American reacts to the GERMAN PRACTICAL DRIVING TEST [part 1]
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2023
- Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to the German practical driving test!
Original video: • Germany Practical Driv...
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Watching your reaction was scary. The fact that you (and all other US citizens with a US license) are allowed to drive in Germany as a tourist for up to 6 months is really worrying.
Especially if you combine that with how unwilling Americans are to learn anything about foreign countries, you can be very sure that they didn't bother to check any rules or laws in advance.
Yeah, I have a collegue from the US, apparently he just had to pay for the German certificate and now has his license for both the US and Germany. He told me his girlfriend still does 90% of the driving and always drives the parts where he's unfamiliar because there's so much he has to learn
This entire video just illustrates the grand US Amercian misconception of "not having a clue but commenting anywaySsss" is a constitutional duty.
To begin with, it's not like US Americans are educated in conducting a vehicle throughout USA itself, they just somehow do it and miraculously survive.
Yet somehow its not a problem in practice. Maybe German drivers are just overtrained?
Allthough I know some Americans who just gave back their rental car in Ger. after a day, because it was too stressful.
@@surrealengineering7884 then, all europeans all overtrained because in Spain we have a theorical and practical exam. If O remember correctly in Sweden you have to train how to drive with ice. Here is not necessary. It's a problem if you have to drive in a winter situation in north Europe.
I had a very basic mecanical exam for my driver license, but I had my exam 20 years ago. My brother didn't bother to have his when he was 18 (we are one year apart) but he needed the license 4 years ago and his theorical had more mecanical questions and I used his signs booklet to refresh my knoweledge. My brother, father (50 years of license), my sister in law and me had a discursion of how to use the intermittent when overtaking a car on a high speed road because we were teached different than my brother.
Listening to his reactions, driving seems like total chaos in the states 😅
Yes it is. And that's why we have segments of Autobahn without speed limit in Germany: because we know how to drive.
Speaking for Canada: Speed limits are posted after every intersection (Kreuzung) but right of way (Vorfahrt) is basically determined in reverse to Germany: No sign means you have the right of way. If you have to yield, there is a yield sign similar to the German one. Standard stop signs also the same, except there is also a 4-way-stop intersection. 4-way-stop means the person that gets first to the stop line gets to go first then the next and so on. In reality that means you just need to pay attention when you reach the stop line who was there before you at the other three lanes (only first car at line counts, that's why you also only need to check when you're the first car on the line). When they are gone, you're good to go. That way every lane gets the chance to clear and no lane has priority. For example if you consider the German right-before-left intersection you could be there for quite a while if traffic from the right constantly appears without a gap for you.
As a german driver, driving in the US is SOOO easy..
but americans are terrible drivers in general..
Friend was on vacation in US and he drove like 3k km , he said that it is total chaos
that you have like 8 lines on highway and everyone goes same speed , people overtake you from left and right.
Also that he doesn't want to see BBQ sauce ever again :D :D
@@DJDoena
This "first one at a crossing has the right of way" rule would be very exhausting for me, because you have to observe every other entry to that crossing, while in Europe, with the right befor left, you only need to check to your right. If it's clear to your right, you may enter the crossing. But I'm used to it, my town has many crossings, but zero traffic lights. There's also a 5-street-crossing, with a circular water fountain in the middle, but it is no roundabout, you may go left around it, if you want.
I know the traffic signs and traffic rules are different in the US to what we have in Europe but still seeing him being confused by simple universal signs we're taught since primary school is so entertaining, I'm saying this not only as a driver but also because I had to pass a test for my bike card when I was 10 and had to memorise at least the most important signs
It's the "Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals" which is an international standard on how traffic signs look like. Except in north africa, china, australia, north america and the west of south america it is used everywhere else. Which takes a big chunk out of the idea of an international standard, but try to convince NA to adapt to foreign standards... hasn't always worked out so well. xD
@@leonm8906 rofl...😂😁 ..definetly not
The "stop" part
You didn't have to get the Fahrrad-Führerschein, it's just a service offered mostly by the local police. It's a great thing, I love it, but you're allowed to ride a bicycle without a license.
@@motioninmind6015 ..i particullary like how the hand signal for turning/stopping is written in Germany ...
While cycling on a road (no bke lane) u should or need to have both hands on the steering bar, at the same time u shall give hand signals for turning/stopping ... not comfusing at all lol... it litterally impossible give any hand signals if ur req to have both hands on the steering bar ... ( and u can get a fine )
When I lived in the USA, I had to pass the American tests for getting a driver’s license. 40 years experience with a Swiss license did not count. I had to drive around a bit and park in a deserted area. It was almost impossible to make a mistake. This was called an exam.
Dann hast du einen Fehler gemacht, denn du hättest nur einen internationalen Führerschein gebraucht.
Ich hatte gar keinen, hab das Ding erst in den USA gemacht, mit Mitte 50 und die Tests sind eigentlich keine, sondern Lachnummern.
Wer da durchfällt, sollte nicht mal zu Fuß die Straße entlang gehen dürfen ....
I was failed in my first try because I didn't know what a "three-point turn" was. Turns out that in Spain we'd call it "twenty-five kinds of illegal".
@@NavaSDMBWhat? Are three-point turns illegal in Spain? How do you turn around on a cul-de-sac?
@@krystiankowalski7335 Depends on the size of the cul-de-sac and on what is available, but cul-de-sacs which
1) are large enough to get into with a car and
2) are not large enough to turn around properly
are very rare in Spain.
I don't think I've ever seen a single one. Either they're impassable or you can turn around by just tuuuuuurning your wheel and doing a 180 at the end of the street.
@@Eysenbeiss hahaha echt so, und dann noch automatik...
Within city limits, the maximum speed limit is 50 km/h unless otherwise indicated. Outside city limits, a speed limit of 100 km/h applies unless otherwise indicated.
6:20 This sign means that you're not only prohibited from parking there but also from stopping.
7:25 Traffic lights are always placed before the intersection, while in the US they are placed behind it. The US claims that drivers can see them better.
7:52 That is not a yield sign, that is an Attention sign. The yield sign is upside down with the angle downwards. So, the sign basically says "Attention, there's a temporary traffic light coming which is usually not there"
9:19 The yellow-white rhombus shaped sign indicates your right of way. If that sign wasn't there, the rule "right before left" kicks in, which means, that traffic coming from YOUR right has the right of way. You get used to it :)
9:55 Again, you see the yellow-white sign here, it just contains an additional information: The black lines indicate which direction the right of way applies to. In this case, the right of way follows the course of the road to the right. So if you want to drive straight ahead (and cross the other lane), the traffic coming out of the curve from the right has the right of way.
11:43 That sign does not mean that you can't go in there with your motorised vehicle. It means that you can't go in there with your motorised vehicle if you don't live in that street. Do you see the additional sign below the red circle? That says "Free for Residents". This is to prevent thousands of commuters from using this small residential street as a shortcut on their way to work and making life hell for the people who live there
13:55 No. That grass is not owned by the homeowner. His property ends where the sidewalk begins.
18:20 Emergency braking is not the same as using the handbrake. It means to floor the brake pedal, to feel the ABS kicking in, to keep your arms straight and your hands on the steering wheel. You do NOT employ the handbrake, if you don't want to spin like a top.
22:11 He doesn't get nervous seeing all the red Xs because he doesn't want to park or stop the car which the sign prohibits :)
22:45 Most European countries have standardised the basic traffic signs, hence the "english" spelling, which is identical to the german one. Besides that: there is a difference between the infinitive and the imperative of a verb: "to stop" = "stoppen", but "STOP!" = "Stopp" in German.
I need to go back to my work. You'll figure out the rest by yourself :D
Not built up areas in general, but specifically, within city limits (for want of a better word, most villages also have city limits relevant to this question).
Also, outside city limits, the speed limit is 100 unless otherwise indicated. The only place where there is no speed limit unless otherwise indicated is on the Autobahn.
I should also mention here that you can go faster than 50 within city limits if there is a sign indicating a higher speed limit.
@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs
CITY LIMITS! That was the word I was looking for. Thank you, man. I've corrected it in my comment.
Depends on country, here Finland its 80kmh
@@Tedger
We're talking about real Europe here, buddy ;) 😘
@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs I sadly have to disagree. You can drive as fast as you want when you are outside of a city limit and you have at least two lanes per direction, separated by a physical cut-off to the other direction and no sign is saying something else. Mostly this is only the case on Autobahns, but there are severals other streets where driving as fast as you want is possible.
To answer all your questions:
50km/h is default within city limits (if not regulated by another sign)
100km/h is default outside cities.
2:34 - The white triangle with the red border means that you have to wait if there is oncoming traffic, if not you don't have to stop.
3:55 - The yellow rectangle with the white border means that you are on a priority street, you have the right of way as long as you stay on this street. (the white sign underneath means that the street is going left. So he is leaving the priority street.)
4:43 - The "Andreaskreuz" tells you that trains have right of way. You have to wait. The electric symbol in it indicates that there are high voltage cords above the street.
6:15 - Yes you are right.
6:20 - It means that you are not allowed to stop there. The no parking sign is the same but with just one stroke instead of a cross. The arrows show that this counts in both directions of the sign.
