Tips for driving in Germany

Voodoomelon

I'm off to Germany on Friday for the weekend and have the pleasure of picking up an S-class or similar at the airport.

Any tips on driving in Germany, weird rules and regulations I should be aware of? I've done a bit of a search and nothing too different is popping up, any first hand experience?

Thanks.

Nissan doctor

Make sure you drive on the right.......




:Psorry, couldn't resist!

CiniO

Few things I can think of.

1. On motorways check your mirrors really properly before changing lanes. Don't be surpriced if there will be some cars overtaking you at 300km/h.

2. Remember that on junctions of equal importance, cars coming from the right have a right of way. That applies as well to T-junctions.

3. On junctions with traffic lights, if you have a green light and you are turining left or right, remember to give way to pedestrians, as they have green light as well at the same time.

Generally if you go througt this you should be OK.
http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/zeichen.shtml

coylemj

This probably won't be of any use to you but just in case you're involved in a minor accident, the Germans as usual do things different from us. I was sitting in a cafe in Germany many years ago and there was a small traffic accident outside, it wasn't very serious but what happened afterwards I found fascinating.

First a motorbike cop arrived on the scene within minutes, he established that there was nobody injured and none of the drivers had drink taken, then a small traffic police VW van arrived and the motorbike cop left. It turned out that the VW van had a table in the rear with seats facing the table so what happened next was that the two drivers involved in the accident and one of the policemen sat around the table in the back of the van, the drivers produced their driving licences and insurance, made statements and when they were finished they all went their separate ways, job done.

bazzachazza

Yeah DO NOT VENTURE into the left most lane of the autobahn without a very good look a good distance behind you remember a vehicle can be closing at a speed of 1000 meters per minute if it is going 100km/h faster than you that's 100m every 6 seconds. He will be up your arse faster than a rat up a drain pipe. So plan your overtaking well ahead.

Don't drive like a tit that's what will get you pulled.

When parked up there may be a blue plastic card in the glove box with a clock face a plastic hands on it. Put that in your window with the time you parked at set on the clock.

Other than that its fun and they are very good practical drivers.

E39MSport

ehhh, it's Monday morning but the numbers in the last post are confusing.

I think he/she is trying to say watch out for much faster cars on your left (not just the leftmost lane - and they may be travelling 60km/h or 100km/h or more faster than you - as already mentioned)

OP - if you're hiring from a major rental outfit you probably won't get bigger than a 3 litre which I suppose is big enough.

munchkin_utd

maybe another thing that might be noticeably different is the short acceleration/ decelleration lanes on the motorways.
The advice there is (from doing lessons in Germany):
- on entering a motorway, to floor it, no pansy sh1t, literally 3rd and foot to floor.
- on leaving a motorway, dont slow till youre in the deceleration lane, then briskly scrub off of speed, and again 3rd gear is your man for the upcoming corner, and the corners are designed for 60kmh unless otherwise signed (check your speedo before hitting the corner). And if it says 40, its a SHOCKIN tight corner

AND - fines are incremental for speeding.
A few km over and its only a few euro (and no points, but thats not a prob to you even if there were), so only 30euro for 20kmh over the limit.
A lot of kmh over the limit, and its not the flatrate 80yoyo like in Ireland.
Nope. 70kmh over the limit = 600 euro fine (+points and take your licence)
heres the info in english: http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/traffic-violations.html

oh, and one that isnt in the books!
Many times you'll see a speed limit with a note below it "bei nässe".
That means that the indicated speed limit is in force ONLY when its wet.
Mostly its for safety reasons so not something to be ignoring!!

bkehoe

CiniO wrote: »

2. Remember that on junctions of equal importance, cars coming from the right have a right of way. That applies as well to T-junctions.

And how you know if you have priority at a junction is to look out for a yellow diamond sign. Many junctions have traffic lights which switch off after midnight too though they will be signposted with yellow diamonds to indicate if you have priority and thus don't need to stop.

Also in many areas, usually former Eastern areas, you can turn right on red, giving way to any oncoming traffic. This will be indicated by a printed green arrow sign being fixed to the side or bottom of the traffic light. So if you see this and there are no cars coming then make the turn otherwise expect horn blowing from behind (yes this I personally experienced once my first time driving in Berlin lol!).

tc20

at night time, the traffic lights on lesser junctions may switch to flashing amber, so its proceed with caution.

whereabouts are you headed VM?

Voodoomelon

Wow, thanks for all the tips, i'm glad I posted.
I'm landing in Frankfurt and then its about a 2 hour drive to Nuremberg. Making the same return journey on Monday, but also plan on doing a few trips about Nuremberg.

