26-07-12, 10:41 PM
Not ridden it but done it 6 times in the car. I assume you'll be taking the E30, the main Holland, Berlin, Warsaw, Minsk, Moscow road? It's shit, is the only way to describe it. You come off German autobahn as you cross the border and are immediately onto a single carriageway with wide hard shoulders. The trucks sit half on the road, half on the hard shoulder to allow an additional middle lane to be created. The ruts left by the trucks can be up to 6 inches deep. The speed limit is 90 kph except when you are within 200m of a zebra crossing or junction when it drops to 70 kph. The local plod cruise up and down the first 20 miles or so of this road in video equipped, unmarked cars looking out for foreign registered vehicles that aren't aware of this rule. 4 years ago, overtaking a truck at 99 kph just after a junction, but still in the 70 kph section, cost 100 Zloty (about 25 quid), it may well have gone up by now. If you don't have any Zloty, they will take you to a Bureaux de change in a filling station that probably gives the worst exchange rate on the planet. However, they don't seem to take any notice of the 44 tonne trucks being driven by a man with a can of Lech in one hand and his mobile in the other. While I never saw it published anywhere, it appears that headlights are compulsory during the day. It pissed with rain on 5 of my 6 trips so I had the lights on anyway but on the 6th, I didn't switch them on after stopping for a bite to eat and all the oncoming vehicles were flashing their lights at me until I switched them on.
So, it appears that everything you have been told is true. The daylight use of headlights law may be another one of these badly worded continental laws that says that headlights must be used during the day but doesn't actually say you have to use them at night as well, so some of them don't bother (a bit like the French law that says a motorcyclist must wear a crash helmet but doesn't specify where so you see bikers with their helmet on their elbow).
So, it appears that everything you have been told is true. The daylight use of headlights law may be another one of these badly worded continental laws that says that headlights must be used during the day but doesn't actually say you have to use them at night as well, so some of them don't bother (a bit like the French law that says a motorcyclist must wear a crash helmet but doesn't specify where so you see bikers with their helmet on their elbow).