A few weeks after a maiden visit to Zurich we receive an bill to pay 40 CHF for driving at 31 kph in a zone indicating 30 kph speed limit !

Given that the vehicle is in motion and different roads have different speed limits should there be an allowance....of some sort ?

Are the traffic regulations in Zurich that harsh ?

So unforgiving !

There is an allowance. Your 31 is after the allowance. It will say your measured speed on the ticket.

I believe your ticket probably said 34-3 = 31= speeding. Welcome to Switzerland and its math . We got one too, our second day here! Luckily only gotten 1 more in the 18 months since!

It will almost certainly have been a camera.

If you get flashed in Switzerland there is a deduction of 5 km/h for possible camera errors, plus the speedo of your car has a tolerance of about another 5 km/h.

My guess is that your indicated speed was about 41 km/h ...

Tom

(Not disagreeing that driving in Zurich is a pain, but if we stop doing it, they win !!)

So? What does this have to to with the OP's case? This is Switzerland, not the UK. And those sitting behind the cameras sit behind locked doors... if there is even a person present in the first place.

<rant>
By the way, three posts and nothing about Switzerland. When are you moving in?
</rant>

There's a line in the sand, one side costs nothing, the other side has varriyng tarifs depending on how far away you are from it after a deduction for in-attention, error, other excuses, etc.

Nothing to brag about. The day you knock a kid or a mother for a few precious seconds saved on your schedule, you might not think appropriate to joke about it on a public forum. Speed merchants get my groan!

huh, I have the exact opposite complaint whenever I visit Geneva, I find myself constantly wondering if there are any speed limits or rules to the road at all.

I don't quite understand this thread. Is the OP complaining that he drove too fast?

Welcome to Switzerland.... Pay up and slow down.

If the kid/mother were crossing without looking, they would be as guilty of trying to knock a few precious seconds off their schedule.

But yeah...aparently the swiss are nazi about speed limits SPECIALLY in a 30...which makes perfect sense as the roads are often badly marked and have bakeries where people pull out without looking. Unfortunately speeding is an easily spottable offence, whereas pulling out without looking isn't.

So the bad drivers never get fined just the confident safe drivers !

P.S I never have gotten a ticket anywhere in the world in my entire driving life (miracle)

Top tip - beware of the mobile speed cameras.

Yay! That will make me feel so much better knowing that it wasn't my fault that I knocked over and possibly maimed, or killed a child...

Got my first fine in Zurich after 4.5 years a few weeks ago Also in a 30 km/h zone. My speed was 34 km/h after the discount. CHF40, which seemed like a bargain bearing in mind the cost of everything else here. When I saw the (mobile) camera flash, I was dreading the damage on my bank account so I was pleasantly surprised when the fine came through

For these "minor" speeding fines, Switzerland is actually cheaper than at least some of its neighbours, as I recently found out to my cost.

The basic 40 CHF fine for 1-5 kph over the limit in Switzerland corresponds to a 135€ fine for the same thing in France (although it is reduced to 90€ if you pay up within a very generous deadline period).

No, they wouldn't be equally guilty of anything, because they are not operating a motorized vehicle moving at fast speeds in a populated area, which could potentially kill someone. Besides that, they have the right of way. As to the 'bad drivers never get fined just the confident safe drivers', you sound dangerously full of yourself.

PS. I have never gotten killed anywhere in the world by speeding motorists, but I have been hit by cars 4 times while obeying all traffic laws on my bicycle.

Wow, that's new, a bicyclist who obeys traffic rules!

Tom

Tell me, were those people who hit you with their cars speeding OR not looking/signaling/SMDNSY??

I cycled for over 6 years on a daily basis (as for over 18 years on an occasional basis) in traffic in London. I have never been hit. All the times where "it was close", was due to a driver not checking their mirrors.

Whilst I wouldn't advocate gross speeding in built up, residential areas, the notion of a child just wondering into the street or a mother just crossing the street is alien to me.

I never seen any child crossing the streets without looking....what are we supposed to do, drive at 10mph on the motorwat because people may cross?

If I hit someone in a place where they shouldn't be then they are commiting a traffic violation as grave as my 2mph over-speeding and my initial shock would quickly subdue, much in the same way as I were to hit a pedestrian on the motorway.

What about train drivers? Are they supposed to crawl into the station at 0.5mph in case someone jumps in?

40 CHF is really nothing...friend of mine got fined ±800CHF for speeding...
so....