Off to Switzerland for the first time in many years and a bit put out by the cost of 6 days road use. Anybody want to go halves on a vignette? I'm going the last week in June, so will either buy a used one off someone now (I'm assuming they're not vehicle specific), or sell mine on for half the retail. It's not that I'm tight of course, but I think that's taking the p*** just a little bit.
Showing my ignorance here, but do you only need it for the motorways as a kind of toll? I thought it was just an excuse to hit everyone that entered the place?
Motorways only, same in Austria. And if you are on the motorways and your vignette is not stuck firmly to the screen to stop you swapping it between vehicles, you will be very politely fined a lot by the very polite policeman. Happened to one of my workmates two years ago just outside Zurich!
Damned cunning, these Swiss sticker designers. I'm sure there must be a market for these as the value is so high....even seen a couple on fleabay.
You aren't fined that much if you don't have it: about CHF 100. Seeing as the cost of the sticker is CHF 45, you might consider risking it. I rode my bike all last season with the thing in my wallet but was never asked. They are hottest on it in the early new year when we all change over and buy the new one. Only difficulty is if you enter Switzerland on a motorway, customs may well force you to buy one. After all, you can hardly say you aren't going to be using the motorways, can you? But otherwise, if entering on a normal road, I wouldn't bother. Switzerland isn't big and you're rarely on the motorway for that long. They do have flying patrols checking, (so they say) but I've never seen one and I live here.
If you buy one at the swiss border they will make sure you fix it firmly to your bike, so that it can't be re-used. But if you buy it in France it'll likely be cheaper, you can selotape it to your screen, and then sell it on once you're done with it.
Best way into Switzerland from the UK is the road from Pontharlier. You won't be on a motorway and you won't have to buy a sticker. The dull way is the motorway from Lyon (well, Macon really). Go to Dijon, then Dole, then head for Pontharlier. For top fun, head for Sainte Croix and do the col down to the valley. What a great introduction to Switzerland! BTW, if you ignore my advice and enter Switzerland at Geneva, be aware that the motorway from Geneva to Lausanne (along the north shore of Lake Geneva) is festooned with speed cameras. Stick to the 120 kph speed limit or you'll set them all off. Then having or not having a motorway vignette will be the least of your worries. :biggrin:
Best follow this advice as we don't push our luck in Switzerland. It's not far to Italy and they don't give too much of a shit about you speeding there unless you are being a total numpty.
Cheers, probably coming in from Munich way, do the passes around St. Moritz and Andermatt, then out via Black Forest. If I can avoid motorways, I won't bother with the vignette.
I set every one of them buggers off a few years back, but times change, and nowadays they'll chase it up. I've never been done for a speed camera 'event' in Europe in all the years I've been tearing around, but 30 years back I ended up in a UK court for a parking ticket I got at Lucerne some six months previous. They chased that one up alright...
if they're gatso types like the ones here, just don't ride over the speed markers. The camera takes pictures x seconds apart - the speed is calculated by the number of markers you ride over. Don't ride over the markers, no speed can be recorded. Simple.
Nope, not so simple. You're confusing the setup used in the UK with that on the Continent. The speed is detected by the radar head in the camera, in the UK the road markings are simply used as corroboration of the detector head's reading. European cameras do not necessarily ( I can't honestly remember ever seeing camera road markings over there ) bother with them.
Never had an issue in switzerland but last september in the car i got a little off track and had to drive through Austria ( leaving switzerland) for no more than 10 minutes ! As we were leaving and passed through a mountain tunnel there were very polite and armed police at the exit to Germany that relieved me , very politely, of 120 euro's. They explained that there are notices at every border crossing informing you of the conditions of use. The trouble is , because the borders are not manned by anyone you just drive straight through them without giving it a second thought. Lesson learned i suppose.
Stupid question perhaps - assuming I don't want to buy a second hand vignette off e-bay, but would rather buy one at the border, do they take credit card or Euros to buy one at the border, because I won't have any Swiss francs on me at that stage.
