general driving

In the country chapters I go into great detail about the rules of the road for each country. You should familiarize yourself with and try to adhere to these rules, but don't sacrifice the proper state of mind in the process. Ironically, I think the best way to nurture the right attitude is to tone down your dependence on memory, to let the environmental stimuli flow into you unimpeded by too many worries, to react naturally and to trust your reactions, to make mistakes and to not dwell on them, to throw off the great weight of fastidiousness, to exercise the old adage: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. In other words, go with the flow; be cool; blend in with traffic; and revel in the fact that you're truly participating in a different culture, that you've effectively become, for a short time at least, a citizen of Europe. When in Paris do as the Parisians and park on the sidewalk. When in Scandinavia, if you notice everybody else driving with their lights on—even in bright sun—you'd better too. It's easy.

OK, but now you're on the road in, say, France, and you think you may be on the wrong road. You're getting nervous because you want to stay off the toll roads. After checking out France chapter you know that blue signs marked with the letter "A" indicate Autoroute péage (toll) roads; while green signs with the letter "N" indicate non-toll Route National highways. No problem: just follow the signs in green, the signs that indicate the non-toll highways. At times, you'll note, the signals seem ambiguous because one sign bears both blue and green sections listing A and N roads respectively. "How can I be on both an A and an N road at the same time?" you'll ask yourself. Such signage means only that you're on your way to both types of road, that the road you're on is not a toll road; eventually you'll have the option to enter either the toll road or a non-toll road. Sometimes after following a green-only or a blue/green sign, a blue-only sign will appear unaccompanied by possible turnoffs. Don't worry: eventually another green sign will direct you to a non-toll road before you have to pay. This all sounds simple, and it is. Just keep following the last sign you saw. Keep following the last sign you saw. Keep following the last sign you saw . . . Sorry, but I feel the redundancy is justified. It's easy to get flustered and worry that you missed an important turn. But the keen state of mind that you'll be in, coupled with the excellent nature of the roads and signage, will render quite small the chances of actually missing such a turnoff. Be astute, but trust yourself and the road design and signage. In a word, relax; usually it all comes together in the end. The wisdom of this simple approach has been apparent to me time after time throughout my travels. I've slowly learned not to get flustered when there isn't a meaningful sign placed every one kilometer. This is more than a prudent approach to driving; it's an attitude, an attitude that will greatly increase the pleasure you draw from your trip. You are, after all, on the road; you should be singing songs and talking like Kerouac.

And, as I first described in the Why Drive? chapter, history has assured that navigating to the cities and towns and sights is much more of a song than you might expect. First, most of the European languages you'll encounter are cognate with English; so it tends to be quite easy to read signs which give directions. What's more, each city and town grew from an old town center. In this center, of course, lie most of a town's attractive sites and accommodations. Everything falls into place if you follow the ubiquitous signs to the town center or simply head toward the tallest church spire. Most of the signs denoting town centers bear variations of the word center, such as "Centro," "Centrum," "Centre Ville," "Centro Città," or "Zentrum"; in many parts of Germany the word is "Stadtmitte." Furthermore, on the way to the center of town you'll see tourist information boards or signs indicating the direction to the tourist office. Most such signs read "i" for information; in France, however, they read "Office du Tourisme" or "Syndicat d'Initiative"; in the Netherlands they read "VVV"; sometimes they bear a lone "?."

Another way to get your bearings when entering a town is to follow the signs that point to the train station. Both the signs and the stations they point to are ubiquitous in Europe. Look for signs reading "Gare," "Estacion," or some variation of the word station. Many guidebooks use the train station as the origin for their directions to sights and accommodations. Furthermore, the famous and (here we go again) ubiquitous Hostelling International sign (see it above, and see the Accommodations chapter for more on hostelling) tends to be nearby, pointing the way to the nearest hostel. In most cases hostel proprietors have placed these signs in a series and with a frequency designed to lead all but the most clueless along the best route to the hostel door. Often, a tourist office operates out of the local train station. At the very least you'll find city maps dispensed inside or a single city map displayed on a large public board just outside. Perhaps what's more important, many of your fellow travelers at the station will be more than happy to give you the scoop on the best places to stay, the best sights, and the best places to hang out. Moreover, the parking lot will be at your disposal—often free of charge: you can just leave your vehicle in the lot and continue on foot or by metro, bus, or taxi. Since governments tend to build train stations near places of interest and since business people who cater to travelers tend to locate their establishments around either train stations or places of interest, you probably won't feel compelled to stray too far from the station.

