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I am going to Europe in August, but I have never driven there before. I will drive in Germany and may also drive in France and Switzerland. Is there a site that would have an exam or quiz on German (or any other EU country) road rules? Something that would have pictures of possible traffic situations? Like this:



Thanks!

Peterbilt,Jul 15 2006, 02:07 AM Wrote:I am going to Europe in August, but I have never driven there before. I will drive in Germany and may also drive in France and Switzerland. Is there a site that would have an exam or quiz on German (or any other EU country) road rules? Something that would have pictures of possible traffic situations? Like this:



Thanks!
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i think down there u can't turn right on red light....thats how it is in russia....the rest is pretty much the same stuff
don't know anything about the websites

NikiterZTS,Jul 15 2006, 12:10 AM Wrote:i think down there u can't turn right on red light....thats how it is in russia....

In Ukraine you can ;)

Quote:the rest is pretty much the same stuff

Obviously, not. In Europe, they have by far more uncontrolled intersections where the "right hand rule" apply. That is not what scares me though. I am concerned about trams or rather how to pass an intersection in the presence of a tram? Do they have priority over non-rail traffic?

well I know in europe you are required to signel to use an on or off ramps on the highways. When you see other cars using their 4 ways, or hazard lights and traffic is slowing down, you are required to turn yours on too to warn everyone else around you there is a hazard ahead ( even if they already know ) and traffic is slowing down untill you pass the hazard.

Frost__2001,Jul 15 2006, 07:08 AM Wrote:When you see other cars using their 4 ways, or hazard lights and traffic is slowing down, you are required to turn yours on too to warn everyone else around you there is a hazard ahead

I already do it here for quite a while now :)

And you'll have to get used to turning circles... they're fun once you get the hang of traffic.

Oh, and everyone drives up everyone's @ss... so get used to it. :) Enjoy the trip!

EDIT: Here's some good websites I found:

http://www.german-way.com/driving.html

http://www.liquidx.net/blog/2006/06/28/driving-germany/

nothin is better then a safer trip :)

In most places they dont use stop signs just yeild signs, if thasts the case then the person on the right always has the right of way. ALWAYS slow down at these cause some crazy f***ers race to them to be first and when they dont see anyone they bolt it through.

Also if you have a slower car move over to the right a bit so they can pass by you. Sometimes there are cases where an on comming car will be comming and they will still pass you because they expect the on comming car to move over as well as you .

We dont use many round-a-bouts here, but over there its very common. Make sure you read the exit quickly because if you hit the brakes to make the exit your gauaranted to get rear ended.

EVERYONE is in a hurry when it comes to driving there so be prepared to get honked at and sweared at.

I am well-familiar with the roundabouts bevause my minor happened to be road engineering B) One of the projects that I had to do was collecting the data about five busiest roundabouts (don't confuse with traffic circles) in Sacramento Area and write a report on their impact on traffic. It was hell of a work, but after completing it, I became a great fan of modern roundabouts.

Anyways, what I was asking is more like this:




When you approach such an intersection, you will have to quickly figure out in what order the cars should proceed. What do you think?

I bet the US traffic engineers would simply put either four or two STOP signs without giving it much thought. The fact that their solution would only impeed traffic usually does not cross their mind.

Peterbilt,Jul 15 2006, 08:21 PM Wrote:I bet the US traffic engineers would simply put either four or two STOP signs without giving it much thought. The fact that their solution would only impeed traffic usually does not cross their mind.
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If you think about it though, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just think about how much trouble most drivers here have with simple stop and yield signs ;) You'd get 80 year old grandma driving her 1970 Buick land-yacht pulling up to one of those right-of-way signs and you'd stop traffic for hours :P

guilty,Jul 16 2006, 09:23 PM Wrote:

Peterbilt,Jul 15 2006, 08:21 PM Wrote:I bet the US traffic engineers would simply put either four or two STOP signs without giving it much thought. The fact that their solution would only impeed traffic usually does not cross their mind.
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If you think about it though, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just think about how much trouble most drivers here have with simple stop and yield signs ;) You'd get 80 year old grandma driving her 1970 Buick land-yacht pulling up to one of those right-of-way signs and you'd stop traffic for hours :P
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Yup, they dont set the bar too high here with respect to who they give a license to.

2001 ZTS,Jul 17 2006, 07:28 AM Wrote:Yup, they dont set the bar too high here with respect to who they give a license to.
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Meh, you get that problem everywhere with elderly drivers, governments are scared spitless to actually crack down on the elderly driver because of complaints of infringing on "their rights" (What about my right not to get t-boned by some blue hair that can't see over the steering wheel? <_< )

Hell, I found out only after coming back from Switzerland in '03 that my grandfather who'd been driving me around for the two weeks I was there was in fact LEGALLY BLIND for over a year but was still driving :blink: :ph34r:

Luckily my grandmother had enough after that and laid down the law, he hasn't driven since and surrendered his license.

NefCanuck

Peterbilt,Jul 15 2006, 10:21 PM Wrote:

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In a case like this, I'd say that 1 and 3 must yield to 2.. then proceed a la a 4 way stop..

darkpuppet,Jul 17 2006, 07:52 AM Wrote:In a case like this, I'd say that 1 and 3 must yield to 2.. then proceed a la a 4 way stop.[right][snapback]197845[/snapback][/right]

#1 and #3 indeed both need to yield to the motorcycle, but then you made a mistake. Car #3 must yield to car #1 because #1 is on the right. People who drove in Europe said that European drivers don't use eye contact as often as Americans do, and they may seem to lack courtesy, but they compensate that by accurately following the rules.

Form my research, the key difference between America and Germany is that in America you should not assume that all drivers will follow the rule. In Germany, on the contrary, other drivers have the legal right to expect that you will follow the rules.

I found a very nice European driving simulator that teaches just about every aspect of European road rules B)