Drive me crazy

Alan and I both have our Armed Forces Europe driver's licenses now. Driving here is different. There is a hierarchy of rules that govern driving. The most basic rule is the right-before-left rule, which applies to so much more four-way stops. Another set of rules governs who has priority (the right of way), which is key to driving in Germany. If you're on a large road, and going straight, that doesn't mean you have the right of way. If your road isn't marked as the priority road, all people coming from the right, be they coming out of a narrow alley, have the right of way. Sometimes the priority road curves, and you find yourself suddenly without the right of way. Or you may be in a traffic circle, but if it's not marked, you have to yield to people entering the traffic circle from the right.

Also different here: the almost complete absence of stop signs. Again, it's all about knowing who has the right of way. So, when merging onto a perpendicular priority road, you don't stop, you yield. If you have priority and are coming from the right, you just go, the other people who are already on the road yield to you.

German law places a lot of responsibility on every driver. Germans have to attend professional driving school (at great personal expense--thousands of euros) before being licensed. And although there are no speed limits on many parts of the Autobahn, woe unto him (or her) who is involved in any accident (even if the other car was to blame) while going above the recommended Autobahn speed of 130 kph. Suppose you're coasting along in the fast lane at 150 kph, and someone moves into your lane without looking and hits you. They get 60 percent of the blame, but you get 40, because, so say the police, if you'd been going slower, you could've avoided the goof who hit you. Or suppose you pass someone on the right (illegal on the Autobahn), because he's going super slow in the middle lane. The police will ticket both of you--you for passing, and him for going too slow in a passing lane--he should've been in the far-right lane.

Germans are also required by law to flash their hazards when they are the final car in a traffic jam, so that other drivers can see the slowdown from far off. It's a lot to think about. Did I mention how glad I am that our expected commute will be six minutes? :o)

But, because so much is demanded of German drivers, officials have come up with an interesting way of ensuring that everyone is up to speed (as it were) on traffic obstructions and slowdowns. A digital signal is embedded in traffic announcements, prompting radios to turn up the volume when a traffic report is broadcast. I'm not joking. And it goes beyond our television commercials, which are just created with a higher volume level. No, even when our car radio is muted, the volume jumps up to level 14 for all traffic announcements and goes back down to 0 after the segment is over. It's. Weird. There's a control on our radio that would prevent this, but we haven't yet figured out which setting to use.