American Reacts to Why Driving in Europe is BETTER than America 

Hi. Germany here. "Autobahn" is just the german word for highway. It looks exactly like the highway from the netherlands you saw here. Everything he said for the netherlands is the same for the german highway system. We also do have speed limits, we also have the speed cameras and we also stick to driving on the right/passing on the left. In addition we also have cameras that measure the distance between cars because you can also get a ticket for sticking to close. The only real difference is that for ~57% of our highways you don´t have a speedlimit but just the general recommendation of 130 km/h (80mph) but it is not obligatory. He mentioned that you can drive 10 km/h faster everywhere without the speed camera reacting. That is because your car already shows you ~7 km/h more than you are actually driving and the speed cameras have a tolerance of 3 km/h. That is also why in the city people tend to drive 60 km/h on the speedometer when you are only supposed to drive 50. BUT!: The slower the car goes the more accurate your speedometer is. So if you drive around an area where the limit is 30 km/h and you know of a speed camera then stick to 35 km/h instead of 40 or else it might react. You will find speed cameras all over the place. We have stationary ones, mobile ones and only in rare occasions you might see a police control with a laser pistole. The last one only happens on country roads.

The USA always talks about freedom. Which is a great concept. But that freedom also extends to being free to be an idiot. Having tight regulations on things like road rules can actually allow for better results that allowing everybody to go free range. This concept also applies to socialised medicine, free education etc. Yes it’s controlled by the government but it’s something people vote for.

In Germany we actually have a law that says you have to use the right lanes. It is called "Rechtsfahrgebot". So if the police sees you using the left or middle lane without the need to take over another car, they can fine you.

I'm a Brit in Texas, and when I did my driving test I was surprised how easy and short it was - I had to get onto a main road, drive past a couple of traffic lights, turn left into a residential district and back out again, then back to the test centre. That was it. And yeah, it was cheap. However, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the American driving tests have three parts - the theory, the official test, and the police administered tests - as in, they pull you over for doing something illegal, explain how and why, and charge you $$ for the new knowledge you have gained. So all in all, American test costs (in total over the years) may come close to, or even exceed, European test costs :D

In the Netherlands it's not only common courtesy to stay right and overtake on the left, but the fine for overtaking on the right is €250,-. And there's a fine for hogging the left lane as well (€220,-).

The main difference for me as a Brit who lived in the states as a teen and got a US driving licence and then came back to the UK and got a UK licence, is the testing needed to get my licence. The theory test in the US was probably 80% about what fines and penalties you would get if caught speeding, drink driving etc. basically nothing on ensuring I knew rules of the road. In the UK, it was definitely the other way around. On top of the generic theory you have a hazard perception test, which forces you to think and be aware of your surroundings (kid running in road, car pulling out of a spot etc) For the actual driving test my US one in Massachusetts was 5 to 10 mins max. Super basic manoeuvres around a quiet block by a school. The UK one was 45 to 1hr, loads of manoeuvres on lots of different roads, some quiet roads and some busy ones in town so I demonstrated that I can drive my car safely no matter the situation.

The phrase driving in Europe is sooo wide. Every country is different. The more south you go the more wild it gets. Nice vid, greets from Slovenia

I'm from the Netherlands and that "odd" road has a lane on each side for bikes because we ride bikes as much as we can (there are more bikes than people in our country). If there's a person on a bike you just drive slower and go around them. If there are bikes coming from both direction you'll have to wait. Also because the road looks smaller people tend to drive slower automatically. Of course not everyone drives slower because you'll get used to it, but I believe it does help.

It's kinda weird (from my German perspective at least) that driving seems more necessary in the US, but at the same time they care less about driving skill. Seems like it would make more sense that the more important the car is in a society, the more this society should make sure that people are good at using it. As for the road quality: What I find fascinating is that over the last few years, they got to a point where they close down one lane of the Autobahn at 8 or 9 in the evening, bring in all the gear, cut away a kilometer or so, maybe 2 (probably about a mile) of road one foot deep, bring some new asphalt, and when people start going to work at 6 in the morning, all lanes are open again, with a brand new, perfectly smooth bit in place. And if you're working a normal 9-5 job, you'll never see them do any work, you leave work, old road, go to work, bamm! brand new one.

15:45 This is a typical rural road in The Netherlands. It's bidirectional and has painted bikelanes with a dotted line. The car is supposed to drive within the dotted lines. If there's an oncoming car, both cars can use the bikelane to let each other pass. Of course you have to check for cyclists but overall these roads aren't very busy so this works pretty fine. The speed limit is mostly 60 km/h, which seems pretty fast in comparison to a bike (about 20 km/h) but if drivers follow the rules and stay within the dotted lines it's not a big issue. I still prefer separate bikelanes, but with low demand roads this is an ok solution. About commuting: the other day I saw a stat showing that about 2/3 of all commute is done by car in The Netherlands, so car is still used a lot here. We do have alternatives in most case, which in most North American suburbs is basically absent, but people love the "freedom" to drive a car (I love the freedom to read a book and listen to music in the train to work much more ;-) )

You being shocked at securing what you tow is really shocking for me. In Germany I had an entire driving theoretical lesson about how you attach something to your car. I learned how to secure something like bikes.😂

Here in Austria, the mandatory driving lessons include getting theoretical instructions from a teacher and also practical instructions too. After that, you have to drive for about 3000 km with a special plate, that indicates for others, that you are learning to drive. Before your driving test, you also need to do a first aid course. After you got the licence you have to do 3 mandatory perfections drives after 6 months, 12 months and 18 months. Additionally, to that, you also have to do a training on a test road, training for driving under harsh circumstances, like roads under water, without good sight, hard emergency brakes, slippery roads.

