First speeding ticket!

[Irvillac]

On the road from Brittany to London, just outside the Tunnel Terminus...caught on radar doing 186km!!!
Total cost - €100.
Still...it was worth it!!!

[BMWZ4]

£100? That's it? In Toronto that would cost you:

1. Up to $10,000 (roughly £8,000)
2. Car immediately impounded on the spot
3. License revoked for minimum of 90 days
4. Insurance increase for following contract year in excess of 100%

Crikey, if ONLY it were £100 here.....
Dave

EDIT: Sorry, Euros not Sterling

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by Dave Marien

£100? That's it? In Toronto that would cost you:

1. Up to $10,000 (roughly £8,000)
2. Car immediately impounded on the spot
3. License revoked for minimum of 90 days
4. Insurance increase for following contract year in excess of 100%

Crikey, if ONLY it were £100 here.....
Dave

That's if 50kph over the limit? If below that, it's just a fine? Do you have a link? Thx.

[cdeslandes]

In many U.S. states, that's a guaranteed trip to the jailhouse:

NH: mandatory arrest over 25 mph above speed limit
CT: reckless driving charge above 85 mph (could be arrested)
VA reckless driving charge above 80 mph (could be arrested)

and so forth...

[KrisNL]

Cheap.....

In Holland would cost you around 800,- I think + withdrawal drivers license for a short while. (few days or weeks)

[juhap]

Originally Posted by Dave Marien

1. Up to $10,000 (roughly £8,000)

Over here $10K is considered just a warning

Finn's speed fine is a bit rich

[cdeslandes]

Don't Germany and/or Switzerland also have fines indexed on one's income?

In the U.S. the fines are a joke. We just make it a pain by forcing the drivers to take training courses or appear in court or even jailing them.

[BMWZ4]

Tranquility I'm surprised you've not heard of this, given you're in Toronto also. The HUMONGUS signs posted alll along the 401 (and all 400 Series highways) are so massive, you can't possibly miss them.

In any event, here's the link to MTO:

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/about/bill203.shtml

Regards
Dave

EDIT: Below the 50kph, the fines are pretty steep. For example, coming down the 416 from Ottawa back to Toronto, I got picked off at 138km/h and the fine was $340, plus 3 points, plus a SIZABLE increase in my insurance rates on the following year.

[Silver-Bolt]

186kph is about 100mph. In Oregon I belive that is a mandatory trip to jail and a wreckless driving citation. About equal in fines and costs to a DUI.

[BMWZ4]

Silver Bolt,

186kph is a bit closer to 115mph....so even WORSE! Man, you'd be thrown in jail here as well....car/license gone, insurance increases.....

A guy recently got picked up for driving an M3 along one of our lakeshore roads at a whopping 220kph!!

Dave

[marcw]

Sigh. This thread is seriously making me miss Germany.

-Marc

[Rafale]

If only the speed limits in the US were a little bit more reasonable... Driving on these wide highways at 65mph or 55mph is such a pain. I grew up and learned to drive in France. It is a difficult adaptation for me here. You see people (including me previously) driving their 2.0L diesel 4 bangers engines cruising at 80-90mph on highways day in and day out on the other side but here we get those huge gas guzzlers wasting their potential at turtle speeds. It's difficult to understand... For safety, maybe but I don't feel there are fewer accidents here, rather the opposite. The slower speed make people less attentive. There are fewer deadly ones for sure though, it is definitely harder to kill yourself driving this slow.

[Silver-Bolt]

Originally Posted by Rafale

If only the speed limits in the US were a little bit more reasonable... Driving on these wide highways at 65mph or 55mph is such a pain. I grew up and learned to drive in France. It is a difficult adaptation for me here. You see people (including me previously) driving their 2.0L diesel 4 bangers engines cruising at 80-90mph on highways day in and day out on the other side but here we get those huge gas guzzlers wasting their potential at turtle speeds. It's difficult to understand... For safety, maybe but I don't feel there are fewer accidents here, rather the opposite. The slower speed make people less attentive. There are fewer deadly ones for sure though, it is definitely harder to kill yourself driving this slow.

So true. Another example of trying to protech us from ourselves. It makes Darwin's job so much more difficult.

[cdeslandes]

Originally Posted by Rafale

If only the speed limits in the US were a little bit more reasonable... Driving on these wide highways at 65mph or 55mph is such a pain. I grew up and learned to drive in France. It is a difficult adaptation for me here. You see people (including me previously) driving their 2.0L diesel 4 bangers engines cruising at 80-90mph on highways day in and day out on the other side but here we get those huge gas guzzlers wasting their potential at turtle speeds. It's difficult to understand... For safety, maybe but I don't feel there are fewer accidents here, rather the opposite. The slower speed make people less attentive. There are fewer deadly ones for sure though, it is definitely harder to kill yourself driving this slow.