6:41 - Speed limit in specific times of the day. Reasons: Kindergarden.
7:15 - The traffic lights are always before the crossing.
8:06 - Yellow lines are construction lines.
9:04 - The "reflectors" are blinking light in the night.
11:08 - The white round sign with the red border forbids, whatever it shows on the sign, to enter the road.
The turn is a part of the driving test
13:15 - They don't have to.
13:53 - It's mostly owned by the city. We have extra signs to allow parking on the kerb. I think they are just kind by trying to leave enough space on the road.
17:12 - Really don't understand this parking maneuver.
18:30 - He wasn't using his parking brake. He operated the clutch and the brake at the same time. If he had only applied the brake, it could have damaged his car, which is why you practice proper emergency braking in driving school.
23:28 - No, the sign with the arrow 3 seconds earlier.
27:07 - If the traffic light is off, the sign above counts.
It's funny to watch you being confused while I instinctively follow all the rules.
7:15 i negate that. there is a light signal USUALLY at the stop line but it´s the same with the stop/yield/mainstreet-signs, more and more new traffic lights first add new lights on the opposite to be more visual to the first in line, mostlikely removing the lights at the stop line in the next 30 years.
@@majstealth i have never seen a traffic light on the other side here. depending on the bundesland its not even allowed, since it close lights discourage overolling the stopline.
@@backwarenhandel i would need to drive to my next 40k "city" to make a picture but as i said, they seem to be additionally, not alone.
100 is not outside. If its motorway like its recomended 130 but you can drive Infinitiv speed
@@stili774 autobahn is totally seperate to city or not-city
A yield sign is basically "when nobody is there, you can drive normally" whereas a stop sign means you always must stop
that’s not always the case
depending on the visibility of the other roads it could as well be a stop sign
@@supermaximglitchy1 To be fair, that generally means the administration made a bad decision. If the visibility is bad by default, that should be a STOP. Now if it sucks because there's cars parked too close to the corner or something like that, sure, the Yield is fine and those people that blocked the visibility are at fault.
@@pRIderzaur The problem with a stop sign is that if there is no one there, you feel like you stopped for nothing. That means people tend to start ignoring stop signs after a while, which leads to a false sense of security for other road users. This tends to increase the amount and severity of accidents compared to what a yield sign would accomplish. Stop signs are a last resort. When you decide to put a stop sign somewhere, you should always ask yourself "do I really, truly, honestly _need_ a stop sign here, or is there another way to do this?", and if the answer isn't a definite yes, you find another way to do it.
The core of the problem is that a stop sign tells someone what to do without a clear reason. On the other hand, something like a yield sign assigns responsibility. If you stop for no reason at a yield sign, you might think "Why did I stop? That's silly" and forget about it. But with a stop sign, you'll think "Why are they telling me to stop here? Nothing is coming" and you'll feel frustration with the sign rather than yourself. And because you don't understand the reason for the sign nearly as well as you do your own decision making process, those frustrations continue to build.
@@supermaximglitchy1 as the initial person said, stop means *full stop* ,0km/h. even if its 2 in the morning with no one around for miles.
with a yield sign its totally fine if you creep up to the crossing at walking speed or below.
that people treat them interchangeably doesnt mean they can be used interchangeably.
stop signs are far, far rarer than yield signs.
usa abuses stop signs, putting them where its not needed takes away the danger of a stop sign, uk you only get them at dangerous junctions ones you must stop and take more time to merge so not so many of them so when you do come across them you take it serious, you litter the place full stop signs for places where give way is then when a person treats them all the same what adds lot more danger
I love how you say "I need exact instructions to park". Usually the examinator ask you to find a place to park to see if you know if it's possible to park there. In my practical the examinator asked me to find a parking spot but I didn't find anything. At 5 minuts searching for one spot the instructor said to me: park there, please. I told her: I can't park there because it's an emergency spot (it had a fire hydrant) and the instructor said: I know, but I want you to park there to see if you can do it. My professor said later that if I hadn't said to the examinator that it was a prohibited place to park the examinator would fail me.
Wow that's mean
It's a trap and it's common for driving examinators to do such things.
My examinator did something similar. 😅
One of my friends, who is from Barcelona, lived in a pretty big house. Spacious garage and enough space outside to park several cars without any need for parallel parking. And most of the places where she drove didn't have parallel parking either.
When the driving tester says "park", you're supposed to find an appropriate place and do it; when you've finished parking, you say "done".
Friend was in a very narrow street when the tester said "park", and she was in the middle of freaking out when she saw a spot between two garage entrances. She didn't even need to manoeuver at all, just slid right in, stopped the car completely and said "done". The tester laughed and declared it good.
As this is a German instructor, when he says "Emergency brake", he actually means "Emergency stop". A kid dashing in front of your car, for example, and you slamming hard on the brakes.
Also please do not use the hand or parking brake while driving. This is very dangerous! Its solely meant to prevent your car from rolling away while parked!
It may be used to lose grip when drifting on some cars as its typically only connected to the back two wheels, but I think thats not what you typically do in public traffic.
That's not true for new car models anymore. The electronic break will bring your car to a stop and for example BWM's Driving Assist will even try to switch to the right lane, stop the car and call the emergency services automatically.@@peterpanzki07
you only do this when you are drifting for fun (only on private property of course:))@@peterpanzki07
And it is important to do that. It may seem "obvious" even if youve never done that but I remember the first few times I had to do it in driving school, I didnt hit the brake pedal hard enough, so the instructor told me to hit it harder. I know it sounds stupid but I probably wouldnt have realized that you could hit it harder than i did the first few times. You dont really get to practice how hard you can hit the brake pedal if youve never tried it.
@@Xzibitfreek cannot stress this enough. I got to practice emergency stops with my driving instructor and later on I attended a driving security training from the german automobile club (ADAC) and that may well have saved my life, for I had to do some emergency stops since (even on the Autobahn) and some of them were _really_ close calls.
In Europe we use mostly symbols in our traffic signs, because of many different languages being spoken. There is some international agreement about it. Despite USA not having an official language, you pretty much have to speak at least basic English to understand many textual traffic signs.
Ryan already reacted to a video of that, so I wonder why he's still wondering about "yield signs" with icons in it 😅
Also it's easier to interpret symbols than read text, also if you know the language.
You should go to Ireland in the north. I’ve seen some signs there with text on it in Gaelic. I had no clue what it was intended to say. That’s now 15 years ago, so I don’t know if that’s still the case.
@@MrHerrSSweden has some info signs and warning signs with Swedish on them, Norway has the same with Norwegian on them, etc. But the more important messages, like "no stopping", "warning: slippery road", "warning: falling rocks", etc. are all painted graphics, easily understood.
90% of the countries in the world use those signs b/c they are subscribed to the contract of Vienna. Countries like the US are an exception and they actually don't know why b/c their traffic is a mess!
The fact that he thinks the emergency braking is using the parking brake 🤣
Watching the video as a German is pure comedy. I could hardly contain my laughter. Your comments during the video are hilarious. If you ever come to Munich, let me know and we can go for a drive together. 😂
Emergency brake training is really interesting. Many people have reservations about suddenly braking full power. So your teacher will go to a straight empty road where you can easily see if anyone might enter the road in front of you (like pedestrians). Then your teacher will tell you to speed up and then slam the brakes full power. Many people don't manage on first try. My teacher, who went into retirement a few years later, told me he once had a student that took 14 tries to finally manage it. He said he was close to giving up with that one.
Yeah, I can understand that. Most people are afraid at first to stomp on the brake pedal as if they are stomping on a cockroach :-) But in an emergency, you need to do that, it can mean the difference between rear-ending some other car or not.
and to be honest, one needs a lot of force to perform an actual emergency stop, as far as I understand newer cars kinda help you with it, but when I had to do it on an old opel corsa from 2005 I remember that I had to slam the pedal with full force to achieve a good emergency stop.
@@mastroitek having done this once really helps to actually consider doing it. I had to slam the breaks quite a few times and thanks to that first emergency breaking in driving school, i never hesitated.
Last time i needed to do this was on the autobahn, 120kmh and a truck with 30kmh decided to merge into my lane. Even the cars around me panicked.
@@skaribanfai so true. In Switzerland once you have the licence you musst also take an additional course regarding "safety and car handling" they basically go over safety explaining why we have certain laws and the afternoon is all about practice, they simulate wet asphalt, snow, ice and let you drive on them, lose control and explain hot to react in the different situations. 2y later I lost control on the highway due to a thick layer of water and still remember that I thought "ok, just like that time..." and all went well. Making such experiences in a controlled environment has so much value in real situations
It is scary alright cause you don't know whether you will hit the windscreen doing so or end up getting a whiplash or whatever.
i've just passed my driving test last friday and i have to say as complicated as it may be, you actually feel ready to drive on your own after you've done it and are quite confident
This is why the percentage of accidents directly after getting your license is pretty high. Don't get comfortable especially then, but in general, not at all, ever. Get too comfortable on the Autobahn, and a couple of people may be dead.😉
@@agricolaurbanus6209 well then i atleast know i pro probably wont be causing an Accident because i dont have that much self confidence (except in games, but well in games it doesnt really matter if you make a mistake irl it does
This is in hannover btw cool to see your city on yt
@@LeroxYT There should always be a certain stress level when operating powerful machinery, or working in accident-prone environments, be it cranes, ships, planes, working on construction sites etc.