Every person who owns a car in the Netherlands has to pay road tax, which is based on the weight of your car. This money is then used to maintain the public roads. Hence why the roads are in mostly excellent condition. But that is another reason why you won't see many large pickup trucks like in America. If you were to own let's say a Ford F150 which weighs around 6600 lb, you would pay around 200 euros / month in road tax (would be even higher for a diesel car). Combine that cost with the fuel consumption of those vehicles and you end up with a monthly cost equal to a mortgage of a house... And to clarify, In the Netherlands most people will have around 20-30 driving lessons (in regular traffic) before attempting their practical exam, depending on when the instructor thinks you are ready. With each lesson costing around 40-70 euros on average (for 1 hour) and the exams being around 130 euros per attempt, the cost adds up... Other licenses for trucks, busses and bikes will be even more expensive as you guessed right. Oh and driving lessons will always be in a manual transmission car unless specifically chosen to do driving lessons in an automatic transmission car, but in that case you will also only be allowed to drive automatic transmission vehicles.

What I found really strange when visiting California was that even in San Francisco which is one of the most affluent US cities it was completly dark at night. There were hardly any street lights! Its the complete opposite in nearly all of western Europe. Even in small villages at least junctions and crossings are well lit at night. Took a lot of getting used to.

The "weird" looking and narrow road you mention around 16 min in, is what's called a 2-in-1 road and the "shoulder" is actually bike lanes. So no matter what direction you drive in, you drive in the middle to give room for cyclist and when you meet another car you'll move to the right and go back into the middle after passing.

I'm a Canadian from Montréal Québec. I regularly drive both in Canada and the US. I recently drove in Spain, both in cities big and small and rural autopistas. Here's what I found. First, Spanish drivers are very skilled and much more courteous than their North-American counterparts. Almost nobody will pass you from the right, whereas it is very common in the US, like driving slowly on the left lane. Also, following close behind is way less common in Spain. Apart from the drivers, there is the matter of road and street design. European countries largely use roundabouts and they are so much more efficient! Also, European cities restrain the allocated space to cars and truck, instead giving priority to pedestrians. Cities are populated with a huge amount of small scooters and motorcycles, which take up less space, both on the streets and parkings. Trucks in cities are way smaller, obviously adjusted for European narrow streets. We would certainly gain in doing that here in N-A. I could go on and on with how it is different and better to drive in Europe.

10:08 Guy: they follow the rules here, only pass on the left Motorcyclist: Allow me to introduce myself

15:50 A lot of europe makes their roads "fit for purpose", meaning for roads where there could be high risks of pedestrians etc. they make the road narrow and awkward for cars. Things like bi-directional roads without a centre line. Traffic calming measure like sudden narrowing, "give way to oncoming" restrictions, speed bumps and even places where the pavement comes down across the road, "signifying" the potential of pedestrians stepping out. "Table top junctions" are common here. Basically the lift the whole junction up about 8 inches, forcing everyone to drive up a ramp on the way in and down on the way out. It focuses people from all routes, even the "main flow" route on the fact it IS a junction and to slow down (or risk hitting the underside of your car nose on the ramp). All of these measures are aiming to change the focus/attitude/attention of the driver and have them adapt to the road and slow down. Inversely, "highway" class roads are either devoid of pedestrians/cyclists entirely or they are (where possible) segregated allowing wider, faster, safety barriered through ways with higher speed limits. In America a lot of this seems backwards and city streets are more and more often being upgraded to favour cars and deter pedestrians. The concept of "Stroads" is a good YT search.

Just wanted to add, at 11:15 the reason that the electronic markers are showing a reduced speed limit, espescially in the right lane, is because of the (broken down) car on the right side (emergency lane). It is normally used to manage high way speeds during rush hour to maintain flow, but in occasions that may cause potential hazard (due to fast moving vehicles) to people which are in the emergency lane on the right due to a broken car, when reported or seen through highway cameras, live traffic management can control the speed per lane on different sections of the highway to reduce the risks for the ones needing and providing help in the emergency lane. I think thats kinda cool :P.

Hello from Portugal. Usually videos talking about Europe tend to only mention countries like the Netherlands, Germany and France. For instance, in Portugal we also pay for our driving licence but it is about 500-900€ on average and the age requirement is 18yo. Theory and driving lessons are mandatory, as well as a final exam with a stranger jury and at a different city where we have never driven before. In Portugal there aren't many highways with over 3 lanes, but that "lane discipline " still applies. Speed limit on highways is 120km/h, although one can easily travel at 150km/h on a two lane highway...but you might get caught and charged. On my previous job driving was a necessary everyday task. We had to drive to visit farmers and it was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable moments one could have alone or with the team - just chill driving, chatting or singing.

Their ability to get out of the way of emergency vehicle, by leave the center of the road clear. Also when I was in England driving, I noticed when there's a merging to the HWY you move over a lane to let them flow into the main stream of traffic. There are still A-Holes everywhere though.

We literally call them "cargo truck" or "vrachtwagen" in the Netherlands. Also over here keeping to the right is not only courteous, you can actually get fined for driving to the left unnecessary. Lastly the road you comment on at 15:30 is designed this way based on the principal to design roads based on how fast you want people to go instead of designing a "racetrack" and trying to enforce a speed limit. Most of these roads used to have a line in the middle, but removing the line gives the road a more narrow feeling even though (usually) two vrachtwagens can pass each other without too much difficulty.

If you didn´t already see it, about the matter of public transportation, driving and urban planning in western Europe vs North America, there is a super interesting and well documented channel called Not Just Bikes. I recommend all of his videos, but you may most appreciate the ones about driving and road safety.

