Driving in Poland, are there any rules at all?

Lets not make it personal, would we?

Yes, there is a risk involved, but it is the risk I am willing to take. As a matter of fact, it is the part of the fun.

I am a woman and a very good driver. However I do tend to stay within the speed limit on minor and A roads, and not overtake in silly places....just because I quite enjoy living...and I wouldn't like to be responsible for another death....are those the sensibilities of 'a cowardly old woman' or a normal responsible citizen?

The problem with Polish drivers from what I have seen in my personal experience;

a) they think they are above the law and drive without licences or insurance.
b) they drive like lunatics and think it's funny
c) they overtake in ridiculous places
In fact it's so blatant that I can spot a Polish driver a mile off, well maybe half a KM..

I've heard such stories in various areas of just about every country out there. ;) Personally, I don't drive in Poland. But I don't need to, the public transportation is great and when I want to go to the countryside, my family in Poland refuse to let me go alone because we spend the time bonding together over an open fire, walking in the woods together, picking mushrooms, etc. It's almost spiritual for us.


Funny, I saw this in both Rome and Paris. ;) And Maryland at 2am and Chicago at 2am. Also, WV at 2am (and imagine the hairpin roads on the side of a mountain, good stuff).

So you're willing to risk other people's lives for your own "fun?"
Seriously, grab a pair and try that routine off public roadways; go do it with others who need that kind of rush and you won't be endangering anyone else's children.


Wow, you get a little offended when someone makes an observation about you?
Let me see, I read something somewhat related...what was it? Ah, yes: "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen."

As far as I am concerned, not many.
I just talked to an older man who told that among drivers is the highest percentage of unexpected death.
Many people die on roads.
I sometimes listen to the "radio kierowców" on first polish programme on the radio and it still surprises me how many people brake the rules.

I almost lost my life in car accident caused by young driver.

Yes, that's true. But you also got badly injured in a car accident, and that wasn't in PL. Did you drive while drunk, as usual?

Driving in Poland is a kind of art. Yes - driver must always pay attention on everything around, rather than watching the actual speed. Speed limits are mostly ignored. The drivers are not crazy anyway. If you are scary take a flight. I had no accident within last 11 years in Poland. Wish you the same.

Make sure you drive something with bull bars, like a Land Rover or something.
The fact is people just can't drive here.
Keep away from taxi drivers, they think they own the road! The robbing old t*ats!

AND sometimes the slow lane is the fast lane, as in the daytime lots of grannies go out driving in their VW Polo's or Nissan Micra's, taking up all the road and only driving in second gear!

You will be amazed at the amount of people who drive with a mobile phone tuck to their ear!
I've even wound my window down and shouted at a babcha mapcha (Dear old lady with her head stuck up her ass!)
For being on the phone whilst driving.

Take a camera with you, you never know, a lot of these middle aged women cause accidents and lie like mother f*ckers!

SOURCE: The local TV4 cop shop - exposing their bad driving habits

Are you quoting the right person here? Think you might have me mixed up with someone else?

Best way to blend in is to drive like an idiot. Then again why blend in with completely brainless twerps?

Ah, yes, sorry, I wanted to quote Stu, the Dutch guy.

wawa-marek is 100% correct driving in PL is an acquired art, you must have 360 vision and expect the worse of all the the drivers within your vicinity. Always keep a far distance and avoid the ' the hatmen" at all costs. Polish roads and drivers are getting much better, drivers are even starting to give way now...

Drive anywhere without that attitude and you will eventually have a accident. People do stupid and unexpected things, you have to drive assuming that they will do.

so called, limited confidence rule. Best way to be safe on the polish roads is to have a big, black car like Toyota Land Cruiser or sth then others are scared about you ^^

i will like to the easy way to travel to poland so someone to en light me how to get to poland so that i will see on light the place is

/\ Find a large Steamer Trunk,insert oneself and dont forget to take off any Russian made watches you may own............

Yes, it's amazing!

Someone even stopped to let me use a pedestrian crossing yesterday, I think it's only about the third time in 6 months.

Merged: Driving

How is driving in Poland. Is it harder than in the us? How are the roads?

Automatic transmission is rare so it's harder to drive when talking on the phone.

In the context of motor cars and pedestrians, Polish motorists do not drive, they aim!

Driving in Poland is nuts. I agree with all the postings -
Tailgating normal - quite often when the right lane is clear I go to overtake someone doing 130kmh on the motorway and I'm doing 150kmh . I'm parallel to the car and out of the blue another car in the distance starts flashing for me to get out of the way going 200kmh. Well in 10 seconds safely I will be able to pull in but no he has to tailgate me for the remaining 5 seconds when he reaches me flashing his lights and swerving around. I particularly like the swerving.

Turning right or left at city intersections on a green - you may need to cross six lanes but you need to give way to oncoming traffic, trams and then people on a crossing who have a green man and therefore are not looking. Lots of concentration needed - but people behind you will be tailgating and generally acting aggressively so try to ignore them but they may try to overtake you or drive around you.

Giving way - it quite often happens when you have right of way but the car coming from the left isn't looking and decides to come anyway and then stops in the middle of the street when they wake up so you have to stop and drive around them,

Cars double parked - quite common for cars to double park on city roads, blocking parked cars and turning 2 lanes into one and then put their hazards on. They haven't broken down they're having a coffee or visiting someone. Considerate!