I've never driven on the right before, so i'll be taking it handy for the first few hours!

Leonard Hofstadter

Isn't there something about being involved in an accident on an unlimited autobahn if your speed is greater than 130 kph (the Richtgeschewindigkeit) as well? Something to do with liability even if your not at fault?

One thing I do know is the Autobahnpolizei have zero tolerance for tailgaiting (there can be quite severe fines for it) and they are equally intolerant of middle and left lane hoggers.

No matter how tempting it may be, do not flash your lights to signal to a driver to move lanes, they can fine you for that too.

Also, some Autobahns only have no speed limits during certain hours - the ring road in Cologne had signs saying 120 and underneath "bis 6 and 19 Uhr" i.e. the speed limit is 120 kph between 6 am and 7 pm, or at least it did have these signs up when I was there about four years ago.

helimachoptor

Op if you are in an accident with an unparked car you will need to remain at the scene for 30 minutes before leaving your contact details at the other car.

As said, the left most lane is for over taking and the gemans really do fly up so watch out.

Voodoomelon

Just missing you so. Who did you go with, I went with Avis in the end. I'm really expecting them to try and fob me off with an A6 or E-class or the like.

unkel

CiniO wrote: »

On motorways check your mirrors really properly before changing lanes.

This means not just check once. Checking once will only give you an indication of the distance the car in the overtaking lane is behind you. Checking your mirror frequently also gives you an indication of the speed the car in the overtaking lane is doing

The "he came out of nowhere" sometimes posted by Irish drivers here on boards is a fail. That could kill you on German motorways...

Mena

I did a lot of driving around Germany at the beginning of the year, and got caught out with summer tyres on a 3 series in blizzard conditions. It all went horribly wrong

The weather looks ok so that shouldn't be an issue. All I could do is echo what the others have said.

First time driving on the right may seem a bit daunting, but, and perhaps it's just me, it just felt normal very quickly.

I think if I was in a right hand drive car over there I would be in a spot of bother though.

Oh and, the whole left lane thing... make sure you pay attention to that... I got passed out many, many times when I was doing well over 200Kph...

mikedragon32

When you leave the Car Hire carpark in FRA, you're pretty much straight onto Autobahn, so make sure you're comfortable in the car and have yourself set up properly so that you're not trying to get mirrors moved about or reposition your seat as you come to the merging lane for joining the Autobahn.

As already mentioned, floor it when joining the Autobahn, don't slow down until you come off the autobahn on the sliproad, then throw out the anchor. Some of the bends coming of Autobahns are horrible! But the good news is it's a straight run down the A3 for about 200km or so (maybe 220km), so once you're on the road, that's it. the one thing to be wary of is deciding "hey, it's autobahn" and just going for it. Get a feel for the car and the roads before you do anything rash. Particularly if you've never driven on the continent. It can be a bit of a head-**** at first with traffic overtaking on the left. Oh yeah, lane discipline. If you're not overtaking, get out of the leftmost lane! What you don't want is at 200kmph to see something closing in on you like you're going backwards and then panicking about getting back into the lanes on the right!

The other thing that you need to be prepared for is how little space you'll be left. What is considered cutting in here is pretty much par for the course over there, so don't get all precious about the space between you and the car in front.

Bigcheeze

mikedragon32 wrote: »

When you leave the Car Hire carpark in FRA, you're pretty much straight onto Autobahn, so make sure you're comfortable in the car and have yourself set up properly so that you're not trying to get mirrors moved about or reposition your seat as you come to the merging lane for joining the Autobahn.

Good advice for hiring a car anywhere. I always make sure I fix seat, mirrors and know how the lights, wipers, air con work, have coins for tolls, before I move.

CiniO

tc20 wrote: »

at night time, the traffic lights on lesser junctions may switch to flashing amber, so its proceed with caution.

whereabouts are you headed VM?

It's not proceed with caution.
In most cases there are signs decribing which road is the main road and which road is the secondary road. If there isn't then car coming from the right have right of way.

Obviously if the traffic lights are working, then signs not apply.

CiniO

bazzachazza wrote: »

Yeah DO NOT VENTURE into the left most lane of the autobahn without a very good look a good distance behind you remember a vehicle can be closing at a speed of 1000 meters per minute if it is going 100km/h faster than you that's 100m every 6 seconds. He will be up your arse faster than a rat up a drain pipe. So plan your overtaking well ahead.

You did some miscalculations.

1000 metres per minute is 1km per minute, so 60km per hour (60km/h). Not 100km/h like you said.
If car is going 100km/h it's about 28 m/s (metres per second).