It is proven for example for scaffold building that mostly the 'Old Dogs' have fatal accidents because routine makes too comfortable sometimes.
@@agricolaurbanus6209 yeah thats understandable i think, thats i think also a reason why roads are not completla straight, so that you always need to actively look at the road
I'm watching this from the Netherlands. It's funny to see how driving lessons are almost identical over there in (I presume) Hamburg. By the way, you're not failing miserably. This is kind of a 'first lesson' and you already see lots of things to learn later on. In the Netherlands, many need 30 to 40 lessons to pass the exam successfully.
I think it's Hannover, Hamburg has HH. The first H stands for Hansestadt (trade city).
I'm from the Netherlands and passed my exam with success at 18 years old, after having 6 driving lessons. How? Starting the lessons directly by driving 50km/h in the city.!!! And also starting directly using the coupling, hand-gearbox and steering wheel, checking mirrors etc. I drive now 55 years without any accident. Everyone who i take with me in the car say that i'm an excellent driver and even more, they fall asleep while i'm driving, they trust me completely. I'm calm, cool and have "insight" in traffic situations and that helped me several times to avoid accidents. The most worst Driving Schools are those who only allow you to steer the first 10 lessons, after that you may use the coupling and gearbox, but the problem is that you will never become a good driver, because you are missing the synchronism of doing all these things together from the beginning.
@@avysark2034 Hannover is right. I served in the Army in Bergen-Hohne and had a girlfriend in Hannover.
I don't know about that "not failing miserably". Not if he's still having to learn how to drive. But he's American. As they practically all get their drivers license at 16, he most likely allready has it. Then yes, he IS failing miserably.
It's save Hannover like others said. I did my test there, neraly on the identical route :D
13:48 the grass is probably not owned by the home owner as it is part of the sidewalk. his property ends with the fences. parking on the curb or in that case on the grass is not allowed unless mandated by a sign which is not the case here. but this is rarely ticketed and therefore many people do it to leave a wider road for the traffic. i myself know a friend who got a ticket for parking on the curb but it is extremly rare
The colors of the lines in Germany have a different meaning in the US. We also have yellow lines, but they are only for temporary lines that have priority for the lines under it. It allows for temporary changes of lines in case, for example, of construction. So, you generally only see yellow lines when they are painted over or next to white lines.
So basically the same as in Germany. White lines are the permanent ones. Yellow lines are used by construction workers, have precedence over the white lines and are removed once the construction work is done.
@@zorrothebug in my post, I described the way it works in Germany, it seems that it is different in the US (based on Ryan's comments)
@@Mysterios1989 ah, my bad. I wasn't at the scene where Ryan was explaining the US color scheme and you didn't clarify what you meant with "we".
14:49 The concept of the pratical driving test is to make sure that you are able to handle a car in traffic on your own. So the instructor demands to find a spot suitable for the size of your car on your own as no one will sit in a car next to you to show you a proper parking lot once you've passed the exam.
During my driving test (like 15 years ago) it was always the driving instructor choosing the place where i had to park. He, of course, chose an easy one, where we had practiced parking just the day before. 😀
@@Throkithats how it still is in Poland pretty much
Bah, I hated the parking test. I had no difficulty finding a suitable parking spot, but getting the distance to the curb correct was super hard for me at first (and nearly made me fail my test, but the guy judging the test apparently had a good day and let me pass). Now, with modern cars doing the automatic "tilt the right side mirror down so you can see the curb" thing, it is much easier!
My driving teacher used to go "Bam! That was a cyclist" anytime I didn't check the right mirror when parking or forgot to check the bike lane after looking both ways. I was half traumatized but I learned quick!
The written test has so many study questions it’s insane. But I love how you mention the yellow lines because that is the one thing I complain about that I really miss from the US.
Those blue signs with the red Xs are no parking signs, that’s why he’s not mentioning them.
The Yellow diamond sign means “priority” meaning you can go first no matter what. When you have that white sign underneath - the direction that’s bold is the direction that the priority road rules apply to and the non-bold lines mean cars going in those directions must yield and wait for those that will continue on the priority road (I personally found this rule very confusing at first, but you get used to it).
When you don’t have that and come to a cross road, even if there is no stop sign, the right of way always goes to the person on the right.
And lastly, there are a lot of parts on the autobahn that do have speed limits. So having a speed limit doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t the autobahn, there are signs that tell you what sections don’t have speed limits though and you can go as fast as you’d like, but no slower than 80km. It’s not uncommon that people do 180-200km on those areas, but I personally don’t like going more than 150km because of the type of car I have.
Love how freaked out he was by our "Absolutes Halteverbot" signs. 😂
Those round, blue signs with the red cross on them? They just tell you, that you're not allowed to park there.
They tell you, that you're not allowed to HOLD there.
The ones with just on red line means, you are not allowed to park there.
@@KoenigstigerS Well, it means both. No parking and no holding.
The single line version just means the former.
@@redshirt49 well... duh. you can't park, without hold.
@@redshirt49the sign with the Red Cross inside means you are not allowed to to STOP there even not on the road. The sign with one red line is of course no park.
@@dhrvb That's what I said.
To calm your exam anxiety down, before taking the practical test you have to take the theoretical test which enables you to read all of the signs and know all of the rules. Practical test is there to proof you can operate a vehicle and that you can apply the things you've proven to know in the theoretical test. =)
I was never good in the practical tests, too nervous
@@Danny30011980 Same :) I was a pretty good driver but I failed the test almost twice because of nerves...
I remember that when taking the practical test I was so anxious, that my field of view narrowed down a lot. Only after weeks of practice you do get used to everything that is going on around you while driving. The brain needs time to accommodate.
I failed my first because I didn't wait long enough for a pensioner who was still deciding whether he wanted to cross the street or not - to me he seemed like he didn't even know where he wanted to go at all.
My second one literally was just a short series of four right hand turns. I was at a traffic light behind a single car, he went when it turned green, I checked, was still green, started going, but then immediately noticed it had turned red already (which it usually doesn't do that quickly, but in that case it apparently was overridden by a bus driver coming from ahead who would turn into the main street just like I intended to) and still managed to stop accordingly. The examiner left the car to check if I was on top of the dashed line for the pedestrians already and I was, but just barely... maybe like a thumb or two. That was enough for him to immediately end the exam... probably the shortest practical exam ever... XD
My teacher later just said to me: "Don't worry, that examiner is a well known dickhead, students almost always fail when they have him in the back seat". Guess what - I had him on the first one as well, but a different, much nicer guy on the third exam... :)
I passed my practical exam on the first try but failed three times in the theoretical exam. Those Video questions and having to memorise so many questions just killed me
15:01 The instructor simulates the real life: You want to stop somewhere and have to make a decision by yourself. So the instructor sees whether you have considered everything like traffic, parking zones, no stop zones (the round red/blue sign with the red cross), available parking lots etc. So he gives you the general idea not the micro-managing as in real life.
Before, the instructor told him to turn around at a suitable spot. So he can assess whether he makes the right decisions again.
Instead of the "Do-not-enter" sign that particular sign allows bicycles to enter but not automobiles and motor bikes. If that was a one way street then the do-not-enter sign would have been there.
Before watching this video, I thought that the priority/right of way thing we have in Germany was more common than it seems to be. It's kinda cute how confused you are because of it ^^ It's also really interesting to learn of the differences between American and German driving through your real time reactions - those are a lot more memorable than any instructional text I could have read on the topic :)
Thanks to @dan_kay as well for answering the questions from the video :)
For 13:55 I wanted to add that we sometimes park partially on the curb, because a lot of roads are quite narrow and through parking on the curb there is more space in the road to drive.
To be fair America is fairly large, and a lot of what has confused him is normal for where I live in the US. Identifying the priority/right of way is just as important here, but in larger cities every intersection is clearly marked with either a traffic signal, stop sign, or the occasional yield sign. As you get into rural towns there are more unmarked intersections, and identifying the more subtle clues to priority becomes important.
I was as surprised as you that he talked as much about not being able to identify whom had the right of way/priority. I don't even think there were any differences between who is given priority, just that there were fewer signs, and more use of curbs/lines to indicate priority.
13:37 Turning like you describe is not allowed in Germany because you would back into oncoming traffic. The correct way is shown here. He backs off the road and crosses the lane afterwards.
Here are some facts about the lane markings in Germany:
1: there often aren’t any markings at all, if that’s the case then you basically have to judge based on the width of the road how many “imaginary” lanes there are.
2: the dashed lines are only a help for you. You may cross it to pass another car
3: if you see a solid line in the middle of the road, it’s analogous to the double yellow line in America. You absolutely cannot cross it.
4: there often are “Sperrflächen” or “blocked areas” on the road, indicated by diagonal lines inside a solid shape. You can treat them like a solid line. Do not cross.
