Lesson Learned - Speeding In France
 

Ouch - the French are way ahead of the US in the deployment of automated speed cameras.

Hertz just informed me that on our recent 10 day trip to Paris and Normandy I somehow accumulated 8 (8!) speeding tickets. I only drove any real distance on 4 of those 10 days. It has been more than a decade since I got a speeding ticket - getting 8 in one week is special.

Hertz is going to charge me 20 Euros per ticket. God knows how much the actual tickets will cost. Fun-fun.

At least France makes it "easy" to pay the fines online using a credit card :-(

Ouch! Sorry! But I thank you for posting this, as I think it is very helpful information.

Wow. I feel your pain.

I received a speeding ticket in the mail from a camera that tagged me within the first two hours of picking up a car ... for a 30-day rental. After it arrived, I couldn't approach the mailbox without anxiety.

It's been almost a year now, so aside from the three days I drove in Italy, I'm feeling things might be okay.

If you don't pay, they may put you on their "drone" hit list... So watch out for those Amazon and Google drones coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

8 is excessive. I don't know how you could miss all of the signs warning about speeding. There're everywhere.

Use the cruise control and keep it set below the posted speed limit. The tolerance on speed cameras is very tight and they are everywhere.

When you finally receive you citations, pay them a quickly as you can but I would only pay the original amount. By the time you receive them, the fine will probably have entered into a late period costing you more. A brief explanation that your foreign status caused the payment delay should suffice.

Thanks for the warning. It's been about 10 years since the last time I drove in Europe, this makes me never want to do it again.

This is where I found GPS useful on the Autoroute as it notified me whenever I was approaching a speed camera. I also believe that the car speed reported on the GPS is more accurate than the car's speedometer. Using cruise control is good advice.

Because this is becoming more and more common throughout Europe, I am seriously considering not renting a car as much as we used to.

Speed camera warning GPS? I think te fine for using it would dwarf the actual speeding ticket. http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/ans...rvice-legal%3F

Actually I believe that GPS devices that warn of speeding cameras are illegal in France. If you have this on your GPS, you have to disable the function when you enter France.

You have to be particularly careful at roadworks, and near cities where they reduce the maximum speed. And on country lanes when you enter a village, speed limits change suddenly.

I drive a car in Europe every day and have only had 1 speeding ticket in my life. I've got tickets for other things like parking in the wrong place etc. I also rent cars regularly & drive quite long distances, again, so far never had a speeding ticket. Getting 8 tickets in one rental period is quite an achievement. Observe the speed limits and at least you will not get speeding tickets.

I have never received a speeding ticket in Spain in 40 years either, .. mainly because i do not go with the flow of traffic, which many are speeding. As mentioned, when you drop from 80kpm to 50 coming into a village you actually need to put on your brakes because , at least in Spain, there are no warning signs like I find in many places in the Staes of a drop in speed. " 50 mph. ahead".. in which case you take your foot off the gas and voila.. you are at 50 mph when you arrive at the pre-warned lower speed signage.

not so in Spain. Suddenly goes form 70 or 80 to 50 kms.. so be prepared to brake or run into village at 58 or 60kpm and get that ticket in the mail.

Also, my main complaint about all these camera fines is that as far as safety goes, what good is it to warn a person 30 days later by mail he broke the law, besides just getting revenue? More police on the roads to stop and fine on the spot would definitely be better for the safety issue.

So sorry you got socked with so many tickets. It will be interesting to see HOW MUCH over the limit they start ticketing at. I read that a fellow in Holland got socked with a ticket for 3 km over limit of 70 or so, I believe. Wow. No margin for error on the radar machine or anything!

You may not have been driving like a madman.. let us know!

That isn't true lincasanova.
3km/h (or 3% above 100km/h) is knocked off the registered speed to allow for a difference in calibration between your speedo and the acurately calibrated cameras.
You do not pay a fine unless you are travelling more than 7km/h too fast, before adjustment, if you are in a speed limit up to 100km/h.
Only where the speed limit is 130 can you be fined for going 1kn/h too fast, after correction - so for driving at 136kn/h in a 130 limit you will get a fine for driving 1kn/h too fast.
Fines are doubled in road work zones and speed limits are of course much lower.

If you drive more than 30km/h too fast (40 on a motorway) you get a record, and the fine is increased accordingly.
More than 50km/h too fast and you are stopped by the police you will lose your licence, no matter where you are from. They can also impound your car.
No licence, no driving.

A huge fine for having a radar sensor in your car too. Not a GPS that tells you where speed cameras are, but a proper radar detector.

The Dutch not only use fixed cameras but mobile ones, and patrols which will video you. Get stopped by one of those as a foreigner you will pay the fine on the spot.

https://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/verkee...keer/snelheid/ for anyone who reads Dutch.

well.. I read something on report here.. and it was a MINIMAL amount.. so maybe i have remembered incorrectly. it would seem logical what you say....and is why I mentioned it because i was surprised when I read it here. I'll try to find it.maybe I have it wrong but it really was a ridiculous small amount ( and maybe the poster was exaggerating!)

found it.. it was France

It was actually 6 km over but with the adjustment came ot 1 km over i guess is how i got that number

"votre vehicule a ete controle a : 96km/h (Car's driving speed)
- pour une vitesse limite autorisee de : 90 km/h (Speed limit)
- la vitesse retenue est de : 91 km/h (Speed chosen????)

So technically, was I issued a speeding ticket for driving 1 km/h more than the speed limit? I think thats insane. "

<i>And on country lanes when you enter a village, speed limits change suddenly.</i>

In France there is a warning on large roads, and even the smallest village – my hamlet, pop. 95 – will have a speed sign at the entrance and an end sign to its regulated speed at the end of the village.

<i>Also, my main complaint about all these camera fines is that as far as safety goes, what good is it to warn a person 30 days later by mail he broke the law, besides just getting revenue? </i>

It has no effect on that driver, but speeding has been seriously reduced in France because residents know that controls exist.

I received a speeding ticket in Germany last summer. It was a major hassle paying the car rental company and the German Kreis (county/district).

I won't go into detail about all the things I did to try to pay them, but it was difficult. I finally sent cash in registered letters to the Kreis and Auto Europe/Avis.

It was a 30 euro ticket and a 30 euro charge from Avis. By the time I had sent registered letters, the costs totaled somewhere close to $200.

When Avis again got after me, I told them what I'd done and mailed/emailed the evidence.

I was not aware that I had been breaking the speed limit, and I will certainly be ultra-careful in the future.

I have been driving in Europe since 1965, and I never before have had a speeding ticket. When I lived in Heidelberg, I got a couple of tickets--for parking in the wrong place late at night, and for some kind of infraction in a turn lane. But never a speeding ticket.

I think the reason we see so many speeding tickets now is that these municipalities/ counties are trying to raise money.