I think people go a bit over the top about the Swiss motorway sticker. It's CHF 40, or about £28. Compared to the cost of the holiday, it's not going to amount to much, is it? I may buy one for the bike this year. For the last 2 or 3 I haven't, as having to fork out for the car anyway, I sort of resent buying one for the bike. I suppose it it conceivable that someone will check one day; law of averages.
The Austrian one is a lot more reasonable, since you can buy a short term sticker cheaply, and the bike one is cheaper than the cars. Pity the Swiss one is not similar.
The drawback of our (Austrian) sticker is that you still have to pay a extra fee for many tunnels and (nice) roads over moutain passes. AFAIK with the 40€ in Switzland there are no extra fee on any roads. Best regards from Graz, Austria faxxe
I've never paid the carnet thing in Switzerland and I've been a few times Hoping to go to mugello via monte bland in May , hope the snow has gone ?..
A really important thing to know is that in France on the roads between towns you may see a white bollard with a red stripe. This means that the minor road has priority and they can just pull out in front of you. Considering that you may well be doing a fair lick on those great single lane Roman roads and that the bollards in the summer are usually obscured by vegetation , it can make life interesting. The time to be cautions is mid afternoon when people have had their lunch and a few drinks. Otherwise the locals do tend to keep an eye out for bikes regardless of whose right of way it is.
The bollard just tells you that there is a side road there. The priorities are determined by the signs or lack of them on the roads. The safest bet is to be aware of the give way to the right rule. Most of the junctions with the give way to the right rule are being changed to comply with the rest of Europe, even in the middle of nowhere like down here, but most French drivers are very observant when it comes to bikes.
On a main road, you will have the priority: people have to give way to you, so you don't have to expect people pulling out of side roads. Where this rule is no longer in force, as in towns, for example, you will see this sign: This means that "priorité à droite" is now in force, ie, you have to give way to anyone coming from your right, and you have priority over anyone coming from your left. This sign if very common; you see it all the time. The converse to this is this sign: This one means that you are back to having priority over other vehicles whether they come from right or left. In practice, you tend to have priority. It's only in towns and villages where you will be told you no longer have it. There can be other places too, but you will be told as and when they occur. Things are a bit more complicated in my canton in Switzerland where in villages they lay out all sorts of white lines with no signs. What this actually means is that it is "priorité à droite" but the Swiss don't have a road sign for it. It's actually "Priorité à droite" all over Switzerland, but you'd hardly know it as there are Give Way signs everywhere. But my canton, the canton of Vaud (all around Lake Geneva) is the most fond of the confusing road marking and the non-existent road sign.
Yeah, but that's not too hard to work out is it? The first two signs must pretty much exist in the UK. The first is self evident, the second is a crossroads, where it's going to be priorité à droite again. But I'm fairly sure that they tend to warn you with the "you no longer have priority" sign in conjunction with the crossroads one. It's not rocket science. I really have had no problems riding in France with knowing who I should be giving way to.
As usual, the problem is back in the UK, where there is never a sign telling you that "you have right of way". It is always left unspoken and unsigned, so you just have to assume you have right of way. The continental practice is far less confusing, because you are always informed specifically whether the right of way is with you or with the other bloke.
