The big red line has arrived in France – watch out for the fine if you don’t know what it means

Already tested elsewhere, a thick red line drawn on the road has arrived in France and the fine is hefty for motorists who do not respect it.

Will red soon become the fashionable colour on French roads? ? Some European countries, including Spain, have for some time already decided to break the codes, substituting white, the traditional colour of road markings, for red. In Andalusia, the test was carried out on the A-355, near Malaga, where a thick red strip separates the lanes for almost five kilometres. Safety road markings did not take long to be inspired by it in France since this new road marking has already arrived on our roads!

Many motorists were thus surprised to discover recently a wide red stripe in the middle of the A7 motorway, near Vienne in the Rhone Valley, and the A10 towards Bordeaux. This line, drawn over a few kilometres, instantly attracts the attention of drivers, and this is the objective of this new marking. The red stripe was painted in more accident-prone areas, often on a winding section of road with little visibility. It should encourage drivers to reduce their speed and be extra vigilant.

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But as the white line continues, the red line primarily indicates a formal ban on overtaking another vehicle. While there are still a lot of people who have never seen it, the French would do well to quickly learn the meaning of this thick colored stripe. Because crossing the red line to overtake is severely punished by a fine of 135 euros and the loss of 3 points on your driving license. This is a little less severe than in Spain, where the offender must pay 200 euros and risks having his driving license suspended for three months, but it was expensive all the same!

These experiments on the A7 and the A10 are undoubtedly intended to spawn offspring. We can legitimately imagine that this new system will be extended to many roads in France if it proves itself. This is the case in some countries such as the Netherlands, where This road marking has reduced the number of accidents. So we're going to have to get used to driving on red lines, or rather not driving on them.