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Re: Renting a car in Europe

Gp.Grewal@domain.elided (GP Grewal) writes:

   Actually you don't even have to get off the Autobahn to experience
   these narrow roads. In Germany you will run into construction zones,
   where they route all the traffic onto one side of the Autobahn.
   Typically its four lanes that are marked "2.2 meters wide"(this is
   roughly 73" and a 325i is 67" wide). This can go on for 10s of miles,
   specially in the eastern part of the country.

   They do impose a 80kmph(50mph) speed limit in these zones and most
   people drive between 70kmph(~45mph) and 90kmph(~55mph).  It can be
   pretty scary passing large trucks in these lanes, specially when you
   have head on traffic only inches away.

Since I later received a parting citation in this response, I guess I
should respond to it. :-)

I have just a couple minor amplifications. At least in the
north-western quarter of Germany, where the Autobahn is under
construction and you are shunted over to four lanes on one side, the
outer lanes are usually just modestly narrower, to allow room for
trucks, while the inner lanes are restricted to vehicles no more than
2 m wide, i.e.:

  |    |   ||   |    |
  |        ||        |
  |    |   ||   |    |
  |        ||        |
  |    |   ||   |    |

     ->|   |<-
        2 m

Thus, things are both more intense and more relaxed: in the inner
(left) lanes you only have 200 cm + 10%(?) in which to fit a 165-170
cm wide BMW.  However, nothing says you can't stay in the outer
(right) lanes where you'll have lots of space.

In between, there is also a hard-to-miss divider to discourage the two
opposing streams of traffic from mixing.  It's either a double set of
raised bumps pounded into pavement, in which case the speed limit will
usually be 60 km/h, or a portable concrete barrier, in which case the
speed limit will usually be 80 km/h.  The speed limit drops to either
60 or 40(!) km/h where the lanes merge and split.  Exceeding any of
these limits by more than 20 km/h can prove rather aggravating and
expensive.  (The limit + 10% is almost always safe.)

In any case, renting even a wide car for the Autobahn should be no
trouble if you stick to the right lane(s) where the road narrows.

- -John

P.S. Once I work through the backlog of things I promised to send to
     the list, I am tempted to compile a list of German
     Autobahn/access road do's and don'ts and then try to figure out how
     driving in Germany has influenced the design of BMWs. I, could, for
     example, start with the design of the turn signal stock....
     If any one wishes to spare future generations from reading such
     ruminations/drivel, please e-mail me a line.

P.P.S. What isn't an Autobahn is by definition an access road :-)

- -- 
John Firestone, Alfred Wegener Institut   jfiresto@domain.elided
 fuer Polar- und Meeresforschung             +49 (471) 4831 174 
Postfach 120161, D-27515 Bremerhaven          ..  ...  .... 149 (fax)
GERMANY
         "... There is always a well-known solution to
          every human problem - neat, plausible and wrong."
                - H.L. Mencken, The Divine Afflatus