Getting used to driving on the right - Germany

Hey there ,

I am in bit of a soup .. We have just purchased a car (after my constant nagging) and Since I am used to driving on the left side in the UK I decided I will take up one driving class with a Fahrschule just to see how much of a big deal it is to drive in the right lane . Yesterday was my first day and I was TERRIFIIED ... Firstly the lanes are much narrower than the UK (I was scared i am gonna hit the car to my right or left ) ,secondly I got confused with the gear changes (Always reached out for the window ), thirdly I am always turning into a left lane !!! Last but not the least not everyone follows the speed limit here and there were so much honking cos I was doing a 50 and the rest of the cars must be definitely doing a 65 WTF !!! Thankfully my instructor just asked me to be calm and enjoy the drive .. But how can i enjoy such driving where I am constantly worried if i am driving alright with so many things around me ..

and what is with the rules in some places , even though the signal is green I have to give priority to the cyclists and pedestrians (I thought they had different signals ) , and it seems if i am on a cross road and driving straight , the cars passing through the smaller intersections have priority !!! I really dont get it ... Moreover i cant understand the language and some signs are in greek and latin .. At least I can get through this part but how do i get my brain tuned to Drive in the right lane all the time ... i am totally freaked out man!!! . I dont think I will be touching my car till i am confident ...

Does anyone have any tips !!!

Ta

Yes, they generally have their own signals. For example, if you have a green to turn right then it's most likely that the people crossing that road will have a green at that point so you have to let them go first. In short, ALWAYS watch out for cyclists and pedestrians when turning. They will not have a green to cross if you are just driving straight along a road.


If there are no traffic lights and your road does not have a sign looking like a yellow diamond then cars coming from the right have right of way, even if their road is smaller than yours.



On speed limits, in every country I've been to in the world people drive a little faster than the specified limit. As a rule of thumb, if their beeping bothers you, then drive with the speed of the other drivers and you'll be fine.

As to driving on the right when you are not used to it, the only thing you can do is keep at it and you'll quickly get used to it. It won't take long.

Keep your arse near the white line in the middle of the road.

Just takes some time!

You should pick up a copy of the rules for Germany, surprised the Fahrschule didn't recommend this. You can get them in English. You always have to give way to cars coming from the right unless there is a sign to say otherwise, even if the road you are on looks like a main road. Also when turning at junctions, pedestrians and cyclists also have the right of way, so don't go speeding around corners!

Practise make perfect but I had the same problems when I first started driving - trying to find the gear stick through the window; not giving way to pedestrians/cycists when turning left or right at a set of traffic lights; turning into a left lane. But after a couple of times I soon realised my mistakes.

Another is the slip roads for Autobahns tend to much shorter than those in the UK, so not as much time as to brake (or accelerate out of).

Not sure about the streets being much narrower. If you have been driving on the left most of your life then judging the space between your car and the kerb or parked car on the right is harder - you feel you are nearer than you actually are.

Most drivers drive up to 20% above the speed limit as this is the tolerance the police/speed cameras use.

You'll be ok after a couple of days. It's only confusing at first - then suddenly it seems normal, you get negligent, and that's when you end up driving on the wrong side of the road.


Never worry about the car to your right. Make sure to drive as far left as possible without hitting anything and the right side of the car will be ok. If it isn't, either the car's too broad or the road's too narrow, but in any case there's nothing you can do about that. Relax.


Again - you'll be fine within a day or two. Maybe close the window ...otherwise there might be a draught.


Go with the traffic. It's safer to speed and not annoy other drivers. Trust me on that.


Greek? You sure you didn't take a wrong turn somewhere???


The only way to get confident is by driving. Take your mother-in-law along - she'll be sure to point out to you that you need to stay on the right lane every other minute.

Once you're confident about the right lane thing, kick her out of the car.

Your profile states that you are located in the UK...

If you have been trying to drive in the right lane in the UK I'm not surprised it was terrifying...

Are you sure about that? It'd be good to know...

I don't know if this is feasible, but what about driving a right-hand car here until you get the hang of everything?

Now you know the trouble for us when visiting the UK.
Follow other cars, works always for me.
Don't try to be the first entering an intersection.

Not good if the others are driving 20% above the speed limit and about to approach a speed camera/police speed check. I speak from personal experience.

I wonder where you get this idea from. The local community finance department will love you...

