2000TLondon

Any tips for the Autobahn, please? Will be entering Germany from Belgium and leaving at Switzerland, so a blast down the Autonbahn through Cologne and Frankfurt.

Never been to Germany, I know there is a suggested speed limit of 80mph (think) but my questions are -

is there a limit enforced at any time? roadworks, weather etc?

are all dual / triple carriageways autobahns or are there big signs saying AUTOBAHN, DO YOUR WORST ? ? ? ? ?

Thanks a lot

andymar00

There are areas with set speed limits so look out for the signs and be carefull entering and exiting Autonbahn as there are quite often very sharp bends, also they will come up with indicater going and flashing lights to get past just the way they drive

Taff107

You will sometimes see a speed restriction with "bei nasse" (or something like that) written below. This restriction is only in place if the road is wet. It would be a good idea to follow the Germans lead too and maintain good lane discipline. Enjoy it though, it's one big race-track!


......if you're not stuck in a stau, that is!

Jerome

Be wary of any British Army vehicles, especially if they are in a large convoy. I've seen many a squaddie nod off at the wheel of a lorry...

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Not all autobahns are unrestricted - there are two lane autos and they ARE restricted - 150kph IIRC. Unrestricted ones are three or four lane: as people have said, watch for signs.

But more importantly, watch for German drivers: they feel a safe distance from the car in front at 130mph is about eight feet - and I'm not kidding.


M

Chris L

Don't get the **** if people flash you - they do it as a warning when approaching at high speed (normally a socking great diesel Merc estate, 6 up with a dog in the back , doing 130 mph). There is less of the 'competative' element to motorway driving in Germany than you seem to get in the UK (and generally speaking, lane discipline is better (although that's not hard compared to the UK)).

Also beware of some road surfaces. Don't believe the old myth that all German autobahn's have mirror smooth, perfect road surfaces - they don't. We were down in Germany for the rally last year and some of the autbahns were in a shockingly bad state - worse than anything you would find in the UK.

Chris

cheeseboy

2000TLondon, take a look here for the speed signs to expect:

http://www.training-for-germany.de/s...5/0630.htm#top

more info here:
german road info

And as Chris said, you WILL be overtaken by many many other cars doing very high speeds. racing is fun, but we usually lose out in the end (as a porsche pulls away from you at over 260kph... been there, done that )

Neal

camk

watch for limits as you can and will get done by roadside camera or by the police. If teh police stop you for speeding and you're foreign then you need to pay on the spot. Where you see the national speed limit sign(white background and black diagonal) then its a suggested limit of 130 but its not enforced. Be careful in roadworks and at Autobahn junctions 'Kreutz' as there are usually speed restictions. As said above lane discipline is good and expected. There are lots of new Toll cameras being installed they are cream in colour, go over the whole road in scaffolding type arrangement and the cameras have long rectangular lenses, these ar not speed cameras. Be careful coming through Belgium, the E40 is long and straight and tempting but Belgian fines are enormous so be careful.

Chris L

Actually thinking about it, you'll probably have more trouble in Belgium Poor driving surfaces and even poorer drivers - easily the worst I've come across in Europe (oh yeah, and service stations that make some on the M1 look good).

Chris

SomeDude

Chris, yeah, so different from the disciplined English drivers I came across this weekend on the M25 and M3.

OK, there were a few less capable drivers, but I guess they were the 3 hooligans that were back from Portugal. I wonder if they were following me around though...

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Also don't get caught in Belgium as the fines are huge.

Re Germany on the untrestricted sections be very carefull when hooning it, teh Germans hve no concept of how fast another vehicle is going and will happily pull out in front of you without indicating or looking.

If you are hooning it watch out for the cars in the middle lane, if there is only one then you will probably be fine but if there are more than one I would start to brake at least 100m before you get to them as there is a fair chance one will overtake the other oblivious to you.

I always drive with my headlights on aswell

Also if a car comes up behind you with its indicator going it means he wants to get past, they very rarely flash their headlights at you.

Basically use your common sense and watch out for cars a few hundred metres ahead in the middle lane, and also keep your distance between the car infront as they have a habit of suddenly braking hard.

if you leave to big a gap some idiot will fill it so then you need to back off more, if you leave a small gap some idiot will pull into it regardless so you can't win.

they also tend to use their hazard lights when approaching a traffic jam.

Have fun anyway.

one other thing make sure you have plenty of cash as some of the smaller motorway petrol stations do not take credit cards.

the bigger ones like Shell, Aral, Esso usually do but better to be safe than sorry, also they tend to take Visa more than Mastercard, but ARAL and Shell definately take both and AMEX.