So in germany you don't have a double white line? Because you can cross a solid single white in an emergency or when overtaking a cyclist
@@roberternest7289 There are double white line instances. But IIRC from the point of view of regulation they are the same (Zeichen Nr. 295). Not sure though if there are subtle differences. In Italy, for example, there double and single continuous lines with a slightly different meaning: Single: do not cross but overtaking (for example, a bike) is allowed unless you cross the line. Double line: no overtaking at all.
@@roberternest7289solid line means no crossing (the line) at all in Germany.
Speaking from other european country (Poland):
- There should always be a double line separating lanes that have traffic going opposite directions
- Single line for lanes going the same direction
but: on countryside streets, the line may be single line or not present at all
- You are allowed to cross the solid line in special circumstances: to avoid obstacle, like fallen branch, or road service truck, or that jerk who left his car parked in wrong spot. You have to exercise special caution. During exam, you have to say out loud that you are going to cross the line because "xyz", or the examiner will slam on brakes and end the exam. But it is possible to cross solid line to get around guy who parked to get newspaper, if you say it out loud during exam (happened).
Otherwise, during exam, treat the solid lines like fire. You are not allowed to touch them with your wheels. This gets fun if lines are drawn badly and you have to somehow fit a turn. Then imagine *trucks* have to obey the same lines as you do in your tine car. Tip: If you dont want to bother with road lines, schedule exam during snowfall. There is a leeway for touching the lines if said lines are buried under snow.
You just have to obey the traffic signs. But if you don't know them or don't even look at them, you should not drive!
23:00 "Stoppen" is the thing you do like "I stop" means "Ich stoppe", but when you say "Stop!" as an order, you say "Stop!" or "Stopp!" in German as well.
road signs in Europe are very colorful and abundant. The red crosses (sometimes with arrows in it) mean "no stopping" with only one red bar it means "no parking".
The rhombic ones with the yellow outer line mean you have the right of way. On intersections they are combined with a diagram of the intersection showing wich part of the crossing has the right of way
"priority" / "right of way" lessons make up a huge part of the theoretical lessons you have to take to get a German driver's license. Lots of the exam questions with the most points/highest penalty are about this too.
If you get it wrong and cause an accident you are at fault and your insurance will not be happy.
Different geometric shapes are used so you can tell even from the backside what sign you are seeing (at least roughly), which is why Stop-signs (octagon) and priority-street sign (square that's turned so it's balancing on one corner) have unique shapes that are not used for any other sign.
red+white triangle pointing down: yield.
red+white triangle pointing up: pay attention to whatever is shown within the triangle (train ahead, attention children, special traffic light...)
red+white circle: entry is forbidden either for all motor vehicles or for whichever is depicted within the circle.
If there is no priority sign than every vehilces that comes from the right street have priority. This is mostly on small roads.
Not if one is driving onto the street over a lowered curb tho😄
The Shapes of the Signs are also in case they are not readable because of i.e. snow, dirt and so on.
Signs are only valid if you can read / identify them.
The stop sign has a unique design so that it is always recognised becaue its important. A no parking sign on the other hand is normally not so important.
@@teddywellness And if you turn left you have to let almost everyone pass first😄
A bit of extra stuff
Some red+white circle signs forbid entry for things which aren't motor vehicles, e.g. cyclists or pedestrians. Speed limits are also shown with red+white circles.
There's more circular signs in different colour schemes for things such as no parking/stopping or cycling paths and the like.
One I personally find a bit annoying are the green+white downwards pointing triangles some times used for nature reserves because they take away the unique shape aspect of the yield signs
Remember that in germany / europe signs are always placed before the intersection (just like the traffic lights). That is why you got confused at some situations - dont worry, there is no "invisibl rule" - the signs only are only placed way earlier and you don't look for them.
That is not entirely true. Outside of cities you will mainly find the signs behind the intersection, so drivers who enter a road get instructed too.
what's the "invisible rule" ?
@@xrecixthere is none, as he said
@@Parciwal_Gaming i do have a german drivers license and i get that, that there is no said rule in germany or europe.
but what is that rule? is that a thing in different countries? i never heard of that or know what it supposed to be is
@@nicklenz7030exactly and here in the Netherlands the right of way sign ( square, yellow and white) outside build up area's is also placed beyond the crossing ( so that you know you are outside a build up area) and bigger for a better visually because of the higher speed (80 km/h or 100).
Also, yes, we have default speed limits tham may vary slightly from country to country. Inside residential areas it's 50km/h (this one is universal), country side ~90km/h (Germany has 100, Netherlands 80, Slovenia 90), highways 130km/h (Belgium 120, Germany no limit, Netherlands 100/120 (daytime/nighttime)). There are big signs telling you all default speeds when you enter each country
In Germany the recommended speed on highways (the Autobahn) is 120-130 km/h unless indicated otherwise. My driving instructor told me, that this speed gives you a pretty low fuel consummation for the speed. Most European countries have signs after crossing the border where they list the default speeds for cities, overland roads and highways.
my navigation system even had a popup that showed the speeds when I crossed the border to austria. pretty amazing, if you ask me
I don't know in all countries in Europe but here (Portugal) your max speeds are 50 in habitated places, 90 in the country 120 in highways, but with rain those values can drop down. One rule i have learned when i was joung, you are at execive speed if cannot stop in the space free at your front
NOTE: Germany nowadays advises 130km/h, if you drive faster and get an accident, your Insurance Company will not pay any damage to yr car. There are only a few pieces of Autobahn in Bayern District(South Germany) where there is no speed limit.
Why is the speed limit so low in Dutch highways?
I'm from Spain. When I got my Florida driving license, the test didn't even include going out into actual traffic. I couldn't believe it; a good chunk of our driving training was "learn all the spots with horrible visibility or bad signage within half an hour of the testing place, because you're going to go through at least one of each".
Regarding priority, it's indeed akin to "right of way" but we use that term because it's not absolute. For example, pedestrians have priority over most vehicles in a zebra crossing or in a traffic light that's green for them, but not over emergency vehicles with their sirens on (who have priority over everybody else), or over a vehicle that's already moving through.
Here, the properties only go up to the sidewalk. It is public and so are the green areas that are maintained by the city.
Same here in Australia. You aren't meant to park on the median strip though (although people do, expecially on narrow streets).
Still not allowed to park on the curb if there is no sign to explicitly to allow or even request it.
There are always exceptions, but yes, that is the general rule.
@@zorrothebug Yes, but it is rarely enforced and people who do it usually mean well (they want to impede traffic less).
@@silkwesir1444 Maybe they mean well, but they do bad, because the curb itself will get damaged over time, when there is grass on the side it will get destroyed over time and if there is not grass but pavement this will get damaged and uneven because of the car weight. That's why it is only allowed on specific spots where there are signs indicating it, otherwise do not park on the curb. It's a very bad habit and as you said it, they mean well, but based on wrong reasoning.
One thing that has not been explained yet, I think, is the lines themselves: if the line has gaps, it means you are allowed to cross over them, like the driver did with the bicycle lane. if the line is ongoing/uninterrupted you are not allowed to cross over. At intersections you often have uninterrupted lines so you don‘t cross onto the lane of the opposite traffic.
22:40 "Oh, there is a STOP sign! It's english! Is STOP also a german word?" - are you kidding me? 🤣 We should print HALT on our STOP signs 😂
*the red-blue sign with the two arrows means no parking on the road in both directions
*an emergency break is not the handbreak/parkingbreak, you just slam the breaks
*the yellow square sign means you are on the primary road and the sign below shows you the street course of the primary road
*stop means stop, but to stop is stoppen
*when he said the blue sign shows him that he only could go right he ment the blue sign below the stop sign (our traffic-rules are complex not stupid)
*if the floor-line isn´t permanently it means you should not but you can drive over it, it its permanently it means you are not allowed to drive over it and if there are two permanently lines next to each other it means no part of the car should reach over this line (mainly on bigger roads or in tunnels)
*the part where he says the lights are off: in this situation there is few traffic so you can just drive if no one is coming, if there is more traffic the light will turn on and show green or red, depending on how the lights in the other directions are swiched
*and that´s not the autobahn xD
i hope this helped
11:49 in Europe, (an most of the world) we prefer symbols for the common signs
Then you are not relying on the language.
It doesn't matter if the native language is English, German, Frensh, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Finish or whatever, the symbols are basically the same.
There are some categories
Round sign, with red border = prohibition, something is illegal (speed limit, no passing, no parking,)
Triangular sign, pointing up, with red border = warning danger (trafic light, dangerous intersection, road conditions, scool area, )
Round blue sign = mandatory action (turn left/right, go straight, directiin of roundabout)
Square/rectangular blue sign = information (parking, bus lane, bus stop, service offers fuel/food/camping/etc)
Triangle pointing down, diamond, octagon = yield, prority, stop (recognizable from behind)
Text primarily is used to show directions, or in special conditions when there is no standard sign.
There are more differences in the text informasjon signs/board across nation, using different colors etc.
In Germany, the traffic light is always close to the stop line. My guess is that Germany has more old roads that meet at weird angles in contrast to the more grid-like structures in the US. Because of that, it is easier to identify which traffic light is for which driver when they are directly next to the place the driver has to stop. But I agree, it is sometimes hard to see the light properly when you are the first in line.