I've driven a left-hand car in the UK - it's fine until you try to overtake a bigger vehicle and find that you won't see upcoming traffic until you're on the right lane.

If you have a green arrow (lighted) to turn right, you dont have to yield. But it is always better to look out for the morons trying to cross the road.
If you see a green arrow affixed to the traffic light, you can turn right on red, ofcourse you will have to yield in this case.

This is what I learned 23 years ago and it seems not to have changed: The tolerance for speeding is 3kph up to 100kph, from 101kph up 3% of your speed.

So if you're doing 33kph in a 30 zone you're ok, same goes for 105kph in a 100 zone. Anything above that, you're for it.

Many people drive above the speed limit, but just below the threshold for Flensburg points.

yes... do as I do - use the excellent public transport systems and avoid the madness on the roads whenever possible
Also, like me, you are used to the far superior traffic regulations in the UK. For example, there is no confusion with pedestrian crossings - when pedestrians have a green light, the cars have red - logical, and safer, especialy for pedestrians!

You always have to give way to pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning.
As keydeck said, very often the junctions are so organised that pedestrians have a green light to cross the street into which you are turning (left or right) even when you have a filter-arrow allowing you to turn at the same time.

its easy if you have a german car, cant see the problem

Except that - as we all know - only German pedestrians stop at red lights...

...so true

That makes a lot more sense.

I did have to laugh at the OP's post. A good reason why cyclists should be extra careful at every junction...

Tips:
Drive at a speed you feel comfortable with. Ignore the impatient wankers on the roads. Speed limits are just that, a maximum not a minimum. Doing this is better than having an accident, although as Keydeck says going with the flow will lead to a more relaxed journey.
If in doubt, slow down. Keydeck's post is absolutely right about the odd rules they have here. In general look carefully to your right at every junction when on smaller roads without white markings on them.
Keep a safe distance from the car in front. Germans love to sit right on your arse, but this isn't something to adopt.
Keep your left hand tight on the steering wheel, remembering this helps you use the right to find the gear stick. It does take a bit of practice though.
Watch out for trams - they usually stay on the tracks but often these cut across roads and there's not always a signal to stop traffic.
Watch out when it rains, esp at night, the roads here don't have cat's eyes so seeing the white lines is sometimes extremely hard.
And finally, Germans are awful drivers who love to pretend they're better than everyone else so nobody will notice your erratic manoevres and last minute panic turns, it's all in a day in the traffic here.

I live in the country. Rules here are interesting. When driving in the villages the idea is that you go painfully slow - just imagine you have The Pope in the passenger seat drinking a red hot cup of coffee. Then as soon as you see the "Bye Bye Bumsville" village sign you must immediately drop the car into 1st gear, hit the turbo and nitrous oxide and accelerate to warp factor 7 instantly - otherwise you will be overtaken by grannies in VW Golfs travelling at 200+.

It works out fine once you know the rules. Both our family cars have turbos, so we can manage to keep up with the flow now.

I'm stunned. What makes them bad drivers, in your opinion?

I drove in the UK again after many years (7 to be exact) and found I slipped right back into the left right thingy in no time, what did bug me though was the amount of people who hog the middle lane on the motorways I thought it was bad here! Jeees
My tip … I rode a small scooter for a few weeks gives you a feel for it and you just need to dodge the cars if you pull out on the wrong side

Watch out for cyclists who think it is ok to break the law if they are riding a bike but will vent their spleen if a car does anything remotely incorrectly. (Though if you stop and get out of your car to point out that the cyclists light was on Red and you, as a driver did nothing wrong, they will cycle off down the street in a hurry )

Confusion? That's your problem.

Superior? Uneffective. Having separate green phases for every participant just means shorter green phases for every other participant. You can sneak through the pedestrians at slow speed or sometimes there aren't any, why wasting a phase for them? The pedestrian lights turn earlier so you'll have the chance anyway. The difference gets bigger with bigger crossings or sidewalks, ever noticed? The rule of thumb "watch out for pedestrians" still stands. So it is more effective and save, since you can never assume to blindly turn. The rule occupies you more, hence it provides extra safety.

What if a pedestrian in the UK just crosses while you turn? Do you overrun him? More likely i guess, since you would not expect it..

If you just turn the blind eye while going right it's your own problem. If you abide this rule you'll get along.

is that english or am i losing it ?

