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Original poster

Driving in Belgium

30 replies

MouleFrites · 22/03/2011 14:23

I hate it!!!

Can anybody explain why roads here are suddenly closed and no diversion signposted? I had a good 30 minute drive to the nearest motorway this morning only to find the road was shut 200 foot from the entrance to the motorway. There ISN´T any other easy way to get where I was going with an A road but I figured I could go the other direction up the motorway and turn back at the next junction. What happens? The next exit off the motorway is closed and I have to drive miles in the wrong direction before I can come off the motorway. Then give up and go home, having spend a long time and lots of petrol driving in rush hour traffic.

I´m fed up. This can´t only happen to me. A few weeks ago the MOTORWAY here was barriered shut with no prior warning, NO sign that you just might like to exit the motorway beforehand rather than spend the afternoon in a stationary traffic.

How hard is it to put up diversion signs?

OP posts:
RuthChan · 22/03/2011 20:13

Yup, that's driving in Belgium for you.
There is no logic and, like all other areas of life here, everything is made easier for the workers, not the public.
We have to laugh about it to avoid crying.

Longtime · 22/03/2011 20:16

Oh God, don't get me started. It's the drivers themselves that drive me mad. They just don't think ahead. There's no consideration for other drivers or pedestrians at all. They don't care if they block the road as long as they get their few centimetres further on and God help you if you stop for too long to let a pedestrian cross at a zebra crossing/don't take your priority/do take your priority/let someone pass/don't let someone pass.

And breathe. This is the advantage of taking the metro :)

RuthChan · 22/03/2011 20:17

Hi Longtime.
That's right. Get all the frustration out!! :o

RuthChan · 22/03/2011 20:18

A belgian driving complaints thread.
I can see this one running and running!

NorbertDentressangle · 22/03/2011 20:19

One of our scariest ever driving moments was in Belgium.

A fridge freezer standing upright in the 'fast' lane of the motorway Shock.

corblimeymadam · 22/03/2011 20:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

scaryteacher · 22/03/2011 20:33

Don't get me started on Belgian Audi drivers; lack of any indication whatsoever at roundabouts and senseless bloody junctions where no-one can work out where right is to give priority!

MrsSchadenfreude · 22/03/2011 20:36

Oh yes, they are always digging up the bloody place.
But the scariest thing has to be the "priority to the right." Where people hesitate, then go for it, and BANG!
Actually, that mad junction on the Ring where everyone gets onto the ring and comes off in the same place is the worst (near Zaventem/Vilvoorde) ever. And I live in Paris now, with the joys of the Peripherique...

MrsSchadenfreude · 22/03/2011 20:38

We have a helpful book called "Driving in Belgium" and on the priority to the right bit, it blithely tells you that if you are coming from the right, it is "of no consequence to you what the other drivers' plans are, you have priority." Don't you just love that? Sod what he is doing, he has to brake for you, and if he doesn't, well, you are in the right anyway (great comfort as the ambulance takes you away).

kreecherlivesupstairs · 23/03/2011 08:28

I was thinking about this only an hour ago. The cyclists are seemingly incapable of indicating where they are going. I nearly ended up with a Landcruiser in my boot because I had to brake very suddenly at the roundabout by DDs school.
The road closures I hate are those where the diversion is about 7km to avoid a 50 metre length of road resurfacing.

Longtime · 23/03/2011 08:49

And scary, you're in Tervuren where about three different companies are digging up the roads to the west of the village. One of my s-i-l's friends had to ask someone to move their digger as there was actually no way whatsoever she could reach her house!!!!

MrsS, there used to be a worse junction in Auderghem where you could join the ring heading towards Zaventem by crossing the ring in the other direction Shock! They've blocked that off now though. But indeed the Zaventem is pretty scary. Picking up from the airport, you come off the ring into the fast lane of the sliproad and have to make your way right across to the Airport lane!!!

Original poster
MouleFrites · 23/03/2011 13:38

Great to hear I´m not alone and to hear your stories! We also have a building site next to us. Not only did the digger driver blocking the exit to our garage entrance refuse to move at one point on the grounds he was on his break - no that wasn´t enough! - He also accidentally destroyed the whole access road to the (40 + cars) garage. Parking on the street in town was very difficult for 10 days till they built the road up again. Workers here just don´t seem to care...

