The French seem to have discovered the joy of catching people speeding particularly since they have dropped the national speed limit on single carriageway roads from 90 to 80 kph.  I noticed quite a few new fixed cameras since I was last in France.

So it was a delight to discover my Mk4 Focus enabled me to have a large digital readout of speed in kph on the dashboard.  This made driving so much more relaxed doing away with the need to squint at the speedo to read the kph on the dials.

1 hour ago, Linds said:

The French seem to have discovered the joy of catching people speeding

Don't think it's anything new with them, tbh. I recall a few years back a mate and I stocking up on cheap booze in Calais and the proprietor warning us that les Flics were very enthusiastic about catching Brits. He was very annoyed about it as he said it had a very negative impact on his business. (Well, that was his drift, the actual language was a bit more colourful!😃)

May have got worse lately, though?

'Fraid so. Les gilets jaunes trashed pretty well every one in France and the authorities replaced them all, adding a few more in order to get the country's money back. Pays not to be in a hurry. 

Don't worry about it, there is no agreement between UK and French to share motorist information, so you would never receive the ticket if flashed in a UK plated car.  Different story if pulled over by real police, that could be on the spot fine.  

 

The Mk4 Focus having traffic sign recognition and being able to show km/h speeds does help keep to speed limits in Europe though.

Not so. Simply untrue. The arrangement remains in force. The ticket will arrive and as you are in the United Kleptocracy and it takes longer to contact you, you are given another five days grace to pay the fine before the cost goes up. Think it was about €105 earlier this year from memory.

2 hours ago, south_bound said:

Don't worry about it, there is no agreement between UK and French to share motorist information, so you would never receive the ticket if flashed in a UK plated car. 

Last  I heard the agreement was one-way. UK drivers receive tickets for speeding in France but French drivers could not receive tickets for speeding in the UK. I don't know if this has changed since Brexit.

13 hours ago, anon said:

Not so. Simply untrue. The arrangement remains in force. The ticket will arrive and as you are in the United Kleptocracy and it takes longer to contact you, you are given another five days grace to pay the fine before the cost goes up. Think it was about €105 earlier this year from memory.

 

May I respectfully call these comments out as complete bullshit.  read this https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Brexit/No-more-speeding-fines-in-post-for-UK-cars-in-France, https://www.driving.co.uk/news/roads/brits-will-escape-speeding-fines-eu-due-brexit/ or any number of other articles, no sharing of driver information between UK and Europe.  This tallies with my experience, unless those flashes in the rearview mirror were all firing blanks.  same with parking tickets though to be fair to them the fine can often be less than the parking charge!  Never managed to escape a tow and impound fee though.

 

Anyway none of this changes the benefits of the Focus Mk 4 in helping keep within the law when driving on the other side of the road, which we should all strive to do.

  Ok, I'm sure that you're right and the ticket that was sent to me on August 30th on my way back from Spa to home was a figment of my bank statement's imagination. Thanks for the clarification.

13 hours ago, anon said:

  Ok, I'm sure that you're right and the ticket that was sent to me on August 30th on my way back from Spa to home was a figment of my bank statement's imagination. Thanks for the clarification.

Surprised your pre-1960 Model T managed to trigger one of those 🙂

3 minutes ago, south_bound said:

Surprised your pre-1960 Model T managed to trigger one of those 🙂

It is surprising how much ANPR can pick up these days...  Man Receives Fine After Camera Confuses T-Shirt For His Reg Plate (ladbible.com)  

I find the new speed limit on single carriageway roads in France is not well adapted to my Mk 4 gearbox ratios - 80kph is just at that awkward point between 5th and 6th that I keep having to change between them, especially if following someone who's trying to keep the the limit and their speed varies between 75 and 85.  Someone will probably say I should get an automatic, which I agree would work better in this situation.

Yes I saw that in the papers at the time and had a good laugh! Then I thought, why the heck should you have to go to the trouble of proving your innocence against such stupidity?

To provide high paying jobs for worthless unemployables so they they are not economically disadvantaged.

On 10/31/2021 at 7:22 AM, anon said:

Not so. Simply untrue. The arrangement remains in force. The ticket will arrive and as you are in the United Kleptocracy and it takes longer to contact you, you are given another five days grace to pay the fine before the cost goes up. Think it was about €105 earlier this year from memory.

Last time I went over there the situation was that if you were caught on a speed camera in France the UK police would trace you, but if you were from france and were caught on a speed camera here the French police wouldn't bother when you got back home. A tad one-sided.

PS Also last time I was there the single cabbageway speed limit was, I'm sure, 80 kph (= 50 mph) and round town was 50kph (=30mph) - sometimes lower. It was about 10 years  ago though. (M'ways was 12-kph dry, 110kph if raining, with average speed cameras on gantries on toll roads so if you covered the distance between entering the toll section and exiting it, the traffic cops would get a readout on the back if the gantry or somesuch as you came through the toll booth!)

Things have changed in ten years. I travel to France five or six times a year and received a ticket in early September.

i got flashed by a camera but never heard any more of it

Same, I've got flashed by a camera on the German autobahn in July but never head anything about that.