Driving in Poland, are there any rules at all?

if i ever get the chance to live in poland, i wouldnt consider driving there. it would terrify me. its bad enough being a pedestrian! had unfortunate experience of being a passenger in my lodgers works van about a month ago.never again. i was almost crying. he said i was a nervous passenger and everyone in poland drives like he does.yeh, im guessing there arent too many rules!

I have actually seen either a road or a car, but have not driven one myself here yet. therefore I am asking you for help. No need to be sarcastic. A big thanks to all of you who took my question seriously. It is really helping.


I suppose I wouldn't decide to rent a car there:)

I am not sarcastic. I only wonder how funny it is that you don`t believe what you see with your own eyes and depend on others to tell you what sth is like. Really amusing! :):):):)

I advise you not to drive in Poland with your poor sight, it will be much safer for you and other drivers.

If you insist, though, stay away from me on the road. :):):):):):)

What puzzles me is the question in the thread title.

Yes. It is a nonsense which proves this guy is either half blind or totally dumb or just trolling.

My two-pennorth is that driving standards aren't always great here - especially the aggression shown buy some drivers but really there are many places in the world worse and I'd say driving in Warsaw is on a par with London.

Agree. Polish drivers are nowhere near as bad as they are painted on this forum. I won't post the links to lists of road deaths worldwide as I was attacked by a berk when I did it last time, but anyone who has travelled a bit knows that Poland is ok. You certainly couldn't say that you take your life in your hands on the roads here.

Aren't the death rate on Polish roads the highest in Europe, 50% above European average??


Good decision but have you seen the bus drivers and they way they drive?

youtube.com/watch?v=tjh9I47NUEU&feature=player_embedded
One way to deal with a problem

yes. i had to get a bus in a very rural area south of krakow. first thing i thought when bus pulled up was there are way too many people on it. my friends didnt bat an eyelid. obviously the norm. i ended up next to the driver desperately trying to hang on to people. every time we stopped i thought i was going to go through the windscreen as he applied the brakes ever so slightly ferociously. then he complained because my handbag kept hitting him in the head( due to the fact i was like a sardine in a can).tbh i have been in worse places than poland for driving. try peru.

Everyday situation for many many many people.

Untrue if you're referring to our exchange. I did debate you on the method which those numbers were arrived at and whether or not that really amounted to your assessment that driving here is just as safe as anywhere in Europe. I agreed then as I do now that things have drastically improved here in terms of roads and manners. That being said, it's simply foolish to ignore the reality that blind overtaking and the variety of interpretations of what is safe, still leaves much to be desired.

Yes!!!!! that's a term I'll borrow.

and I only wonder if you have ever been to a foreign country. If you had been, you would know that every country has its own so called "culture of driving". There are also so called "cultural norms". As I see now, you are not aware what both expressions mean. THAT's amusing. Take care people. Watch out on the streets

Here's a video about driving in Poland
wimp.com/drivingpoland

See..not so scarey... Or maybe i have been here too long....?

pretty much. not enough blind overtaking on windy roads though.

What I'm becoming increasingly sure of in Poles is that they're, generally speaking, poor assessors of risk, at least when driving. I'm not even sure if it's assessing risk vs. reward or simply an inability to recognize it at all.

Wow, shouldn't have watched the video, I assume the drivers here enjoy high level of adrenaline

I basically learned it's best to walk quickly while crossing the street; I didn't want to become a hood ornament for any oncoming traffic.

Gives me chills.
Mainly because it's painfully true. Terrible roads, old malfunctioning cars and completely unpredictable insanity in some drivers (including the ones in 18-wheelers...).

The thing about that video is that - different seasons of weather aside - that could have been a compilation of any given day's driving on Polish road. Scary how unremarkable I found it.

A good anti-theft device in Poland is to drive something no thief would want. An old beat-up Fiat Uno or Polonez is .good.. Also a make on the rare side liek a Lancia Ypsilon, Chevy Aveo or Skoda Citigo -- they stand out in traffic becuase there are still too few of them on the road and aren't needed for parts at a 'dziupla' (chop shop) because there's little demand so far. Oh yes, there's a 500 złotys fine for chatting over a cellphone while driving. A loudspeaker is OK though.

Thank you, I'm definitely gonna take an additional insurance...

"Brussels, 29 March 2012 - Progress in cutting road fatalities significantly slowed last year (to -2%) compared with a very promising EU-wide reduction throughout the last decade (on average -6%), according to new figures published today by the European Commission. Worse still, some EU Member States, like Germany and Sweden, who have very strong safety records, now show a significant increase in deaths. In other Member States, like Poland and Belgium - already lagging behind in road safety - the number of deaths went up. The problem of motorcycles - where fatalities have still not fallen after more than a decade - still persists."

So according to the table, Poland is the country with the most fatalities per million people. Something that for those of us who actually drive on the roads over here, doesn't come as a surprise at all. People here drive like complete and utter idiots. And no-one gives a shyte about the number of fatalities either.

When I first came here is was a bit of a shock to the system. We decided to buy a car in Warsaw and drive it to Wroclaw, I was told if i survived that journey then i would be ok driving in Poland, it was a horrible drive down but we made it. I now drive to work and back everyday and am confortable driving over here, but you need to have eyes everywhere, driving in Poland you need to be sooo alert to what is going on outside the window or else you will get in a crash. I have seen more crashes here in the 6 months that I have been here than my entire life in Ireland.

All in all its not too bad, people drive very very fast here. I would suggest getting a sat nav for driving in Poland, atleast you'll know where you are going.

Well, if you drive fast, and are not overly cautious, you feel that "dreszczyk emocji". It just makes driving fun. Youfeel that you are alive, and every second is an adventure.

Kondzior, it's ok if you're feeling dreszczyk emocji on the track not the public road. Because, if you didn't notice it yet, there are other people. Who don't want to feel dreszczyk emocji and possibility of painful death everyday when they're going to work. Think. Just think. It doesn't pain.

Oh, come on, if It’s Too Hot, Get Out Of The Kitchen. Thats the problem with the world of today, every thing is tailored to suit the sensibilities of cowardly old women.

kondzior
It's not a kitchen and you're supposed to stay cool on the road.

Your attitude is possibly the most dangerous of all. What's that, you're a skilled driver? Whoop-dee-fcukning-doo.

All you need is to be driving along at (let me guess here) 170km/hr or more and you've already created conditions for a major accident. You see, you're often not alone on the road:

People can get distracted
People can be tired
Animals can run onto the road
Vehicles can and do malfunction on the road

All these things go from minor accidents to situations where people get killed because some fool (that could be you in this case) is MORE important than everyone else and hasn't the balls to do really dangerous stuff on his own time when it's his a$$ and his a$$ only that has to pay the price when things go tits up.

That's the problem with the world today, everyone's a superhero behind their wheel and a cowardly old woman on their own.