Extra info about the Autobahn

An Autobahnkreutz is a motorway cross where 2 motorways join or cross you will also see Autobahndreieck which is a triangle presumably where one motrorway filters onto another one, never could figure it out.

Cheers
Steve

2000TLondon

Excellent, much appreciated, thanks for the Belgium warning too!

Looking forward to it....

Brendan Hughes

Go via Luxembourg and refuel. Petrol's about 20% cheaper there.

r32

The standard of driving seem to me to be much higher than the UK, dont hog lanes..
always move back tothe right lane after overtaking, plenty of signalling too, check your mirrors before pulling out as a beemer at 140 tends to come up quite quickly.

camk

you get 100 Ron Petrol in German Shell petrol stations

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Yeah but the little Brit cars won't be able to handle it

Also it is fecking expensive at the moment €1.27.9 in our shell garage

camk

yes but Becks Gold is only €7 for 12 33cl bottles in our Esso station

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

yeah but don't tell them that or they will come over here and drink it all

SomeDude

No worries Wurzel, they'd first crash or get hit on by Belgian police before they arrive at the border

Paul N P

Don't take J S W in the car with you.

If you check out my post about speeding on motorways, you'll know that he'll winge his bollox off non-stop at any stage you exceed 100mph

BMWhere?

Just to let you know, this statement is NOT TRUE!

It doesn't matter how many lanes there are, all Autobahns are unrestricted unless there is a posted speed limit.

In fact, most autobahn are only two lanes, its mostly only round the big cities that you get 3 or 4 lanes, although the Autobahn from Koln to Frankfurt is all 3 lanes

The recomended maximum speed limit is 130KMH (~80MPH) on all unrestricted sections of autobahn. If you exceed this, then you are 50% responsible for any accident even if it wasn't really your fault.

Also, a little known fact is that duel-carriageways (Schnellstrasse) may also be unrestricted if you see the national speed limit sign. The rule is that if there is a central reservation with a crash barrier then national speed limit is unrestricted, otherwise max speed is 100KPH (~60mph).

Also a word of warning in Switzerland. Max speed on the motorways is 120KPH (~70MPH) and on country roads 80KPH (~50MPH) and they like catching speeders as much as the UK, but rely more on real police people rather than just cameras. In particular, watch out through tunnels, they time your average speed through the tunnel and pull you over on the way out!

Enjoy the Drive, you'll love it!

Suresh

Lots of good advice in this thread.

Only thing to add is to be sure that your speed differential over slower moving traffic doesn't exceed say 50kmh if passing more than one vehicle. It really is a myth that the Germans are superb & disciplined drivers IMHO. I find the "I'm pulling out so you have to brake" mentality quite annoying when trying to make progress.

Drove 800kms from Switzerland to Holland this afternoon and found the contra-flow roadworks on the A6 and A3 to be a bloody nusiance to be honest. Lots of incidents on the A5 too.

One more thing you should be aware of is that it is illegal to make a hitler-style salute in Germany. Funny as **** when a kraut is trying to road-rage you, but illegal nonetheless...

Suresh

P.S. If going down the A3, watch out for the speed camera gantries in the 100kmh zones around Kessel. Been there, got done for that... Fines from fixed Swiss cameras don't seem to find their way into the EU though, from my experience.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Well, to be fair, that'll make the average UK driver a fecking ideal one in Germany as that is what they practice in this country

Buckrogers

Golf Lima Foxtrot

Blow Dog

Yes, standard of driving is infinitely better than here in the UK.
I got pulled over 4 weeks ago in Germany just as I was between unrestricted sections. I got stopped doing 150KPH in a 110KPH limit. The fine: 365 Euros.

Have to say, the police were nothing other than courteous and professional. Soon as I pulled away after handing over credit card details (they carry credit card swipes in their cars now!) I joined the unrestricted section and proceeded to hit 200mph.

Bear in mind also not all Police cars in Germany are marked, nor are the policemen easily identified. And avoid radar detectors.

Cem

Regacy

The most surreal experience I've had was being stuck in the middle of a queue of cars doing 155MPH.
Mercs and BMWs on the limiter and me squeezed in the middle.

wrxtankie

Not when you get it tax free mate LMFAO

camk

Got to agree with this , the rule seems to be if my indicator is on I'm coming out. The other thing that pisses me off is when you come onto the autobahn ***** will overtake from behind and block you into the acceleration lane.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Don't you have a tank to polish

camk

surely tanks are buffed not polished