CiniO

bkehoe wrote: »

And how you know if you have priority at a junction is to look out for a yellow diamond sign. Many junctions have traffic lights which switch off after midnight too though they will be signposted with yellow diamonds to indicate if you have priority and thus don't need to stop.

The one confusing thing might be, that these diamond signs just mean the begining of main road. So if you approach one, it doesn't need to be repeated before every junction, and usually isn't. You just have to remember that you are on main road. Whenever main road is over you approach the crossed diamond sign.



So if you don't see any sign before the junction it means that it might be junctions of roads of equal importance where right of way goes to the vehicles coming from the right, or it might be the main road which you don't know of.

peasant

munchkin_utd wrote: »

the short acceleration/ decelleration lanes on the motorways.

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Some of the bends coming of Autobahns are horrible!

Gratuitous, useless factoid:

That is so, because in most cases these on/off ramps are still in the shape uncle Adolf had them designed (at a time when 100 km/h was fast) and the space (and money) to redo them to modern standards simply isn't there.

Voodoomelon

CiniO wrote: »

The one confusing thing might be, that these diamond signs just mean the begining of main road. So if you approach one, it doesn't need to be repeated before every junction, and usually isn't. You just have to remember that you are on main road. Whenever main road is over you approach the crossed diamond sign.



So if you don't see any sign before the junction it means that it might be junctions of roads of equal importance where right of way goes to the vehicles coming from the right, or it might be the main road which you don't know of.

Let me get this right, once you come across the crossed diamond, it means you are no longer on a main road with right of way. Once you're on a road like this, adjoining roads from the right will have right of way? Sounds a bit daunting?

peasant

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Let me get this right, once you come across the crossed diamond, it means you are no longer on a main road with right of way. Once you're on a road like this, adjoining roads from the right will have right of way? Sounds a bit daunting?

Don't worry ...the crossed diamond is usually followed by a stop sign or yield sign at the point where it really counts ...no shortage of road signs in Germany

munchkin_utd

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Let me get this right, once you come across the crossed diamond, it means you are no longer on a main road with right of way. Once you're on a road like this, adjoining roads from the right will have right of way? Sounds a bit daunting?

Ach, its not that bad.

In general, theres no silly business.
i.e. what looks like a main road, is a main road (i.e. dual carraigeways and the like)
And what looks like a side road, is a side road.

those signs are really only somthing to be worrying about when rambling about back alleyways. But if you just tip toe about then you'll come to no harm. Back streets are mostly 30kmh so youre going damn slow anyhow.

Voodoomelon

No bother, thanks.

CiniO

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Let me get this right, once you come across the crossed diamond, it means you are no longer on a main road with right of way. Once you're on a road like this, adjoining roads from the right will have right of way? Sounds a bit daunting?

Not really.
Junctions of the roads of equal importance are quite rare.
They exist especially in housing estates, small town roads, etc.
Usually if you come across the crossed diamond, it will mean the end of the main road, and will be followed by a yield sign.

Run_to_da_hills

and............ Don't mention zee war. :

Voodoomelon

lol, we were just saying that, get all the jokes out of the way in Dublin airport...

Piri

You will realize what a stupid thing a speed limit on motorways:)

doolox

If you can manage in Ireland you will have absolutely no problem in Germany or Austria. I have driven briefly in both and had no problems.

The worst place I have driven was in Southern Spain at the height of the tourist season.

Best place was Southern Portugal, regarded as bad drivers but I had no problem there.

Boskowski

CiniO wrote: »

1. On motorways check your mirrors really properly before changing lanes. Don't be surpriced if there will be some cars overtaking you at 300km/h.

Should do that here too.

CiniO wrote: »

2. Remember that on junctions of equal importance, cars coming from the right have a right of way. That applies as well to T-junctions.

Same as here then.

CiniO wrote: »

3. On junctions with traffic lights, if you have a green light and you are turining left or right, remember to give way to pedestrians, as they have green light as well at the same time.

As it happens that doesn't apply to junctions with traffic lights only, but to ALL junctions. A car turning has to give right away to pedestrians crossing the road they're turning into and most importantly have an eye on cyclists for that matter.

Why did I say most importantly with regards to cyclists? Because a lot of of cycling lanes are located on the footpath and an approaching cyclist may therefore be blocked by parked cars and is also much faster than a pedestrian. Genrally speaking it helps to have general awareness. Say for instance when you're approaching a junction you intend to turn right at and you pass a cyclist 100 metres before you come to said junction common sense will dictate to look out for him when you're actually turning.

