After reading the posts here, I can only say that I don't have any problems driving in France and haven't really noticed tailgating at all.
It's because British motorways are so full of traffic it is very difficult to actually change lane!
This discussion has just made me take a look at the LED rear window messaging displays that are available - there's a whole world of them out there! There's a great one that can display the single finger 'bird' although I'm not sure I'm brave enough - in case I got shot! Sorely tempted though....
Which reminds me. Why do people only dip just as they pass you? I noticed that for years in the UK and now here. Worse is when they have fog lights on, plus full beam in the wet fog given that my entire 0630 morning trip is along the side of the river when the fog really hangs, so a wall of light is all you can see. When they do it behind me I slam of the emergency lights, the orange blinking lights actually penetrates their grey matter.
I lived in Cambridgeshire, my parents, sister and most of my friends in SW London, so off the M11 I had a choice of turn left or right depending on my mood because they are about equidistant. In the end I didn't care. I just listen for traffic news on where the longest tailbacks were and went the opposite way. It is now 10 years since I did that regularly but my sister tells me it is worse... Then people moan about French drivers????
LOL no no no Kit.... they do NOT have a very good sense of humour - they adore Benny Hill! What's all that about??? (maybe whole different discussion...)
Anyway - has anyone seen Roland (the instigator of this discussion) - or could he be a journalist???
How curious. After my rant this morning I set off for the supermarket only to be tailgated for most of the way. The driver of the car that had been so close drew up behind me in the shop car park. I asked him (in french) if he had, perchance, caught his braces in my rear bumper. He broke into a huge grin and said, in english, "Ah, you eengleesh you are so funny. Just like ze Benny Hill! Sorry if I frightened you!" I laughed with him and said it was "pas grave." It served to remind me that french people do have a very good sense of humour and that I have many french friends here who are very dear to me. I take back any grumpy remarks I may have made about french driving and drivers. I shall now go and drink some glorious Bordeaux and tell myself that I am just a miserable old english git and that I barely deserve to live in this wonderful and amazing country.
Unless you're in a tearing hurry? Use the "Bis routes" , they're free and usually beautiful!
You're welcome
I put my fog lights on - they look like break lights. Does the trick every time without changing my speed.
I grew up in Hertfordshire. Every time I go back to the UK I do the M20 - M3 stretch of the M25. I'm very familiar with the Greater London ring and its evolution. You're right: all bets are off and lane discipline goes out the window pretty much 24hours a day. It is pretty much the same as the A86 or the Francilien around Paris. Since the speed limit was reduced on the Périférique I've found that moves better. I think the tailgating is partly a reaction to a [excepting (which I don't hold) that someone will cut in if you leave too big a gap in volume traffic. The UK traffic seems much less tolerant of drivers queue jumping in this way (rather than joining the slow-moving cars leaving at a busy junction, the drivers who drive up and cut in at the last point before the slip road leaves the motorway) and I think this has resulted in more tailgating.
Geoff Ells, what an awful experience! Not surprising though. Like you, I’ve been here 3.5 years and my previous driving experience was on US roads for 28 years and Irish roads for 11. It’s rather obvious to me that tailgating in France is a sort of national pasttime so I have some empathy for Roland. As a fellow American, Roland, I also feel the strain of high petrol prices in Europe (including France, albeit much lower here than in Ireland) but our reliance on cars in the States (huge amount of country between large cities) and lack of public transportation (outside of large cities) plus our geopolitical maneuvering (hornet’s nest subject) to keep oil prices low, is what accounts for cheap ‘gas’ there.
Good luck on your journey…watch that speed!
Where did I put 39mph? Ah yes, sorry that is a typing error, well spotted. I have edited it.
Quite Brian. I don't know where Roland has got his information from.
There is a number of people who, like me, have driven in a fair few developing countries. They are not all hair raising but some are. Even non-believers cross themselves before driving in most of West Africa! France is not that bad, southern Europe goes well beyond anything people know here. Tailgating is illegal in Germany but tell that to 90% of drivers on an Autobahn. Belgians hardly drive differently to the French. Parts of the USA are scary then go down to Brazil, now they can scare you rigid but they publish road fatalities monthly against most nations doing it annually. Also, France is different from one part to another anyway, so no 'typical' anything, just like everywhere.
I am so surprised about the British view though. Can I assume that everybody is from outside the M25? I would drive down the M11, reach my junction to go on the M25 and found it like having magnets on my rear end. There would immediately be a tailgater. People may say that there is so much traffic that people drive bumper to bumper, sure but when they are all (including yours truly) going faster than the speed limit it really isn't advisable. I do not, have never tailgated, simply because I find it stupid and unnecessary and actually far easier to overtake because I can properly accelerate as I pull out but have enough brake power to decelerate if it becomes impossible to complete the manoeuvre and need to drop back in where I was. The M25 does not accommodate that kind of driving and by 'contagion' nor does anywhere within its ring. However, I shall concede there is so much traffic it is difficult to drive otherwise.
Brian, 50kph converts to 31mph not 39mph.
81mph in fact Maureen, that is the 130 km/h top speed.
You are not going to change the French and their driving habits. There is nowhere in France that I know of that you can drive at 90mph legally. Also when it rains in France, on autoroutes you are supposed to drop your speed to 110kph. It doesn't sound as if you are enjoying your visit to France.
Cruising lane i havent heard that term since the 1970s/80s usually from people who rarely used a motorway and spent to much time watching American films also the term slow lane and the fast lane often used. How long have M/ways been in existence and many still cant use them correctly , its the same speed in all 3 lanes but keep to L H Lane unless overtaking, difficult i know when its full of lorry's but that is the general idea
There is a risk of falling into the grumpy old man trap in this discussion. That isn't an accusation; I'm reminding myself how I might sound! I've driven in developing countries and France was certainly a vast improvement when I moved there. I think we're talking about change. The number of cars on the road has soared in the years I've been driving. The south east of England was already pretty congested, but this hasn't stopped the number of cars growing. While sections of the M25 have been widened, it was built on a false premise regarding the use it would get. Too much freight moves on the roads. Drivers in the UK are still reasonably well disciplined and law-abiding. The accident rate - and death toll - in the UK remains about the lowest in Europe (is it still only the Netherlands where the accident/KM driven is lower?). The growth in France has certainly seen more congestion in the cities, but France has the advantage of so much more real estate. They can accommodate more traffic on their roads; the autoroute network has continued to expand; and in any case the growth of traffic - aside from the stupefying holiday peaks - makes little difference to the driving experience on most roads. Driving standards in general are improving in France. Speed has come down, through a combination of more rigorous enforcement and the rising price of fuel. There is less drinking and driving, since there is probably less drinking generally, and a bit more enforcement (although with nothing like the zeal there is in the UK)