Speed cameras (Fotobokser)

Fixed Speed Camera And Recorder (SCAR) units are located along streets and roads across the country to detect and photograph cars that violate speed limits or ignore traffic signals. The SCARs are part of an automatic traffic control – ATC (automatisk trafikkontroll, ATK) system intended to ensure adherence to traffic regulations and thereby cut accident rates. They have been as successful as they have in other countries, particularly along stretches of roads where speeding has contributed to higher accident rates. There are nearly 300 SCARs in the country, and plans now call for some 550 by the end of 2007.

Speed limits (Fartsgrenser)

Unless posted, the countrywide speed limits are 50 km/h in built-up areas and 80 km/h on open roads. The open road limit is posted down to 70 km/h on many roads, to reduce accidents.

A posted limit is given by a black number on a white background on a circular sign with a red border. The end of a posted zone is indicated by a circular sign with the same number in grey on a white background with diagonal slash lines through the number. Some motorways and other roads of high standard are posted for 90 km/h or 100 km/h. Residential areas are usually posted for 30 km/h or 40 km/h. Some thinly built-up areas are posted for 60 km/h.

There are a few exceptions. Even on roads posted for 90 km/h, caravans and cars towing trailers without brakes and weighing more than 300 kg are limited to 60 km/h; cars towing trailers with brakes as well as buses and trucks are limited to 80 km/h.

Spot checks (Trafikkontroll)

The police, the Public Roads Administration, or both may spot check motor vehicles along roads. Customs officers may also spot check vehicles close to the borders with Sweden and Finland and on either side of them. Spot checks are made by uniformed officers, usually wearing yellow reflecting vests with their functions on the back, such as Politi (”police”) or Toll (”customs”).

A spot check may be of all vehicles or selected vehicles, such as only heavy trucks. If you are stopped, you will be asked to show your driving licence and the car registration, which the law requires that you have in the vehicle when driving. If your car is registered in Norway, the annual road tax stickers on the number plates and the latest periodic vehicle inspection certificate carried with the registration will also be checked. If the spot check is for drink-driving, all drivers will be given breath tests. If the spot check is for roadworthiness, Public Roads Administration officers may check the car. Roadworthiness checks as well as truck weight and hazardous goods transport checks usually are made at permanent roadside scales, which are open only when checks are made.

A spot check may be only of vehicles that have violated a traffic regulation, in most cases speeding. These checks usually are made by two groups of police. The first uses radar or laser speed meters to check the speed of all vehicles passing a point. They radio the registration of speeding vehicles further along the road to the second group, who stops the offenders.

Close to borders, customs officers may spot check vehicles for goods in excess of duty-free quotas (Chapter 46) as well as for illegal goods such as narcotics.

Tax-free export cars (Eksport biler)

If you will be in Norway temporarily, for less than a year, you may buy a tax-free car for export to your home country. It will be fitted with tax-free car number plates (tollskilt), which resemble ordinary plates but have two black numerals on a red background at each end of the plate giving the month (left) and year (right) of expiration. Tax-free registration is permitted in Oslo, Bergen, Kristiansand, Larvik, Trondheim and Tromsø. Dealers in those cities will have the details. You also may enquire at a major dealer in your home country before departure. Saab and Volvo, which are made in neighbouring Sweden, offer extensive programmes that include home shipping from selected ports for cars made to Canadian or US specifications. The Saab International and Diplomat Sales (IDS) programme entails delivery in Oslo and export from nine cities in other countries, the closest being Gothenberg, Sweden. For further details, contact a Saab dealer or visit the Norwegian Saab website at www.saab.no. Volvo offers export arrangements tailored for diplomats, the military, expats and international travellers. For further details, contact a Volvo dealer or visit the main Volvo car website at www.volvocars.com.

Toll roads (Bomveier)

Tolls (bompenger) are collected on some roads, bridges and ferries (veier, bruer og fjergsamband). Cyclists, pedestrians, emergency vehicles, funeral processions, road maintenance vehicles and sometimes motorcycles are exempt from tolls. Larger plazas (bomstasjoner) have several lanes, usually marked for vehicles with toll subscriptions (abonnement), such as AutoPASS, and for automatic and manual toll booths. Three cities, Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, charge tolls for entering the city from outside a ring of roads around it (bompengering).

