Revolution Part 2 - The French Up In Arms ! |
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File under France News Travel
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Paris, France
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As I reported some months ago, France has started an aggressive program of automatic digital radars. The radars are linked up to a central computer the analyze car (and bike) registration plates automatically and send out the ticket within hours. The radars make a photo from the front AND the back, so bikes can no longer escape radars.
Although the French play a fair game ( 1. you are first warned with a speed limit sign, 2. then a sign that tells you that there's an automatic radar up ahead, 3. then another speed sign and 4. then the radar itself), many drivers ignored signs and got caught speeding.
The first weekend of operation for 10 automatic radars and 3500 tickets were distributed bring in 320,000 Euros.
Since the French love speed, and love mavericks (that's why they respect bikers), these brand new, and very expensive radars, have become a target !
Some radars received a Molotov Cocktail and got badly burned (see first photo), some where shot at with a shotgun (see second photo), some received a paint can over them and some were just torn down (see third photo).
However, in most cases, specially the idiots who threw paint over the radar, arrived at the radar too fast and had their photo taken anyway, so the Police arrested them. Others did get away !!
There is a lot of pressure on the government to slow down on the radars. Considering that you had up to 9 days to pay your fine, or else you'd have to pay a penalty, at least the government has no given people 2 weeks to pay. They are also increasing the threshold of the radars.
Personally, I think they are going to water down the radar distribution and tickets, but the effect has been a drop of some 25% in mortality rate so far !!
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