A speeding ticket almost every day I was in France

[Philip_Ente]

I use a Garmin GPS that shows where the fixed cameras are. Worked well in Spain, Italy, France etc. Like others said they are illegal but never had any issues. The first few time I used it had no idea it was illegal. Its purpose was so we didn’t have to use cellular data/google maps to figure out where we are going.

George

George

Sidebar, I brought my Garmin to France with us and could not use it because it requires a cigarette lighter plug and not one car at the rental agency had one. I just called Garmin and they said they do not make any units that run off a USB connection because they don’t put out enough power to run the Garmin. Did yours run off the cigarette lighter or did you figure out a way to adapt it? Does anyone know of a GPS that would run off of a car USB port?

Mine runs off the cigarette lighter. Never had an issue. Keep in mind I haven’t driven in Europe now for almost 2 years due to the Pandemic. Don’t know if it is more difficult now with newer model cars. This looks like it would work with mine.
https://www.amazon.com/XINYUWIN-Compatible-Navigator-2457lmt-Charging/dp/B07MT3TQ9V/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwz_WGBhA1EiwAUAxIcecx6VBIchXR4kgsp6Mm0wwSTQSzDwBD2RM3fAhrJA4mSUytyfkynhoCEpEQAvD_BwE&hvadid=485115031377&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9021657&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=b&hvrand=10834977625181195285&hvtargid=kwd-422174229066&hydadcr=17762_11226349&keywords=garmin+gps+usb+power+cord&qid=1625149736&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyUEo5TzJRVVhFNDZGJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTE5NjY5MVBHWDJXVlZQTTNPWCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjI0Njc2MTZXQ1M1N05WRTdBViZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

George

Garmin told me a USB port does not have enough power to run a GPS OR radar dector.

[Barry_L_i_p_t_o_n]

How much were the fines?

[Philip_Ente]

How much were the fines?

29 euro each

[Siun_O_Connell]

Still cheaper than a helo…

[Barry_L_i_p_t_o_n]

If I could keep it to one a day, I’d be ok with it.

[Ramon_C]

If I could keep it to one a day, I’d be ok with it.

Kept it at 1 in last 23 years (felt stupid about that lone one from 2011 driving from Cinque Terre back to Florence) and visited-drove various parts of the continent at an average of 3 times each year.

Not rocket science if you can read speed-limit roadsigns.

[Otto_Dobre]

How much were the fines?

29 euro each

You sure Philip? That may be just the charge that your rental charges you for giving your info to police. Speeding ticked should be 4-5 times higher.

[George_Hejna]

How much were the fines?

29 euro each

You sure Philip? That may be just the charge that your rental charges you for giving your info to police. Speeding ticked should be 4-5 times higher.

Yes we got busted in Florence driving in a no “car” zone. Tickets were 150 Euro plus the Avis fee. Still haven’t paid. Not sure I will be welcomed back to Florence.

George

[Barry_L_i_p_t_o_n]

If I could keep it to one a day, I’d be ok with it.

Kept it at 1 in last 23 years (felt stupid about that lone one from 2011 driving from Cinque Terre back to Florence) and visited-drove various parts of the continent at an average of 3 times each year.

Not rocket science if you can read speed-limit roadsigns.

The issue isn’t the posted limit.
The issue is I speed intentionally.

[Barry_L_i_p_t_o_n]

29 euro each

You sure Philip? That may be just the charge that your rental charges you for giving your info to police. Speeding ticked should be 4-5 times higher.

Yes we got busted in Florence driving in a no “car” zone. Tickets were 150 Euro plus the Avis fee. Still haven’t paid. Not sure I will be welcomed back to Florence.

George

Avis will pursue you for it in my experience.

[Philip_Ente]

[/quote]

You sure Philip? That may be just the charge that your rental charges you for giving your info to police. Speeding ticked should be 4-5 times higher.
[/quote]

That’s it! The rental agencies tamper with the speedometer so you actually go faster than indicated and then rake in the profits.

[Ramon_C]

If I could keep it to one a day, I’d be ok with it.

Kept it at 1 in last 23 years (felt stupid about that lone one from 2011 driving from Cinque Terre back to Florence) and visited-drove various parts of the continent at an average of 3 times each year.

Not rocket science if you can read speed-limit roadsigns.

The issue isn’t the posted limit.
The issue is I speed intentionally.

A menace on the road is indeed an issue.

[Jim_Stewart]

29 euro each

You sure Philip? That may be just the charge that your rental charges you for giving your info to police. Speeding ticked should be 4-5 times higher.

Yes we got busted in Florence driving in a no “car” zone. Tickets were 150 Euro plus the Avis fee. Still haven’t paid. Not sure I will be welcomed back to Florence.

George

I Will Look For You, I Will Find You, And I Will Fine You.

