The satellite-based system will monitor the speed limit and apply the brakes or cut o

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by randywebb
People from out of state will not be able to buy gas...

No problem...covered in the talk show. "Foreign" plates will pay a per gallon tax as now. That is, until neighboring states adopt the plan, then all info is shared. Gee, this talk show is broadcast in Eugene, since there are conservatives down there. I was forturnate enough to run into both of them some years ago...

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by StevoRocket
...outside Germany where can you use a car at that speed?"

Where else? Italy and France, for sure. Neither the gendarmes nor the polizia seem to bother much with high-speed traffic, if they're not causing problems. I don't know about 200mph, but I saw more than a couple of PDQ cruisers comin' past blinkin' their high beams.

As to Germany, I'd be amazed if you could get up to 200mph there -- between traffic and road construction ......

[tabs]

I don't really care...All I care abut is that the Dividend Check arrives on time...

[StevoRocket]

French speeding is a Russian roulette game - they are very keen to reduce high numbers of road deaths and will fine heavily, confiscate driving license, impound the car and impose prison sentences to drivers who flout the law.

France and Italy will use Autoroute/Autostrada toll times to impose fines to EU car drivers.
France has installed permanent radar sites (a government web site shows where they are) and has always used remote wire and hand held detectors.
On my trip last December to Bergerac, I photographed a small white van with a small camera/flash installation in the rear door and special black-out strips across the rear window.
Advice by a restaurant owner near a new stretch of Autoroute in Normandy was to stick with the limits because of my German car which the police hate.
In italy the Carbinarie (armed with sub machine guns) perform traffic duties.

French rules....
Speed limits: standard legal limits (varied by signs) for private vehicles without trailers: built-up areas 31mph (50km/h), outside built-up areas 55mph (90km/h), but 68mph (110km/h) on dual carriageways separated by a central reservation and 80mph (130km/h) on motorways. Lower speed limits apply in wet weather and to visiting motorists who have held a driving licence for less than two years: 49mph (80km/h) outside built-up areas, 62mph (100km/h) on dual carriageways and 68mph (110km/h) on motorways.

Important France driving tip: holders of EU driving licences who exceed the speed limit by more than 24mph (40km/h) will have their licences confiscated immediately by the police.

[djmcmath]

How odd -- the laws and stance on enforcement compared with my last drives through both France and Italy. We only did Normandy to Belgium, so perhaps my data sample is too small, but the French traffic seemed to be substantially quicker than what we were doing.

For all the French quickness, however, the Italians were simply amazing. Dad would say, "Look, a Lotus!" And by the time I could swivel my head to see, he was just tail-lights out in front of us. The Autostrada wasn't the crazy part, though. I have no problems with people screaming past, as long as their reasonably sane. The back roads in southern Italy were absolutely wacky. No shoulder, narrow two-lane road, winding, with big trees to obscure visibility, in a residential district. It's posted as a 50kph zone, which seems quick to me, but we're doing 70kph, and getting angrily gestured at by the Italian behind us ... who finally passed us in the face of oncoming traffic, who had to panic stop to avoid a head-on collision. Oh, and at the same time, there was a motorcycle passing the oncoming traffic. We were nearly rear-ended at a stoplight, because we stopped. Not suddenly, no surprises, just stopped. These people made the California Roll look like a full-fledged Granny Stop! Oh, good god, and don't get me started on French traffic circles -- no stop, no yield, just romp on the gas and treat that bugger like your own personal skidpad, and the consequences be darned.

I won't disagree with your statements of law, but if the French and Italians are more psychotic traffic enforcement Nazi's than the WSP, it certainly wasn't apparent to me on the roads there.

[StevoRocket]

On the N138 between Tours and Le Mans.....

[StevoRocket]

Radar van.... Bergerac...

[StevoRocket]

From Pistonheads....

Further confirmation, if any were needed, of the French traffic police's new, tough attitude to speeding in France is provided by motoring photographer Neill Watson.

On his Web site, he catalogues the experience of being stopped for driving at 193kph (120mph) in a 130kph limit on a near-empty motorway with a smooth clear surface. An instant ban for the driver -- a professional racer as it happened -- ensued, plus a "donkey-choking" fine of 750 euros, to be handed over instantly to the friendly gendarmes.

That's how it is now: exceed 179kph -- 50kph above the limit -- and it's a ban plus a big fine, no questions.

Be aware out there.

* Neill's site and full story
http://www.neillwatson.com/france.htm