To leave a city either follow the signs that indicate the road or the city you want to travel on or to or follow the signs that bear words meaning "all directions" or "other directions". For translations of these phrases, see the "Road Signs" portions in the France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain sections of this chapter. You'll note when checking the expressways on your map that they often have two different numbers designating them. One is the national designation and the other—with the "E" prefix—is the Europe-wide designation, which simply provides for continuous numbering between countries.

European police don't seem to enforce speed limits with the same gusto as do North American police. The fast lane is usually just that—fast. The countries hungriest for speed are Germany and Great Britain, where fast-lane speeds of 120 mph (200 kph) and 85 mph (142 kph), respectively, are common. As I'm sure you've heard, no speed limit exists on many sections of the famous German Autobahnen. In contrast to Germany and Britain, traffic in Norway seems to crawl along. Generally, traffic flows about 10 mph (17 kph) faster than traffic in North America. The roads are good enough to handle the high speeds, but if you don't fancy yourself a Euro Speed Racer or if your vehicle simply can't keep up, you won't be alone: plenty of Europeans drive 55 mph in the slow lanes or amicably signal or pull onto the shoulder so speedier drivers can pass. Many countries define speed limits in terms of "built-up" areas. A built-up area is indicated by a sign, placed along the road at the community boundary, that bears the name of the community. The end of a built-up area is indicated by a black slash across a twin of this sign. If when outside a built-up area the police nail you for speeding, they won't pull you over immediately; instead, they'll radio one of their colleagues who'll pull you over at a convenient spot down the road.

You need to familiarize yourself with the ways drivers may signal to you. If someone driving in the opposite direction blinks their vehicle's headlights, it means that police are lying in wait ahead. On the open roads of someone who wants to pass will come up behind you with their vehicle's left blinker (right blinker where driving driving is on the left) and/or headlights flashing (if on the continent); if you're on a single-lane highway, signal with your vehicle's right directional (left directional where driving is on the left) when you think it's safe for them to pass. European truckers use the same blinker signal to let you know it's safe to pass them. If the truck driver sees danger ahead he'll engage his truck's left blinker (right blinker where driving is on the left). Although I cannot recommend you interpret such signals as I describe above, you may soon come to trust them—but in any case you act on these signals and my description of them at your own risk. Two quick beeps on the horn means "Thank you." In the British Isles, however, it is not a good idea to flash your headlights to indicate you want to pass, as this is likely to offend the driver ahead of you; better just express a sense of urgency by using your indicator and hovering quite near behind the vehicle and somewhat toward the center of the road—but without tailgaiting. Throughout Europe you're expected to sound your horn before taking a blind curve on a narrow rural or mountain road. Otherwise, use the horn as a last resort. Motorcyclists often signal their Hello's to other bikers and Thank you's to other motorists (earned for instance by a car that moves over to give more room for the cycle to pass) by slowly pressing out their right leg.

You'll encounter tunnels in mountainous areas. Be sure to turn on your vehicle's headlights before entering a tunnel; police tend to lie in wait on the other end, nailing driver's who haven't lit up. Norway's tunnels are so long they're unnerving; you'll feel like Starbuck being shot out of the Battlestar Galactica, and you'll think to yourself, "Gee, even Superman woulda had a hard time digging these tunnels."

By the way, driving with headlights on decreases by 30 percent your chances of being in a collision with another vehicle—that's why it's required at all times in Scandinavia. (For some reason this is illegal in Germany, however.) And police are bound to go easier on drivers thoughtful enough to light up.

To use toll roads, you must, upon entering the system, pay at a booth or else get a ticket by pushing a red button on a driver's-side ticketing machine. Sometimes the ticketing machine controls a barrier; other times there's no barrier. If you go through an unbarred control point without getting a ticket, you'll be charged the maximum toll at the next exit. So they can further prosecute violators, many toll stations use automatic cameras to photograph any vehicle that passes through a pay booth without paying.

If you travel through mountain tunnels or over passes which charge a toll, note that many offer discounted return fares for travelers who'll return within a certain period, usually 72 hours.

Where two roads of equal priority intersect, you must give way to traffic coming from your right. In France this rule once applied to all roads, thus supplanting any notion of a priority road; fortunately this is no longer the case. These days long stretches of European roadway are clearly marked as priority roads, and/or the approaches to and intersections with priority roads are clearly marked with warning signs and with Yield and STOP signs or signals. Since they don't really intersect with other roads, all expressways (variously called autoroutes, autobahns, motorways, etc.) have priority. In towns a priority road often branches and makes complicated turns. In such cases a sign often identifies the priority road with a fat line opposed to thin lines which indicate lesser roads. Only on occasion will two roads of equal (unmarked) priority intersect and oblige you to exercise your knowledge of what in France is called "priorité à droite" or "priority on the right". Sometimes this runs rather counter to intuition. Take the case of an uncontrolled "T" intersection of two equal roads. You might think traffic on the through street of the "T" would have priority. But, no, traffic on the right must be yielded to. (Left-turning vehicles, however, should always yield in this situation.)

