Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere..

What is the speed limit on the motorways here? The signs say 100km but everyone seems to travel at 120km?? Is it just that everyone speeds?

If there are no signs saying otherwise the speed limit on motorways is 120KM/H

imho they ignore the signs on the highway and if you dare stick to it, you will get hooted and yelled at!!! the speedsigns are in force until the have a white circle with a black diagonal line - then it is 120km/h (in the slow lane..)

I suggest the OP gets a Swiss traffic regulations book which will help us all survive him or her driving in Switzerland

Yeah yeah, I should know the rules but give me a break.... Only just got a car and I don't know any German. Have been looking for the regs in English but can't seem to find them - any suggestions.

At least I'm trying to find out the rules and follow them.

In general 120km, but you can drive at 100km at the right lane.

But there are certain segments that allows only 100km or 80km (regulated by the specific sign). The following sign tells you that can speed up again to 120km.

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hmpf. I typically go 95 and have no problems. But driving a van absolves me
With all the fancy polished cars around here I feel that the most imposing vehicle on the road I think is a beat-up van with dents and a company name on it. The driver doesn't care as its not his van and he already has been in some scrapes so plonkers in posh cars are scared

traffic regs in english is available from the bookstore in bahnhofstr zurich next to swatch...if you're still interested...

I just happen to be selling my copy of the English rules book

http://www.englishforum.ch/sale-want...-ch-basel.html

There is a sneaky trend by the Swiss authorities not to post the speed limit on some stretches of autobahn which are actually 120KPH.

This can be observed at the start of the Oberland Autobahn where it starts east of Uster direction Zurich. There is no speed limit sign after a 100KPH one before the autobahn begins - just a green autobahn sign. This is supposed to indicate the limit changes to 120KPH. Well, it would if the road was open, it's being completely dug up at the moment...

That was one of my biggest frustrations when I first started driving here - I had no idea what the speed limit was sometimes! I'm sure I drove some people insane driving like grandma on the Autobahn because the last speed sign I saw was 100 or 80.

My TomTom shows me the speed limit, but it's always flashing red and making beeping noises.

Hi,
Same topic:
My tomtom kept saying 120KM max but everywhere the signs said 100KM (from Zurich to Bern, etc....)


Also the road are so nice, the cars are so nice, etc... Why such a low high speed limit!?

Seems that they could raise it easily to 130KM on the non urban areas!

May I remind you that the speed limit in the UK is 70mph (and 120km/h is 74mph)?

And I do drive like a grandma in my BMW as the speeding fines here are exorbitant. I'm seriously considering bring my beat-up Transit over from England (possibly rammed full of Oxo).

A few reasons - as far as I can see:
1) Frequency of junctions
2) 2 lanes is the norm
3) Frequency of restrictions - tunnels etc

That pretty much covers it. It is also worth considering that it takes just over 2 hours to go from Basel to Chur (West to East) - does Switzerland need higher limits? It isn't a huge country.

I think there are also some noise / pollution issues which have caused the authorities to drop the speed limits in various places. A couple of summers ago there was a temporary 80km/h stretch of motorway for a few kms in the direction of Chur to try to keep pollution levels down a bit.

Reminds me of the F1 champion driver James Hunt who drove an old Austin A35 van on the public roads - something he could legally drive at its limits and which he could transport his budgerigars in (if not necessarily at the same time).

ok, thanks !
70mph in UK? I had the impression it was faster... ok

I guess some people just want to get through as quickly as possible.