Hey Slovakia here. I think the people are also so disciplined because we have a lot of regulations... basically we can't even change the collor of our parking lights or we get fined :D Generally people around me think that the US is so free, because you could slap 4 wheels on a washing machine and drive it, but we can't even change parking lights collor :D

Here in Sweden it’s common to learn to drive from your parents starting at age 16, then taking just a few lessons before the test, but also 2 mandatory risk related lessons, first one is a 3 hour interactive talk about dangers like sleepiness and alcohol, the second one is more practical were we get to go on a slippery road (water on slick concrete or rubbers in asfalt) and try and brake with and without ABS, avoid obstacles and try out braking distances in practice, followed by some safety talk. Slightly different from most of Europe but it results in drivers with many km behind the wheel before we get our license

Also, more people taking public transit = less traffic on the road

German here, last year I made my truck drivers licence. That are the classes C and CE in Europe. It cost minimum 10.000 Euro. My car licence cost 1.800 Euro at that time (should be more expensive now.) The small motorcycle class A 125ccm cost also i guess 1000 Euro. I don't really know anymore.

A 15 years old kid driving on the road, trained by his parents? Just the thought scares me. Driving is a serious thing and should be done by responsible adults.

Here in sweden you have to do "risk 1 and risk 2" before you can do your theoretical test as well as the driving test. Risk 1 is a 3h course abot how drugs and alcohol affects your driving and judgment, Risk 2 is learning how to drive on slippery surface. It is asphalt with rubber coating on which there is a lot of water sprayed all the time so you get aquaplaning. There you will learn how to brake, make evasive maneuvers, accelerate, etc. safely. First you go with an instructor then you get to drive alone while the instructor stands in a tower overlooking the courses and can talk to you via intercom. There are lights on the roof of the car so they can see when you brake and clutch. Fuel here in Sweden right now is about 2,5usd/liter diesel and 95 octane gas is about 1,9usd/liter 98 octane is a few cents more. If you got load on a trailer and its not real secured you can get a fine and have to park the trailer at the side of the road to go and buy straps.

Im from spain, my license costed me 1500€ with 10 road practices in 2003, approved at first try, and traveled a bit around europe, and i would say that in the best of cases is like the video says, but everywhere in the world theres people that dont deserve their driver license, not to mention those who dare to drive without one, and yes, theres ppl on phone, speeding and all kind of wrong behaviours, but i suppose roads in general in europe might be safer

Hi from Italy, Just a couple of points, our roads are really well mantained if you cruise on the highways, they are kinda really expensive though, urban roads are mostly bad, because there are too many towns, little or big, so population is widespread therefore there are too many roads to maintain compared to our friends from other European countries. About the car being needed, it is true for many Europeans too, I live in what you'd call a ranch, so I must have offroaders and trucks and it's super expensive to buy and maintain them. (I drive about 1h30' everyday). Let's say that EU is investing in public transportation but forgetting at the same time about the people who actually need to drive.

Czechia here. I drove in a lot of countries (including South Africa, Turkey or Indonesia) and have to say that USA is one of the less crazy ones. But once I was driving a rental car on a highway somewhere near Lexington, KY, just on the speed limit and suddenly a giant truck with a two-storey house on the semi-trailer was overtaking me! What the hell? 😀

Nowadays, there is a huge shortage of truckers in NL, companies will pay for the truckers licenses if you sign the contract. Also @10.08 "no one passes on the right" motorbike comes zooming by :) Love it.

Driver from Finland 🇫🇮 here. Learning to drive and driving in the US sounds really like the WILD WEST 😬...

That is why in Europe, especially in cities, we prefer to use public transport. The P + R (park and ride) system is a combination of private and public transport and allows the user to get to important points on the outskirts of the city or the main city entrances with a personal or other vehicle, for driving around the city , use the city bus. If it happens that there is an object on the road, drivers report this to local radio stations, which then inform by radio where and on which road there is an obstacle, a traffic jam and that drivers should be careful.

At 15:35 The “shoulders” as you called it on the small road are for bicycles and the funny thing is that the bicyclecles are always protected in the Netherlands and have more rights than cars.

i reccomend looking at the youtube channel not just bikes, he has a lot of nice videos and informative videos comparing Eu or The Netherlands to stuff in canada or the US.

As a Portuguese, I can say this video is mostly true, ofc there are some places/countries that have more cars but yes it's true. The stats prove yes , it's safer than USA. And yes that car you were curious about is a Seat. And yes you've to secure the cargo in everything, or you will have problems . About cameras: in highways, road in general police have movement sensor cameras, high speed cameras, speed radars, so they can control speed. We have it also in Portugal. And finally, yes the driver licenses are expensive as hell, truck licenses even more. And all of them imply classes, and being tested, for example here in Portugal , you have like 30/40 questions, you fail 4... say goodbye, you failed. And to drive trucks with special substances like gas, chemical substances etc etc you need different special amends to the driver license, for that you do special trainings . To use a forklift you've to have a special license. Here in Portugal, You can't drive a forklift as mall storage employee if you don't have one (forklift license) , this is just one example.

Great video! I can definitely relate to the not ‘securing of goods while driving’ section! On the highway in NJ we saw some dude in a minivan that had placed a huge mattress on top of it only securing it using only a single rubber band. The result was that the mattress was flying above the minivan going down the highway. On top of that the guy was eating a hotdog looking oblivious…! We were all laughing so hard at that.

I'm not too sure anymore about the cost of getting a CDL for a truck here in Belgium, but when I went for my licence, I looked through some of the CDL info. About 5 years back, just the yearly insurance for a big rig allready was about 3.000 Euros (2.957 dollars) minimum. And I can only imagine it has gone up quite a lot, just as car insurance did.