[George_Hejna]

You sure Philip? That may be just the charge that your rental charges you for giving your info to police. Speeding ticked should be 4-5 times higher.

Yes we got busted in Florence driving in a no “car” zone. Tickets were 150 Euro plus the Avis fee. Still haven’t paid. Not sure I will be welcomed back to Florence.

George

Avis will pursue you for it in my experience.

It’s been 2 years. Nothing from Avis but the fee they charge. Which we paid.

George

[Philip_Ente]

Yes we got busted in Florence driving in a no “car” zone. Tickets were 150 Euro plus the Avis fee. Still haven’t paid. Not sure I will be welcomed back to Florence.

George

Avis will pursue you for it in my experience.

It’s been 2 years. Nothing from Avis but the fee they charge. Which we paid.

George

Damn, you’re right.
Looked at it again and these were four €29 service charges from SIXT.
Each one came 24 hours after the supposed crime. Have heard nothing about paying any actual tickets.
This could wind up costing me the price of a bottle of Rousseau.

Let me start over again because I still don’t understand what happened: After the first ticket I was extremely careful not to go faster than anyone else on the road. Probably 30 cars would pass by one of these Robocop machines every 60 seconds. I can’t believe the French would put up with a high frequency of tickets.
I hate to be a delusional paranoid but could this be a scam on the part of the rental agencies, since George apparently never got an actual ticket.
I’m going to reach out to some French friends who frequently travel on the autoroutes and ask them how often they get tickets

[George_Hejna]

Avis will pursue you for it in my experience.

It’s been 2 years. Nothing from Avis but the fee they charge. Which we paid.

George

Damn, you’re right.
Looked at it again and these were four €29 service charges from SIXT.
Each one came 24 hours after the supposed crime. Have heard nothing about paying any actual tickets.
This could wind up costing me the price of a bottle of Rousseau.

Let me start over again because I still don’t understand what happened: After the first ticket I was extremely careful not to go faster than anyone else on the road. Probably 30 cars would pass by one of these Robocop machines every 60 seconds. I can’t believe the French would put up with a high frequency of tickets.
I hate to be a delusional paranoid but could this be a scam on the part of the rental agencies, since George apparently never got an actual ticket.
I’m going to reach out to some French friends who frequently travel on the autoroutes and ask them how often they get tickets

I did get an actual ticket. 2 as a matter of fact. I just haven’t paid them. These were not for speeding. In Florence there are areas where only Taxis are allowed on the road. IMO it is not clearly marked or not marked at all. We rented a car for 1 day and got 3 tickets. One was right in front of our hotel that the hotel was able to fix.

George

[doug_johnson]

Avis will pursue you for it in my experience.

It’s been 2 years. Nothing from Avis but the fee they charge. Which we paid.

George

Damn, you’re right.
Looked at it again and these were four €29 service charges from SIXT.
Each one came 24 hours after the supposed crime. Have heard nothing about paying any actual tickets.
This could wind up costing me the price of a bottle of Rousseau.

Let me start over again because I still don’t understand what happened: After the first ticket I was extremely careful not to go faster than anyone else on the road. Probably 30 cars would pass by one of these Robocop machines every 60 seconds. I can’t believe the French would put up with a high frequency of tickets.
I hate to be a delusional paranoid but could this be a scam on the part of the rental agencies, since George apparently never got an actual ticket.
I’m going to reach out to some French friends who frequently travel on the autoroutes and ask them how often they get tickets

Oh my god, let me know what your friends say!

I got a ticket a few years ago in Barcelona for making a left turn. A left turn!!! Do the Spanish not make left turns?

They are out to get us, for sure. They must be or it just doesn’t make sense!

[Rich_Salsano]

I got several tickets in Italy years ago. The Italian authorities got my home address from Hertz. After the tickets went unpaid, I received a summons from the Italian court system in Italian with an increased amount to pay. I wrote a letter disputing it (even had it translated into Italian). Nothing happened and I never heard anything for 2 years so I assumed it was all good. Last year I received collection notices. They had sold my “debt” to a US based collection agency (Cedar something) and now the collection agent fees on top of the original charges made this a much bigger issue and I was concerned about impact to my credit.

I ended up getting a lawyer involved (have Hyatt legal through my job) and was able to negotiate paying half just to clear this all up and put it to bed. The price I ended up paying (close to $700) was roughly about what the original tickets would have cost me to pay from the beginning without all the additional headache.

Moral of the story is it might be worth paying the tickets if it’s not a lot of money.

[Alan_Rath]

Easy solution: don’t speed.

My experience is that speed traps tend to be more likely on downhill sections, especially curves where you don’t have a long view ahead. I got caught once on a section like that coming into Burgundy. Gotta make sure you control your speed on those big downhill sections.

[dcornutt]

Hard to follow all those ups and downs. This is probably a big revenue producer with tourists. I think something like Waze would be your friend FWIW.