Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 6 Aug 2014 11:59

Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience - catsdad

Hi, just back from Northern Spain and thought I'd share some of the experience. On some points I'd be interested in any ex-pat views. First the roads are excellent and quiet with even remote mountain roads better than our local a-road UK surface. Speed limits are however a real headache for visitors. Bends on their main roads now have mandatory speed limits of 60 kph. These seem to be ignored by locals but with with the warnings online about total inflexibility by the Police on limits I tried to comply but it became tedious and locals tailgate even at well over the 60 limit. More seriously they also have mandatory and variable (80/60/40 kph) limits in the frequent roadworks we encountered. These limits vary several times in each kilometre and yesterday I had the dubious pleasure of an artic on my tail flashing lights and blaring his horn if I so much as dropped to 50 in the 40 area. Locals again seem to treat these limits as we might the advisory signs we get in UK when chippings are laid but I believe they are mandatory and rigorously enforced in Spain. Finally on the negatives the speed control traffic lights which only change to green if you are below the limit are a mixed bag. Most change to green a few car lengths before you reach the traffic light line but one in the local town only changed as you were about to cross the line so to avoid passing a red light you had to drop to about 10-15 kph. Again locals just go for it at 50 and pass at red, slowing down for red gets you an aggressive flash from following traffic.
Generally however driving was easy with local drivers being patient (speed aside) , the roads were quiet and parking easily available even at popular tourist spots. Some of the advance online info is unduly alarming or misleading for example UK drivers need only carry one warning triangle ( not two as most sites state) and you only need a spare set of specs if your licence specifies it (not compulsory as most sites suggest). Also ,although I didn't risk it myself, locals flashed their lights not to claim right of way but to give way. And joining motorways at slips seems to be exactly as in UK with joining traffic using a mixture of speed matching and "assertive" joining in rather than waiting as if a give way as most sites suggest.
Finally one issue we did hit was getting a slow puncture with the choice of pumping up gunking it or using the darned space saver. Unfortunately it occurred on a Thursday evening before the St James holiday which sees just about everything closed for three days. We were lucky enough to find the one garage open on the Saturday and had a repair for a very reasonable 8 euros. Worth bearing in mind that you might not find the 7 day opening we get in UK and another reason to go for full size spare!
So I hope I have not added to some of the doom and gloom that my pre-trip research unearthed. On the whole it was a stress free trip and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to get back to driving on uncluttered roads with sunshine, food and scenery thrown in! As I said at the outset I'd be interested in any ex-pat comments or tips.

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Wed 6 Aug 2014 23:47

Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience - Avant

Many thanks for taking the trouble to tell us.

I've never driven in Spain but driving through France last month to see a friend in Zurich was a pleasure - mainly because France has much the same population as the UK (about 60 million) but three times the land area. Yes, there were some road works, but unlike the British the French aren't inclined to jam on their brakes and gawp at them.

Edited by Avant on 06/08/2014 at 23:52

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Thu 7 Aug 2014 09:24

Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience - colinh

Reference the speed-controlled traffic lights - as you have noted generally ignored by locals - however, on a stretch of the old national road (N-IV) just North of Madrid, which is used as an alternative to the parallel tolled AP6 autopista, they have now installed cameras in conjunction with the traffic lights. Have been installed for about 12 months, and speed limits are still being rigorously observed. Not sure if they are being installed elsewhere - they should be.

Road surfaces generally are good, but due to the "crisis" are starting to deteriorate in some areas due to lack of maintenance.

The prolification of speed limit signs is crazy - not only at bends, but at approaches to junctions on main roads, and to roundabouts - is it really necessary to have 80, 60, 40 signs in close succesion coming up to a roundabout?

You were lucky with the Saturday opening of a repair facility - this is another result of the "crisis" - up to 3 or 4 years ago the motor trade was strictly five day working. Some showrooms are now opening on Saturday afternoons!

Some positives - rarely spend money on parking; my car tax is £69 a year; away from the Costas the roads are empty; can drive through Madrid non-stop via the 12 km long ring road tunnel.

Edited by colinh on 07/08/2014 at 09:26

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Thu 7 Aug 2014 10:22

Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience - ripjean

Driven in Andalusia quite a lot and the roads are generally good - a lot of new autovias (dual cariageways), new single carriageways as well as toll motorways (mostly funded from European grants I believe.

Some of the roads are becoming rutted now though and as someone mentioned above, maintenance funding has been slashed.

Speed limits on dual carriageways and motorways are 120kph but drop to 100kph and then 80kph on approaches to tunnels or bridges. Locals do not seem to adhere to this but I got a ticket in one these areas a couple of years ago so I try to stick to the limits.

The one thing I have noticed about driving on motorways in Europe is that lane widths are narrower. I think they are about half a foot narrower than in the UK which does not seem a lot but you notice it when overtaking lorries!

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Thu 7 Aug 2014 10:48

Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience - colinh

Correct - UK standard = 3.65m; most of Europe = 3.5m. Main problem is on the older motorways which have been upgraded from old national single or dual carriageways. The design speed for the old roads was probably 90 or 100kph so the curves can be quite sharp and that 150mm is then very noticeable.

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Thu 7 Aug 2014 21:08

Any - Driving in Spain - recent experience - Smileyman

I can remember driving around Andalucia in 1992 - visited for the Seville Expo - lots of new motorways, all advertised how they had been funded by the EU

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