Driving in France. Speeding tickets are interesting.

[EDManual]

I've been over here near Geneva for the past 3 months, and love the driving. Coming back Thursday and am dreading the driving...

I'm near the alps so the roads are awesome of course, no lines on the roads on the twisty stuff, all 90 zones. Hard to hit 90 a lot of the time!

Anyway, the what I like about France is they put the responsibility on you in every aspect of life. I'm not used to that, being from Australia! You want to wear thongs on the go kart, go for it. No helmets on a bike, no problems, kids over about 6 are in the trees on rope courses by themselves learning about life and how important it is to look after your own safety.

Now with speeding tickets, it's pretty good! Would you believe up to 20 kph over in a zone faster than a 50 zone is a 45 euro fine! And if you are dumb enough to get caught by a speed camera that you didn't see you deserve it, they are easy to see. There is a lovely 10% leeway on non fixed radar and 5% on fixed. So as many people do, they are happy to get a 45 euro fine and but miss the fixed radars and run the gauntlet of actual cops, of which there are almost none! So in a 130 zone you sit on 143 for no fine, or if you don't mind a little one, you do the 130 + 20 + 10%= 165.

In zones of 50 or less the fines are double, which is absolutely fair.

[EDManual]

Oh, and they aren't going to bother pulling you over for 45 euro anyway!

[EB#]

I guess the government's other revenue streams and various taxes are sufficient...

[NAK302]

some will have you believe Australia is the best country on earth. those some, have never been to other countries.

[Stefan]

I wonder what their road toll looks like? Probably better than ours.

Last time I was in Europe was 10 years ago and I thought they had it pretty damn good over there.

Our problem is bureaucracy

[Ben73]

In regards to tax and road quality.
They have 66 million people in a country smaller than NSW.
Lots of tax dollars to spend on a small country.

[Boza]

is there a points system for local drivers cause here I don't care about paying the fine it's the points that kill you and BAM no license or like I found out a longtime ago here in Victoria you loose your license for amonth for speeding like 15-20 km's over the speed limit I don't know if they still enforce that or they just take your car now

[russxr67]

Originally Posted by GT-0733

some will have you believe Australia is the best country on earth. those some, have never been to other countries.

Yep, traveling to foreign destinations sure opens your eyes to a lot of things!

[BadMax]

The problem is our government is hell bent on telling us they are introducing laws to protect us, protect us from what exactly? Is it any wonder as each generation comes through, they less and less willing to take responsibility for their own actions, ready to shift blame at any opportunity.

We are being conditioned that risk is bad, so our rights are slowly being taken away from us.

[xxx000]

Originally Posted by BadMax

The problem is our government is hell bent on telling us they are introducing laws to protect us, protect us from what exactly? Is it any wonder as each generation comes through, they less and less willing to take responsibility for their own actions, ready to shift blame at any opportunity.

We are being conditioned that risk is bad, so our rights are slowly being taken away from us.

RBT , compulsory seat belts, no advertising of cigarettes, .....yeah that dam government saving our lives

[aussiblue]

I wonder what their road toll looks like? Probably better than ours.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ted_death_rate comparable to Oz and in some ways worse.

[GSPSI]

Originally Posted by GT-0733

some will have you believe Australia is the best country on earth. those some, have never been to other countries.

I just got back 2weeks ago from a europe trip.
Let me tell ya, i kissed the ground in australia when we got home. No place like here.
We are so lucky to be Australian in so many ways.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by xxx000

RBT , compulsory seat belts, no advertising of cigarettes, .....yeah that dam government saving our lives

Nailed it right there! Two out of those three are to protect the stupid from themselves. 2/3 of those will only harm yourself. If you're to damn stupid to realise smoking will kill you, go ahead, too much coca cola will kill you too, coke still advertises.

Imagine how much easier life would be if 2/3 of the stupid legislation designed only to protect you from your own stupidity was abolished and left to the individual to work out. In turn 2/3 of those associated bureaucratic government jobs will disappear too and we might be able to get things done in this country.

[Terror_Tree]

Get rid of the nanny state rules & we might remove stupid from the gene pool.

[NAK302]

Originally Posted by GSPSI

I just got back 2weeks ago from a europe trip.
Let me tell ya, i kissed the ground in australia when we got home. No place like here.
We are so lucky to be Australian in so many ways.

and in so many ways, we are not

[STINKY NINJA]

If you guys dont love australia pack up your **** and **** off!

[BadMax]

Originally Posted by xxx000

RBT , compulsory seat belts, no advertising of cigarettes, .....yeah that dam government saving our lives

You must be part of the new generation who are incapable of assessing risk and taking responsibility of your own actions. It's not for you to tell people how to run their lives.

