speed. It has technology that does not allow it to speed"

ALBF says....

That is assuming you know the speed limit.

I was on a road in the Alpes at the beginning of the year.

The speed limit was jumping from 80 to 50, to 30, to 90, 40, 80, 30, 90, 80, 50 for 60 km's.

You're car ain't that clever.

I challenge anyone to respect the speed limit because half the time nobody knows what it is.

That is the point I am trying to make to you.

[Cathar Tours]

My car is very clever and next year you can buy one. It currently uses GPS which is accurate to within 3m currently but will be down to 1m shortly. It knows where it is anywhere on the surface of the earth, what the speed limit is there and yes indeed it can deal with all those changes in road speeds. It will stop before hitting anything head on but then many cars have that technology now. You clearly have no idea about car technology, where it is and where it is going.

If you don't know what the speed limit is you shouldn't be driving. I have never heard such rubbish.

[alittlebitfrench]

You are talking nonsense..but you are entertaining me.

So your super dooper car can deal with roadworks speed limits as well can it ?

I rather concentrate on the road conditions, weather, kids on bikes, ars^eholes trying to overtake, undertake, cut you up, bullying you, drunk motorists, drugged up motorists, right hand priorities, buses, trams, taxi drivers, women on the school run and everything else... than the speed limit.

You speed, I speed everyone speeds.

If you stick to the speed limit you are unsafe.

And let's be clear, if you hit a tree at 80 kph in an 80 KPH speed limit, you are still going die. Hit it at 40kph....you are going to die.

Road conditions for me.

[Cathar Tours]

Road works, funny enough yes it can most of the time, even my old TomTom knows where they are and navigates me round them and even traffic jams in the rush hour. Tat technology has been around for 10 to 15 years.

Like I said I don't speed and neither do many others. Indeed we are the norm and you are not.

You have a very good chance of surviving hitting a tree at 80kph these days and you will defiantly survive a crash with a tree at 40kph especially if your car meets EU standards. If your car won't then you need to buy a modern car, at least something made within the last 10 years.

Tell me how sticking to the speed limit makes you unsafe. Where the cars driving over the speed limit that hit you twice driving at the speed limit on the road?

Now then I will debate no longer because you are starting to lose it and getting personal, well you have been since your second post really but then people like yourself often revert to this form when they can't argue their case when the evidence shows they are absolutely wrong.

I hope you live a long and interesting live although I doubt it if you carry on the way you are.

[alittlebitfrench]

So your sooper dooper car can 'most of the time' restrict your speed to the roadworks. So 'most of the time'. Not all the time.

If your sooper dooper car does not recognise the roadworks, you could be speeding then ?

You speed, you just don't know it. But then again you are relying on your car and not your brain. Should you be driving ?

BTW, yes have to speed sometimes to get yourself out of trouble.

That is why you are unsafe. Not necessarily as a driver, but you are putting yourself in danger by relying on your car that won't allow you to speed. Even seen the film 'space Odyssy' ? "Sorry Cathy, I can't do that".

Don't rely on tech in cars. MY OH has a brand new 45 K BMW with all the tech. We switch it all off.

The tech is there to sell cars, not make you safe.

My 28 year old Saab is the safest car we have.

[Cathar Tours]

If the speed on a motorway is reduced due to an accident it will automatically reduce speed. If there is roadworks on a very minor road although it can read a roadside speed signs there are times due to positioning that it can't.

It has sensors at the front, sides and back that stops it colliding with things and can change lanes if the car in front slows quickly and the car knows another lane is free if not it will also break quickly. It will react much faster than you ever can.

It is a myth that you may have to speed to get out of trouble especially in modern cars.

It is to make driving safe for the rest of us that these systems have been built and will be made compulsory in cars over the coming years. You won't have to worry about the "other" on the road because their cars will also be fitted with the technology. Some high end motor cycles are starting to have these systems as optional extras.

In the UK fortunately only just under 4% of drivers speed according to the DVLC.

Like I said fortunately I will never "bump" into you on the road because I don't drive in France.

If you come to Germany however do be aware that if people have cameras in their cars and come across a person speeding they can upload the footage to the states police website and they will prosecute the offender. That is of course on top of the speed cameras.

Oh and by the way my car is the next generation of Ford Focus, not exactly exotic is it. I sometimes drive the next generation of Ford Fiesta as well but my primary car is the Focus. Both are the same as the current versions except they have the tech and are electric. Please don't be stupid enough and say it will be the end of Ford because all the manufacturers are doing the same. The only place you will not have these mandatory systems is the UK.