The way the roads are build in the Netherlands are also a big reason there are so few accidents. Roads near city's are ussually quite tight. This so people dont drive over the speedlimit. In neigborhoods the roads are made from bricks instead of asphalt, so everybody drives 15mph or less. That also makes it possible for children to play outside without supervision; and thats why dutch children tested happiest in the world.

Hi, I completed my drivers license here in Norway back in january of 2018, 4 months of intensive lessons. I went through with minimum requirements, and it still costed 35000 nok (about 3500$), I already had 12 years of MC experience when I started, so I knew traffic. The road quality here varies, out east around the capitol its the best. Our national speed limit is 80km/h (50mp/h) outside populated areas, and 50km/h (31mp/h) inside populated areas. We do have speed limits up to 110km/h in some parts of the country.In general people are courteous and follow the rules, but we do get the occasional idiots who speeds and cause annoyances, and dangerous situations.

This channel has become my absolute favourite. Great job O/ // Jimmy from Sweden.

I work as a delivery driver for a grocerie store, and in the Netherlands you can still drive 130 km/h in some places between 19.00-6.00! It's also a lot less busy at those times.

You should look at the difference between getting a motorcycle license in the US compared to European countries. In the US it's to damn easy and you still don't know what you do when you get a license. In the Netherlands I had to do 3 tests, theory, vehicle control (emergency braking, u turns and some other similar stuff) and finally a road test

Of course we have our crazy drivers in Europe, but yeah rules are respected by the majority. I'm french and I was once in Germany when I was a kid. I'll always remember that guy in a Porsche overtaking us at maybe 200km/h (125mph) on the autobahn, and flashlighting like crazy when my dad overtook him back at 55km/h once arrived in the city (limited at 50km/h).

Nice video, I live in Sweden and even driving with snow or ice on the top of your car is illegal, since ice and/or snow on the car roo can be equated with cargo, and are thus counted as unsecured cargo. My favorite station wagon is a Volvo 855 T5-R that I used to have a few years ago :)

found a package for a truck drivers license here in Sweden (only for like a boxtruck not with a trailer) the starter package was about $2300 for the books and 9 lessons and on top of that you would need to pay for rent and the drivers test when it's time for it. And for the license for trailer it would probably be the same

Hi, Australian fellow here. I didn’t even realise or think about the cost to get a lisence here, but it is. I could have gone for lessons from friends/family but that would have taken so much longer. As it was I paid for 8 $140 lessons (which includes a car as well as instructor) but these lessons were only 30mins. Not to mention every official test in the three stage process cost around $200

12:50 A Czech millionaire not too long ago drove 417km/h with his Bugatti Chiron not too long ago. He was sued, not for the actual speed, but there's also a law in Germany that you must be able to break within visual range. He was not convicted, as he had checked upfront for the right time with very low to no traffic, checked the weather an street conditions and had several look-outs on the track. But it caused quite some discussion about these kinds of speeds and speed limits in general. There was one proposal to set up a speed limit of 200km/h, which would not change that much to most of the drivers. It would also help to a least reduce the problems with high differential speeds. German highways are the safest in the world with much lower accidents than most of the world. However life endangering (mass) accidents happen either due to truck drivers or high differential speeds.

Hi, Poland here. Can't say about other countries, but here gasoline averages around 6 dollars per gallon. Road condition varies widely, some are very good, many, especially local roads are pretty bad. Still waiting for s3 expressway that is built near my town ^^

Sir, I'm Portuguese and I recently stumbled on a couple of your videos, and I must cheer your spirit toward being genuinely and cheerfully curious about all sorts of subjects outside USA while recognising stuff that are not so good in USA and vice versa. I'm happy to share more about EU and Portugal if you feel to know more about it. Cheers!

@4:33 In Australia It costs $38 for the learner test, and $67 for a two-year learner's permit licence. An L plater 100km/h limit applies, no matter the posted limit. South Australia enforces P1 for 12 months and P2 for two years. A provisional licence costs $161.

15:40 Typical country road, commonly found between villages, with red strips for cyclists. max speed: 60 kph (40 mph). Usually there are alternative larger veins stringed between the towns and villages, but these roads are generally the original farmer tracks created when they started agriculture, something like a thousand years ago. The red strips are cyclist exclusively. That means that normally a car shoul;d stay off the red strip, unless they have to pass an oncoming car, in which case it's allowed to BRIEFLY use the red strip when there is no cyclist there, of course.

id say also the official lessons and testing are more comprehensive. (not the uk ours is basically potter around town and park and you can if ya good get it done in 20 hours or less) but some countries have you in some way taught and tested on most aspects of driving..(in the uk we have pass plus but id say even that was lacking) some even get ya on skid pans

I think the nicest highways in Europe are the tolled ones in France. Always empty and very relaxed. The weirdest ones are those in Belgium. They are completely lit at night. In Sodium vapor yellow. Very spooky. :D

In France, you can learn to drive with your parents, but it's still part of the whole official package. You have to do the same number of mandatory lessons with an official school, but it allows you to have more experience in driving before the exam. I'm pretty sure driving at 140kph instead of 130kph is quite a hefty fine and point loss here, given that if the police retains 140 for the fine, you were quite above that (there is a 5kph buffer they automaticaly remove from controls).