I guess you don't smoke because of the government, never gotten drunk because the government tells you it's bad for you, never exceeded the speed limit because it will kill you, you read the back of every packet of food because the government demanded the nutrition table...

Wasn't it recently established that smoking in Australia has hardly changed since plain packaging was introduced?

@stinky Ninja, you ignorance is bliss. How does it feel?

[STINKY NINJA]

You heard me just fine,pack your **** up and **** off!
Theres a reason every other race of people is flooding australia,because its the best country in the world!

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by STINKY NINJA

There's a reason every other race of people is flooding Australia, because we've had the softest immigration laws in the world!

Fixed

[BadMax]

Originally Posted by STINKY NINJA

You heard me just fine,pack your **** up and **** off!
Theres a reason every other race of people is flooding australia,because its the best country in the world!

Your ignorance is worse than I thought. This country was built on the back of immigrants, you cretin.

And the second part of your statement was answered. Maybe you should look into other countries around the world that accept more immigrants and refuges and are no bigger than Victoria, let alone the rest of the country!

Are you that insecure, you feel threatened?

[aussiblue]

There's a reason every other race of people is flooding Australia, because we've had the softest immigration laws in the world!

Simply not true we actually have amongst the world's harshest immigrations restrictions and take less refugees than most countries; the issue is the pollies have made it a high profile overexposed issue. See http://data.unhcr.org/dataviz/ http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...zoomed-picture etc and then tell me we are taking our share of refugees compared to most other nations noting our involvement with the US in various middle east wars (albeit for good intentions) that have been a major driver in creating refugees. The white Australia policy unfortunately remains alive and well.

[lucas2]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

noting our involvement with the US in various middle east wars (albeit for good intentions) that have been a major driver in creating refugees. The white Australia policy unfortunately remains alive and well.

The control of middle east oil?

[csv8]

Queensland has passed a law to let you walk on the beach !!!! no bull!!!
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/quee...29-10a8e5.html

[aussiblue]

The control of middle east oil?

Yes; it's a possibility; otherwise why not get involved in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad the Congo etc.

It is interesting that in the past (WWII and Vietnam) we seemed more willing to accept that our involvement in foreign wars, gave us an obligation to accept a large number of the resulting refugees (albeit post WWII - mostly white European refugees) but we appear to have become more selfish in recent times.

[xxx000]

Originally Posted by BadMax

must be part of the new generation who are incapable of assessing risk and taking responsibility of your own actions. It's not for you to tell people how to run their lives.



Wasn't it recently established that smoking in Australia has hardly changed since plain packaging was introduced?

@stinky Ninja, you ignorance is bliss. How does it feel?

No, quite the opposite actually. The tobacco companies are hurting as a result of it. We're seen as innovators around the world for the introduction of plain paper packaging.

[GSPSI]

Go to other countries apart from all the ones with tourist attractions and party/resorts sippin pina colatas and see what its like there.
When you have no choice but at a certain age you have to join the army and fight for the country.
Children go to school and then uni to study for what they want to be in the future but only have a 5% chance of landing a job because there is simply no work.
Having to accept the fact they will live from pay cheque to pay cheque for the rest of their life.

Instead of just booking your holidays to all these fancy places ie: Paris. Try fit a country in that nobody goes to. Then when you think about Australia and everyone having a sook here that Abbotts a tool and that the petrol has gone up by 10c and it makes it abit harder for everyone to drive luxurious cars as much as they would like, you will then understand how fortunate we are who we are.

[noflac52]

Interesting discussion but I can't see what any of it after post 15 has to do with the difference in road rules between France and Australia.

The personal responsibility aspect which is being sorely diminished in Australia and which is already causing more harm than it is avoiding will only get worse as people are given more rights to blame all their misfortune on someone else rather than take ownership of their mistakes.

Viva La France road rules!

[Stefan]

[marty351]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

Simply not true we actually have amongst the world's harshest immigrations restrictions and take less refugees than most countries; the issue is the pollies have made it a high profile overexposed issue. See http://data.unhcr.org/dataviz/ http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...zoomed-picture etc and then tell me we are taking our share of refugees compared to most other nations noting our involvement with the US in various middle east wars (albeit for good intentions) that have been a major driver in creating refugees. The white Australia policy unfortunately remains alive and well.

White Australia policy alive and well? Take a good look around Melbourne at any time of the day. More immigrants and 1st generation aussies going about their daily business than I care to imagine.
Australia used to be a bland backwater before the 70s, meat pies and fish'n'chip shops dominated the landscape. I always look foward to something new on the menu when I feel like it.

And as for refugees, we take a lot, but as the world constantly changes, many choose to come here not because they HAVE to, but for government handouts. Refugees yes, illegal immigrants no.

[GasoLane]

And now............... back to the original topic please.