Previous posts ad nauseam, as if anyone cares.

Well, it's always a good idea not to actually run pedestrians over, but as Brownie said, if you have a green arrow to turn, then there shouldn't be any crossing, because it's red for them. Of course, the pedestrians might not be German and therefore be jaywalking...

So many replies in so little time ..Thanks to u people .. ,, my confidence was 0% this morning now its at least 40 percent more .. I would love to do the speed like others in the road .. Just that I already have a speeding ticket in the UK .. I know how awful I felt about it ... I dont want to go through that again .. Even though I noticed that there were less speed cameras here than in the UK .. I remm in Brighton the council had set up an orgy of speed cameras on the road

also someone at work warned me to be extra careful about cyclists and cab drivers .. And also I need to watch out for trams .. So for now .. my driving is restricted only to my street and the next ;-)... at least for a few more days ..

I have booked my next driving lessons and this time it will be the AutoBahn .. Sounds like fun

autobahn is the easiest!
city is more difficult.

Not when it's dark, raining and the lines marking the lanes are invisible!

...and you're used to a speed limit and the cars coming up from behind are going at 250 km/h...

German drivers are cool. Better than the English. They mostly get the hell out the fast lane when they see you coming, and when it snows they don't all shit their pants and creep around like they are driving milkfloats.

Driving here is a total pleasure compared to the UK. One of my #1 bestest things about living here. Compared to the UK we have almost no road rage, no speed limits, no cops, no cameras. You can concentrate on the road ahead without staring for speed cameras. If you ride a motorbike it doesn't get much better than here.

Anything but. They're the most hot-headed impatient tossers... but I repeat myself...

Put them on a 3 lane autobahn and you get the same lost souls here confused by all that tarmac choice, give them 4 lanes to choose from and some are so dazed I'm surprised they don't go across the motorway.

They have winter tyres here so the cars actually steer, which does help.

No serious road rage anyway I'll grant you, but you always get one small dicked sales rep acting like a tosser. Sometimes on the motorways I miss the filth, without them Germans return to type. Where there are speed cameras they're damned devious some of them, like in the A99 tunnel on the link from the A96 to the A8. The feckers don't flash and at least one TTer has had some grief from that. They're reportedly set to trigger at 110Km/h in an 80 zone, which may let most people off the hook.

... while flashing their lights and not slowing down...

...in a 100 km/h zone and talking on their (not hands-free) handy...

On the Autobahns I pretty much just stick to the limit. If it says 100 then you do 110. When there is no limit you just nail it. If you go quick enough its only the serious players that come up your arse.

The best fun is when cruising at about 120 or summat and some little fuckwit teenager in a rusted 1982 Polo starts catching you up thinking he is gonna scare you out the lane.

come on JE thats not cruising,crawling maybe

Telephoning (not hands-free) seems to be more & more "in". They are all at it: men, women, in small cars, big BLACK cars, LKWs with trailers trying to steer & change gear with one hand whilst holding the H-word and almost ramming me...

Bicycling and texting is another pretty cool German contribution to road accident statistics.

...while smoking a cigarette and blowing their horn...

Theres a local girl who rides a horse almost daily past us & shes always telephoning. Poor old horse...

Coming back to cars - the "best" I saw was on the A2 Autobahn from Dortmund towards Hannover when I was in ze fast lane & came up behind a Merc cabrio doing about 140 kph with the small girl driving trying to hide behind the windshield/steering wheel as the slipstream was obviously making it difficult for her to hear...

My employer insists that all company cars have hand-free telephone systems...

I know, I know - I was just trying to sound a little PC for a moment or I was expecting a backlash from the kinetically challenged on the forum.

Thats a great term - I wonder what the German translation is?

"lahmarschig" would do.

That's hardly special to Germany though, drive in Britain and you would hardly know that phoning whilst driving is illegal. What amazes me is you see people driving fancy expensive cars holding their phone to their ear, in Britain as well as here. My hands free thingy cost me the grand sum of €10!

I prefer collecting speeding tickets...better than collecting stamps. I blame the car myself...it invites speeding. Bad car.


What Sara said is true for fixed cameras...but was not quite sure where I got the 20% from. Whether from hearsay or from an old speeding ticket.


Source: Toleranzen bei Geschwindigkeitskontrollen
I guess all my tickets were from the mobile ones.

Really?


Seems about the average sentiment on the matter