I'm from Switerland and regarding the price and length of the process of having a license it cost me around 2000CHF (around 1863$). You have to take an eye exam, do a first aid course, a "sensitization" course (I don't know the right word, basically they teach you how to behave, how to avoid dangers, what not to do, driving theory), then after all that you can do the theoretical exam. After you have do the theoretical exam, you can then take driving lessons (I did 9 but the average is around 15), when the "teacher" feels like you are ready they will register you for the practical exam. If you pass the practical exam, you are now a "student driver", it's basically a probation period where you can drive alone like a real driver but you aren't considered as such and additional rules apply to you. This period lasts for three years. During those three years, you have a certains amount of time to go to "L2" lessons, these are two day where you learn how do emergency brakes, drive on wet road and learn how to behave when you lose control of you vehicule (they intentionally make you drift to show how dangerous it can be). If you have done everything mentionned previously and the three years have passed, congratulations ! you now have a permanent driver's license. The 2000CHF of course don't include the cost of the car and everything that comes with buying a car. Also, I think it's really cool when you get excited for cars. I also like cars and I get excited when I see a nice car or a "rare" car for this country. Like there's 1 or 2 Pontiac Firebird where I live and it's cool to see them. In Switzerland we don't have tolls on the highway, instead we buy a "vignette", a little sticker that we buy each year and stick on our windshield. So instead of paying a few bucks each time we take the highway, it's 40$ for a full year. It also allows to fund road work. Securing your cargo here is serious business, if you don't do it properly you risk a HUGE fine.

Haha, fun to see this, I live quite close to where the video that's being reacted to is recorded when he's off the highway. It's interesting to see someone reacting to what you're used to your entire life (even if I'm 32 and don't have a driver's license myself haha)

Dude I love these videos and how invested you are, and how interesting you think it is how different our roads and our trucks and stuff are. If you want, you could interview me for a video, me being a dutch Truck driver, having done all the tests and stuff, having the costs still fresh in my head, and being a big truck fanatic! If you want to, dm me! We can work something out! ✌🏻 Meanwhile, keep making these cool videos dude!

All I know is that in Sweden, get your drivers licence is a real project. It cost allot of money and you have to go through several trainings that are mandatory, like two particular safety trainings while at least one of them is training in slippery driving. A special facility is used for this, really fun. The theory tests are also quite hard, so it is not uncommon that people fail and need to redo the test...cheers from Sweden

Expensive licenses: As he said, mandatory lessons. This is to make sure you're learning the right way to do things, not the way your parents do it, which isn't necessarily the same thing. The cost of the license itself is probably similar to the US. It's expensive simply from paying the driving instructor, and everyone gets paid good money in Europe, so their minimum wage is probably close to the equivalent of $20/hr, US.

@15:50 its a "shared" bi-directional road. You drive in the middle, the sides are for bikes, when you encounter opposing traffic, you go to the shoulder (slow down to bike speed if there are riding bikes) and you pass by and go back to the middle.

15:57 The road is designed for bicycle safety in the more rural areas. I've seen it in Denmark too. If you see a car coming towards you, you will pay more attention to anything on the right side of your car, when you make space.

16:25 Yes SEAT is a Spanish company now part of the VW group, in a similar way to how Skoda is a Czech company that is also now part of VW. I rented a Seat Leon station wagon on a 2016 European road trip (not deliberately, but that's what I was given) and shortly after returning to Australia I purchased a Skoda. Great car, love it, and highly likely that my next car will be both EV and Skoda.

on the drivers license subject : I am 16 and I am currently passing what we call "conduite accompagné" in france, which is a little drivers license you get before being 18 that allows you to drive but only with an adult the has a driver license. That allows me to "train" before passing my "permis b" which will allow me to drive alone. Great video too man, i love seeing people learning about my "culture" xD.

I actually live in the Netherlands, our highways generally speaking overcrowded, traffic jams around Amsterdam are daily headaches. I guess this gentleman drove middle in the day or in the weekend. The highway A2 between Amsterdam and Utrecht is guarded by cameras, actually the authorities keeping your speed in account, speeding is automatic fines. In Rural roads we have bike road in same time as the car’s,but most of the time we do separate roads for the bikes ( red colour) You have to be very careful for the bikes, they have priority all the time.

I would love to see you react to some videos from the Not Just Bikes channel. The dude is Canadian, apparently lived and traveled in big cities around the world and ended up moving to the Netherlands. His channel deals with the differences of car-centric vs people-centric infrastructures.

in europe driving lessons include driving in slippery conditions. highway. night driving etc. pretty much every aspect you can encounter in traffic is included in the driving lessons. also one thing that really reduce speeding is all the speed cameras. if speeding a picture is taken and sent to you along with a ticket showing driver , car and license plate.

I live in Germany to and every time when I drive on the highway near Grafenwöhr (US military base) I can immediately recognize a US soldier driving in front of me. Everytime driving skills of this driver are just so funny. 😂😜

I'm 30 and still don't have a drivers license, just because I don't need it when public transportation is so good, I literally can get anywhere. Busses drive every 10min, trains every 20min and in most cases trains are faster than cars

Hi there, nice to see your reaction. :) I'd say that in my youth (1990's) in a small village in Germany, it was also quite a necessity to get a drivers license. Back in the days it wasn't as expensive as it is nowadays: I got it for around 1200 DM. But the teaching was good: driving at night, driving on the Autobahn, parking rear and front etc. My teacher took it very seriously and my examiner/tester a lot more :)

Yup! 100% agree with what he said. Makes sense! But as we turn 18, at least in the Netherlands I feel, your parents usually gift you your drivers license, like pay for your lessons and your driving tests. Which you actually need to take two in the Netherlands. One on theory, so traffic rules etc.and you can’t take your actual driving test until you passed your theory. Really interesting 😊 oh Ps: Italians and the French are overall seen as ‘crazy’ drivers in Europe haha 😂. They are a bit more … chaotic let’s say haha

Those big riggs can really be dependent on country to country. I used to work for a company that paid the expenses for getting a license-C in Belgium. I know a friend of mine had to pay it out off his own pocket. So really depends on lol. Don't know if the same counts in the US though or in other EU countries. For me getting a license was allowed from 17 and 9 months. And that went true a driving school

6:40 truck licenses are divided into size categories depending on dimensions/ tonnage and price is 3x+ that of car license.... Also there is physical and psychological evaluation before lessons even begin and then every 5 years. Same for car if you want to drive professionally. On top of that you need additional license to haul cargo and transport people, unless you don't own a company/ work for one and use the truck for personal groceries only or something (which almost no one does.... maybe old army truck enthusiasts?) Most truck drivers are not only very good drivers/ know all the rules, but also "high class" road users.

