{"id":61,"date":"2021-01-22T13:09:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T13:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uk.sx-magazine-wp.sixt.io\/?p=61"},"modified":"2021-11-24T15:20:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T15:20:01","slug":"strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether this blog comes in handy for ensuring that you don\u2019t catch the attention of foreign policeman or is more a source of fun facts when making friends on your European adventure, we hope that you enjoy it. For a comprehensive summary on the more usual driving laws and regulations that you should be aware of when travelling in Europe, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/europe-car-rental\/\">Sixt&#8217;s Guide to Hiring and Driving in Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, from the sublimey ridiculous and unnecessarily bizarre to the just plain boring hassle, here is our round up of the strange driving laws that Europe entertains:<\/p>\n<h3>Packing for your trip&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A useful one for our UK roadtrippers who take their cars to Europe, in <strong>most European countries<\/strong> they like to be able to easily spot you and require you to have a GB sticker on your vehicle (unless your number plate already includes a GB symbol).<\/li>\n<li>If you wear glasses or contact lenses and you\u2019re driving in <strong>Spain, Portugal or Switzerland<\/strong> then remember to dig your spare pair out to take with you as drivers are required to carry an additional pair when driving.<\/li>\n<li>Leave the jerry can at home and beware of running out of fuel without a petrol station near when driving in <strong>Portugal<\/strong> as it is illegal to carry a can of petrol in the car at any time.<\/li>\n<li>A common one that most people are aware of: when <strong>driving in France<\/strong> all motor vehicle and motorcycle drivers are required to carry a self-test alcohol breathalyser. Still worthy of including in this blog because France is the only country in the world to require this. Plus, a short time after the law was created, there was a somewhat back-track with the announcement of the indefinite postponement of any penalties for non-compliance (which is a whole \u20ac11!). This is a relatively cheap penalty for France, where breaking traffic laws can be punished with up to \u20ac375 fine or even vehicle confiscation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Enjoying yourself on the road&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Sticking to the drinking and driving theme, front seat passengers in <strong>Macedonia<\/strong> are not allowed to be visibly under the influence of alcohol.<\/li>\n<li>And <strong>Cyprus<\/strong> operates a zero tolerance policy \u2013 on all drinking at the wheel, including non-alcoholic drinks like water. This extends to eating too, with a fine of \u20ac85.<\/li>\n<li>Whilst smoking when driving is illegal in <strong>Greece<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Driving like a local&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Your dreams of a hitchhike from Aberdeen to the Zheleznodorozhny (its in Russia\u2026!) may be dashed as many European countries forbid hitchhiking&#8230; including <strong>Russia, Switzerland and Lichtenstein<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Roundabouts are always tricky but take extra care when driving in the <strong>Netherlands<\/strong>, as on some roundabouts you have right of way when you\u2019re on it and on others you have right of way when coming onto it. Look out for signs at roundabouts when driving in <strong>France<\/strong>, they will show that traffic on the roundabout has priority, however if there is no sign present then traffic joining from the right has priority instead. Similarly in <strong>Germany<\/strong>, traffic on the roundabout has right of way, except if there is a sign indicating otherwise. Drivers must not indicate when entering a roundabout but don\u2019t forget to do so when leaving it.<\/li>\n<li>Watch out when driving in <strong>Malta<\/strong> as it is not customary to indicate when changing lanes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scandinavian and some Baltic countries<\/strong> require headlights to always be on whilst driving \u2013 even when in bright daylight.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>Slovenia<\/strong> your reverse lights are not enough \u2013 when reversing you must also put your hazard lights on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Parking up&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Spain<\/strong> likes to mix it up with their parking laws \u2013 in some cities cars must be parked on different sides of the road according to the day of the week, whilst on some one-way streets you can only park on the side of the road where houses have uneven numbers on uneven days of the month and on the side of even numbers on even days. Whereas <strong>Belarus<\/strong> treats parking a little more relaxed, with no marked disabled parking bays and no parking meters.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>Switzerland<\/strong> don\u2019t leave your car keys inside the car with the door unlocked or you could face a fine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Looking after your baby&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>More European Governments than expected take a keen interest in vehicle cleanliness, and it is illegal to drive a dirty car in countries such as <strong>Bulgaria, Belarus and Russia<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>Switzerland<\/strong> you are not allowed to wash your car on Sundays. <strong>Germany<\/strong> had the same law but modified it to allow car washing on Sundays after midday (so your church going time is not disturbed). Although you are not able to do this car washing with water and detergent on the street, even if it is your own property.