National Speed Limit Reduced - France

Paul the Wolf

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For those on the Caf planning to travel to or through France this summer.

A reminder or if you didn't know already:
The national speed limit for two way roads without a central reservation outside of towns is being reduced from 90km/h to 80km/h as from 1st July 2018.

Other speed limits not altered.

Not a popular move but unlike all the laws in the UK this was not imposed by the EU.

Supposedly a two year trial.

Link below but is in french.

http://www.securite-routiere.gouv.f...la-vitesse-maximale-autorisee-de-90-a-80-km-h
 
All for this.

Didn't Spain do the same a while back? At c.50mph many petrol engines are at their sweet spot for fuel economy and IIRC emit lower CO2 levels.

On top of the safety benefits, I'd say this is a no brainer, and other countries would do well to follow suit.

I'm looking at you Germany.
 
Thanks for the heads up.
 
Wouldn't mind something like this in the UK, but would lower speed limits stop the nutters from overtaking dangerously on country lanes? Probably not.
 
11101 said:
There hasn't been much recent development in transport to make things better for the people who use it. It's all about efficiency.
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I think someone mentioned that some of these roads are quite dangerous, to my mind it is difficult to develop these roads to keep pace with the cars.

Since most of these roads were originally the paths of horse and cart in a lot of places they come up against buildings or natural boundaries if not agriculture which I should imagine is hard to prise away from French farmers with their tractors.

Since a lot, maybe most drivers will drive to the ten per cent plus 2mph (3.22Kmh) limit that won't see you get a fine maybe that already had local roads having a mixture of slow and approx 100kmh drivers. I find it hard to maintain a national speed limit these days. You could overtake one bunch of slow drivers and come across more half a mile further on. I'd rather arrive a bit late then not at all.
 
oates said:
I think someone mentioned that some of these roads are quite dangerous, to my mind it is difficult to develop these roads to keep pace with the cars.

Since most of these roads were originally the paths of horse and cart in a lot of places they come up against buildings or natural boundaries if not agriculture which I should imagine is hard to prise away from French farmers with their tractors.

Since a lot, maybe most drivers will drive to the ten per cent plus 2mph (3.22Kmh) limit that won't see you get a fine maybe that already had local roads having a mixture of slow and approx 100kmh drivers. I find it hard to maintain a national speed limit these days. You could overtake one bunch of slow drivers and come across more half a mile further on. I'd rather arrive a bit late then not at all.
Click to expand...

I don't know about France but in the UK the speed limits were set in the 70s, when ABS was still the preserve of aircraft and traction control was a distant pipedream. What people forget is the speed limit is merely an upper limit. If drivers were trained properly you could safely increase them.
 
oates said:
I think someone mentioned that some of these roads are quite dangerous, to my mind it is difficult to develop these roads to keep pace with the cars.

Since most of these roads were originally the paths of horse and cart in a lot of places they come up against buildings or natural boundaries if not agriculture which I should imagine is hard to prise away from French farmers with their tractors.

Since a lot, maybe most drivers will drive to the ten per cent plus 2mph (3.22Kmh) limit that won't see you get a fine maybe that already had local roads having a mixture of slow and approx 100kmh drivers. I find it hard to maintain a national speed limit these days. You could overtake one bunch of slow drivers and come across more half a mile further on. I'd rather arrive a bit late then not at all.
Click to expand...

Or you can leave 5-10 minutes earlier. If I'm not mistaken these roads, national and departemental, represent 63% of the death toll, that's 2156 in 2017.
 
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11101 said:
I don't know about France but in the UK the speed limits were set in the 70s, when ABS was still the preserve of aircraft and traction control was a distant pipedream. What people forget is the speed limit is merely an upper limit. If drivers were trained properly you could safely increase them.
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I'm not sure if I've misunderstood you but we're not talking about dual-carriageway or motorway but two lane both way traffic roads instead. The speed limit nationally in France on motorways is 130kmp or 110kmh in the wet.

Edit. Yes I think I have, I agree on driving to the limit but it doesn't happen in reality.
 
JPRouve said:
Or you can leave 5-10 minutes earlier. If I'm not mistaken these roads national and departemental represent 63% of the death toll, that's 2156 in 2017.
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Yes, I'd like to think I've never been late to a meeting. I'm sure I have but I always allow extra time and sit there if early twiddling my thumbs on Cover Orange.
 
oates said:
I'm not sure if I've misunderstood you but we're not talking about dual-carriageway or motorway but two lane both way traffic roads instead. The speed limit nationally in France on motorways is 130kmp or 110kmh in the wet.

