In Europe, Speed Cameras Meet Their Technological Match

On a whole day drive that would still be faster as the speeding means you don't have to add on time for breaks.

In France that's effectively what happens. The toll gates are used to determine the average speed check over a journey, and so you can notice that the last service station before a toll gate is busier.

Not that I had a chance to do the same in the clapped out old Volvo I drove through France in.

I personally think average speed checks are great. In London I'd love to see the congestion charge cameras (number recognition technology) also used to check for average speed between any two cameras. I think that if people knew the whole of the city centre had average speed check enforcement that it would be a great benefit to the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and other road users in the city.

For some years now it is has been strictly forbidden under article R413-15 of the French 'Code de la Route' (highway code) to have a speed camera detector in a car in France, regardless of whether or not it is being used. Penalties can include fines of up to €1,500, confiscation of the device and of the vehicle. Until recently this legislation didn't apply to satellite navigation or other GPS-based systems capable of displaying fixed speed camera locations as points of interest (PoI).

Effective from 3 January 2012 French laws prohibiting drivers from carrying devices capable of detecting speed cameras have been extended to include devices able to warn or inform of the location of speed cameras e.g. satnav or gps systems capable of showing speed camera sites as PoI.

As well as now banning all devices capable of warning drivers of speed camera locations, the French government is installing around 400 new fixed speed cameras and is taking down road signs indicating the location of existing fixed speed camera sites.

I don't know where they saw that. "Radar-detection[1] services like Coyote’s" are universally criticized by the (past and present) French government: a bill passed recently rendering their use illegal. Now such devices alert you of a "danger zone", and the hypocrisy just grows bigger.

I can be controlled for speed up to five times on a 10km, 20min commute, yet I've been controlled only two times in 20 years for alcohol.

[1] This term is incorrect, radar detection systems (the little thingies that detect radar EM emissions) are completely banned, whereas radar alert systems (where a geolocation database is filled by professionals and/or the community and checked against current position) were until recently allowed, and banned recently.

It is pretty rare to see a police vehicle on the UK motorways. I probably see one on my carriageway less than once every thousand miles and that includes where they are dealing with an accident or traffic stop. Our roads are pretty safe by global standards so maybe that is ok and money is better spent engineering out accident black spots.