Morning y'all, still cloudy and rainy here. The weekend flew by, roll on the next one. Elections coming up here, can't wait until it is over. A read for those who fancy it; http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2018/06/may-2018-deadliest-month-in-mexico.html
Morning all. The fine weather continues and looks at if it is going to stay like it until the weekend at least. This is a good time of day to do some small jobs in the garden as the sun has not moved round far enough to peek out from behind the barn across the road. Yesterday I received a letter to say that the point taken off my driving licence had been restored. I went past a speed camera at 54 kmh in a 50 zone in April which cost me €45 and the point. Next month the speed limit on secondary roads is reduced from 90 kmh to 80 kmh. I can see a huge increase in government income just around the corner.
1st July Yorkie. There has been much talk about this for months, with some trying to reverse it. From what I see it will take effect. When I go to town there is a stretch of road about 5 miles long, that must have been built by the Romans as it is dead straight. To try and keep to 90 kmh is hard enough, and if you do you find cars overtaking you all the time. It is designed to cut emissions so they say, but I have not seen the figures anywhere that support it.
Something must be done to lower the huge death rate on French roads. I was horrified by some of the driving of my French neighbours and friends. After a while we always made an excuse to make sure we always drove ourselves. It is difficult to understand why those that live in such beautiful countryside and live a slow pace of life need to take unnecessary risks on the road.
I think that is quite subjective. I for example have found France much safer in recent years and the stats do bear that out: https://etsc.eu/euroadsafetydata/ France is also one of the safest places in the world to drive in.... really: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/road-traffic-accidents/by-country/ Certainly in rural Limousin there are few accidents and I have never felt ill at ease in driving with any of my neighbours and not just in their tractors...
The only road I have driven on is the coast road from Calais up to tobacco land in Belgium. I noticed that there were differing speed limits for dry weather and wet weather, struck me as a good idea. Is this common on all French roads?
Yes, it is the norm. 130 kph on a dry autoroute, 110 when it is wet. Where the limit goes down to 110 kph in the dry, it drops to 100 in the wet. You are right, it makes a lot of sense.
The facts say Sweden and the U.K. have the least deaths per 100k population in the EU with double the chance of being killed driving in France. French drivers just drive too fast with insufficient care of the dangers ahead. They are however not the worst in Europe.
Sure... but not wanting to start yet another argument with you... I strongly suggest you try driving in Asia, parts of the US and parts of Africa. The peripherique is like a children's roundabout by comparison. It is i think the 21st safest country in the world to drive in out of around 180 countries. Belgium, Hungary and Portugal are all less safe in Europe. Ex-commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are less safe. You are twice as likely again to die from a RTA in the US etc. France is considered low risk for RTAs by the WHO. Year on year the French stats are improving. Incidentally ALL the countries the UK is targetting for new Free Trade Agreements with post-Brexit have worse RTA death rates than France apart from MIcronesia and Kiribati.... Outrageous
I can only base my opinion on the stats and living for years in both rural Tarn and the suburbs of Toulouse, both contained too many kamikaze drivers
Don't talk to me about the peripherique. That is where we nearly got divorced. All I wanted to know was whether this was the correct exit and after much humming and harring I was told yes. So I came off - and it was wrong - we were heading in totally the wrong direction on a dual carriageway and........ thirty years ago and the memory it seems is still raw.
My friend was on it and ended up in their camper van at the Arc de Triomphe..... However these days with sat nav it is safe... as long as you trust the sat nav... and watch out for motorbikes
I wonder why so many English tourists find the peripherique so fearsome. I have been round it many times without any problems at all. If you want something really scary try the Milan ring road.
