France – new rules re satnav systems are introduced

Apologies if this is old news, I have been away from the forum for a while. I appreciate speed is not the Brazi bays best attribute, but appears that just having the functionality on your satnav (which I do) can get you in hot water!

France – new rules regarding satellite navigation systems are introduced
Published: 05 January 2012
Satellite navigation systems that warn of fixed speed camera locations are now illegal to use in France. Members travelling to France can either de-activate this function, or remove the information completely. The penalty for non-compliance is a fine up to €1500.00 and confiscation of the equipment.
There are similar rules in Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

There are other new rules being introduced in France later in the year that require all drivers to carry a breathalyser in their vehicle - July 2nd I think.

Apparently drivers can buy a single use breathalyser for just a few Euros from a regular supermarket.

Hypothetically speaking, if you buy one of these single use breathalysers then at some point you use it to check that you are indeed ok to drive, you can no longer legally drive as you no longer have a breathalyser!

Tallulah wrote:

Hypothetically speaking, if you buy one of these single use breathalysers then at some point you use it to check that you are indeed ok to drive, you can no longer legally drive as you no longer have a breathalyser!

Bloody French, I'll buy 2 instead

Looks like George Orwell was right, just a few years too early. Won't be able to scratch your arse without permition soon

Good point..

2 for a fiver..Bargain!!

http://www.frenchbreathalyzer.com/?gclid=CLWXupPl464CFQdG3wodwV87YQ

I don't get these self breathalysers. Surely their very existence encourages people to have a drink? This French rule is actively promoting the combo of drinking and driving.

I agree, they are a bit counter intuitive although in reality I don't suppose it will make any difference at all either way.

One option would be not to go to France
But if you Doo, make sure you are fully prepared and legal
Rooby Roo

Kiteman. You'll be able to scratch your A*se but you'll need a European permit first! Surely the UK will soon follow................lol

I think you have to understand the French mentality within this to see why it is actually a positive move.

France has one of the best autoroute networks in Europe (apart from around Paris but that is another story) and also has a very good RN system (A road). Unlike the UK France does not have speed cameras every 2 or three miles encouraging speed up slow down driving. What they have is the idea that people obey the speed signs. where there are cameras they tend to be in accident black spots (real ones unlike the UK) and places where rush hour can be bad and so encourages the road rage drivers ie the Toulouse or Bordeaux peripheries.

On Autoroutes the french do speed the same as any other nation but their autoroutes also have very low accident rates. However this has started to change in areas where speed cameras have been placed suggesting that drivers speed up to a camera, sling out the anchors and then slow dow rapidly (AKA the M25). Making it illegal to pre-empt a camera is hoped to reduce this. Another thing that is very different in France is that to place a camera the authorities have to have a legally water tight reason to do so, they can not just put up a camera where ever they want as french law really makes the Orwellian state an almost impossibility unlike the Uk without a constitution.

The same sort of idea rests with the change of law regarding self breathalysers. They are not new or uncommon in Europe. Every supermarche, Filling station and even newsagent has stocked them for the last decade and they are widely used. The social compact between state and person in France means that every person is responsible for their actions towards the rest of society. But it also means that it is difficult for the state to impose draconian laws. Drink driving fits into this dichotomy. The French, Belgiums, Germans, Dutch et al will drink alcohol with every meal. What they do not do is spend 5 hours in a pub throwing down pint after pint of super strength lager or cider or worse alco pops. The average friday night out in Antwerp consisted of getting through maybe 3-4 bottles of Leffe or De Konig over a 6 hour period starting at about 5pm with food and snacks in between. But at sunday diner at home their would also have been a bottle of leffe. In France the further south you go you replace that with wine.

That means that if you drive their will be a chance that you may be over the limit (which is lower than in the UK). French law makes it the responsibility of the individual to make sure they are not. Because of this it has been common as i said to carry your own breathalyser for around a decade. What the new law does is formalise this idea where if you have had a drink and you get in a car and drive you really need to know you are within the limits.

The only time a vehicle is likely to be stopped for these things is if it is in an accident. If the vehicle is in an accident and the driver is over the limit; well then they are as guilty as hell because the French have put the responsibility back on the individual. If the accident results in a death, I would bet that the prosecutors will go for premeditated murder which means life in France, where as in the UK I imagine most drink driving deaths still only get death by a vehicle (man slaughter)

It is exactly the same as having to carry spare bulbs, yellow jackets and most importantly insurance fill out forms and ID in a vehicle. Again unlike what I see when we watch police stop camera action on Dave (the wonders of the internet). When a car is stopped in France their is no question about who you are, do you own this car etc etc - if you can not produce an ID card and a full insurance docket you are arrested and charged, the vehicle impounded and held until you can prove everything is Ok and the release charge is high.. Again personal responsibility.

It has been quite interesting living outside of the UK for the last 10 years and actually realising that the only place Big Brother Europe exists is in the UK. that the rest of (old) Europe actually has fewer restrictions on liberty than the Uk does and that things such as the freedom to protest without being "kettled", the legal right to strike for better wages and conditions, the freedom of education from state control and access to immediate quality health care are taken as granted not as memories of some former distant past.

vive la Francais, vive la idea Europeane

Bravo!

Last time I was in France I watched a french guy driving down a mountain and bouncing off the curb he was so drunk....So he stopped at the local bar and was clapped by the other french there and had another drink! Unbelievable......

Exactly one of the reasons why the French are giving the responsibility directly back to drivers to make sure they are fit to be behind a wheel.

On the same note in my youth - now many moons ago- I used to work with a guy on the gower who saw every Friday afternoon as POETS day P*ss Off Early Tomorrows Saturday. He would head from where ever we were working at bang on 1pm with a transit van full of chainsaw jockeys straight to the king Arthur at Reynoldston and then eventually leave at around 9pm and drive all the way back into Swansea absolutely tanked

Last time I saw his brother he was telling me how he had lost his license about 8 years ago but was still driving and still drinking - oh the joys of a rural up bringing

In Italy last year the locals were telling me that the police had always been laid back about drinking and driving as long as you didn't have an accident.

If you did they would be all over you and if you injure a child your life wouldn't be worth living.

They reckoned things were changing though and the police were starting to do random stops to breathalyse drivers.

Yes exactly the same in Belgium - If you have an accident and are over the limit your license is gone - not just for a few months but I think currently it is a minimum of 5 years. If you hit a pedestrian or even worse a cyclist on a cycle track - that is not far off a capital offense even if sober. If you are over the limit forget ever being regarded as a normal part of society and if the "accident" ended in a fatality you face a charge of murder. Belgiums drive very fast on the autolaan where there are only other cars to hurt but in built up areas they drive very slowly and stop at any junction because every junction has at least one cycle track crossing it.

Twice a year for a week in winter and a week in summer we even had our road shut outside our house so that it would become a spielstraat (a play street) so that children could run about and kick balls and do things children should be able to do. Different streets were shut on a rotation organised by the gemeente huis (town hall) and the gezinsbond (local families organisations)

What a great idea - I fear the car lobby wouldn't allow it to happen here.

Great idea for the kids and community

admittedly in the nederlands but the same happens all ober belgium as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spOMOM4Rqz0

i can´t see the video in germany, because the" gema" dont allow it . the reason is the musik in the film. :-(