Btw, all this also applies if you enter an 'Einfahrt' into private property like a filling station, driveway, whatnot. Pedestrians and cyclists have right of way (as it should be IMHO) and they will insist on it.

One other thing. Germans, especially in cities, can be little sh1ts with regards to jumping on other drivers faults (educating them so to speak) - annoying little trait, but in general we're rules Nazis). Say for instance the inability to turn a corner which is so common in Ireland - treating your Nissan Micra like an articulated lorry and veering out to the right before you turn left (just in case you come closer than 4 foot to the curb) and still end up in the opposing lane after the turn. Drivers in Germany will call you on that as in they are (almost) prepared to provoke an accident here to point out your fault.

kazul

helimachoptor wrote: »

Op if you are in an accident with an unparked car you will need to remain at the scene for 30 minutes before leaving your contact details at the other car.

I take it you mean "parked car"?

Mr.David

I'd try and avoid rush hours because although sometimes you can drive very quickly on autobahns, lots of the time the traffic is awful!

Loads of people have mentioned checking your mirrors when pulling out to the overtaking lane, also remember the opposite of that - lots of the autobahns are two lanes and you can be hammering along at 250 with trucks on the inside doing 100. Thats a pretty serious speed differential should somebody pull out from between some trucks!

Lastly, enjoy!!:D

Voodoomelon

Well, just got back, quite the interesting trip!

The 200km of autobahn between Frankfurt and Nuremberg are packed with roadworks, the speed limit is up and down like a yo-yo all the way there and back, maybe 20-30% is actually unlimited. Large trucks cause a lot of congestion also, the driving lane seems to be almost exclusively for these trucks and everyone else stays in the outermost overtaking lanes.

Our rental car was savage, a 2010 S350 Bluetec diesel, long wheelbase. The performance was incredible, id say it did 100kph in 7 seconds easy, maybe less, but the pulling power at high speed was where it really shined. You could be doing 140kph in the middle lane and want to leap into the outermost overtaking lane, put the foot down and it would jump to 170-180kph so quickly.

After driving for about 90 minutes on arrival on straight autobahn, a silver A4 infront of us suddenly had a paddle stuck out the window saying to pull over and then an LED display lit up in the back window saying "Polizei!", i nearly **** myself. They were indicating the whole way along the hard shoulder and I knew not to pull in so just followed them for about a kilometer to a service station.

The scruffiest looking non-uniformed young police chaps you've ever seen jumped out and wanted to see our papers, know where we were going etc. I asked him if I had done something wrong, he said no it was just a security check. They checked all our IDs etc and that was all it was, we were all bricking it none the less. One of the lads in the back had only just bought a six pack of beer earlier down the road and was drinking a bottle in the back spread out with his shoes off when the police lights came on, he was frantically trying to hide the beer under his coat as we didn't know what they'd make of passengers drinking beer. He actually uncovered them during the search for the rental agreement but they didn't seem to care.

I couldn't imagine driving any other car, it had reclining leather heated rear seats, softclose doors, heated/cooled seats in the front, electric sunblinds all round, nightvision camera, two sunroofs, rear camera, lane assist which wouldnt let you pull the car into a lane that had a car in it, radar cruise control, harman kardon audio, drowsyness detection, dvd, sat nav that knew the speed limit of the road, told us where jams were, showed 3d images of building, the list goes on.

Very disconcerting driving on the left for the first time, I had no idea where the right side of the car was and looking at the rear view mirror to the right was very awkward. The car was also huge so it was tough to park and maneuver. But you slowly get the hang of it. One of the lads had to brake from 230kph down to about 120kph in 3-4 seconds, the brakes got so hot that the car just wasn't stopping; that was frightening.

Car was only €410 for four days which I thought was a bargain.

Anyways, a few crap pics of the car, and thanks for the tips.

tossy

Glad you go no well!

QUOTE=Voodoomelon;71172707]a silver A4 infront of us suddenly had a paddle stuck out the window saying to pull over and then an LED display lit up in the back window saying "Polizei!", i nearly **** myself[/QUOTE]

Trying experiencing the same thing in the dark of night crossing the hills into the czech republic in paddy reg cars with 3 different nationalities in the convoy

peasant

Four young lads in a new, expensive car heading in an eastward direction

That's why you were stopped

E39MSport

Nice one.

Were you brave enough to take out the traffic along the roadworks in the narrow lane (especially trucks) ? I doubt the S would even fit in there.

It puts hairs on your chest ;-)

Best bit of my holiday last year .....

Break all ties

peasant wrote: »

Four young lads in a new, expensive car heading in an eastward direction

That's why you were stopped

I am not surprised to be honest. What surprises me is the lack of marked police cars on the autobahn. I can't recall ever seeing one.