<\/li>\n<li>Children under 10 in France need to be in a child seat, the type of seat and positioning in the car (front or back facing) depends on the child\u2019s weight. Children under 10 are not allowed to travel in the front seats of vehicles without a child seat, unless there is no rear seat in the vehicle or the rear seats are already occupied (with children under 10) or there are no seat belts. But no seat belts are illegal too!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>And a final word&#8230;<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Sneaking in a weird driving law for the <strong>UK<\/strong> seems only fair, although the most outrageous is one that applies only to Hackney carriages: all Hackney taxis must carry a bale of hay and bag of oats in their vehicle!<\/li>\n<li>And to round up, a special mention to <strong>Saudi Arabia<\/strong>, although not in Europe, where it is illegal for women to drive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information on renting with Sixt and driving in Europe, take a look at our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/europe-car-rental\/\">Europe Car Hire Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether this blog comes in handy for ensuring that you don\u2019t catch the attention of foreign policeman or is more a source of fun facts when making friends on your European adventure, we hope that you enjoy it. For a comprehensive summary on the more usual driving laws and regulations that you should be aware&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,11],"class_list":{"0":"post-61","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel","8":"tag-driving-laws","9":"tag-europe","10":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe - Sixt Car Hire Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe - Sixt Car Hire Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whether this blog comes in handy for ensuring that you don\u2019t catch the attention of foreign policeman or is more a source of fun facts when making friends on your European adventure, we hope that you enjoy it. For a comprehensive summary on the more usual driving laws and regulations that you should be aware...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sixt Car Hire Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sixtuk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-22T13:09:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-24T15:20:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/11\/2018\/02\/funny-driving-laws-sixt-magazine.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"packermann\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SixtUK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SixtUK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"packermann\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe - Sixt Car Hire Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe - Sixt Car Hire Magazine","og_description":"Whether this blog comes in handy for ensuring that you don\u2019t catch the attention of foreign policeman or is more a source of fun facts when making friends on your European adventure, we hope that you enjoy it. For a comprehensive summary on the more usual driving laws and regulations that you should be aware...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/","og_site_name":"Sixt Car Hire Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sixtuk\/","article_published_time":"2021-01-22T13:09:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-24T15:20:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":420,"url":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/11\/2018\/02\/funny-driving-laws-sixt-magazine.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"packermann","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SixtUK","twitter_site":"@SixtUK","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"packermann","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/"},"author":{"name":"packermann","@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/ed2af37c9b0ee5c0d0358abc9c9c67f1"},"headline":"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe","datePublished":"2021-01-22T13:09:23+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-24T15:20:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/"},"wordCount":955,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/11\/2018\/02\/funny-driving-laws-sixt-magazine.png","keywords":["Driving Laws","Europe"],"articleSection":["Travel"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/","name":"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe - Sixt Car Hire Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/11\/2018\/02\/funny-driving-laws-sixt-magazine.png","datePublished":"2021-01-22T13:09:23+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-24T15:20:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/ed2af37c9b0ee5c0d0358abc9c9c67f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/11\/2018\/02\/funny-driving-laws-sixt-magazine.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/11\/2018\/02\/funny-driving-laws-sixt-magazine.png","width":750,"height":420,"caption":"Funny Driving Laws in UK & Europe"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/travel\/strange-and-funny-driving-laws-in-europe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Strange and Funny Driving Laws in Europe"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sixt.co.uk\/magazine\/","name":"Sixt Car Hire Magazine","description":"Travel Tips &amp; 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