The shoulders on the narrow road u mentioned were bicicle priority lanes, the cars drive in the middle making room for each other and the bicicles drive on the right side. Example1 2 cars pass each other in opposite directions. both cars make use of the bicicle lane. Example2 a car wants to pass a tracktor. The car can make use of the bicicle lane and pass. Example3 either of these 2 situations happens but theres a bicicle in front of u, u stay behind the bicicle until the other lane cleared and u can go afterwards. Passi

As a Brit, I've seen many crazy US driving vids, and it absolutely baffles me how people fail to slow down, drive all over the (wrong) place, or don't look where they are going and just ram into other vehicles. It's hard to understand how driving there can be so bad. It's absolutely fascinating to see the American perspective the other way round.

just wanna add: in the Netherlands driving in the left lane unnessersary is'nt allowed and you can get a fine for that, it's only for passing, period. OC some with big wallets or ego's don't care. Edit: those "schoulders" on the narrow road are bikelanes,.. it's a two way street and as a car you can drive over them but bikers can't leave them, so cars can pass trough the middle when they encounter a bicycle.

16:53 I live in sweden and we actually did lose our cargo once. We bought a huge 2 person bubblebath and my dad thought " that aint going anywhere " and it did weight a shit ton but it was windy and it was in a square box and somehow the wind picked it up and the entire bathtube flew off. Luckily there was no one on the highway at the time so we just stopped and picked it up again.

16:26 Yes, it's a Seat Ibiza. It's on the VW Polo base. I had this type in Diesel and a newer one in Gasoline (Sold both by now).

In Italy, i paid for my driver license around 500€ (10 years ago when i got it), and it was a lil bit easier, but there was always a theory exam and a practice exam to pass and mandatory driving hours. Now i think it costs around 1000€ in total or even less (not sure, should check it) but it's way more difficult (in the theory exam now u can do less mistakes and the practice exam lasts more, like around 1 hour). In the city I live (Naples) we make not so many accidents cause we are used to crazy drivers, even driving in narrow spaces etc... So we are ready to drive with our eyes wide open 😂 some people say if u learn to drive in Naples you can drive anywhere 😂😂 In fact whenever i drove elsewhere, i never got problems 😎

My Italian friend drove me and my wife through the Swiss Alps and I was fake breaking the whole way. And I grew up driving in the South Island NZ. Fast.

Current fuel prices in The Netherlands: around €2,15 for a litre "regular" (95 octane). Which relates to approx. €8,12 for a US gallon, which translates to about $8,69.........so yeah, fuel economy is a big thing over here.

Hi there! I've recovered your videos just quit recently. I love them! Your oppinions and knowledge on driving, esp. trucks I appreciate a lot. Concerning the speed limit mentioned here: the autobahn is generally speaking a highway, nothing more nothing less. We have a sports car... and once or twice we hit the autobahn with that car at a max. speed of 322 kmh, which resembles 200 mph.

Do you realize that for a European you are absolutely unique? I have never seen someone from USA so openminded, curious, clever, fair and honest and at the same time so cool and pleasant to watch and listen. Bravo !. a big fan

Dutchie here, about speed limits, annoying or not (and trust me i get that 100%) the result to those is that The Netherlands has for many years in a row the least car accidents/traffic deaths of entire Europe. i rather take longer to go from A to B but simply arrive in one piece. it's just the mentality people have here even tho i sometimes jump over the border and have some fun on the german no speed limit autobahn! speaking of the autobahn, I drive a lot in Germany for work related and the no speed limit on the so called famous autobahn becomes less and less every year, being less than 40% by now. (obviously safety reasons) keep up the good work dude

15:50 this is a road in the countryside/farmlands usually, these are two way streets but the sides are designated bycicle lanes so bikers can do so safely, its also very tight because it helps people stick to the speed limit, discourage parking on the side of the road in a non-emergency and makes sure people pay attention while driving since if there's oncomming traffic they both have to move far to the side to make sure to not trade paint or side mirrors 16:30 yes we secure cargo here because if your cargo causes an accident incurance, no matter how good, will not cover it, theres also a hefty fine on unsecured cargo as well as caro sticking out more than a meter needs to be indicated with (in the netherlands) a bright orange flag or reflective vest (ones you see at worksites) but it needs to be secure.

15:40 The areas left and right of the dotted lines are shared cycling lanes. Cars and bikes occupy the same space on the road in this case. Although in the Netherlands there a even cycling highways that run parallel to motorways...

From my experience in Germany everyone's driving at least 10kph above the speed limit. I'm the kind of person who sticks to the rules so it's even more frustrating when speeding cars get angry at me for following them. Other issues like weaving, "street races", "overtaking on the right" and so on do happen but are much less likely and mostly haben with younger drivers. Once I was a passenger in a friend's Car when his brother pulled up next to us and drove through oncoming traffic next to us for several minutes.

