Unsual Driving Laws Abroad

[Bazile]

Here is a Little quiz for you - see how many you can get correct WITHOUT
GOOGLING/LOOKING IT UP .

In which country -

Are all drivers required to carry a breathalyser

Is it illegal to drive without headlights, even in daylight

If you need to wear glasses, you are required to carry an additional pair when driving

Is illegal to drive without Winter tyres at certain times of the year

Is illegal to drive a dirty car

Are cars in some cities ,must be parked on different sides of the road according to the day of the week

Is it compulsory to include equipment of a tow bar and 3m rope in car

Is it forbidden to pick up hitchhikers

[rockyracoon]

France
Sweden
?
Germany
?
Greece
?
?

[rockyracoon]

Actually I want to change Greece for USA

[Stephen_G]

breathalyser - France. I believe that if you have to use it, you're not supposed to drive your car again without another breathalyser in it.

Dirty Car - I think is Switzerland.

I can remember watching a programme presented by Tim Grundy, and he was in America (I can't remember which part). He said that (Wherever he was) you couldn't drive down a road and cross the white line to get a parking spot. You'd have to find a way to turn round and enter the spot from the direction of travel. It was not a one-way street.

[Bazile]

I should have numbered the questions .

1. Are all drivers required to carry a breathalyser

2. Is it illegal to drive without headlights, even in daylight

3. If you need to wear glasses, you are required to carry an additional pair when driving

4. Is illegal to drive without Winter tyres at certain times of the year

5. Is illegal to drive a dirty car

6. Are cars in some cities ,must be parked on different sides of the road according to the day of the week

7.Is it compulsory to include equipment of a tow bar and 3m rope in car

8. Is it forbidden to pick up hitchhikers

I'll post the answers later on today .

If you have posted your answers and have then subsequently researched the answers PLEASE DONT SAY SO ON HERE OR GIVE ANY CLUES

[EDDIE51]

Wait till you have to drive in Saudi Arabia, there are NO DRIVING LAWS AT ALL.
So it is not illegal to drive at 100 mph on the wrong side of a dual carriageway at night with no lights. I drove a 5 litre Chevrolet pickup for 250,000 Km over 3 years without even a scratched bumper I won 8 safe driving awards. I spent a lot of time driving as most of the other expats refused to drive at all.
There is no driving test so on a sons 17th birthday a father will buy his son a car and hand him a driving licence. The cars is often a large American sports car and too frequently the son is dead in a road accident within a few weeks. Saudi is the only country in the world where the death rate in car crashes is so high that it is causing the population to decrease.This is all the worse because most of the deaths are of young males aged between 17 and 25, there is already a major shortage of males over females in this age group. Insurance is not compulsory either , in fact according to religious law it is illegal! the Mullahs see it as trying to insure against Allah's will . If Allah has written that you are going to be in a crash how can you insure against it ?? is how the argument goes.

[jomifl]

The French breathalyser law never came into force and nobody took any notice of it because the breathalysers were unobtainable.

[sigma]

"Saudi is the only country in the world where the death rate in car crashes is so high that it is causing the population to decrease"
Can you verify that.

[EDDIE51]

Sigma, I lived there for 3 years in the mid 1980s it was being reported in the newspapers at that time. I hope it has improved but I doubt it has.

[EDDIE51]

As suspected it has not improved in fact it is worse!
http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/03/saudi-arabia-death-toll-driving/
Alcohol is banned but drugs like cocaine are very widely used.

[EDDIE51]

Just to clarify a statement on that link, the population of Saudi is over 25 million but less than 4 million are native Saudi Arabs , they are heavily outnumbered by immigrant workers and expats like I was , it is the native Saudi population that is decreasing due to the crashes.

[ummmm]

Did you see that programme about the young Saudi's that come to England with their sports cars?

How much would it cost to ship a sports car?

[EDDIE51]

ummmm it costs a lot less to ship a car from Saudi to here than to buy the same car here. Several people I worked with bought cars in Saudi and shipped them home. A car that is £100,000 here is well under half that in Saudi shipping may cost £2000 or so.

[theshedman]

After seeing EDDIES post it made me think of when I worked in Saudi. I was involved in a car crash in Jeddah Saudi in the early 80s. A Saudi army officer drove into us, no one hurt. Both myself and my driver were expats. We had to wait for the police to come and issue us with a letter as repairs to vehicles couldn't be done without a letter off them. When the police arrived he looked at the damage to both cars and as the other car was driven by a Saudi national he just said that we would have to forgive each other as it was gods will. Then he went on to say that had myself and my driver not been in the country the accident would not have happened.

[Hopkirk]

I lived in Bahrain, and my car was damaged by someone unknown, when parked up overnight.

In order to get a letter of authority to get it repaired, I had to attend the police fort and pay a fine.

[boxtops]

Yeah, right, jomifl - I think you'll find it has! - that's why you can buy packs of breathalysers on the ferries into Calais, and OH has to carry a pack with him every time he sets foot in France!

[woofgang]

I don't think the needing to carry spare glasses if you wear them to drive is unusual. I always have a spare pair in the car in case of accidents, its common sense.

[Canary42]

6. Not an answer per se but in the Norfolk village I grew up in (in the Fifties) they had alternate roadside parking in the High Street, and first thing every morning a Council employee used to go round changing the signs (they had hinged flaps for this purpose).

[Bazile]

Isn't anyone else going to have a go at the quiz?

Go on have a go .

[Canary42]

1. France
2. Sweden
6. Sheringham, Norfolk in the 1950s

[Bazile]

Well that quiz was a resounding success :-)

Here are the answers -

France
Scandinavia
Spain
Germany
Belarus
Spain
Serbia
Russia