Driving in Europe : An Indian's guide 

Thanks mate, glad you had fun watching my vid :) And its my own motorcycle.

So glad to hear it Kamal, it was my pleasure :)

Thanks for your words! So glad you found it that useful :)

Thanks Ashwin! Glad you enjoyed it :)

My pleasure Rahul! Glad you liked it.

Thanks man, glad to hear that :)

My pleasure!

I drove from Belgium to Amsterdam and Paris after this, and it was my first time left hand drive!

Glad to hear that, thanks man!

Glad it was useful Srinivas!

Thank you so much man, it was kind of unbelievable for me to see such discipline when I first came here! I hope you get to ride here someday :)

Glad it was useful buddy :)

So glad to hear it Prashant! :) Hope you have a good drive!

You are welcome Pankaj!

Thank you Bharat! :)

My pleasure Mohit :) Glad it was useful!

@@CodeNameABK I have a trip to Italy coming up. And I'm gonna drive by myself for the first time in Europe. I have taken 12 driving classes to get accustomed with the rules, hope its enough.

@@mohitjee All the best! Did you take the classes here in Europe? Then you shouldnt have any problems :) Have a nice trip.

My pleasure :)

Really glad it was useful, thanks for your comment! And haha, it is like master's exam :) Also Switzerland would be even more stricter than here in Belgium.. all the best for your next exam!

Thanks a lot man! So now you are ready for an international ride ;)

+CodeNameABK Haha yeah,one day for sure..one day...;)

That's the spirit! :)

Its my pleasure man :)

Thanks a lot Mirza! Really glad my video helped and you have a great trip!! I might make a second video someday, thanks again!

My pleasure! :)

Dank je wel :) I hope you also got to know some fun facts about driving in India :D

***** dat zekker

Indeed those signs look pretty much the same :)

i noticed it in 10 sec just look at our crappy roads

Thank you Vidushi. Yes indeed almost all rules are same for two and four wheelers and the rules I have talked about are the basic ones. I didnt want to go into too much detail as it might be too much information for viewers :) If you want to know more, I would suggest to just go through articles online as you can find more details there. If there is anything specific you want to know, feel free to ask.

My pleasure!

Thank you Abhishek! Yes that habit is really hard to get rid off! :)

Thanks Chaman, glad you found it informative :) What exactly you want to know about roundabouts? People who are in roundabout have priority. And do you too live in Leuven? I am surprised you recognized :)

Yes. I did lived. Was there for quite a long time.

CodeNameABK :I too felt like I know this place :). R u studying for masters or PhD? I have live there too. It was my second home.

Thank you Tarun!

Thanks!

CodeNameABK I don’t remember what you explained about right before left rule? This rule is confusing for me sometimes

​@@abdurraheem2516 That is "priority to the right" rule. Maybe you can find better explanation in Google :)

Robda ok thank you very much

Thanks man. I too wish I had a similar video to watch when I initially came here :) And I have heard that rule is not strictly enforced in US, atleast compared to EU. In fact when you have 4 or 6 lane highways, sticking to right doesnt really help. Here you see 3 lanes at max on freeways.

@Simple Logic And more expensive

They go as fast as the road allows :) And there are only few expressways with 100+ as speed limits, most other roads have 80 as the limit. In cities, it is usually 50 or less. And thanks!

You are welcome Udhaya! Btw, we don't have amber colored right turn sign here in Belgium, so you will get better info about it in wiki/Google instead :)

Traffic lights in Europe (almost?) always have 3 colors: red, green and yellow/amber/orange. But the pattern they follow differs between countries. For example, in the Netherlands the light goes from red to green, then to yellow, then back to red. The rule for yellow usually is: if you can safely stop, with normal braking, then stop. In some countries the light goes from red to green, then green+yellow (simultaneously) and then red. Or red, to red+yellow, to green. I don't know which countries have those patterns, but they are there. In the US there's a common "right turn on red" rule, where you can turn right on a red light, if you think it's safe. That rule does not exist in Europe.

