I’m posting this from another forum because I thought it is VERY interesting information for us all to know!
My friend had an e-mail through this week from a guy who had been stopped near the French/ Spanish border and fined 105 euro’s for using an earpiece on his sat nav.
He has been in touch with the French Tourism office in London who have confirmed it is illegal to use an ear piece of any kind, including sat nav, mobile phones.
Surely it defeats the object of using the voice control so you can concentrate on the road ahead, instead you will have to take your eyes off the road to physically look at it. What a load of ********! :blink:
The information officer states ‘Unfortunately, the ear pieces are forbidden even on a motorcycle; some police officers would probably accept it, but some others won’t.’
I thought we were part of one Europe now? obviously not :ermm:
I would imagine ear plugs are fine as they stop the damage to the ears. I would presume the issue here is extra noise distracting you from what you are doing.
Same old argument like the handsfree kits in cars are no different to having a passenger next to you, talking to you…
I presume this is based on the British law that if you have a handsfree kit for your phone, it must be the earpiece type. This is clearly a very bad interpretation of this though…
I would imagine mp3 players are OK, I THINK that wearing earphones in cars, while not strictly approved of, is not technically illegal. So I would imagine that this translates to bikes.
Are intercom systems also banned? If they are, then in Europe are they stamped ‘not for road use’?
Also, some EC countries (sorry this isn’t very helpful. I can’t remember which) have a problem with satnavs full stop (something to do with them issuing warnings about speed cameras, and gadgets that identify speed cam’s are illegal in some countries).
Any device that indicates the location of a speed camera, including a satnav is illegal in Switzerland. Although French police used to conviscate satnavs for having speed camera databases on them, this was illegal, as it is only speed camera detecting equipment which is illegal in France.
Ah. Thanks for that. (Having said which, the Swiss frontier police weren’t bothered about my very prominent satnav - that I spent a fair while piddling around with on the border - last year. I’ll be more careful in future though)
The satnav isn’t illegal unless it has a speed camera database on it - but I doubt they really care unless they want to throw the book at you, for speeding maybe!
my whole Helmet might be illegal - NOLAN built to take bluetooth intercom with internal speakers
NOT that i have the speakers nor the bluetooth _ I prefer to get lost more in Europe - or is it I like to stop admire the Orangina and the Map every so often!
I do loads of mileage on the Continent and never had a problem with SatNav or music…wouldn’t expect it on most borders now but, even on the closed ones, I’ve never had hassle. Been pulled on a few occassions for not looking at my speedo enough and , again , never been a problem…I guess it’s down to the individual traffic cop as to what he does…