Same here, exiled Frenchie frustrated by US speed limits.

What I would do to take the car up to its limiter without risking deportation...

[Dr Stig 2]

Originally Posted by cdeslandes

Same here, exiled Frenchie frustrated by US speed limits.

What I would do to take the car up to its limiter without risking deportation...

And on the seventh day, God created Track Days...

[Banton]

I see the problem in the U.S. as one of the amount of stupid, uninformed, clueless, not-paying-attention, on-the-cell-phone, texting, singing with the radio, taking-out-the-curlers, putting-on-lipstick, getting a hummer while traveling at 70 mph, etc. public. In this country, we are not taught to DRIVE, rather we are taught to stay between the lines. Most here tend to look at the time on the road as an extension to whatever they did not finish up at home.

In Europe, driver's respect the road and the other people on it, and to stay alert.

The goal with U.S. drivers is to not get hit and only driving well enough to get to your destination in some manner, while most of the rest of the developed countries put a premium on driving in the best, most responsible, manner possible.

Sometimes, I wish my car had a cow-catcher..........

[teagueAMX]

+1

[Rafale]

Originally Posted by Banton

I see the problem in the U.S. as one of the amount of stupid, uninformed, clueless, not-paying-attention, on-the-cell-phone, texting, singing with the radio, taking-out-the-curlers, putting-on-lipstick, getting a hummer while traveling at 70 mph, etc. public. In this country, we are not taught to DRIVE, rather we are taught to stay between the lines. Most here tend to look at the time on the road as an extension to whatever they did not finish up at home.

In Europe, driver's respect the road and the other people on it, and to stay alert.

The goal with U.S. drivers is to not get hit and only driving well enough to get to your destination in some manner, while most of the rest of the developed countries put a premium on driving in the best, most responsible, manner possible.

Sometimes, I wish my car had a cow-catcher..........

This summarizes my thoughts also. I learned how to drive in a driving school where I was taught to respect others: not to hit the breaks for no reason in the middle of the highway without signaling and creating congestion, to get on the left lane only to pass, never to pass on right, etc... ;not with mom and pop who only teach you how to control the car. Driving is truly a privilege there. Not a right like it seems to be here. The fact that the US ID card is a driver's license says it all. One can either have a driver's licence or a non driver's license... lol. In europe, these are completely unrelated documents.

When a german colleague visited me one day after I had stayed in the US for 3 years he was shocked by how comfortable I was passing people on right. If I remember correctly this is a much greater offense in France than some minor 10-20km speeding. I could only shrug my shoulders... What can you do? They all clog the left lane at this turtle pace...

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by Dave Marien

Tranquility I'm surprised you've not heard of this, given you're in Toronto also. The HUMONGUS signs posted alll along the 401 (and all 400 Series highways) are so massive, you can't possibly miss them.

In any event, here's the link to MTO:

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/about/bill203.shtml

Regards
Dave

EDIT: Below the 50kph, the fines are pretty steep. For example, coming down the 416 from Ottawa back to Toronto, I got picked off at 138km/h and the fine was $340, plus 3 points, plus a SIZABLE increase in my insurance rates on the following year.

How sizable was your insurance increase in %age terms?

I didn't hear about it although I think you mentioned it in another thread recently. I see that it was implemented in 2007 but I just got back in the country after a long spell away. I just saw someone get nailed by this tonight driving on the Gardiner East, the cop and the tow trunk were there. Ouch.

[Memphis1]

http://jalopnik.com/5612095/swedish-...better-excuses


Police in Switzerland say a 37-year-old Swedish man faces $1 million fine for taking his black Mercedes SLS AMG up to 180 mph. His excuse? Faulty speedometer, which was impounded with the rest of the car.

[Rafale]

wow 180mph... that's 290km/h. Formula one speed when on a straight line...

[KrisNL]

Originally Posted by Banton

I see the problem in the U.S. as one of the amount of stupid, uninformed, clueless, not-paying-attention, on-the-cell-phone, texting, singing with the radio, taking-out-the-curlers, putting-on-lipstick, getting a hummer while traveling at 70 mph, etc. public. In this country, we are not taught to DRIVE, rather we are taught to stay between the lines. Most here tend to look at the time on the road as an extension to whatever they did not finish up at home.

In Europe, driver's respect the road and the other people on it, and to stay alert.

The goal with U.S. drivers is to not get hit and only driving well enough to get to your destination in some manner, while most of the rest of the developed countries put a premium on driving in the best, most responsible, manner possible.

Sometimes, I wish my car had a cow-catcher..........

+1