OP posts:
Longtime · 23/03/2011 15:09

Whereabouts in Belgium are you MouleFrites?

frazzlenz · 23/03/2011 15:30

I was so freaked out by the driving when I arrived that I avoided it altogether. Its better now but you have to keep your eyes peeled thats for sure. What gets me is the tiny following distances people use when driving at 140kms. They must have bloody good brakes! The number of accidents you see around is crazy. Just Sunday I saw 2 flipped cars on the ring road. The services hadn't even arrived yet.

Longtime · 23/03/2011 19:39

They're all crazy! It's like that Goofy cartoon where he walks calmly along the road and then drives like a crazed loon once behind the wheel:

.
MrsSchadenfreude · 23/03/2011 19:56

Longtime - yes!! I know that junction. I think we moved there just after they had blocked it off.

Original poster
MouleFrites · 23/03/2011 20:10

Ha Ha!

I´m in Flanders Longtime and it´s always mad out here. The Belgians just seem to have a complete lack of road sense and I´m not convinced they even know their own priorite a droite rule. I´m always conscious that someone may just do something stupid and I haven´t felt like this in any other country I´ve lived in. I´ve come across dangerous driving in other places but the people were more on the ball than they are here.

OP posts:
Longtime · 23/03/2011 23:27

Monkeybumsmum and I had a funny experience the other day but I must admit the driver was French. He and the driver in front were out of their cars but got back in all smiles so we presumed the French man had touched the bumper of the car in front with no damage. The traffic moved but the Frenchman didn't see this (too busy texting/phoning) so someone behind beeped him. He tore off, straight through a red light! We caught up with along the road a bit. He was once again out of his car with the same driver as before having hit him again!!! Needless to say there were no smiles this time.

scaryteacher · 24/03/2011 08:01

The digging up of roads is causing havoc for the school bus Longtime, as you can imagine, and it will be along my road in the summer. Deep joy!

It's junction 3 or 4 on the ring to get to the airport and I HATE it with a passion...if I have to pick dh up near rush hour, then my shoulders are locked round my ears by the time I get there.

Belgians don't see a safe stopping distance from the car in front, they see an opportunity.

Agree about the priorite a droite as well (can't be arsed to put the accents etc in), especially on the motorway where they don't have priorite a droite, but still think they do.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 24/03/2011 08:21

This morning I had a touch of road rage. I was taking DD to school and there is a bit of cobbled road where cars park on the right. A car was coming toward me so I slowed down, a mini behind me tooted and over took me at considerable speed. The mine drove into a lorry carrying some sort of building materials.
DD said 'that's god getting his own back'.
I do know the woman who crashed (and she'll know me, we are the only family with Swiss number plates on our car). Ha ha.

AlpinePony · 24/03/2011 14:45

In my experience (years and years in Belgium incl. Brussels, East Flanders and East Cantons) the Belgians haven't a clue how to drive - in fact, wasn't it only in 1974 that citizens were required to sit a test? Beware anyone with grey hair or a "low" numberplate - they'll not have a clue.

But, on saying that, I've rarely met an expat who understands the speed limits and/or "priorite a droite".

frazzlenz · 24/03/2011 19:16

Someone was just telling me about the short number plates today and that it means they are unlicensed! Crazy!

Portofino · 24/03/2011 20:48

I hate the way they never indicate, totally ignore you when YOU do, and go to great efforts to push in the front of a queue to save themselves seconds at the risk of causing many accidents. Dd and I were nearly mown down by a speeding driver .....on the forecourt of a petrol station - he decided that waiting for 30 secs at the lights was unreasonable so decided to speed through!

I do the E40 every morning between Sterrebeek and Evere. Because of the Ring, this involves crossing 3 lanes of traffic before the ring, and back 3 lanes afterwards. How I am not totally white haired, I do not know. Dd has a good repertoire of rude words. Blush

Portofino · 24/03/2011 20:50

I do understand the Prioite a droite rule though!

MrsSchadenfreude · 24/03/2011 21:54

Oh God Portofino, we used to do that drive to NATO as well! I was becoming a gibbering wreck so changed my route and pootled along the back streets. Which took longer but was better for my blood pressure.

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