A Few Things…

...You Need To Know

There are a few things you need to know about living in Norway. It rains a lot, but we’ve established that already. The fashion is quite different and I will talk about it in another post but it’s linked to the previous statement. But on today post I’m going to talk about the challenges of driving with a sunset and sunrise within hours of each other.

After buying a car (for the price of a small apartment anywhere else in the world thanks to the lovely Norwegian taxes) and getting your Norwegian driving license (which I didn’t have to take because I have one from the big European Union, yeah) you get to drive on the open roads (well not as open as you might think… it seems that they almost always end up in a cul-de-sac thanks to the numerous fjords scattered here and there but that’s another issue). So as I was saying you get to drive and Norwegians take it seriously.

For example speed limit*. Speed limit is speed limit… no margin. Go 5km/h over the speed limit and you’ll get a 600kr fine. 15km/h and it goes to 2900kr, 4200kr for 20 over and when your speedometer reaches 25km/h over the speed limit you’ll get to be 6500kr poorer. All fines have to be paid on the spot. One has to know that the highest speed one can go is 90km/h and that’s on the motorway**. Which prompt me to explain to you that I have nothing against speed limits at all but please (Norwegian) people can you get your act together. For example during the 7-minute trip from my house to the kids’ school there are almost 10 different speed limits. First it’s the 30km/h zone, then I reach the 40km/h about 200m later I get to drive at 50km/h then I have a stretch of about a couple kilometers at 70km/h (woohoo but usually there’s traffic jam around 3.30pm from all the people going back home after work!!) then 60km/h, back to 40 then 50, a few hundred meters at 60 then back to 40.

Another thing they take really seriously it’s the pedestrian crossing. Again I am all for safety. But one has to understand that I just moved from a country (China in case you just happened to stumble upon my blog because regular readers would know, I talk and link back to my previous life A LOT!) where pedestrians were the lowest on the food traffic chain. It went a little bit like this: big truck, smaller truck, big bus, smaller bus, big car, smaller car, motorcycle, electric bike, bike then pedestrian. My technique to cross any given road in Beijing was to sandwich myself between 2 locals and pray the entire time!. Here pedestrians won’t even LOOK before crossing they just go and you’d better be the one to pay attention which you should of course but come on people, look before you cross please!

Last but not least (and probably not really last either but I’ve got to wrap this post) is the right of way. For you readers that might not be aware of this rule is that every car that comes from your right has, you guess it, the right of way (well except when you are at a roundabout and this is also another story because they don’t know what to do with all their tax money so I suspect that somebody in the government opens a big map of Norway every year and plays pin the tail on the donkey pick a place and build a roundabout) oh and  by the way there is no concept of minor and major roads, every cars coming from your right, no matter how small that road is will zoom by you without stopping. So the right of way; again nothing really against it even if I think a stop or a yield stop make a little more sense and help the process. I’ve witnessed so many helpless Norwegian drivers at a 3-point road not knowing what to do since every drivers had a car on their right hand side that they needed to let go first. Well unless I’m in the equation (or any other foreigners) and I will make the process go faster by taking it upon myself to “break” the rules.

One last thing they take VERY seriously, before going on the real subject of my post, it’s drinking and driving. Anything over 0.02 per cent (that’s less than a glass of wine -in comparison it's 0.05% in France and 0.08% in the UK and the USA!!)  and you will face at least 1 day in jail, a hefty fine and the lost of your license. On the other hand they are not supposed to telephone while driving but I have an easier time counting the numbers of people NOT phoning and driving then the ones phoning and driving.

So the challenges of driving with a sunrise and sunset within hours (yes, yes that the subject of the post, go back to the top and it’s mentioned in the first paragraph!). When you get a late sunrise and early sunset, the sun doesn’t have the time to go up high in the sky but stay just above the horizon which tend to look like this when you drive (of course you might have a nice husband that wash your car more often then mine hence have a cleaner windshield):

Photo taken in the middle of the day

For some obscure reason, it seems that I always drive to the East in the morning and West in the afternoon so I always have the sun right into my face. The sun plus the obligation for all vehicles to drive with their headlights at all time (even on the brightest summer day) makes the challenges of the pedestrian crossing and the right of way feel like an obstacle course.



* Please note that taxi seem to think the rules (especially the speed and telephone) don’t apply to them.

**Did you know that The Isle of Man and Autobahns or roads with more than one lane for every direction in Germany are the only places in the world that do not have a general speed limit?