Swiss Watching trivia, No 11: Road Rules
August 11, 2010, 4 Comments
Road Rules
Speed kills. But in Switzerland, which has the safest motorways in Europe, speeding kills your wallet more than anything. A Swedish man has just been fined a record 1.08 million francs (about £635,000) for driving at 290 km/h on the A12 motorway near Flamatt in Canton Fribourg. As Swiss fines are linked to both the offence and the offender’s income, this man lost a million plus his licence and car. In case you ever fancy driving in Switzerland, here’s a quick reminder of road rules: speed limits are 50 km/h in towns, 80 km/h on open roads and 120 km/h on motorways; minimum age is 18; alcohol limit is 0.5 mg per millilitre of blood (0.05%); motorway traffic must display the special tax sticker, or vignette, pictured above, which costs 40 francs a year; seatbelts are compulsory, as are booster seats for under 12s. And most important of all, on mountain roads the ascending vehicle has right of way. Oh, and the motorway signs are green, not blue like in Germany, France or Britain. Alternatively, you could just take the train and travel at over 200 km/h. Legally.
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4 Comments on "Swiss Watching trivia, No 11: Road Rules"
Do foreign tourists have to display the special tax sticker?
Of course. Every vehicle that uses a motorway needs a sticker, whether it’s for one hour or one year. My parents have to buy one every year so that they can use the Swiss motorways when they visit me. Hire cars should always have the sticker on automatically.
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