TommieG

In the Netherlands they recently started with a system of 'traject controle'. They put a (digital) camera above the road at point X and then another one at point Y. With a few kilometer in between. Generally this is on a stretch of higway where there are no exits or gas-stations.
The data form the bothe camera's is send to a computersystem and this system calculates how long it took you to get there. If you are to fast, you receive a fine within a few days/weeks!

For the people driving in the Neterlands, there is one stretch at the start of the A13 from Rotterdam to The Hague (it ends near the airport), another is located at the A4 from Schiphol airport to The Hague (it ends at the fork with the A44) and another one I know is at the A12 from Utrecht to The Hague, starting after the Sheel station and ending at the exit for Woerden.

Alec

They have this in England too. It's called SPECS and drivers are warned about 'average speed cameras'. They are commonly found at roadworks where lower limit is imposed (such as 40 or 50 mph) and on some ordinary roads.

Gendarmes congregate at toll booths (peages) because it's where everyone has to slow down. If someone is spotted speeding at radar/laser traps/cameras further back, their details are radioed ahead and offending cars stopped and ticket issued (and fines collected on the spot from foreign drivers). The police may look at the toll tickets as a matter of information, but time stamp isn't used as a basis for fines or prosecution. It's not unknown for the local magistrates to set up shop on the roadside and issue instant driving bans on serious speeders and drink-drivers.

kerouac

Yes, that is something to know about: you can have your license taken away on the spot, and then it is up to you to get a taxi to take you somewhere else, abandoning your car on the spot, if no one in your party can drive it.

Alec

This happens in Austria too. On the Brenner Autobahn between Italy and Austria, the Austrian police often sets up speed traps. Offending drivers, if they exceed the limit by more than a certain margin, will be disqualified from driving on the spot and a fellow driver, if any, will have to take over. If there isn't, they are stuck there and have to make their own arrangement, at their expense, for onward transport and car recovery. Very expensive and very inconvenient.
The moral is, don't speed and keep your licence in Europe!

hetismij

They can only take away the licence of a national of that country. We have it in Holland too, and we can lose our car as well! You have to have been going seriously fast for it to happen though (50km over the limit, 30 km over in built up areas. Foreigners must pay a huge fine, on the spot, but keep their licence. They can only take away your licence/car if tyou are stopped - if it is done by a camera you will have to go pay a fine and may have to go to court. I believe that all EU countries have now signed an agreement to collect fines issued in other EU countries - the country you live in gets to keep the cash too. Of course if you are in a hire car you'll get hit in your CC.

Mucky

altamiro just acouple of points.
1. Private company or not, this happened. I too have witnessed this on my travels from Calais to Paris. So believe it matey it was real.
2. You said
"You know, "law" is not an exclusive US invention."
I am not American if that is what you are suggesting, I spare them that !

I don't know for sure, but isn't the basis of law British?

I am no Law expert and in fact I am just a simple MBA which doesn't make me as clever as Flanner who will surely confirm it either way?

I stand corrected if that is not true of course..lol

Muck

superheterodyne

Alec, kerouac and altamiro have disclosed all what's to know about the speed controls in France, and are perfectly right as to the presence of Gendarmes/CRS Autoroutiers at the toll booths.

It is interesting to know, also, that speed tickets can be issued in France (but elsewhere too, I think) on the basis of "speed unfit to road conditions". No measurement needed : it's up to the cop's will.

Cowboy1968

Austria also had a so called "section control" on some legs of their motorways installed until this system was declared to violate constitutional rights and had to be turned off 2 weeks ago.
The company that collects the toll on Austrian motorways forwarded the pictures of the number plates of the cars which went too fast from one checkpoint to the other to the police.

kerouac

Currie01 has now received all information (and more!) that a person could ever want to know about a 'partial' toll road in Brittany, Normandy and the Loire.

The discretional fines are an interesting point. On French autoroutes, the speed limit is 130 km/h in most areas, but it becomes 110 km/h in case of rain. One might be well advised to wonder: how much precipitation constitutes rain?

Alec

I've read somewhere that the definition of wet weather for reduced speed limits is having to use windscreen wipers.

Alec

Even if it's the case that only the nationals of a country can have their licence taken away, the police can still endorse a foreign licence to make it invalid for driving following a traffic offence.
If you have an IDP, there are sections where foreign law-enforcement authorities can endorse it to make it invalid within their territories. And presumably driving with an invalid licence makes your insurance, either for your own car or a rental car, null and void too.