Also, Germany has a lot of yield because of the way we have right of way. If there is no sign or traffic light (or cop), the driver to your right has always right of way. Because of that, most larger roads have priority signs and all the roads leading into these roads yield signs (unless there is a traffic light of course, but even these have, in case of a traffic light failure, regularly priority and yield signs attached to them)
The traffic lights are at the stopping line for a simple reason: It's safer. Data suggests that intersections with traffic lights at the line prevent running red lights, as you need to stop in front of the intersection to actually see the traffic light. If they are on the other side of the intersection, you can still see them if you stop somewhere inside of the intersection. Like on the crosswalk or the bike lane.
also you should not stop at the "stop line" but at a distance where the stop line is just visible over your hood rim. when you stop at this distance, seeing the traffic light is easy
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 While this is ideal, it is not that common, and also not encouraged by the law. The current law is that you get a fine if you drive on or over the stop line, as it is positioned at the legal distance you shall stop the car in front of the traffic light.
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 This is not true. You should stop exectly at the line. In cities, you get told you can stop a little bit further back to get a better view.
In the countryside, they tell you to stop exactly at the line, because most traffic lights there are "Bedarfsgesteuert" - so they only go green if there is a car waiting. The older sensors are placed in the ground just a little bit in front of the stopping line.
Yep, traffic lights supercede yield/priority signs, and police officers supercede traffic lights. But I thinks, that's the same in The USA.
When I was young, Stop-signs in Germany used to have the word "HALT" rather than "STOP".
(But I think we still had the old version of the stop sign in those days - I mean the curcular one with the triangle within)
European signs have a few commonalities : triangle pointed up is a warning, pointed down is yielding, circle with red around is interdiction, blue sign marks obligations or information.
So a sign with a red circle and 50 means interdiction to go over 50, and a red circle with a car means interdiction to use a car here.
The blue round signs with red crossings means that parking is prohibited
I can pretty much guarantee that that grass you were wondering about around 13:52 is owned by the city, if you look closely there is a sidewalk/bike path between the grass and the houses
The round signs with the blu background red outline and red X means no parking or stopping on the side of the road
At 23:16 he was talking about the blue sign underneath the stop sign
Still it is not allowed to park on the curb if there is no sign to explicitly to allow or even request it.
The Yield sign is common in Germany when driving on a minor road. It just means that, in case of traffic on the crossing priority road, you have to give the right of way. Otherways - if no traffic is ahead, you may pick up speed again. A stop sign works like a yield sign, but additionally you have to stop at the marking on the road (and in some cases again at the line of sight) at least for 3 seconds (tires standing still) - even if there is no visible traffic .
It's often deliberate that no road has obvious priority over another, it basically means _no-one_ has priority, so drivers have to slow down and look around and interact with other road users as human beings, rather than just barrelling through oblivious to others because it's their priority. No, we wouldn't have that on main roads or highways, but within residential streets or business parks where drivers should be keeping their speed down it is not uncommon.
At 10:00, "how did he know to stop here?", he's just passed a white rectangular sign that shows the main road bending sharply to the right with minor roads going straight ahead and left, and the centre line in the road swings round to the right indicating that that's the main road.
11:45, a red circle means "forbidden", so a red circle with a car in it means "no cars" (often with a sign giving exemptions, such as allowing access to residents, or at certain times of day).
12:00, speed limits or other warnings painted on the road don't have any legal force, but are used as a reminder.
You can get automatics in Europe, but you often have to pay a lot more to get them as hire cars. (I've often wondered why they are so much more. It's just now dawning on me that maybe it's because they know most automatics are hired by Americans and they expect them to come back dented all over...)
Stop signs are rare in Europe (at least northern Europe), it's almost always a yield sign. Stop signs are reserved for very dangerous or difficult junctions. It means that you do not have to come to a full stop and are allowed to continue if clear to do so. Clear to do so, means there's no one else on the junction you must yield to.
18:30 He wasn‘t pulling the "emergency break“ /handbrake. The emergency braking is all about kicking the (foot) break very hard with simultaneously pressing the clutch. The latter only applies if you have a manual car.
The rental car company made me pass an online traffic test before allowing me to pick up my car in Europe. It was interesting to see the differences in signage.
That's a good idea. Especially for US tourists.
@@bencodykirk Yes, a good idea for any tourist really. While the rules are broadly the same all over Europe (and most of the world that adopted the European style of signs) there are local specifics that exists in one country that may not exist in the other.
Small examples that come to mind : in some Nordic countries, you are required to have your headlight on at all time (tho since rental car companies would have recent cars this shouldn't be a problem), in France, on the freeway, you are required to keep your blinker on when overtaking; rules for bicycles and bikes are different and are less standardized currently as well. Even colours can vary, with Greece using blue for main roads and green for freeways. Or at least Iceland using yellow signs because they are more visible in the snow. So while Europeans shouldn't be as confused, there are still things that differs and that would be good being made aware of (especially on the topic of bicycle traffic)
@@LeSarthois thing is, most european road signs are pictrogramms. And mostly look the same, some color varaitaions or sizes of the pictrogramms. But its wordless mostly, so easy to drive all over europe without knowing an new language. even Outside of Europe most countrys use the same signs. In the US most stuff its word. the explain the sign with words. I think Ryan has made a video reaction about this topic just few weeks ago.
And iceland using yellow makes sense. A lot.
But also if you see how easy an american driving test is and how hard it is in EUrope... i would make any american tourist do a short test if he knows the rules before handing him a car.
you're the first reaction channel who actually shouts out the original creator and even link them in the description, wow
For some of your questions:
1) We have "rechts vor links". Meaning, if you are at a crossing that has no signs at all, the person coming from YOUR right has the right of way. The yield sign (Triangle) overwrits this, telling you, that even though YOU are coming from THEIR right, YOU have to yield to them.
2) The red circle with the red x and the blue marking -> Means you are not allowed to halt your car here (like if you need to look up directions or something) If it is a red circle with ony ONE line, then you are allowed to halt but not allowed to park.
3) Yes, within a community, the standard speed limit is 50 km/h wich is about 30miles
4) White dashed line is the lane seperator. Since it is dashed, you are allowed to cross it. For example in order to overtake a slower vehicle. If it was a solid line, you would NOT be allowed to cross it. Not even, if a tractor that does 10km/h drives in front of you.
5) Around schools and kindergardens there are sometimes time depenedend signs that state that during their peak hours you have to slow down to 30 km/h.
6) Yes, our traffic lights are at your side of the crossing/street. And yes, especially in summer, it can be hard to see. (Then again, you do not HAVE to drive up to the line but can actually stop a few cm before that, in order to see the light ;-)
7) "Yield with a traffic light" -> This is a kind of warning, especially to people that drive along that route often -> "Hey, watch out! Normally there is no light here but due to the construction there is!!" They would also place such a sign if the upcoming traffic light is hard to see becuase it is right behind a bridge for example.
8) The scewed white square with the yellow square in it -> This indicates that you are on the priority street. The streets to either side will both have yield signs. IMPORTANT: If there is NO "white square with yellow square in it" sign, you would have to yield to people coming from that steet on your right!
9) At 9:57 -> DId you notice the sign below "you are on the priotiry"? That square with the big black line going to the right? That sign said "Yes, you are on the priority street, BUT! That Priority street will NOT continue forward, but will now continue to the right. If you want to get off the priority lane now, you have to behave as if you were to take a turn. Otherwise, turn to your right in order to follow the priority street"
10) Round circle with a car inside -> Means, cars are not allowed to drive into this street from that direct. A bike would be allowed. Which is why this street does not actually have the big red circle with the white dash in it which is our equivalent to "One way, do not enter"
11) Three-way-turn -> In germany, most would also do it the way you discribed. But I personally find it nerv wreaking to have to back out into uncoming traffic...
12) Break -> Yeah, he just slammed the break. (And the instructor would have made sure that there are no cars behind them ^^)
13) Priority street again -> This time, under your yield sign, there is a triangle with the 'big' line going from the top to the left, meaing the street from where the other car is coming is the priority street and said priority street will not make a turn to your left.
14) Bike lane -> No. This is not ok.
15) It is also 'Stop' in german ^^" At a stop sign you HAVE TO stop. If you do not and the police sees you, you have to pay a fine. At a yield sign you CAN stop (or have to stop, if traffic demands it)
16) The blue arrow under the stop sign told you, that you had to go right. The other blue sign (The person and blow them the bike) indicates a walkway that is also used by bikes.
17) The curb was 'present' onthe road on that right hand street. You would have to "Drive onto the curb" in order to get into that street. Which means it is not really a 'street' as such. More like a parking lot, or the access to a parking lot or similar (they are often also at the entrace to a 'play street' on which you can expect children to play on the street) and thus, you do not have to automatically yield while they have to yield to everyone.
18) Yes, it seems as if that light was for pedestrians that want to get from the parking lot to the bus/tram
19) in 99,99999% of cases, the lights WOULD be going, if there is a train coming. But thanks to that 0.000001% chance, you HAVE TO check before crossing.