Edit. Yes I think I have, I agree on driving to the limit but it doesn't happen in reality.
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Applies to any road scenario although motorways tend to be built to the speed limit rather than the other way around.

Some single lane roads are perfectly safe to do 90km/h+ on, some are not safe for 80km/h. I don't agree with forcing everyone down to the lowest common denominator because France has a relatively poor standard of driving. Train people better and you don't have to, modern cars are more than capable.
 
11101 said:
Applies to any road scenario although motorways tend to be built to the speed limit rather than the other way around.

Some single lane roads are perfectly safe to do 90km/h+ on, some are not safe for 80km/h. I don't agree with forcing everyone down to the lowest common denominator because France has a relatively poor standard of driving. Train people better and you don't have to, modern cars are more than capable.
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Yes you are absolutely right but whether we train people better or not there will still be several generations who have not been to clear.

Most issues seem to occur due to unique drivers, ones that ignore the directions marked such as white lines but also speed limits, young inexperienced drivers who misjudge situations and perhaps no speed limit will help and older confused or just plain slow drivers. I think thats why it will always come down to the LCD unfortunately. Roll on fully automated traffic I guess.
 
Parma Dewol said:
Wouldn't mind something like this in the UK, but would lower speed limits stop the nutters from overtaking dangerously on country lanes? Probably not.
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Speed limits on country lanes are fairly low anyway. Main problem is enforcing those limits.

What we need is for people to be taught to drive slower and why it's a good thing. Difficult in these days when everyone is in a rush.

Oh and ban all people under 35 from the roads. Stick them on buses so they can travel en masse staring at hheir phones and listening to shit music.
 
@Paul the Wolf - btw can you alter and add to your title that the French Tractors are out and about causing some issues in France with Petrol supplies to garages currently?

If this is still going on in a week or two we'll have a lengthy detour via Belgium etc.
 
17 Van der Gouw said:
I'm looking at you Germany.
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Feck no. 100km/h is fine.

I know all the stationary controls and luckily there don't seem to be many mobile controls in Alsace. I wasn't following the 90 beforehand so this won't change much for me. Good to know for longer drives through France though.
 
oates said:
@Paul the Wolf - btw can you alter and add to your title that the French Tractors are out and about causing some issues in France with Petrol supplies to garages currently?

If this is still going on in a week or two we'll have a lengthy detour via Belgium etc.
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We've had no problems in our region. It seems that negotiations have improved and the farmers seem to be lifting their blockade of most of the sites where they had blocked access. If the problem continues I will add to the title.
 
11101 said:
I don't know about France but in the UK the speed limits were set in the 70s, when ABS was still the preserve of aircraft and traction control was a distant pipedream. What people forget is the speed limit is merely an upper limit. If drivers were trained properly you could safely increase them.
Click to expand...
You can reduce braking time, but not thinking time.

An increase of 50% extra speed (say from 20mph to 30mph or 40mph to 60mph) approximately doubles
the stopping distance

That said, is love it if we could legalise driving at 85mph on empty motorways where it's safe to so. People have done it for decades.
 
17 Van der Gouw said:
All for this.

Didn't Spain do the same a while back? At c.50mph many petrol engines are at their sweet spot for fuel economy and IIRC emit lower CO2 levels.

On top of the safety benefits, I'd say this is a no brainer, and other countries would do well to follow suit.

I'm looking at you Germany.
Click to expand...

Why? the most efficient country in Europe is travelling around at speed getting things done. the driving standards on derestricted autobahns are far superior. it leads to them building better cars that are in turn more efficient yet more capable.

Driver education/standards is the problem not speed 95% of the time.

Its a social crime these days to be a driving/riding enthusiast I guess
 
rcoobc said:
You can reduce braking time, but not thinking time.

An increase of 50% extra speed (say from 20mph to 30mph or 40mph to 60mph) approximately doubles
the stopping distance

That said, is love it if we could legalise driving at 85mph on empty motorways where it's safe to so. People have done it for decades.
Click to expand...

The problem is the stopping distances in the Highway Code are from 40 years ago:

Stopping_distances.jpg



A publication did a test using a modern car vs. the Highway Code and got the following results.

30mph - 36% reduction in braking distance
40mph - 54%
50mph - 50%
60mph - 38%
70mph - 47%

Even with the additional thinking time the overall stopping distance on a 10mph speed increase is shorter than it was when those figures were published.

In ~10 years time the thinking distance will be a moot point as radar braking will be as ubiquitous as ABS is now.
 
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