1260 Air Quality Certificate For France

Bumper off on a French built Renault Modus to change the headlight bulb - they are silly the Frenchies from time to time

 

So that breath test kit nonsense was brought about when they passed a law mandating that all motorists had to carry one. From what I understand they had a spell of handing them out prior to it coming into law in order to gain awareness. It later turned out that the head of the I-Care pressure group (Daniel Orgeval) that lobbied the Sarkozy government to introduce them actually owned one of the only two companies that were authorised to make and sell them. Suffice to say they were left in a position where they had no chance of reasonably enforcing it without there being a serious ramifications and a clear conflict of interest. So there is no fine for not having a breath test kit but apparently it's still on the statute as a requirement. Totally crazy.

 

You know what, its easy to get carried away with the nonsense surrounding driving/riding in many countries.

When I take my 1098 out, it has Termi pipes with no baffles and I wear a dark visor. So what? Man up and face the small consequences where ever you ride.
As mentioned earlier though, the one place to take real care is Switzerland.
Dare say a lot of you love riding in Spain as well, and why not. Fantastic place. In ear earphones/intercoms not allowed, and I witnessed police stopping riders in our group from putting foam earplugs in when there last year. Assume they must be illegal...

Also read that it is compulsory to wear hi viz in Ireland.

@Rainman, your right about governments and lobby groups. ABS? = Bosch=lobbying in the EU. No doubt a whole raft of further 'safety features' on the way....

 

Why would you want to tie your Harley up outside a cafe ?

 

He said horse, not a donkey!

 

Rainman that just leaves us being fucked over the government then, whoopee, one up for the UK.

Is that why the tax collecting van positions itself on a bend yards before the 40mph sign as you leave the village ?

I bet your really good with a bow and arrow Rainman

 

Thanks for that ...... I think If I wasn’t already confused, that has just tipped me over the edge. The daily status of the ZPAs are not accessable to foreigners through the press or radio. WTF ? Andy

 

If you want to order a "vignette Crit'Air" use the official French government website. It's a lot cheaper €4.21 (which includes postage), compared with €29.65 on the other website.

 

Insurance, license, outstanding warrants, don't happen at the road-side and all happen automatically via the police NPR system and they have that info before they've even tugged you, and I suspect that those are the main reasons that the rozzers stop anyone, and rightly so.

34 in a 30 is still speeding, although just below the ACPO guidelines for issuing an FPN. 7/10 times you're going to get a lecture and sent on your way, but regardless of the guidelines you can still get nicked for 31 in a 30. It's still speeding after all. The law is pretty clear in the UK as to what you can and can't do and it you fall foul of it you can only look at yourself as the root cause of your grief with the law.

Over the last 10 years 75% of my UK two-wheeled mileage has been in central London. I honestly can't remember the last time the police tugged me anything where I didn't deserve it, and even then I can only think of one time where I brake-tested some wanker that wasn't happy about being overtaken in a traffic jam and deliberately forced me into oncoming traffic. I brake-tested him to a total stop and was about to drag him out of his car when I felt plod's hand on my shoulder and stopped me. They took me to one side and I explained what had happened and offered them my helmet-cam as evidence. They saw the incident, took my details, gave me a ticking off for having a red-mist moment and sent me on my way, and I left them dealing with the twat that had just tried to kill me. No one said anything about my loud exhaust or my black visor. They could have done me for dangerous driving, so I was lucky, but on reflection I think they reacted to the situation with an element of common sense and even sympathy. I'm not confident I'd have had the same treatment outside of the UK.

I don't have a problem with having to contend with the law in any country if I'm the one at fault - be it speeding at 1mph over the limit, or whatever. I've managed to keep a clean license for a long time but just like a lot of people I've also done a speed awareness course once or twice over the years. Speeding is speeding and I'm sure you're not arguing that it's OK to be doing 34 in a 30? People do make mistakes and at least in the UK that is acknowledged and there is the provision for folk with a clean license to keep it clean if they made an honest mistake or had that momentary lapse in concentration. Good luck with that in France, because with empty pockets you're being taken to a cash machine by a guy who's been empowered to be judge, jury and executioner. You're not getting an invite to a speed awareness course and they're currently trying to link the French and UK license points systems so if you get clobbered in France it's on your UK license - and of course, you're already convicted at the roadside in France, so if it's a momentary lapse of judgement you'll be royally screwed.

 

There is an interesting contrast between the French and British approaches to clean air and exhaust emissions.

The French policy is to have a scheme of cheap graduated stickers for vehicles, along with graduated zones in locations. The more polluting (older) vehicles are simply banned from entering certain zones at certain times.

The British concept is to impose charges. Any vehicle can enter any zone at any time - provided the driver pays a stiff fee.