20) Those lights are for bikes and pedestrians, yes ^^" IMPORTANT: Just because 'streight ahead' is green, DOES NOT MEAN that he would also have a green light when he turns right! THOSE lights could have been red! (In this case they were off, since this is most likely a 'bedarfs-Ampel'. A person has to walk up to the light, press a button and only THEN the light will turn red so the person can cross. It fill never do so on it's own.
21) At 27:09: You can see the yellow sign that is crossed out, meaing -> you just left the community, so the 50km/h limit does not apply anymore! From here on out it is 100km/h unless indicated otherwise!" Above that is another yellow sign, telling you, that the next community starts in a few km (the sign would have stated how many, but I couldn't read it)
22) You will always be able to see if you are on the Autobahn or a "Kraftfahrtstrasse" by the color of the signs -> Yellow (like here) = You are on a "Kraftfahrtstrasse", your speed limit is 100km/h. Blue -> You are on the Autobahn = Your speed limit is only indicated by signs. No sign => No limit.
=> The "Kraftfahrtstrasse" is a street that bikes and pedestrians are not allowed on but you can have traffic lights on them. So I guess that would be your motorway. It is normally used as a ring road around a city or to connect two citys that are close by (or in more rural areas it is the alternative to an autobahn since there simply wasn't enough space and/or money for an autobahn).
=> The "Autobahn" is also a street that bikes and pedestrians are not allowed on BUT it will NEVER have a traffic light on it (unless there is construction). So it wil normally be a LOT faster and is used to connect over lager distances.
7:10 The traffic light is not for the intersection but for the crosswalk. Presumably, the traffic light was installed there to allow the children from the kindergarten to cross the street safely.
Fun fact: The Autobahn has blue directional signage with white text, other roads have yellow and sometimes white signs with black text. So you always know if you're on the Autobahn because there's blue directional signs everywhere.
And I always get confused because in switzerland the signs of Autobahn are green, normal streets blue and small streets are white. In germany they have blue for the Autobahn, and yellow for the rest of the streets. Almost landed on the Autobahn with my moped.
As the joke goes, americans always wonder why there are so many cities called "Ausfahrt". :P
Stoooop it! 😂
This made me laugh so hard from the first minute!
Thank you! 🚗
emergency break is the manouver if you want to immediately come to a stop, i.e. fully slamming the clutch and break at once. absolutely has to be practiced on a manual, you have to use full force and the break pedal reacts in a way that might make you flinch and ease off.
btw i cant even drive, so your reactions are really fun^^
About the railroad crossings: This looks like tram tracks or at most light rail, so there is minor safety precautions as the trains are slow. In a main line level crossing you would have moving barriers additionally protecting the crossing.
I don't know about the "slow". Yes, for European standards but the guy is American. Trains aren't very fast over there.
@@gert-janvanderlee5307 USA: _HiGhBaLlInG tHe YaRd!_ - thing goes like 30kph, maybe 50kph on a good day...
Germany: ICE just blasting though the yard at 200kph! Give it all the beanz! We got places to be!
Errrm… in Hannover, where this video was shot, the usual speed limit for light rails is 50 kph which can go up to 70 kph on some sections of track, albeit they do slow down in curves. In essence, they go just as fast as the rest of the traffic (which may be different in other Geerman cities) and this makes it a very wise move to obey their right of way (unless the signage tells you differently, vehicles on tracks always have right of way before motor vehicles)).
I have to say, as a German I am absolutely shocked how little Americans seem to know about driving.
I most liked the part where he thought that there is an extra "emergency brake" in the car😂
Perhaps that is one of the reasons why in Germany we have 3.7 deaths per 100.000 inhabitants per year and it's 12.9 in the USA although they don't have the Autobahn. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate)
emergency brake is a common way to refer to the hand or parking brake. The correct english word for the action performed in the video would be emergency stop
Yes. Shocking, to say the least.
@@Elholz interesting, considering you usually shouldn't use it during emergencies
@@Jafredi3105of course they have the autobahn, it‘s called highway there
How did this man show up on my YT page and now dominates my recommendations on yt. EVEN THOUGH I'm German lmao
18:24 - by emergency brake the guy in the video means to not brake with your handbrake but with the pedal instead, push it all the way down + clutch
I lived in the City of Hannover for at least 25 years, but I needed to watch until the Kraftfahrstraße to know where the guy was driving around. -Bothfeld- Mittelfeld (edit ... 😂)was on the other side of where I lived.
Nice video. Have a nice day 🖐🏼👴🏼
23:15 the blue sign below the stop sign is indicating that you are only allowed to turn right. You were lost and looked too late back to your screen and then found the wrong blue sign.
In Germany if you stop at a red light once, all the following red lights are going to be green when you get to them. Traffic lights in Germany all talk to one another and most of them know if a car is waiting at them, because it turns out metal detectors cost 30 cents if you install them before laying down the tarmac. You simply make the traffic light's power cord a little longer and lay it in a little loop under the car. A modern traffic light can use the difference in magnetic resistance between a loop with iron above it and one without to figure out if there's a car above it's power cord. If nobody's waiting, the light just stays green.
9:47 Yellow priority sign with sub sign setting it as "priority only if turning right".
Some interesting comments you made here. Many of the things he mentioned, seemed mostly natural to me, e.g. that any crossing that exists because a property exit merges into your road doesn't have priority.
I think it might have helped if you had a quick video explaining the main street signs. For example, the white-yellow sign that looks like a fried egg is the indicator for a priority street and sometimes has a supporting graphic that indicates how the priority street changes direction on an intersection.
Looking forward to part 2!
I did my practical driving test exactly there, about 35 years ago. So much has changed there.
Your reaction to the German traffic lights is funny. I used to drive in the USA and what I couldn't get used to was that the traffic lights are positioned behind the intersection from a German perspective. On German roads, when you're at an intersection with traffic lights, you're always right in front of the lights. That really confused me in the USA. And your roads are much wider in comparison, which I really liked.
The instructors statement of a sunken kerb, is referring to the concrete(we call raised) kerb on the right side of the road; whilst the left side of the road had a verge gutter.
The emergency brake test is important, cause systems like the ABS only activate when you hit it really hard really fast. And yes: they talk about the normal break paddel but as hard as possible ;)
Not fully correct though, the ABS activates when a wheel is skidding. On icy road that can be nearly instantly.
I done my license in Germany and I'm not dumb and i was not nervous but i nearly failed that emergency breaking test while doing my hour practical test the guy testing me asked me to perform the emergency break in a 30km zone nearly at the end of all i did break correctly but i forgot to check my mirrors and didn't indicate before driving off again but i did look over my shoulder before driving off again and he let me pass because of the rest being flawless and because of my age 34 so lucky me and most people usually fail at the end while being back at the Tüf while shutting down the engine and getting out of the car because you have to look over your shoulder before getting out of the car the driving instructors are dead serious by just letting you get out of the car by only using your right arm to open the driver's door because it nearly forces you to look in that direction
The round signs with the red crosses on a blue background indicate that you are not allowed to stop your car or park your car there.
Every round sign with a red border indicates that something is forbidden, every triangular sign with a red border indicates some kind of danger, every round blue sign indicates that something has do be done.
21:27 the lane on the right is called a "Fahrradschutzstreifen" a protective lane for Bicycles. You can drive in them with your car if you would otherwise put other drivers in danger (for example not enough space for incoming traffic).
BUT!!!!! And that is a thing, that even most drivers in Germany dont know: The Fahrradschutzstreifen is NO Bicycle lane. That means, that you are still only allowed to pass a bicycle which is driving there with a safety-distance of at least 1,5m. If you cant do that you have to stay behind the bicycle even if it is doing only 5kmh.
Fahrradschutzstreifen are somewhat common in Germany because they are cheap to make and count as Bicycle lanes, at least for statistics. But for traffic rules they are almost useless because the overtake-rules are the same as for normal streets.
What he meant by "its 50 but here this does not allow a speed of 50" is that you have of course have to obey the speed limit. But if you encounter anything that makes it dangerous to drive 50, you have to adapt your speed - even if the speed limit allows going faster. So if you have a narrow part of the road and you have to expect oncoming traffic that may appears suddenly, then you have to slow down. Here in germany there is a rule called "Sichtfahrgebot" which literally translated means something like "visual driving requirement". That means you HAVE to adapt your speed in such a way that you can come to a complete stop at the path you can see at the moment. This rule applies always and is independent from the given speed limit. You have to slow down around corners where you can't see the oncoming traffic or even cars that may broke down after the turn. You also have to adapt your speed if it is raining, foggy or slippery. The "Sichtfahrgebot" is an important rule that a lot of people often forget.
50 is the default speed limit in towns and villages. 100 on roads outside. So if you pass a town sign with no additional speed limit sign, the speed limit is 50. If you exit a town with no new speed limit sign, it's mostly 100. And yes, all speed limits are in km/h.
50km/h ~= 31 mph
Some speed limits are time gated. You often encounter a speed limit of 30 km/h from 6 am till 18 pm around schools or a kindergarden. Thats why he was talking about the time of the day at 6:40.
