Part Time Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 The following is advice from the foreign office re regulations on speed cameras in France "In-car radar detectors and satellite navigation systems which warn of the presence of speed cameras or radars are illegal whether in use or not. There use or possession can attract fines and/or, confiscation of the device and the vehicle." The interesting bit I think is the " whether in use or not" bit. The mind boggles at the potential grief that bit, if enforced, could cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Part Time - 2012-01-12 9:17 PM The following is advice from the foreign office re regulations on speed cameras in France "In-car radar detectors and satellite navigation systems which warn of the presence of speed cameras or radars are illegal whether in use or not. There use or possession can attract fines and/or, confiscation of the device and the vehicle." The interesting bit I think is the " whether in use or not" bit. The mind boggles at the potential grief that bit, if enforced, could cause. For France, this has been true for many years where 'active' detectors of speed-cameras/radars were concerned, but 'passive' warning devices (eg. sat-navs accessing a GPS-driven database) were permitted. Seemingly, the revised French regulations that are now in force place 'passive' devices in exactly the same category as 'active' ones. However, both Garmin and TomTom have advised that deselecting a sat-nav's speed-camera alert option (which takes just seconds) before driving in France is sufficient to comply with the revised regulations. We'll see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 For anyone interested, there's a longish piece on 'speed check warning' devices and the latest French policy on http://www.securite-routiere.gouv.fr/article.php3?id_article=4024 (It converts to English reasonably well via GOOGLE) I've now looked at a wide variety of French websites that deal with ways drivers have been able to obtain warnings of 'safety camera' locations. It's evident that a lot of French motorists have the same reservations as I have that merely deselecting a sat-nav's safety-camera alert option (as recommended by Garmin and some other sat-nav manufacturers) makes the device conformant to the revised French regulations. Logically, just deselecting a sat-nav's alerts option, or even turning off the sat-nav itself, shouldn't make it conformant to the latest rules, as the safety-camera warnings remain stored in the device and readily available in a matter of moments. I've seen a couple of replies from French forum 'gurus' on the lines of "For authorative advice, demand a Yes or No answer from your sat-nav's manufacturer" and I guess that's what French motorists concerned about this will now need to do. Fortunately for me I've got a couple of months grace before visiting France and, with any luck, the "Is deselection of the alerts option OK?" question will have been decided one way or another by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David B Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Would deleting (rather than just turning them off) the French speed camera POIs from the GPS (TomTom in my case) be deemed to have complied with French legislation? I have seen elsewhere that apparently TomTom if you link to your PC via TomTom Home now automatically delete the French speed camera POIs IF they were supplied by TomTom. My speed camera POIs were NOT obtained from TomTom so I would need to manually delete them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 David B - 2012-01-14 9:25 AM Would deleting (rather than just turning them off) the French speed camera POIs from the GPS (TomTom in my case) be deemed to have complied with French legislation? I have seen elsewhere that apparently TomTom if you link to your PC via TomTom Home now automatically delete the French speed camera POIs IF they were supplied by TomTom. My speed camera POIs were NOT obtained from TomTom so I would need to manually delete them. There's no doubt that deleting French safety-camera/speed-check POIs from a sat-nav would be needed to make the device conformant to the revised regulations (or modifying the POIs so that they refer to 'danger zones' not safety-camera/speed-check locations), but that's not the issue for me. The majority of Garmin sat-navs include a safety-camera/speed-check alert option that can be switched on (selected) or off (deselected). This Garmin-provided capability has been available historically and legally for France mapping. To conform to the revised French regulations Garmin now offers a download that will convert the safety-camera/speed-check alert information to 'danger zone' data. Alternatively (if the owner of a Garmin sat-nav isn't interested in the download procedure, or his/her sat-nav model is too old to accept the download) Garmin advises that conformity can be attained merely by deselecting the safety-camera/speed-check alert option while driving in France. As far as I'm aware, there is no Garmin-provided procedure that deletes safety-camera/speed-check data from a sat-nav's French mapping. It's the 'legality' of Garmin's deselection advice that really needs to be confirmed authoritatively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayjsj Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Just playing 'Devils advocate here', what about Michelin paper maps that contain 'marked' known speed camera sites ? This is 'IN' the public domain ?? how can you make it illegal retrospectivley ? Isn't the 'Genie' already 'out of the Lamp' and been granting wishes for years ?? Are Such Paper maps also,likewise now illegal ? (^) Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Rayjsj - 2012-01-14 12:05 PM Just playing 'Devils advocate here', what about Michelin paper maps that contain 'marked' known speed camera sites ? This is 'IN' the public domain ?? how can you make it illegal retrospectivley ? Isn't the 'Genie' already 'out of the Lamp' and been granting wishes for years ?? Are Such Paper maps also,likewise now illegal ? (^) Ray The revised French regulations don't apply to paper maps. However, my understanding is that the French authorities do not intend to continue to make generally available up-to-date safety-camera location information, as this would show where the extra fixed cameras that it's planned will be installed throughout France in the future will be. So it wouldn't surprise if future Michelin/AA maps of France don't show camera locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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