French Speed cameras ??

A snowHead

Always been to Austria and Italy skiing but the last 3 years we've been going to France and got a speeding fine every time .
I normally just use waze and follow traffic but getting fed up with the Fine + Car hire Admin fee.
Well be going from Lyon Airport to St Foy
Is there a website showing the cameras as the site i went only showed them on the minor roads along that route not the motorways

thanks

A snowHead

There are road signs in France that show the speed limit.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Have you considered slowing down and doing the speed limit?

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Best bet is to stick to the speed limit. I got caught first time (3 speeding tickets on the same trip) and they explained what the tolerances are.

Can't quite remember but it was essentially if it's 130 and you're doing 137 you'll get done. Keep it under that sort of tolerance and no issues.

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@wasley, just, like, pay more attention? Puzzled

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This article explains it as a 5% over tolerance in France as opposed to 10% + 2 here.

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Watch the speed signs which are pretty self evident and also the generally rather large speed camera warning signs that are placed at a suitable distance before the actual camera itself.

After all it is free

Sounds like the cameras are doing their job.

Drive your own car - French Cameras do not send fines to the UK. - Unless you have a Crit air sticker, you the French have your vehicle details and address, see below (edited)
However, Gendarmes in Cars and on bikes will stop you, particularly at Peage tolls, they have been known to stand under motorway bridges with hand held radars a couple of miles before the toll plaza.

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Waze has always alerted me to the fixed cameras, as do the signs in France.

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Although the cameras themselves can be difficult to spot, the signs are very specific that you are entering a speed trap zone.

Android auto also alerts you to the fixed cams.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Bloody French, trying to save lives.

A snowHead

They're usually marked on Waze as 'police reported.' I've found that to be fairly reliable.

I'd ignore the finger waggers saying 'slow down,' the locals certainly seem to treat speed limits as advisory in France.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The Belgiums in France certainly consider speed limits as advisory only.

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As boredsurfin says, take your own car,..simples....with hire car you get a fee from the hire company and the authorities chase you for the speeding fine as they have got your address from the hire company ..

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@wasley, from memory there's only one (maybe two) after Lyon towards Albertville. It takes some level of incompetence to get done by them though. The French very helpfully put a great big radar sign on the side of the road and the camera is always within about 1km of it. So change your cruise control to 130kmh when you see the sign and even if you don't physically see the camera, you can go back to whatever speed you were doing after 2km or so and you'll be fine.

BTW, the cut off point between getting the small speeding fine €45 vs the bigger one €90 is 156kmh.

The places not to speed are Chambery and Albertville. Chambery has three cameras I believe but I can only ever remember where two of them are, Albertville has two in each direction. There are none between Albertville and Moutiers, not sure about Moutiers > BSM as it's not my route. There is a camera immediately after the tunnel leaving Moutiers on the return journey so don't be tempted to speed up as you exit the tunnel.

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Since Brexit we have stopped getting them for UK reg vehicle the only Brexit dividend I know of…

In terms of France the speed camera tolerances are very low and personally I find I have definitely set off a fair few without any intention of speeding.

FYI - France is the only country I have ever received a speeding ticket from. Not ever had a UK one. I have been pulled over in Croatia and Italy but they didn’t bother issuing a ticket.

After all it is free

[quote="snowdave"]Waze has always alerted me to the fixed cameras

Anything in your car that gives alerts to speed cameras are illegal in France so in theory should be deactivated, believe it’s a €1500 fine if the gendarmes pull you over and find out.

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Nearly always, but pay attention to the 'nearly', there's a 'radar cameras ahead' warning within a km or two of the camera sites. So if you're not paying enough attention to your speed do make an effort to slow to the limit (plus the aforementioned tolerance, assuming you have GPS to show you your actual speed, rather than the speedo which will overread by 5-10%) for a while after you see one. They're hard to miss.

If you want to be even more sure, then Waze is pretty reliable in France, but not in Switzerland. So I use the (illegal in CH) Camsam App. It's pretty much spot on and has the advantage of showing the speed limit the camera is set to. In the almost impossible circumstances of being prosecuted for having it the fine is in the same order as a speeding ticket so you'll still end up ahead of the game even if you are.

I don't use it as a carte blanche to go stupid fast and always make sure I never go anywhere near the +20kph that will trigger more serious charges (in CH), but depending on which car I'm driving I would usually have my cruise control set for around 10-15, speedo measured, over the posted limit. In the Landy I don't have CC anyway and it's too noisy over 130kph for any extended period, so that helps avoid the temptation to really gun it as well.

The wet speed limit on French autoroutes is, I think, 110 rather that the 120 mentioned earlier. In any case though, I'm fairly sure the cameras are not dynamically controlled to be able to change when the weather is bad, so while not condoning speeding in wet conditions, or at all for that matter, you should not need to worry about cameras flashing you in reduced speed conditions.

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@Origen, the speed limit is 110 i believe.
@andmelffion, i think it is radar detection systems not maps showing where they are. Otherwise the police will be prosecuting the highway authorities for putting up signs earning of speed cameras. Our are you meant to look the otherway when you see them. BTW I think they can confiscate your car if you have one even if it's switched off.

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You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@snowdave, Yes, that's pretty much my understanding, although I don't often use it. The warning can also be of a specific incident at a precise location, something to the effect of 'police are here' whether a temporary speed check or just dealing with something on the hard shoulder.

A snowHead

29 replies and not one answering my question about a Website listing the cameras.
The fact my job is mainly driving and i've had a clean drivers licence for the past 20 years which would suggest I do stick to the speed limit .

Thanks for the replies that were helpful , not so much the smart Ars* ones

Heres a smart Ars* reply for you

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@wasley,

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@Layne,

After all it is free

And should you be spoken to by M. Gendarme, probably best to be a bit less arsey than you've been on this thread, @wasley

My only French speeding fine was for doing about 36 mph through a tiny settlement with two cafés and a deserted cow barn (and a policeman with a speed gun sitting in a car eating his sandwich jambon beurre) with no speed limit signed. But it had a name, and that automatically meant the limit was 50 kph

I've driven back and forth to the French alps lots of times - probably nearly 50 times - and I wager that I have broken the speed limit at some point (possibly quite a few points) on every journey, as we all probably have, as few of us drive as well as we think we do.......but just that one fine.

The word for this outcome is "lucky"

Be aware that @davidof´s map is not complete by at least one (possibly temporary/mobile but in situ for maybe 12 months) on the A40 near Cluses ...

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French Speed cameras ??

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