A yield sign and a stop sign are not the same. A yield sign lets you know that the traffic from your left and your right have the right of way but you dont have to completely stop. You can roll on to the intersection, look and when it's clear you just go. A stop sign means the same but your wheels have to come to a complete stop. Sometimes there is a solid white line in front of a stop sign. In that case you have to stop there first. If you can not see properly from that line, you can carefully drive forward after you've stopped and stop again where you can see better and stop again. Then you check if it's clear and go. Fun fact: not coming to a complete stop on a stop sign is like running a red light in germany.
The sign at 7:50 is not a yield. It's an up side down version of yield which means "attention!". This one comes with a light inside which is just a warning that a light comes soon that you may see very late otherwise. There are many versions of this sign. Often you encounter one with a pedestrian or a bicycle on it. You can see one at 9:37.
The sign at 11:44 is a red circle filled white. This generally means "no passage!". There signs can also come with a symbol inside. This symbol means only these types of vehicles are not allowed. So if you encounter one with only a car inside, this means you can go there with a motorcycle. It's hard to see here, but I thing there is an additional sign right below that most likely says "Anlieger frei". That means that you can drive down there if you live there for example. This specific one has a car and a motorcycle in it. So you can drive down this road if you live there or if you are on a bicycle.
No, cameras on cars are not mandatory in germany, but most new cars have reverse cameras today.
Yes in germany you have the know how to do an emergency braking. This was much more important back in the days without ABS (which is mandatory in german cars since 2004). You may not have to do it in your practical driving test, but this can happen. During your lessons, your driving instructor tells you how to do it and lets you do it over and over again until he is satisfied. He will make sure that no car is behind you and tell you at some point "BRAKE!!!" and you have to hit the brakes as hard as you can. Some people are worried to damage something thats why the hesitate to brake so hard. A good instructor tells you "Hit is as hard as you can when you have to".
During my motorcycle driving lessons and even in the practical test, they told me "the back wheel needs to be in the air!". I almost failed because I was too scared to do so back then.
At 21:30 he is driving in the bicycle lane. This is ok if you have to because of oncoming traffic but only if you dont impede any bicycle. So technically he is doing it wrong at this specific moment I think because he dont have to drive there. But I'm not to sure about that.
The red "X" at 22:06 means "Absolutes Halteverbot" (Absolute no stopping). The sign also exists with just one red stroke, which means "Parkverbot" (no parking).
During my driving lessons, my instructor brought me to an empty road and let me perform the "emergency stop" multiple times. Especially when you drive stick, it is important to build that muscle memory to slam both the clutch and the break at the same time as fast as possible.
It is important to push the clutch, because your engine would stall and - depending on your car - your ABS and/or your steering support might fail or lock up.
I actually had to do a real emergency stop (so not one that was requested by the examiner) on my practical test. Kid running out between two parked cars. That got the adrenaline pumping :)
I´m so old that I had my driving lessons without ABS. So we went far far away to practice stopping with slamming the break and letting it loose several timest till the car stopped. 😆
@@brigittewinklmayr8329 You had "manual" ABS back then. 😄
Press the brake pedal - Only depress the clutch just before you would stall. That adds engine braking and so reduces your stopping distance. You won't fail if you do stall. Your steering won't lock up unless you turn the ignition key to the lock position although you will lose any power steering assist. You will practice this with your instructor beforehand though.
@@GuardOfGaia If you stall on the emergency brake test in Germany then that counts against you. Don’t think it’s an immediate fail if the rest of the test is perfect, but it’s definitely treated as a very significant error. You also only perform that exercise in a 30 zone in 2nd or 3rd gear, so you would gain at most a tenth of a second before the engine would stall.
Not worth the risk, slam the clutch pedal at the same time as the brake, especially in the test.
just wanted to let you know, I really enjoy the videos being a bit longer
"Stop" as put out by Google translate would be the equivalent of "to stop", being the action of stopping. While "Stop" in German would be the imperative form, that's the reason why it's spelled like this on road signs
The first thought that came to my mind when I saw your reactions was, 'Have you ever driven a car before?' But well, unlike in the States, we have a lot of road signs in Europe, need to attend driving school, and learn the driving theory. In addition, there are mandatory driving lessons (countryside drive, night drive, highway). We learn and practice for several weeks and must finally pass an almost flawless theoretical and practical driving test before obtaining our driver's license.
this was super interesting. part two please!
12:56 - Yes, the driver was asked to turn by the driving examiner. This is a typical test situation.
The whole "Right of Way" thing is pretty easy to understand: Imagine you're going 50mph and a car wants to turn into "your" street coming from a 15mph zone. Now, if you would have to yield to that person, this would greatly affect the traffic behind you, bc everyone would have to brake basically to a stand-still, in order for that car with 15mph to be able to merge safely. But with the right of way, you can continue driving your 50mph and the merging car has to wait until it is safe for them to merge.
Triangle with tip to the bottom is Yield, triangle sitting on a side says "Attention" with the reason as an image inside.
Wow...that's funny...this video is showing parts of my way to work in Hannover... 🤣 what a coincidence watching one of my favourite American reacts channels...
The little rhombus-like sign with white edges and yellow center means "You have priority". If there's a small white sign below with funny little black lines, the fat line tells you where the priority road goes. All the thin lines have to wait. So if you're coming from priority you're free to go first in any direction. There's just on special case: If you have to cross the opposite lane of the priority, you have to wait. The easy thing about it: If you just follow the fat line, you're free to go.
The yield sign in Germany means "Caution! You can go, you don't even have to stop, but watch out because others have priority!" The actual stop sign in Germany means that you really have to fully stop you car at least for a second, no matter if there's traffic or not. If there are icons in a yield sign it just means Caution, traffic lights ahead or Caution, deer crossing or railway barrier ahead or something like that. There are a lot of different ones.
By the way "stoppen" = "to stop", "Stop!" = "stop!" Fun fact: Since the spelling reform two decades ago it's actually written wrong, because now the correct spelling would be Stopp. But they decided to use the international spelling on the sign further on. Just because they love visitors so much and surely not, because people would have gone crazy if they would have spent millions of euros for changing millions of stop signs xD
Most countries don't have wide streets where you can pull over to turn. Same with parking on the green. It's just to save room for the passing cars on narrow streets .... and avoid getting your car crashed in the worst case. The property of the house owners ends with the fence, so the green and the sidewalk are a communal thing which the city has to take care of.
About parallel parking: I don't know either what this guy is doing xD It's quite as you described.
Emergency braking means just pedal braking because it's got to be quick. You don't have time to search for the handbrake and hitting the parking brake in a mercedes or in modern cars is even worse. I did this on an empty harbor street and to do it correctly, it means you have to brake as quick as possible and as hard as possible. Step on the pedal so that your body gets in a line and your ass comes up from the seat. Then you're literally standing on the brake. At least that's what I was tought.
About lines: In Germany all lines are white, so color doesn't mean a thing. Except ... construction sites. When the lanes are shifted to a side because of a construction site, they'll put yellow lines on the ground, which means that you have to ignore the white ones and follow the yellow ones. Dashed lines in general may always be crossed. Solid lines may not be crossed. Solid double lines will eat you when crossed.
Round signs with red edge and white inside mean that something is forbidden. Remember the black car in the red circle? Cars forbidden. There's another one with a little black man with a hat in a red circle: pedestrians forbidden. A bicycle in it: bicycles forbidden. And so on. Blue signs on the other hand mostly tell you what you should do or can do or they are just about parking xD. The red circle with blue inside is actually about parking. If there is just one red bar in it, it means you may stop for loading or picking somebody up, but no parking. If there are two red bars crossed, stopping and parking is absolutely forbidden. The little white arrows in it tell you, that it's a no parking area along the street. One arrow means no parking from here on to the direction of the arrow. At the end of the no parking area you will find a sign with an arrow facing backwards. And if the area is very long or there are many crossings where you could enter the street in the middle of the area, you'll find signs with two arrows going left and right, telling you no parking/stopping in both directions. In Germany we also have zones. Normally signs always just mean the road they are standing on, but in a zone you can even take a left or right and the signs on the zone sign are still in action. They are often used in old narrow city centers or in living areas that are completely restricted to 30 km/h.
When you cross a curb to get on the street, you have to wait. No matter if it's normal or lowered. Even if someone is coming from the right, if he has to cross a curb, he has to wait.
Some traffic lights are switched off for example at night to save energy, because there's no traffic at that time. Oftenly they are just installed for when everybody goes to work or wants to get home. Especially in Bavaria where most shops are closed on sunday there are a lot of traffic lights turned off on this day.
Big yellow sign is a federal highway. Big blue sign is Autobahn.
Hope I could help 😁
The "red X sign" with the blue background just means "do not hold or park here" and the white arrows show the direction the sign is meant for. At minute 23 the "blue sign" is the one that was underneath the "Stop" sign. And the German "stoppen" means "to stop", but "Stop" is a German word, too.
In Germany yellow lines are used for temporary markings like at construction sites. All regular lines are white.
On a road with two way traffic you normally have a dashed center line to devide the lanes for the two directions.
When there are two or more lanes for one direction you will have a solid center line deviding the directions, and and a dashed seperator line separating the lanes for the same directions.
If the road is too narrow for separate lanes for each direction then there is no center line at all, and drivers have to manage themselves...
ohh pls keep on watching. I had some very hard laughs just from things that are so ordinary to us.