Hey thanks a lot, so glad to hear this video was useful :) And that car did not have priority. There was a priority sign for me before the junction which isnt visible on the video. Also another way to confirm priority is to look for shark teeth markings on the road but you can see these only when you are really close to the junction. At 11:37, it's not clear but that car has shark teeth marking on the junction where he was waiting which means he should wait.

awesome thanks.

Glad to be of help, hope you have a great trip to Belgium! :)

On a 50 km/h road like that, with broken lines on the sides, you can safely assume that you have priority. Only in slow 30 km/h zones and/or roads with no marking at all, traffic from the right has priority. Like this crossing where there are no signs or markings: goo.gl/maps/UvGVCcZNKTy99Efr8

Glad it was useful Vinay! Regarding Norway, I just did quick googling and it indeed appears that Indian license can be used for 3 months.

My pleasure man! To answer first question, no you cannot stop in the middle of the road. You can only stop if there is space on the side of the road for you to park. If it is emergency, then you stop with hazard warning lights on. Same on highway, you cannot stop on emergency lane unless it is an emergency, you have to wait till you see a rest stop/fuel station and only there you can stop. As for the lane, you should always drive on the right most lane, irrespective of vehicle size :) Middle and left lane are only for overtaking. Hope this was useful. You can also read up more using google as I have not covered everything, good luck!

Thanks buddy. Mandatory things vary slightly from country where you are renting but Indian license is a must and International Driving Permit is also needed in some countries. Cost also depends on car etc.. Some rental charge deposits, some don't.

Exactly. You said it best. The way of driving in Europe is very safe and relaxing, there's no need to rush, no matter how much you try to arrive earlier, ain't gonna be earlier than 2 3 minutes which is insignificant compared to what hazard you can cause by driving recklessly.

Some tricky which I came across in Netherlands It’s green for u and it can be green for a bicycle or pedestrian crossing the road as well There are some circles with double lanes too

Thank you so much for your words buddy :) Nice to hear you have been driving and riding for a year. And its the same here in Belgium as well, it can be green for peds/cyclists when its also for cars turning into them and also double lane roundabouts. Some roundabouts in Paris have much more than 2 lanes too :)

My pleasure, glad it was useful. In roundabouts, the vehicles already on roundabouts have priority. Other vehicles should wait till it is clear. I can imagine in Paris, there is lot of traffic so roundabouts will never be clear so one might have to squeeze his way in.

Not to be really confusing, but on some roundabouts in some countries it is the other way around. Cars already on the roundabout have to wait for cars going on to the roundabout. I encountered some of these in Greece. But still most of the time the cars on the roundabout have priority.

Thank you, glad you liked it. The rules for IDP varies a lot. In Germany, you can drive with Indian license for upto 6 months since arrival at EU. Few other countries around like Italy need IDP. So best would be to google for latest info. You can get IDP only from Indian RTO, you cannot get it after coming to EU. You can try contacting Indian embassy if you really need it. But since you are in Germany, you dont need IDP unless you plan to drive out of Germany. Good luck!

Glad it was useful! It wont be easy coming from India as we are not used to following rules :) but you will get the hang of it. Mostly follow what others do. I am not sure how the traffic is in Turkey/Romania (whether they follow all the rules or not) so it should be manageable for you. Hope you have a good trip! In my case, I took the classes because I had to get Belgian driving license and there is no way one can pass the exam here with just Indian driving skills.

Some rules are not followed so strictly when you go east or south (e.g. overtaking where not allowed or speed limits, Romanians in particular drive through villages 80 - 90 km/h), other rules are still kept (yield if the other vehicle has priority no matter what they or you drive).

Yes indeed :)

You are welcome, really glad it was useful :) There is this free website in Belgium which covers entire driving theory. Its in Dutch so you can use Google Chrome and auto translate it www.gratisrijbewijsonline.be/theorie/leerstof-rijbewijs-b

As you might already know, it is certainly not like India where we can stop anytime beside the road when there is enough space. In cities, it can be tricky to stop even for a quick look into the map as the roads can be busy without any parking place beside it. If you cant find any designated parking spots, easiest might be to stop at a fuel station. On highways and other regular roads, we need to look for lay-by or designated parking spots which are indicated with sign "P" (and fuel stations of course) and these signs are posted a few kms in advance so you know where you can stop. On remote village/mountain roads, if there appears a wide flat space beside the road, it is usually a lay-by and you can stop there. There wont be any signs posted for it.