Lastly you will see many accidents. In my first 2 weeks of driving I saw 2 accidents occur in front of me and a few other aftermaths. Poles will claim they hardly ever see accidents. Perhaps this is a unconscious self-justification exercise for their driving style. Some Poles argue their driving is just the Polish style. 107 deaths per million Poland / 36 UK - 2012. Probably a better stat per billion vehicle km - deaths - 23.5 PL and 5.7 UK. Others argue it's the state of the roads as if they're driving style is normal and safe. Well if the roads are so bad and causing the accidents slow down cwaniak!

What surprises me is I meet normal and mild-mannered Poles who when behind a wheel turn into a maniac. I think the driving test is stronger now but I know many people who 'załatwiali egzamin' so it's not surprising they can't drive.

I really love living in Poland and there are many great things here but driving is not one of them. The motorways are improving things slowly and I hope the new generation calms down a bit.

The driving standard (and the lack of manners that come with it, the awfully thought out highway code etc) here is the singular most infuriating thing about living here.

Being a pedestrian is even worse. Poland has the highest number of pedestrian road deaths in the EU by far.

Pedestrians are treated by the authorities like second class citizens, with the police preferring to fine pedestrians who jaywalk (which is a statistically provably unhelpful or even damaging law) or cross in the wrong place over cars who refuse to stop for them on zebra crossings, or plough through when you have "the green man".

The amount of near misses I've had on pedestrian crossings is ridiculous. I've seen a car get sick of waiting for the pedestrians crossing on a zebra, rev her engine, and hit someone pushing their bike across the road, knocking them over.

A truly civilised society should ALWAYS give concessions to the most vulnerable. In this case pedestrians. Who seem to have "equal rights" to the road - not more.

It could be that when you pass your driving test here you get a "right to drive" not a "licence". Nitpicking at the terminology is one thing, but we all know what the Poles are like when it comes to "who has the rights/who is right" etc.

That's true of many nationalities


Agreed.


Very true

I used to think driving in Poland was dangerous , but i got used to it , and even rode a motorcycle there...

Now i live in Moscow , and welcome the return to the smooth Polish roads and carefull drivers... its nuts here...

That's how Poles justify their insane driving,they compare themselves to countries of the East. Pathetic.

no, that's how wildrover(British) compares driving conditions between Poland and Russia... your comprehension skill being the only pathetic thing about it

Not really. It really depends on how Poles want to frame their country. If something's bad and they don't like it and want it to change, everyone starts first by comparing Poland to Western Europe and how backwards and provincial PL is. If it's bad but they all secretly do it and don't want it to change (but want to excuse their bad behavior) then they'll always say that at least Poland is better than Russia or Moldavia. Heard it a million times.

Yes. A very chracteristic attitude. Driving here is more annoying then terrifying for me because many drivers don't care about the others at all.

There is a few reasons I believe:
- a minority of nuts prevails a majority of decent drivers (I am interested in your honest opinion about that)
- there are many new-born drivers - it takes decades (not months) to learn how to drive! Yet many people didn't have a driving licence 20 years ago. Their parents didn't have a driving licence too, what is very important.

- experience with a traffic. I.e. in Cracow I can frequently recognize nonresident through his driving style - if he is living in a small town or village. Usually he is not familiar with a driving culture. Or, at last, local driving culture.

- just local style - my acquaintances were terrified of driving style in Grece, but from the other side a Slovak girl-custom officer I was lifted once was terrified of my driving style though I am rather decent and careful driver (on empty 4-lane straight road I exceed speed a little)

- many aggressive young lower class people (males) are afford to buy a car. Courtesy is as unknown in family relationships as on the roads.
- regional differences - significant - Upper Silesia had a very high driving culture some time ago. Now it is getting worse. In Mazowsze it looks much worse, but driving in Lower Silesia is a horror for me.

- race motocycle drivers - eeh...

Since moving to Poland last year we've seen many surprising things on the roads - horse/carts on a dual carriageway, zebra crossings on a main highway, fast lane become left-turn lane, cray slow drivers, crazy fast drivers. I'm reminded of the first (only time) in living in London for 30 years that I drove my Dad across London then 300 miles up the motorway. He'd driven a lorry all his life - first in the RAF and after local haulage from the local quarry, so stones, tar, etc. He'd always criticised me for driving "right up the a**e" of other cars, shooting round them, then getting back into lane asap. Arriving at his house, he'd said nothing about this until we walked in and he said to my Mum "now I know why John drives like he does - if he didn't, he'd never get anywhere". Aggressive/protective driving, going right up behind cars and overtaking them by dropping three gears and flooring it .... it's the style you have to adopt in and around London, but not sensible or necessary ALL the time.

I love driving in Poland - the fact that the move allowed me to buy a second hand 4wd means I've got the POWER, the size and the "get out of my way" that all boys who have refused to grow up (I'm 54) loves lets me continue to drive "London-style" but also to drive in comfort for long distances (Krakow to London with just food and fuel stops, 20 hours!).

What's all this got to do with the topic? I know different styles of driving, I expect to be surprised, I can scoot past goofy drivers without doing the FSO dither, I'm not too concerned about driving in a line of traffic, so long as the speed is ok - I've driven London to Bristol on a friday, after work, when there's a 120 mile traffic jam .... travelling at speeds between 0 and 90mph. You've just gotta adjust your style to what's going on around you and keep alert .... you're drving like 1.5 tonnes of metal, plus some skin and bones, so if you can't do those things, you ought to lose your car and your license!

In general, It is called "being a human"... i just can't belive anyone would give that comment..heh and because of that, neither expect You will understand mine.