I'm from the UK, and I passed my driving licence at 52. I've driven wagons, FLTs and other vehicles privately within the works premises (Pilkingtons) which was a large factory area; from the age of eighteen. I used to deliver courses all over Merseyside,, UK for a couple of decades and just used public transport. In the last three years, I have driven all over the UK delivering courses by car, and I must say the average driving is pretty smooth with the odd bad driver. I did also spend about £2,000 in driving instructors and test costs. However, I did pass my theory and practical tests the first time for both; otherwise it would have been higher.

At 10:09 : "They only pass on the left" while a bike is chillingly passing on the right... :) Another good thing we have in europe is round abouts. I think it is better and much secure than regular crossing. Good dispatch for multiple directions, more permissive because you can easily u-turn or make 1 more turn if you have missed the exit, it generally don't need traffic lights, it is much more unlikely to have high speed collision (you can't go full speed if you just want to go straight forward so you need to slow down when approaching), and some are really gorgeous (easy to remember or when you explain the path to somebody).

6:50 The prices for the truck-driving-license is around the same price (maybe a little more) than the regular car driver license (in the EU it's the "B"-Class (cars max. 3,5 t. (metric tons))), but its mandatory to posess it before you can make the C1 or C-Class (C1 is the smaller one for trucks and other cars with a weight 3,5-7,5 t.). If you want to pull trailers over 0,75t, you must make the CE-Class one, otherwise you are not allowed to pull trailers. So you can count with around 3.000 € for the drivers license. The next part: If you want to work as a truck driver, you have to make a special course (Berufskraftfahrer-Qualifikation), which allows you to work offially as a truck driver (around 2000-3000 € extra). Without this course you only can driver private and don't earn money with you truck or drive for the ermergency services (there are also some courses) So you start with costs of ca. 5000-6000€ at start. The driver's license (for trucks) has to be renewed every 5 years with current certificates and medical certificates (eye test, reaction test), which can also cost around €200 together with some administration fees. This is the situation in Germany, but it should be similar in other parts of the EU. Classes of licenses: bmdv.bund.de/SharedDocs/EN/Articles/StV/Roadtraffic/driving-licence-categories-overview.html

Pet hate of mine on Aussie highways are drivers hogging the passing lane. Their logic seems to be that “if I’m doing the speed limit you shouldn’t be going faster than me” or “I like it out here in the passing lane… there’s less cars”. They don’t consider that speedos differ car to car or that hogging the passing lane causes cars to weave from lane to lane. Weaving in itself causes accidents and lane hogging causes frustration which causes accidents. It’s actually a law here that you keep left unless overtaking (on roads above 90kph) but too many drivers will use the logic mentioned above to excuse themselves from that law. I don’t understand why this is such a problem here when the European countries have it so well sorted out. Rant ends😇