Also when the paddle is displayed, does that not mean you must pull over and stop immediately?

Wolverine_1999

One word, Don't.

Irish drivers aren't experienced enough for German roads.

jenizzle

Driving in Germany is fun alright. The car sounds like perfect choice for the journey. I drove down through Germany in a 206 and I don't think I got into the 3rd lane once in all that time. I spent most of my time trying not to get squished by lorries.

Is it just me or was it harder to adjust to driving back on the right side of the road?

RobAMerc

IN fairness to the Germans the unrestricted bits are just that but the restricted bits -( of which there are many ) are fairly heavily policed, although road works generall means 100kph speed limit not 30kph as per here :rolleyes:

I certainly wouldn't buy a 2nd hand hire car there - I've found a rule in the hire agreement that states all hire cars MUST be maxed out on an unrestricted section of ABahn **

**Not actually true and subject to the wifes being asleep

keithclancy

CiniO wrote: »

Not really.
Junctions of the roads of equal importance are quite rare.
They exist especially in housing estates, small town roads, etc.
Usually if you come across the crossed diamond, it will mean the end of the main road, and will be followed by a yield sign.

Just remember a T-Junction is also a road of Equal Importance when there is no road signage.

I.E. Always give way to the right

Tigger

keithclancy wrote: »

Just remember a T-Junction is also a road of Equal Importance when there is no road signage.

I.E. Always give way to the right

left?
in germany its the left i assume

Wolverine_1999

jenizzle wrote: »

Is it just me or was it harder to adjust to driving back on the right side of the road?

Heh, maybe. Doesn't it feel "right" to drive on the left?

Our man in Havana

http://www.jpoc.net/countries/germany/prioriteadroit.html

The jpoc guide to priorite a droit in Germany.

I've given this page a French title but that is because most English speakers will have heard of the principle under that name. This rule is still used in parts of Germany and so you need to be aware that you may encounter it.

The idea is simple, if you are driving along and somebody is at a side turning on your side of the road (ie the right) then they have priority and you must give way to them.

I've only ever seen this in operation in built up areas and not always then. If the side street has a white line painted across it, then Priorite a droit does not apply but if there is no painted line, then the side street has priority over the main street.

This may seem like an anachronism but supporters of the idea point out that it actually increases safety. If cars can pop out of a side street at will, this causes the trafic in the main street to slow down in order to be able to stop if necessary.

Whichever is right, you should look out for this and check to see if the side streets near to you have priority.

You may also see this on roundabouts although those are anyway pretty rare in Germany.

jenizzle

Wolverine_1999 wrote: »

Heh, maybe. Doesn't it feel "right" to drive on the left?

Something along those lines. I found myself smacking my hand off the right window trying to change gear when I came home

dr.fuzzenstein

jenizzle wrote: »

Something along those lines. I found myself smacking my hand off the right window trying to change gear when I came home

That happens to me every time I get back!:D

dr.fuzzenstein

RobAMerc wrote: »

IN fairness to the Germans the unrestricted bits are just that but the restricted bits -( of which there are many ) are fairly heavily policed, although road works generall means 100kph speed limit not 30kph as per here :rolleyes:

I certainly wouldn't buy a 2nd hand hire car there - I've found a rule in the hire agreement that states all hire cars MUST be maxed out on an unrestricted section of ABahn **

**Not actually true and subject to the wifes being asleep

Depends, some roadworks are 60 km/h.

Once had a Fiat bravo 1.9 turbo diesel.
I know, doesn't sound like much, but it still did 225 km/h, we blew past the Polizei who where doing 100 km/h in the VW transporter.:D
Later remembered it had winter tires and should not have exceeded 180 km/h, oops.

keithclancy

Tigger wrote: »

left?
in germany its the left i assume

Nope, Dead confusing.

Always give priority to Vehicles coming from the Right at a T-Junction and Cross roads.

Unless the road on the right is a Dirt road (In the Netherlands anyway)

The Public Road will be a signified by a White solid (Germany) or Checkered (Netherlands) line.

If its not a public road it does not have priority either.

Basically when in doubt .. don't go

dr.fuzzenstein

keithclancy wrote: »

Nope, Dead confusing.

Always give priority to Vehicles coming from the Right at a T-Junction and Cross roads.

It's actually always give way to vehicles coming from the right unless signposted otherwise with these:



This means your road has right of way



This means at this junction you have right of way.

And of course if the other road is a driveway or dirt track.

Our man in Havana

You should fear this sign:


A skull and crossbones would be a better sign.