I told you not to mention the voles, I did but I think I got away with it 
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Seems thereās to be a monthly bulletin for the Dordogneā¦
Iāve noticed that speed limits in many places in France sometimes seem quite modest by comparison with Britain (where roads are often crowded, yet we apparently have a lower fatality rate). I wonder if modest speed limits produce an expectation that speeding is reasonable (because the limits are so low) and once it is normal to break limits there is then no limit to act as a guide?
FWIW in the villages around Oxfordshire the speed limit has been dropped to 20mph. We now see 3 kinds of driver: those who more-or-less do the speed limit of the roads theyāre on, those who do a constant 35-40mph regardless of the road theyāre on and the instinctive speeder who drives as fast as practically possible under all conditions.
Before the change in limit, those of the second category were less obvious in villages, and simply annoying on national speed limit roads. Weāve always had the last category, and the change in limits has made no obvious difference to them.
The 2 second rule is excellent under good weather conditions. I was taught that in rain, 3 to 4 seconds is better, and in snow or ice, leave at least a 6 second gap.
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Ice and snow : stay home unless itās a matter of life or death.
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Unless you have the right tyres, and trousers.
Must confess that is our preference. Our hills, narrow roads, blind bends with steep drops into nothingness ā¦ this can be scary at the best of timesā¦ and since I can break bones at the drop of a featherā¦ no point in going outdoors even.
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As shown in that film, it can also be expressed as āthree Ford Cortinas and a Hillman Impā.
quote=āAncient_Mariner, post:24, topic:52507ā]
Iāve noticed that speed limits in many places in France sometimes seem quite modest by comparison with Britain (where roads are often crowded, yet we apparently have a lower fatality rate).
[/quote][
Higher traffic density yet faster non-motorway speed limits in southern England, where most of the cars are. Whereas in more sparsely populated northern regions of the UK one can speed with relative impunity (not I ever did!)
Here 80kph (50 mph) on high quality national routes seems unnecessarily slow, particularly when in many dƩpartements one can do 90kph on local dƩpartemental routes.
The key message here for me is keep out of bloody Dordogne 
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Are more Americams travelling to Scotland snd Europe this year then ?
The problem with accident statistics is that folks invariably want each accident to only have one causational factor. This makes the numbers add up nicely, but does not accurately reflect the true reasons that the accident happened.
So letās take the situation where Driver 1 is fractionally over the alcohol limit, driving at 10% over the speed limit, and looking down for the next delivery address. Driver 2, who intends to cross the path of vehicle 1 (which has priority), fails to appreciate the speed of approach of the other vehicle, or just glances at the other vehicle instead of looking at it properly because they are chatting on the phone at the time.
So is the cause of the accident alcohol, excess speed, failing to pay attention to traffic conditions, talking on the phone, or failing to afford precedence ? Remember that you are only allowed to tick one box in this often simplistic statistical recording.
Effectively the statistics become simply an expression of personal choice / bias of the recording system.
When the statistics are intended to be used for publicity, the problem becomes even worse due to the desire for the percentage of the various categories to add up to 100%.
Itās a very warped picture indeed. Most accidents are caused by a combination of factors and so the sum of the totals of the percentages of the different factors should always be far in excess of 100%.
I recall that an esteemed statistition once proclaimed that he could make statistics say anything you want ā apart from the truth.
Iām surprised that no-one has posted the info for their own Departmentā¦ I was expecting someone to do thatā¦ as it will all be available, somewhereā¦ 
Iām part of those statistics! A very very dubious claim to fameā¦
Bloody French drivers!
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We moved from Portugal a year ago and I couldnāt believe how law abiding the French motorists were. Obviously speed cameras play a part and there are very few in Portugal but generally driving here is much easier
I have a Portuguese assistant. She was telling me that her fatherās normal motorway speed is 150kph (limit 120) and how ārelaxedā driving standards were there.
Driving through Spain we felt that speed limits were a minimum target to be exceeded. 
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Iām stating to wonder if thatās the objective of all the reduced limits weāve been seeing in the UK recently 
Nevertheless, these days, I use cruise control on the autopistas because the limit is only 120kph.
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