If there was a like button I’d have clicked on it Michael. A realistic post.
Having spent the last 40odd years overseas mostly 3rd world countries my last 8 years I have spent in France , I find the standard of driving here generally good , I am very much aware of the odd lunatic who has a death wish by overtaking on blind bends and tailgating but this happens everywhere , I find the standard of driving back in the UK appears to be getting worse with young females driving aggressively , I go back around 3-4 times a year and dread the drive from Dover back to my native Worcestershire , and look forward to getting back off the ferry at Calais to travel on uncluttered roads which I find a real pleasure , there is no lane hogging and trucks generally wait until you have passed by before they pull out to overtake , anyone been on the M25 recently ? there is also no need to be caught speeding as camera sites are well signposted and the ones that are not the speed restrictions are well signposted so if you drive within the limits there is no problem , I also find French drivers mostly forgiving especially with a non French registered vehicle , am I lucky ?
I think the locals round here would lynch anybody with such a device! The gendarmes are frightened to come up here and the moment they arrive the drums start beating.
I've been using dash and rearview cameras in my car for about 18 months now due to the abundance of complete nutters here in the Ariege.
They're pretty cheap, simple to use and amazing quality - mine record video and sound on a constant loop. I've already 'caught-on-camera' some amazing moves and I'm just waiting for the day I need to either use the evidence myself, or offer it to some other poor soul. And you know what?....when I was recently stopped for a routine papers check by the flics, Officer Dimball asked me what the dashcam / boite noire was - he'd never seen one!
A few years ago I had a nightmare journey back from the UK. I had left my car at Rennes airport. Returning I left London by train to Southampton Airport but the train was delayed due to ice and I missed the plane. There was no plane for a few days and I had to get back as my then wife was very ill. I got a train to Southampton City, thence train to Portsmouth Station, taxi, ferry to France, taxi from the ferry to Caen but the last train had gone so I had to overnight in Caen. The next morning by train to Le Mans (delayed due to ice) thence to Rennes by train. Taxi to the airport to collect the car. Then the troubles really started! Driving home the normal 2 hour journey started to look bad as I listened to the Meteo on the radio and eventually I saw huge clouds over a high part of the journey, which I knew was a blackspot in such conditions. I was on a Voie Express (not autoroute) which has two lanes each way limited to 110kph. I knew I had some twit on my bumper (fender) as we arrived at a ridge and looking down I saw the road was completely covered in snow 200 metres in front. I slowed down, pumping softly the brakes, but no my too close friend was perhaps listening to his music or on his phone. I hit the snow slowing all the time but at no time did I lose control. The guy behind must have suddenly chucked all his anchors out, so I watched his car behind me entering a crazy dance, eventually spinning, hitting the barrier and bouncing back, agonisingly close to me as I watched in the mirror. He came back into the path of a cluster of other cars, vans etc and a dervish like spectacle continued as I continued on my way. I felt I needed to get home as soon as possible. Should I have stayed? Was it a Delite de Fuite? Half an hour later as I neared home I heard them announce on the radio that a serious accident had completely block the road. I could so nearly have been involved. My wife died two months later, but I made it home.
I've been moaning about tailgating since we arrived here 3 years ago. Everyone does it and every trip in the car is an accident waiting to happen. And then last month the inevitable happened. I slowed down because a car pulled out of a junction ahead and the car behind crashed into me 3 times (he must have hit the accelerator rather than the brake and he had been drinking).
It happened instantaneously because he was so close. He was helicoptered to hospital and I went by ambulance. He lost his licence and I was in a neck brace for two weeks. The dogs narrowly escaped when the back of our estate car was crushed by the impact (we didn't have the cage up and they leapt over the back seat).
People here have a cavalier attitude to tailgating (and drink driving). I've been trying to do my own bit for road sense training by teaching them the 'two second rule' -if any of you remember that- but I have found, especially after the accident, that I don't really want to drive anymore. There are c.50% more deaths from road accidents here in France than in the U.K. and the French seem quite happy to live with that.
Petrol is cheap! Put your family in a hand cart and push them 30 miles, then tell me how much you would be prepared to pay for a gallon of petrol.....
Agree with you about tailgating though. Some back off when I put my hazard lights on, but not all. I am about to install a flashing LED light strip in my back window. That should do it.
I haven't contributed here for a while, since I'm mostly in Belgium now. A couple of questions, Roland: did you bring a car from the US for the drive? If you're from California, I guess it's a petrol-powered car? You will certainly have an impressive fuel bill. You must have noticed a difference on your first brief drive through Belgium from Zeebrugge to what happened after you crossed into France. Fuel on the autoroute service stations is a lot dearer than in towns off the system. You have to balance the saving with the potential for slightly higher toll charges coming off and on, and of course a couple of extra KM driving to find a supermarket filling station. I find driving on Belgium's crowded motorways far more exciting than in France. I try not to generalise, but the Belgians tend to be more impatient and more likely to tailgate in their crowded traffic. In France once you're away from the urban areas the traffic is remarkably light and there would be very little reason to come out of the right hand lane, except when actually passing the lorries. Faster drivers should be able to pass you without problem. In the UK we're taught (or at least we were when I learnt to drive 35 years ago) to allow plenty of room, and move gracefully into the passing lane, then back. In France the majority make the overtaking manoeuvre in a more abrupt fashion. I don't find Spanish driving habits to be bad. There's a certain assertiveness. On German roads they tend to drive with the assertive confidence that everyone understands and follows the rules, so they tend to be less defensive. The TGV will certainly take a lot of the pain from travel, but it would also mean you'd miss the chance to explore the unexpected. And you need to fit to SNCF's timetable, and you'll probably have to hire a car when you get to your destination to have the mobility you need unless you're staying in a reasonably sized town or city with public transport to match. There's a lot of advice about driving in Europe and the differences to the US. It's all good. The tolls keep a lot of traffic off the autoroutes so you get what you pay for. The motorways attract far more of the traffic in the countries without tolls.