You can find most of it online Sampath, good luck for your exam! :)

Haha :) By the way, if the exams were as strict in India as it is here, I wouldnt have had to do such a video :D

+CodeNameABK I'm very grateful we dont have the same kind of traffic either :D

My pleasure Rajas, glad it was useful! If its a lane separator, you will usually see signs for each lanes or directions painted on the road (like where each lanes go). And if its a divider, you will anyways spot oncoming traffic in a minute or two, just wait in the right most lane till then. I dont think you will have a problem with this once you get used to it.

Usually, if there's multiple lanes, you get a sign showing them in advance (a blue rectangle with white text or black-on-white). Also, on multi-lane roads, the lanes are split per direction, so you will not be allowed to drive against traffic - in other words, there will be a (single or double) solid line.

In most countries, if you are in a single direction road, you will see square blue signposts with a white arrow (meaning "one way"). If you don't see those signs, it usually means double direction. Also arrows painted on the lanes help a lot

Thanks Kashif, glad it was useful :) Legally, lane splitting is not allowed in Switzerland and Germany but when the traffic is too slow for too long, you see motorcyclists slowly start to lane split. In Belgium, Italy and UK it is allowed. In France, though its not exactly allowed but almost everyone lane splits.

In the Netherlands it is also allowed.

Thank you Kavita. The reason I recommended GPS is because it has very stable location tracking, gives info on speed limits and which lanes one should take and they work for entire EU. On phone, you need data which is not cheap in Europe, unless you have the whole map stored in offline mode. I have heard there are good apps these days but I havent tried them. Also I never get accurate location on phone as reliably as a GPS.

Thanks for your reply and details.

You are welcome, wish you a good trip!

Ok, confirm the dates! :D

Thanks a lot bro, glad it was useful :) For roundabouts, the vehicle already in roundabout has priority and you will have to wait.

Thanks bro...which part of india u r frm ...

@@michaeljohn9661 you don't have to worry, we got almost the same road laws and rules😂

Its Belgium but they are both very similar..

Haha, you should visit India to know what the hell is going on :D or watch this video on my channel "Going back in time, my first video from Gopro". I felt if I went any deeper, it would be an information overload so just wanted to stick to basics. Also one can read further online if really interested to know more.

Most of the rules, in theory, are valid in India too, but nobody cares. In Europa (Austria) is was so 40 years ago. Mostly the same rules like today (but no general speed limits outside the cities, and no seat belts enforced)... but nobody cared, also not after speed limits were installed. 100 kph in the town? No problem, you really had to be unlucky to pay once. Driving with more alcohol then blood in your veins? Normal, tolerated. Repairing your car with some rusty paper clips, all OK. Overtaking - do what you want, oncoming traffic will find a solution for the problem. In those times, despite much less traffic than today, our annual death toll seared up to 2500 (!!!) in 1970. Thoe times there were 2 millions of cars used in Austria. Now there are 6 millions, but the annual death toll went down to 400... These rules make the traffic safer, and flow more fluid, less stressful.

Whoa, I never knew it was that bad here 40 years ago! And even in theory, India doesnt follow many of the same rules esp the priority to the right doesnt exist. In junctions, usually one road is considered main road and the guy joining from little road has to wait or it is like in US, where the person who first came to a junction goes first.

Oh thank you so much! Glad you found it that useful :)

When I made this video, I had highly recommended GPS as there was no free data roaming across countries back then. But now there is free data roaming in most countries in EU (except countries like Switzerland and few others) and the navigation apps are better (gmaps, waze etc) so I think you can manage with mobile phone. I have a Garmin GPS btw and I use it every time I go out in car/bike (as it get more reliable GPS signal than phone). Even TomTom is also an equally good brand.

Driving on the right side is not so difficult and might take an hour or so to get comfortable, depending on your driving skills of course. But following the rules can seem too much in the beginning, best to read up about the signs and rules as much as you can. I havent covered all the rules in the video as it would be too long then. Good luck!

