Petition

[Spyder]

http://mobilisezvous.liguedesconducteurs.org/petition-repression-routiere/

[idun]

 I have been in a car that was going 160kms on an autoroute, we were stopped and the driver fined. He wasn't a happy chappy to be honest, but he knew he was speeding....... one of these blokes who loved to brag about how clever he was say getting to Paris in 3hours, maybe 4 instead of the nearly 6 it should take.

Is there really anything wrong with this? Several years ago, once they started being harsh they were confiscating cars who were exceeding the speed limit by a huge amount, at least they stopped that......

I just stick to the speed limits now. Dead boring driving at 70 on a motorway, but there you go, I unhappily do it.

ps Remember the deaths on roads in France has gone down radically over the last few years too.

[mint]

Id, do you know, off-hand and without going to a lot of trouble to find out, the level of reduction in mortality rates on French roads?

I'd be interested to know.  We had a gendame came to our class last week to talk about driving on French roads and he also said that accident and death rates were down but he didn't back up his statement with any stats.

[Pickles]

[quote user="mint"]Id, do you know, off-hand and without going to a lot of trouble to find out, the level of reduction in mortality rates on French roads?

I'd be interested to know.  We had a gendame came to our class last week to talk about driving on French roads and he also said that accident and death rates were down but he didn't back up his statement with any stats.

[/quote]

Have a look here:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_de_la_route_en_France

[mint]

Thank you, Pickles.  The stats might be improving but they still sound pretty horrendous.

I was trying to explain to the gendarme about the social taboo of drinking and driving in the UK and he hit his forehead as though I'd  said something stupendous and he said he thought that the incidence of Brits drinking and driving was so low because he thought we didn't have a culture of drinking!

At that point, I shut up because I didn't know how to tell him about the Brits whose idea of a night out is to drink until they lose consciousness.

[Spyder]

[quote user="idun"]

I just stick to the speed limits now. Dead boring driving at 70 on a motorway, but there you go, I unhappily do it.

[/quote]

The speed limit on motorways is 130Km/h (about 80mph) unless it's raining. This petition has absolutely nothing to do with UK speed limits.

[idun]

I know that, and 70 is dead boring, I worry that people will doze at that speed, it is mind numbing as far as I am concerned. And 130 is fine, more would be better as is, or was, in Germany.

I was in France from 81 to 08 and in England since. I'll never ever do as much driving 'here' as I did in France. And even in the days when France was rather a dangerous place to drive...... it was fun.

Just what are the new rules going to do, make people drive at the speed limit? Make them wear their seat belt? Make them have their vehicules in a decent state?   Cannot see anything wrong with those things, especially as the speed limits are OK. As they say, if you haven't done anything wrong, you'll not get fined.

Tell you what though, last time I was visiting my son, I noted with great consternation that driving in the cities was far more aggressive than ever it was, because if drivers were 'reckless' in the past, they would let buses out, and let people in, but not where my son lives now, chacun pour soi, et tant pis pour les autres seems to rule and as no one  actually speeds as the traffic is horrendous....... yes France........ I'm not sure if one could get done for a lack our common courtesy. We lived in a city when we first moved to France and the traffic was and still is horrendous, I only used the car when going out of the city, otherwise, shanks's pony or bus. Didn't stop my parked car getting hit three times.... and no one left a note, les salauds.