But usually, for the most important signs, we don't write stuff on it. And that's not only like that in Germany, but generally in most countries. Just imagine: back in September I drove all the way from Brussels from Prague. That means crossing four countries: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Czechia. And while the scenery and bits and pieces were different, the general road rules, signings, lightings etc. weren't. No big deal when you're used to it I guess 🤷♂
The stop sign is universal
oh this is in my hometown! took me to the 5 minute mark to recognize my old school area in döhren, cool!
These signs you see in Germany are mostly following the "Vienna Convention" which is a convention on street sign designs that was established in the early 20th century to make motorway signage universal across countries. The designs consist only of basic colours, shapes and numbers and no text, so they are readable regardless of language and even alphabetization levels. Many European countries use versions of these sign designs.
Usually, a triangle with a red border pointing upwards means "attention: danger or obstruction" a circle with a red border means something is a command (like speed limits), the same circle with a red bar across means something is forbidden, a grey spriped bar means the command (speed limit) doesn't apply anymore.
The blue circles with the red borders and crossed lines show that it's forbidden to park (single diagonal line) and even stop (cross) on the sides of the street. The little white arrows show you which side of the street this applies to.
The yield sign (triangle pointing down) and the "main road" sign (white rectangle with yellow center) do not have variations.
The arrows are not indicating which side of the street this applies to.
They indicate if the parking forbidden zone starts (left arrow) or stops (right arrow), easy to remember when thinking about it as zones that opens and closes.
When both arrows are shown it's because of an upcoming intersection where halting or parking is forbidden anyway. So the sign closes the zone but opens it again for after the intersection.
Die little white arrows on no parking/ no stopping signs do not indicate the side of the street. They indicate the begin of a no parking zone (arrow pointing left), the end of a no parking zone (pointing to the right) or a no parking zone which already occurs before the sign and continues behind the sign (2 arrows, one pointing left, 2nd pointing right). The latter appears when there is a junction and you want to make clear to drivers cornering into your street that parking or stopping is not allowed before and after the sign.
The little arrow in this sign means not which side of the street, it means the beginning or ending of no parking. Turn the sing parallel to the street so it shows you the direction. In an one way street it's possible that a arrow to the right means the beginning if the sign is on the left sight of the street.
@@ASFocusCS arrow to the center of the road opens up the zone.
arrow to the side of the road closes the zone.
@@mauer1 Good to know, thanks! I actually do not have a licence so I was just talking out of my passenger side ass lol.
That reaction was interesting.
You should really look into the international road signs though. They are mostly not hard to understand and almost universal outside the US
Basically there is a few signs that just get added modifiers
Blue circle with white rim: information
Angled up red trianlge filled white: Attention
White circle with red rim: something is prohibited
Blue circle, red rim with one or two crossing stripes: No parking and No Stopping
All of those can be modified with extra signage or with a pictogram within
And almost everything else is related to right of way, pedestrian protection or trains
9:00 The yellow round things on the barriers are actual lamps which can be switched to a solid on or a blinking light. They usually only put them on every other post unless they form a "barrier" (like the three posts at the traffic lights blocking the right lane). The posts themselves are also reflective (which is probably why we try to keep them clean).
The rhombus with yellow center and white edges is the priority sign, so you know you have priority (or right-of-way) over other traffic. This sign is the literal opposite of the stop sign.
The yellow and white sing indicates that you are on a prioritsed road, meaning you always have the right of way when on that road. Sometimes there is another sign underneath the yellow and white sign showing where the priority street goes. the thick line indicates the prioritised street, the thinner lines the streets that have to yield.
Edit: pls part two
I have to say that in Spain we don't have so many priority road signs. I think I only have see them when I traveled in southern France. I was a little overhelmed watching the priority crossings so I think Ryan was way worse than me. And I NEVER had that emergency brake practice. I don't know if we do it now but 20 years ago it wasn't explained/practiced.
I have to squeeze into tiny parking spaces almost every day. Backwards it's not a problem at all, forwards I wouldn't even be able to park properly in a much larger one. 😂
The red Xes are no-stopping signs. The arrows on it indicate whether you are not allowed to park in front of or after (or both) the sign.
"so is this a one way road?" killed me
In the construction site, the red/white spaces are reflectors. The yellow bulbs on top are just that, lights that periodically blink, but usually on a timer, or manually disabled. In a residential area, people would go crazy if the blinked all night, for they are relatively bright.
About the different triangles. If you have a triangle with a long side on the bottom, it is not yield, but a "danger" sign. in 7:54, this is a "danger, unusual traffic light ahead". Only when the long side on the top it is a yield-sign.
Edit: Also, it is pretty easy to see if you are in a priority lane. If you watch the video, you can see a lot of square signs that look like a fried egg, yellow in the middle, with a white border. A street with this sign has priority. If there is a little map under the sign, it says which way the priority goes, so if you look at the weired ones, you see that there is an arc to the right, and two broken lines comming from straight on and the left. This means the priority street goes to the left. Every street that leads into the priority street has a yield sign.
TBH, I got my driver's license in Germany and also only learned to parallel park by pulling up to the level of mirrors of my car and the parked car, just as Ryan described it. This guy really did pull up quite far.
They always say women can't park, but even my male colleagues admired how I managed to squeeze into the smallest space 😊
More genearal (easy) approach of parallel parking: Align the rear tire of your car to the end of the parked car besides you, then start steering....
Of course you need to know where the rear tires are located - mostly right behind the back seats, so aligning the cars before steering is quite simple.
@@gerimacin6544 Thanks for the tip. I don’t think I’ve ever actually tried that, or at least not consciously. Mirror to mirror often aligns quite well with the back wheels, but I can’t always see them. Either way, I always seem to be able to measure exactly when to start steering. What most people don’t like to do is manoeuvring their car into a tight space, but if you can get the steering right in the first place, it doesn’t take a lot of manoeuvring.
Most men that sat beside me while I parallel parked the car with ease were impressed. So funny how they expect us to do it poorly 😄
@@anouk6644 Right? Good for you! 👍🏻👏🏻They always go on about “women drivers” but statistics have shown that we cause less crashes than men. I alway say it’s “testosterone at the wheel” 😉
@@patriciamillin1977 Exactly! In Dutch we say ‘De enige heer in het verkeer is een vrouw’. I think you can read that as a German 😊
About that red and white round sign with the motorbike and car in the middle: There was a square sign below it mentioning any exemptions (like: If you live in a house in this road, this sign does not apply to you). That road is not a one-way road. The sign just prevents random traffic to go into roads that aren't suppose to be used for transit for just everybody, there are many reasons for that.
In Australia, it is called the Hand Brake(Emergency) as you use you hand to engage it(normally in centre console area); we are not instructed with applying it during driver training.
The Yield sign needs no symbol or words in it, because it is the only sign with that shape configuration. Just like the hexagonal stop sign (also a sign shape that has only one meaning), it can always be understood, even if it is completely covered by snow or dirt.
The Yield sign is a triangle, with the narrow point at the bottom as opposed to the warning sign at 7:47 with the narrow point at the top. Th ewarning sign can be either blank (general warning for dangerous conditions) or with one of many (usually self explanatory) pictograms inside such as this one warning that a mobile traffic light is ahead which has been set up for the duration of the construction site.
Warning signs aren't blank. If there's no icon for the risk object, an exclamation point is used.
I’ve never seen a hexagonal stop sign. They’re all octagonal
@@Wildcard71 That's true. Although you rarely see Sign 101 because there's usually a fitting specific one and it's only used if there isn't and you need to use it. Maybe in conjuction with an additional explonatory sign.
Stops are very unusual here. City default is 50, and it starts when you entry the rectangular Yellow city Name. Country side road is default 100. Autobahn default is unlimited. The round red anb bleu with arrows is no parking from the sign in the arrow direction. I'm from Canada and it's basically the same as the USA. It took me a bit to get used to these rules.
Autobahn is default 130km/h. If you drive on a part without speed limit and drive for example 200km/h and have an crash even without your fault you are part responsible
@@oOBuFuOo hm. Yeah I just googled it. I was not aware of the insurance part. Thanks for the info.
@@oOBuFuOoNo there is no default speed limit on the Autobahn.
You will not get punished by the law, if you drive even 300 in an unrestricted area.
There is however the Richtgeschwindigkeit (recommended speed) at 130 that you are asked to use for safety but are not punished, if you ignore it.
Insurance companies will just argue that you were asked to drive 130 and decided yourself that it's worth the risk of driving faster and therefore you are partly fault, if you have a crash while driving faster.
@@She-Devil94 tomato tomato default ~ standard. Didn't tell there is an speed limit of 130 just if you crash ,even without your fault, you are part responsible
stop signs are not unusual in germany
He talks about the airbag, because they use the position of it as a marker for parking (sometimes it's just the mirror they use, it is nearly the same)
"It's in english" xD
Man you made my day!
Pulling the parking break while driving wouldn't have much effect. What he's talking about is slamming the (foot pedal) break real hard. Especially in cars with ABS it's important to not hesitate in an emergency because ABS would do the rest for you. That was especially scary in my practical test for motorbikes. Cause you'd expect the wheels to block or even throw you over the handle bars.