@@CodeNameABK thanks you.

All these rules makes our roads safe

@@CodeNameABK I drove more than 800kms from Munich to Salzburg, Innsbruke and Hallstat, City, Highway and Mountains all covered. It was an amazing experience. It took around 2-3 hours for me to get habitual.

That's awesome, glad to hear that Ankit!

When coming on tourist visas, you generally dont need a test. An international license is enough. But if coming on a long term visa, then both written and practical tests are usually necessary (depends on the country too).

Yes, I mentioned in the video

Yes or when the traffic light goes green and the guy in front of you doesn't respond, because he's playing with his phone or so, then you can give a short honk. But that's rare. I'm on the road for hours every day, and it happens to me maybe only once a year.

Around Leuven, yes.

The rules are not the same for entire Europe. Indian license is valid in some countries and not others. Best to google and check for the countries you are visiting.

Usually a no-U-turn sign is what you see. If its not there then U turn is allowed. Sometimes they might also put a sign with U (without cross) to show U turn is allowed but it is not very common, atleast here in Belgium

Thanks man!

Its exactly like that in India :) techincally there are rules but most dont follow and many arent even aware of it. Are you from US? Then the main difference you would find in Europe is the priority to the right in junctions, rest is pretty much similar as you pointed out. Also there are lot more automated speed cameras instead of manned police cars hiding somewhere.

No the rules are the same.

Haha, that is indeed rule 1 :) I am not sure which countries you mean by Northern countries of Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland?) because even in countries like Belgium, Netherlands, France etc lane splitting is allowed even when overtaking is allowed only on left hand side. It is not considered same as overtaking and it has some conditions like it is allowed when traffic speed is less than 50kmph and we cant lane split more than 20kmph faster than rest of the traffic (this cant be correctly measured of course).

@@CodeNameABK I'm a little uncertain about Norway but in Sweden and Denmark it is illegal and I'm quite certain that goes for Finland as well.

Well technically they do, but people cross the road everywhere so crosswalks have lost their meaning.

Googling says one can drive upto 6 months after arrival in Spain with Indian license and IDP. I dont know anything more than that.

Yes, India has its own charm :) but you need to experience foreign traffic once atleast. I had never imagined it could be so disciplined till I saw it here.

Yes indeed, I was surprised on my first trip to Rome.. the cab driver there would have no problem driving in India :D

Yes indeed, there are many such little details which I couldnt cover in this video, which is also why I tell viewers to read more online at the end.

I have bought it

Its the same in Belgium too..

Serbia is more southeastearn Europe ;)

Its impossible to fix the traffic in India, but the current system works isnt it, so why change? :D And I dont think India officially has "priority to the right" rule and also its not just about following them, most dont even know such rules exist. So this should be useful when they come here. Regarding helmet cam, some people gave some curious looks but cops dont mind it. In fact there was a video from a vlogger in Netherlands where cops stopped him for routine check and they complimented him for his chin mount, saying they didnt see that before :)

+CodeNameABK yes I do agree that rules are followed there diligently. Also, most of us don't know most rules here. We do have a right of way rule here. :D And most of the times it favors people in the right lane. But yes, it's not an absolute rule. It's upon the traffic user to give the other person his right of way. Like saying, pehle aap (translation - you first).

Sirjee, why the translation? hindi abhi bhi aati hai :D Regarding priority, I am sticking to what I said on the video, the bigger, faster, heavier vehicle has priority :P

+CodeNameABK agree on your interpretation of bigger vehicles bullying smaller ones. I just wanted to convey that actual (unfollowed) rules exist. The translation was for others, if they stumble across our conversation.

Vokay :) I would still like to know the exact rule regarding priority in junctions in our rule book, wonder if even RTO people know that! :D In US for eg, whoever comes first to the junction has priority, doesnt matter left or right.

Paul Jose..south India🤘🏻

Hey you can send me a message here or on my facebook page facebook.com/CodeNameABK/

No, it was mine

CodeNameABK thts cool .. broo.. evn im planning to settl some wer around thr aftr my studies.. hope i meet u soon.

All the best bro!