As recently as the last time we visited France, it was
common to be tooling along down the road and, whoosh, experience the hurricane
caused by a car speeding into the distance at what might have seemed the speed
of sound. No more. France has cracked down on speed.
Say "cheese." |
Slow down! Big brother's watching. |
There are speed cameras everywhere, snapping photos of you
if you’re exceeding the posted speed limit—whether or not you’re having a bad
hair day. Those cameras are located
somewhere beyond a sign that essentially says (or implies) “slow down because
we’re going to take your picture if you don’t.”
And we all know what that means—big time fine. So you’d think the camera would get very
little practice. And sure enough, it’s
very uncommon these days to have a car whiz by—with or without the
cameras. Like Pavlovian dogs, drivers
seem to be adapting to the requirements of controlled speed.
On the péage, the tolls are paid according
to the distance traveled since picking up the ticket. In addition, the machinery that calculates
your toll also calculates the amount of time taken from the ticket retrieval to
the payment. If you didn’t spend enough
time on the road traveling at the appropriate speed, either the nice policemen
will wave you on over for a chat—and exchange of cash—or there’ll be a notice
when you get back to the U.S. If you’re
stopped on the road, I hear that if you don’t have the cash, the gendarmes will escort you to the nearest
ATM in order to extract enough to pay the fine on the spot.
In any event, the accident rate has fallen since the
installation of cameras and other controls.
Maybe there’s something to be said for France’s new methods.
.....when we were in France years ago sure enough in the middle of the road was a j'darme waving us off the road - hubby said I do not understand and a picture book was opened to show the infraction of going over lines we should not have done...no cash - Casino down the street and ATM - kept the license until we returned!!! Money at the time or now car!!!
ReplyDeleteWell there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Straight from the cousin's mouth. I think I'll watch my line wandering from now on. I have a tendency on these curvy roads in the boonies of the Landes forest to move toward the center when I'm going around a curve and there's no one coming the other way. Maybe I'll stop. But, of course, it means I have to SLOW down, which I'm not all that inclined to do.
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