"Hey, look kids. There's Big Ben, and there's Parliament," exclaims driver Chevy Chase—starring as Clark Griswald, the well-meaning but bumbling patriarch of the pathetic Griswald clan—in a scene from the 1985 movie European Vacation. The scene unfolds early one day in the family's rented car as Clark attempts to navigate a London roundabout. "Kids. Big Ben, Parliament, (again)," he repeats the second time around. "Kids." "We know," they retort in unison. ". . . Big Ben, Parliament." Dusk finds the Griswald's little car circling on the same roundabout, all passengers but Clark fast asleep. "It's amazing," Clark says to himself in hysterical disbelief. "I cannot get left."

Roundabouts: those circular intersections where stop signs are nonexistent, and everyone's at everyone else's mercy, and you have to join the flow if you want to go—and you could, in theory, go around forever. The word roundabout is actually of American origin. American Logan Pearsall Smith, one of the members in the 1920s of the BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English originated it. Before he suggested the change, traffic circles in Britain were called gyratory circuses. (Smith also wanted to call traffic lights stop-and-goes.) To many of us North Americans, though, roundabouts epitomize European motoring. The popular American imagination elevates few elements of civil engineering to the level of enigma, but it has done so with roundabouts. In fact many non Europeans assume that if roundabouts are such a puzzle, so must be the rest of European motoring. You know by now that this assumption is unsound. But what is the deal with roundabouts anyway? Although in most cases you don't need to stop when entering a roundabout, you must yield to traffic that's already on it. A sign bearing a circle of three counterclockwise arrows indicates such a roundabout. Though increasingly rare, some roundabouts aren't graced by such a sign and thus make it incumbent for you to exercise the aforementioned priorité à droite rule; in other words, traffic on these roundabouts must yield to traffic entering. Regardless of signage, it should be immediately obvious if the traffic on or entering the roundabout is or is not waiting for you to enter. Once on the circle, you can go around indefinitely until you figure out which exit you want to take. You'll get the impression that you're skating around that old roller rink you used to go to as a kid. Indeed, you'll become a bit giddy. You'll quickly come to like these little rinks: they allow you to make unhurried decisions as your vehicle is moving, and they reduce the number of stops you must make. If two lanes enter a roundabout, you should stay in the inside lane, engaging your vehicle's inside blinker until you identify the exit you wish to take and until you pass the exit immediately before that one. Once you reach this point you should engage your vehicle's outside blinker, move into the outside lane, and exit the roundabout. England and France employ the most roundabouts.

Let's hope that all your stops are pleasant, but you should note the places where they're less likely to be so. Geneva's International Road Federation has declared Turkey and Latvia the most dangerous European countries in which to drive; Portugal is close behind. The safest countries for drivers are the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Germany. The Federation's comments generally agree with the data in Table Driving.2.

Most countries empower their police to collect fines on the spot from violators. If the police require that you pay them, make sure you get a receipt; and if possible, make sure the nature of the offense and the amount of the fine as described on the receipt match the actual offense and the amount you paid. Police in France, Germany and Italy use roadblocks to conduct random checks of vehicles and drivers. Blood alcohol limits in Europe are given in milligrams (mg), so that's how I list them for each country. Note that a blood alcohol limit of, say, 80 mg is equal to a limit of 0.08 percent or 0.8 grams per liter. Radar-triggered cameras are increasingly used to enforce speed limits by photographing the license plate of an offending vehicle. The ticket is posted within a few days to the name and address on the registration. If it's a rental or tourist-lease, the company will get the ticket and charge you. If it's a foreign-registered vehicle, well, just wait and see. The photo used to accompany, but in several cases love affairs were thus exposed; so now you'll have to visit the police station to garner the evidence. Whereas the key first threshold for police officers who might write a ticket on the spot is reported to be a speed 10 percent over the limit, it's said that along highways the cameras are only triggered by vehicles going more than 20 kph over. Furthermore, it's rumored only half the photos are unambiguous enough to result in a ticket. If you trigger one of these cameras you'll probably see the flash. Signs usually warn drivers if such an apparatus is permanently mounted along or above the road. But often they're mounted in unmarked police cars parked on the roadside or median, and in such case of course no signs attend.