I realize this comment will be exceedingly long, so read if you are interested in what I have to say: 02:14 I was born in the USA, and have had family there the entire time, but was raised in Norway. Having had the opportunity to visit the USA now and again, I have also been able to drive there. The only three things I like about driving in the USA are; the speed limits, the use of light crosses at some of the major freeway on-ramps and off-ramps, and the residential cross-sections that have one or two lines motorists have to stop at for each line before entering. I guess I lied, there's also a fourth thing, and that is that in many - if not most? - light intersections you are, by law, supposed to make a right turn on red light if the road is clear, we don't do that in Norway... Other than those, the quality of roads in Norway are much better than in the USA. One thing I remember vividly disliking about the roads in the USA, especially on the freeways or highways, was how there would seemingly always be that hole or bump in the road, making the car jiggle and/or bounce just a little for every one, it was just so frustrating... The use of lanes in the USA is so so SO bad, it is practically impossible to drive, let alone change lanes... In Norway we mostly have single, if not dual, landed roads in either direction, but on the dual laned roads most people will stay in the right hand-lane, driving anywhere from the speedlimit to anything under, while those in the left hand-lane will usually be the ones that drive the speedlimit or above, usually no more than 6 to 9 mph above. Once the right hand-lane is clear for a greater distance ahead, the ones driving on the left hand-lane will merge onto the right hand-lane until they come upon another car, or simply as long as it takes for the car behind them to drive past at a faster speed. If people on the left hand-lane use their indicators to indicate that they want to merge onto the right hand-lane, then 9/10 times the people on the right hand-lane will slow down to make ample room for the other car to merge safely, and I honestly do mean 9/10 times. When there was rush-hour on the freeway in the USA, trying to merge onto the freeway from the on-ramp was practically impossible, everyone seemed to be adopting the "Everyone for themselves!" mentality, not caring at all about others. In Norway, however, generally speaking people on the right hand-lane of a freeway will automatically slow down enough to make plenty of space for merging cars from the on-ramp to safely merge, and we'll do it in a zig-zag sort of pattern where one car merges onto the freeway, then one on the freeway's right hand-lane drives, another merges onto the freeway, then another one on the freeway's right hand-lane drives, so on and so forth. Speed limits in Norway: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_Norway 07:00 The total price (excluding driving hours that they recommend be a total of 100 hours) at a random driver's school I just checked is $2779 for the regular car licence, one 45 minute driving hour at the school costs $79.50, but you are allowed to do learning driving with people you know that has had - and still has - the driver's license for 5 consecutive years and are 21 years old or older, and this would work towards the recommended 100 hours of driving. Including driving hours from the school, it isn't uncommon for people to be spending anywhere between $3022 to $4533 or even more. And adding to that, the $2779 I mentioned assumes that you pass both the theoretical and the practical tests at the Public Roads Administration office, where the Theoretical test has 45 questions you need to have 38 answered correctly within 90 minutes to pass, and the practical test lasts for 65 to 75 minutes of which will include preparing of the vehicle, safety check with randomly selected questions, and the drive itself where you will be given various tasks to complete. The testing is very strict, and two of my friends had to take the theoretical testing more than twice before they passed, but as far as the practical testing and the various faults you may be given by the examiner, you can occasionally manage to explain your way out of a failure, assuming the explanation and reasoning behind your actions and choices are sound. For instance, I almost didn't pass because: 1) I drove onto a highway from a stand-still on a side-road even though there was a car speeding along on the highway towards me a distance away, I was supposed to wait for the car to pass before making my merge onto the highway, as I may have otherwise hindreded the traffic by making the car on the highway have to slow down. 2) I also sped well past the speedlimit on a long stretch of road when another practical tester had been told to force me into having to abandon my passing by him, eventually managing to force the other tester to slow down and let me successfully pass him by. 3) Then for the third and last fault, I drove primarily with one hand on the wheel instead of two as is required. When asked about my reasoning for my actions, I explained: 1) I looked both ways to make sure there were no cars coming from the left, and I saw that the car coming towards me from the right was far enough away that, if I merged onto the highway in front of him and quickly accelerated, I would successfully manage to merge all without being a hinder to the traffic, so I took the window. 2) I had clear view the entire time that I kept attempting to pass by the other tester, and seeing as there were no cars coming at me the entire time, I decided to push it until either 1) I managed to pass him by, or 2) I saw another car coming towards me, in which case I would have immediately slowed down my speed and merged back into my lane behind the other tester, or 3) I got too close to the turn at the end of the straight line, in which case I would have done the same as on 2). So it was all done perfectly safe, and I was aware of everything. 3) I didn't even realize that I did that, it just comes natural to me I guess. I find it more comfortable and easier to drive with a single hand than with both hands. Although if the weather had been rainy, windy, or the road wet, icy, snowy, or otherwise slippery and bad conditions, or there was a sharp turn, I would have used both hands on the wheel because I would have more control than with just one hand in those types of scenarios. The examinier's responses were: 1) The examiner wasn't entirely in agreement with me, but he accepted my reasoning, seeing that I knew what I was doing, had good planning, and didn't put anyone in danger or hinder traffic in any way, so he scratched that off with a little advisement that next time I may want to let the other car pass before merging onto the highway. 2) he realized how well of an understanding I had of the situation the entire time, and agreed that I hadn't done anything inherently dangerous because, as I had mentioned, we had clear view of the road ahead, and there was no cars coming at us, and we would have had ample time to merge into our lane if any car would have come towards us at any time, and thus scratched that off the list. Though he did comment on the fact that I did drive over the speedlimit, and while that isn't necessarily illegal in the situation of executing a pass-by, there are limits to how long a pass-by should last, and so next time I should consider merging back onto my lane behind the other car if it doesn't look like the other car is going to let you pass them by. 3) He completely agreed with me, even going as far as to admit that he, also, mainly drives with just one hand on the wheel, as it is most comfortable for him, too, so he scratched that off the list, too. 12:34 In some countries, there are roads where the only speedlimit they have is the Recommended Speedlimit, but that doesn't mean it is illegal to drive faster, it just means that not driving past that speedlimit is safest for you, and anyone else on the road or in your car. But this is also on the most well maintained and properly built freeways/highways, and I was thinking of the Autobahn in particular. I haven't driven in Europe all that much, but in the Nordic - at least Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, - the speedlimits are generally slower to much slower than the USA. 16:56 I remember one time when I think I was 11 or 12, mom was driving on a freeway in the USA behind a big-rig transporting some kind of housing, when suddenly our car veered sharply and I looked up from my Gameboy, or whatever, to see that my mom had had to veer sharply out of the way to avoid a big metal piece of housing that got loose and would have probably sheered straight through both car, and mom, had we remained where we were behind the big-rig...

In Lithuania (North-eastern Europe) we have two types of highway one is marked with blue signs and the other with - green and both of those have seasonal speed limits in winter (November to April)both are 110km/h ~70mph also winter or M/S tires are mandatory, and summer green is 130kmh ~80 mph, blue one 120kmh ~75mph.

The big difference to me is that the roads are dimensioned for the speed. You'd never see a wide 5-lane road in a 50km/h-zone in Europe because that leads you to believe that you can drive much faster. The slow roads are never wider than they need to be and they're often surrounded by trees and buildings, which makes slow speeds feel very appropriate. At least in Sweden, I think the approach to speeding is reasonable too. Going 130km/h on a 110km/h in good conditions is rarely an issue, but speeding in 30km/h-areas is punished severely.

G'day Ian, here in Australia unfortunately a lot of drivers are similar to U.S. drivers. Especially around the cities the road rage is very prevalent.

16:20 Yep! That's a SEAT (Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo, Society of Spanish Automobile Tourism) Ibiza, in origin a Spanish automobile manufacturer (cars mainly). They have a partnertship with FIAT (the Italy counterpart), but later was buyed by Volkswagen, nowadays some SEAT car models share some parts of Volkswagen cars, for example (as far as a I know) the SEAT Ibiza chasis is the same as a Volkswagen Golf for example.

Nice topic. Here in the Netherlands it is allowed to drink or eat behind the wheel. Only we an article ( art. 5 WVW) that said, It isn't allowed to create danger or hindrance on the road. (It is for all traffic) So eat and drink behind the wheel is allowed. But when you are swinging the car because of that, you can get a ticket.

SemiTruck License price depends... You can only get it at age 21 first of all. Then it depends on what license you already have, and if you do it in combination with other licenses it is cheaper than if you did each license separately. In general though it is about the same as a license to drive a car, maybe slightly more expensive. In Germany a semi license costs around 2-3k