Those well-meaning folk in the UK who complain, petition and protest about the proposed fees would get a shock if their protests resulted in them being banned altogether without the option of paying a fee.

 

I think you might need to just go back and re-appraise yourself of what's going on in each country.

As I understand it, all vehicles in France are required to have this sticker and paid their charge respective - so charging everyone, regardless. No incentive for anyone to be clean as far as I can tell, just charge everyone as it's a wonderful new excuse to raise revenue.

In the UK, from April next year, will only apply to vehicles in "Ultra Low Emission Zones" that are not Euro 6 diesel, Euro 4 petrol car, or Euro 3 motorcycles after 2006 with some older than that. It runs alongside the congestion charge and uses the same system and so they already know if your vehicle is compliant or not. If you've got a Euro 3 compliant bike then you don't have to worry, don't need to pre-purchase a stupid sticker or anything. I see a lot of riders of old machines up in arms but if you're part of the problem then I can't see how you can whinge too much. There are a lot of cheap 10 year old bikes out there that are compliant do just because your 1988 BMW K100 or Honda C90 have been working so well for you doesn't mean you're not a polluter.

So as of today, if I ride in a low emission zone in France I have to pay in advance for a sticker, regardless of what I'm riding. In the UK from next April I don't need to do jack.

 

And speeding a a worry...............

I love France and never worry about all the bureaucracy - I don't think that the French worry much, either. That's why we are leaving the EU. It is very British to follow rules to the letter, but everybody else just works around them -, maybe the Germans follow rules a bit but they have the ring and I can't imagine that here! Oh yes, a one-way public road with no speed restrictions would really go down well here! No problem with tricking emission tests, either.

My own set of French rules are quite simple. Don't speed and make lots of noise in the villages and towns, drive on the right, and don't get pissed and try to ride. Everything else is optional. Oh, and don't worry if you get flashed by speed cameras.

 

No, all vehicles in France are not required to have a sticker, only those which the owner proposes to take into certain local zones at certain times. And no, it doesn't raise any revenue because the charge for the sticker is a very low one-time fee which barely pays for the administration. The oldest and most polluting vehicles, far from being required, will not be allowed to have a sticker.

 

My point, which I apologise for not making clearer, is that the UK approach is to allow all vehicles, no matter how polluting, into the relevant zones, but to charge them a substantial fee each and every day. It may well raise a substantial amount of revenue (unlike the French scheme), but the more revenue it raises the less will air quality be improved.

In the UK any person who is wealthy enough to pay the daily fees will not be troubled, whilst in France the more polluting vehicles will be banned from the zones regardless of their owners' wealth. That is the difference I found remarkable.

 

The fee is so high that anyone routinely going in and out of London on a regular basis would be highly incentivised to change their vehicle, so I would disagree with that sentiment. Lets be honest, the fee is in fact so high (particularly for large commercial vehicles) that if someone really did persist in using an older polluting vehicle it would be utterly stupid to continue with it, in which case .... good! Let them pay through the nose.

Any person wealthy enough also wouldn't be stupid enough to continue paying at the rate which is due to be applied by this time next year. The notion that it wouldn't motivate someone with money is ridiculous - you think people with money that probably spend a lot of their time establishing some level of tax efficiency would be happy to hand over money for a charge that they wouldn't need to pay?

For the annual amount you would be charged you could finance a new car which would be exempt, easily. In fact, you'd be able to buy something clean enough to be exempt from congestion charge too, and use your vehicle for travel completely free of charges. Saving at least £20 per day would easily do that, and probably also pay for you to hitch up to an electric charging point too.

Just to put this into perspective and keep a sense of reality and dispel any myths that the scare-mongers at MAG will tell you, I'll share something with you. I just did a check on my own car to see if I would have to pay to enter the current LEZ or the new ULEZ next year. I drive a 2010 Nissan GT-R. That's right, it's an 8 year old 3.8L V6 twin turbo making over 500bhp that struggles to do better than 18mpg avg in town. It's a total gas guzzler, but guess what? It's exempt from T-charge, LEZ and ULEZ charges.

 

So this is just a money spinner then, what difference to you emissions does having a sticker make? That's like a speed camera we have near me, on a straight road with no junctions for what? money not health or safety.

 

I couldn't agree more. 4 euros doesn't sound like a deterrent to me, whereas almost £100 per week to commute in a polluting car in London (over £550 per week with a lorry) is as big a deterrent that you could think of. In fact 4 euros sounds more like a dreamt up figure that they could just get under the radar in order to avoid a complaining nation with strike-happy unions.

How on earth does 4 euros for a sticker deter polluters?

 

It doesnt. The sticker has a number on it that shows how polluting your vehicle is. If you dont have a sticker you get fined if you number is not allowed in you get fined.