Driving and other transportation in France

It's the classic scene from a 16th birthday in the United States: the teenager tears off the outer wrapping paper from a little box to discover the keys to his brand-new, 2009 Cadillac Escalade. All excited, he rushes out to the family's six-car garage, only to discover that the Escalade is not the color that he wanted. Devastated, he throws the keys on the garage floor, rushes into his room, and locks the door for days on end. With minimal hesitation, his family offers to exchange the vehicle for a new one, even though it amounts to a net loss of thousands. The teenager reluctantly agrees, but still insists that the color mix-up ruined his "sweet 16" experience--an experience that he can never get back.

OK--so maybe this is a little extreme, but you still get the idea.

In France, the legal driving age is 18. At that time, one must take classes at a driving school, log a certain number of hours behind the wheel, pass a written test about signs, warning, and right-of-ways (as if that concept exists), and then finally pass a road test that is designed for first-time failure. All of this comes at a price, too. An average driving student spends nearly €2000 ($2800) taking classes and tests.

Driving in France is no easy task either...and the French agree. Aside from the endless array of signage, every rule seems to have it's own exception, which also seems to have a rule. Different signs exist to tell you what you have to do (very pleasant round blue signs) AND what you can't do (very flashy round red signs). Then there are those signs that tell you the end of an obligation, which is usually just the same sign as the obligation, but with a slash through it. Passing vehicles is another complicated issue. This can be marked in one of two ways. The first is by a round, red-edged sign with two cars in the middle, the left car being red (no passing). The other is by the use of different lane markers on the road. The first one is a broken white line 3 meters long at 10 meter intervals, which indicates that you can pass anything while going the legal speed limit. The next one is a broken white line that is 3 meters long, but at 1.33 meter intervals, which means that you can only pass slow-moving vehicles, such as tractors, bikes, and semi-trucks, but not slow-moving cars. Then, arrows are painted between the broken white lines, indicating that your freedom to pass is about to end, but not yet. Let's not forget the solid white line which means no passing anything. And as if varying intervals are not enough, thicker boundary markers indicate reserved lanes. Oh yeah, remember that no passing sign? That only means that you can't pass vehicles with more than two wheels, leaving room to pass motorcycles and mopeds. Got it?

Gas prices are another thing. Across all of Europe, they are pretty high compared to the United States or Canada. In France, gas prices that I've seen range from €1.25 to €1.35 per liter. This equates to about $1.75 to $1.89 per liter, which equals about $6.65 to $7.18 per gallon (3.8 liters in 1 gallon)! Could you imagine paying that much to fill up your car? A full tank for my little Cavalier would cost about $80! Yikes!

Due to the expensive nature of driving cars in France, many people opt to use bicycles, mopeds, or any form of public transportation that is available. France is very public-transit friendly, with most towns having a bus network, if not some type of rail system or metro. Thanks to the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), Paris is usually no longer than 5 hours from any other major city in France. In smaller towns and cities (such as Annecy), bus systems run throughout the town proper and surrounding areas. Train stations, which can be found in nearly every town/city in France, make intercity rail travel very easy. This all means that cheaper alternatives to expensive road travel are plentiful.

If I had to choose, I would probably aim for a mélange of both. I'm in favor of driving at 16, but dislike the lack of adequate public transportation in the majority of the United States. In Europe, I enjoy the public-transit opportunities, but dislike the general cost of driving individually. I think there is something to be learned from both systems. For now, however, the Americans will keep on driving while the Europeans keep on riding.

There will be a quiz over French road laws on Monday, so study up!