Our French teacher didn`t recognise the irony when I said how good French drivers were to have the skill to drive so close to the car in front!
We are just back from a trip to UK where diesel was equivalent to 1.55 euros per litre & we drove on packed motorways the whole time. That is the saving grace for French drivers - who have far less traffic to contend with - otherwise the French accident figures would be even higher. There are always loads of crashes on holiday weekends as they are not skilled enough to cope with heavy traffic at high speed.
My main gripe is following a French vehicle into a roundabout. Even if they are going straight on you get a right turn signal as they enter, a left turn signal half way round then another right turn signal a they leave!
Whilst tailgating may be commonplace in France it is a clear recipe for disaster. The French are always at it. Leave a good gap. I realise this means that some French guy will slip and this means you will have to break.....and so on. In country areas assume that a Frenchman will be right in the middle heading your way. You may be unlucky and meet a Brit actually driving on the same side of the road coming towards you (quite frequently happens in Brittany especially in the summer months). Yes it rains here in Brittany too, but not every day as some insist.
Not sure about Germans being fantastic drivers, they stick to the rules but rarely use common sense. Tailgating on the Autobahnen became so bad it is now a specific offence. As mentioned before the usual culprit was cruise control, drivers would come up behind cars expecting them to disappear, disengaging the cruise control at the last moment. I’m not sure where all this French tailgating goes on, but perhaps the roads that I use are so quiet that it’s never been an issue for me. In fact on a recent trip to the UK one of my main memories was the ‘bullying’ driving by white van man and 4x4 drivers on the motorways in the South East. Not good. What I am absolutely sure about is the difference when motorcycling in the different countries. France comes out on top by a long way for two reasons, the first being low traffic density, the second being the awareness that French drivers have for road users on two wheels. Germany and the U.K. don’t come close but I believe that things are pretty good in Spain as well.
Italy is the worst!! However, having driven in the US for 8 years I found Texas particularly bad for tailgating, let alone my -home-from-home" state good ol PA.... I also found the tolls in PA very expensive. Here you can sail through the tolls by having a toll card although no way to avoid costs its a lot quicker than driving around the toll roads. You get what you pay for basically - if you have time to meander down country roads so be it. I was really frustrated by the slow 5 lane roads in the US but please do not think of speeding here. (The Gendarmes are using more and more radar guns to trap speeding traffic) Like many other comments - the price of fuel is a lot cheaper than the UK and some other EU countries so enjoy while you can. I hear that fuel tax in the US will be addressed after the next election ???? Public transport here is also efficient and cost effective so give the trains a try! The Super fast trains will get you there very FAST!
Driving 'dans le coffre?' I really dislike drivers who tailgate me. The solution? Just gradually slow down and down. Really pisses them off and, eventually, they overtake - probably with much cursing but as I have a french car with french numberplates they are welcome to swear as much as they like but it doesn't damage 'l'entente cordiale' one jot.
As someone pointed out in another post, it appears that many french drivers are on prescription prozac or those painkillers with an opiate base. Didn't Huxley write about the way governments control the populace with placating drugs?
maybe you've never had driving instruction in uk?.. keep to the nearside lane.. except when overtaking..and move back when appropriate.. yes, the life blood of all countries is the truck..the red cell of all industrial nations.. limited to 90kmh [by law and by onboard computer] so they will bunch up and become..
roads in Uk are not "free".. road fund licence pays for them.. ha,ha.. here, autoroutes are tolls, all others seem to be funded from a mystical source..
tailgating is frequent.. but worse is you have foreign plates, or don't keep withthe flow.. there seems to be a logic, that there's not a problem being up your dirtbox..as there's no reason to stop.. you're doing the speed, why brake because someones pushing you.. bad driving yes.. get used to it..
Coming from the UK, where some people do tailgate but they are very much the minority, the tailgating in France was hard to get used to but you do eventually.
hello Roland - welcome to french roads!
as Brian says france is great practice for driving in Italy. In our family we have two methods to deal with tailgating... 1. Shouting (husband) 2. pull over (me). there's no shame in getting out of the way - French drivers think it's positively polite.
we're just back from Germany - taking a taxi on the autobahn is not recommended if you're not a fan of speed! (i never knew cars went that fast - i didn't realise you could actually turn the speed dial the whole way up!) the Germans are fantastic drivers...
x teresa
Cruise control is actually one of the main causes for tailgating. I’m sure that it is a useful tool but it prevents many drivers from varying their speed and maintaining correct distances. There are many places on the European motor work where the use of cruise control is banned.
Another part of the problem Andrew is that they pull in without the necessary amount of space between you and themselves.
It is difficult when you are using cruise control to ensure that you do not exceed the speed limit because sometimes they will then slow down and you have to overtake them.
John's said it, Crosbie, there are no cruising lanes in the UK, that's where the term middle-lane-driver comes from, those who, illegally, refuse to pull over into the slow lane. You can be fined for not observing proper lane discipline ;-)
Yep, I think there's a problem with the conversion here, 90mph is roughly 145kmh...! Tailgating is part of our culture and normal, get a move on if some body is tailgating you or let them past ;-)
That’s irrelevant, the rules haven’t changed. European motorways are very different to US freeways where drivers stay in lane and can overtake on either side.