Traffic accidents with personal injury (Trafikkulykker med personskade)

Each year, about 12,000 people are injured in traffic, some 280 of them fatally. Nonetheless, driving in Norway is comparably safe. With an accident rate half that of the USA and slightly less than a third that of the UK, Norway ranks 48th in the world. It wasn’t always that safe: in 1939, when there were fewer than 120,000 motor vehicles in the country – against 2.4 million today – nearly 2,600 persons were injured in accidents, 116 of them fatally.

Traffic fines (Bøtesatser ved trafikforseelser)

If you are arrested for a traffic violation, the arresting officer may endorse your driving licence with penalty points and fine you for the offence, on the spot for minor offences (forenklet foelegg). Fines are set by local police departments and must be paid within 14 days of acceptance. The arresting police officer will write out a form with an attached giro (Chapter 2) form for payment. For extremely serious or multiple violations, the police may confiscate a driving licence and initiate prosecution, with no option for on-the-spot fines. For further information on traffic offences and fines, contact your local police department (politi), and for information on the details of payment, the State Agency for the Recovery of Fines, Damages and Costs (Chapter 2).

Traffic signs (Trafikkskilt)

With few exceptions, Norwegian traffic signs are like those used throughout continental Europe and in the UK. There are five principal categories of signs:

Transport of dangerous goods (Transport av farlig gods)

Norway is one of 34 signatories of the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR), which is administered by the Transport Division of the UNECE (Chapter 20). ADR aims to increase the safety of international transport by road, and contains provisions on:

• types of packing which may be used
• consignment procedures
• transport equipment (vehicles and their construction and equipment)
• operations (driver training, supervision, emergency procedures, loading and unloading, signs on vehicles).

The ADR provisions concerning flammable and explosive materials are administered by the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning. The ADR provisions concerning radioactive materials are administered by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority. Vehicles carrying dangerous goods are marked with conspicuous signs: red with a flame for flammable goods and yellow with a radiation symbol for radioactive goods.

Trucks and heavy vehicles (Tungtrafikk)

The allowable sizes and weights of trucks and other heavy vehicles, such as motorised caravans and living vans, are limited according to the carrying capacity of roads and bridges. There are five road use classes (bruksklasser), abbreviated Bk and a numeral indicating the maximum axle load, from six to 10 tons. The heaviest, Bk10, permits an axle load of up to 10 tons or up to 11.5 tons if it is a single driving axle. The entire main road network (stamvegnett) is now classified to Bk10 and for total truck weights of up to 50 tons, the same as in the Netherlands, less than Finland (53 tons) but more than most other European countries. Some 1,730 km of roads in the national network (riksvegnett) are limited to lower axle load use classes; about half of the limitations are due to the limited carrying capacities of bridges. The maximum allowable width is 2.55 m, or 2.6 m for a built-on van body (påbygg) for refrigerated transport. The maximum allowable length is 18.75 m, or up to 22 m for timber transport (tømmertransport). The weight class restrictions on roads are listed in a booklet and drawn on a map published by the Public Roads Administration.

• Vegliste, Riksveger (”road list, national roads”) is a booklet with tables of the weight capacities of all national roads.
• Tungtrafikk på riksveger i Norge (”heavy traffic on national roads in Norway”) is a map with all details on weight, width and length restrictions, with texts in Norwegian, English, Finnish, French and German.

Tunnels (Tunneler)

There are some 820 road tunnels (vegtunneler) in the country, which together have a total length of some 600 km. Many are short, about one kilometre or less in length. But there also are many long tunnels: of the 100 longest road tunnels in the world, 25 are in Norway, including the world’s longest, the 24.5 km Lærdal Tunnel on the E16 motorway between Aurland and Lærdal in Sogn og Fjordane county. There also are many shorter road underpasses (vegunderganger) and railway underpasses (jernbane underganger). Tunnels are posted ahead of each entrance with a triangular advance warning sign with a red border and a black drawing of a tunnel entrance. The vertical height clearance in most tunnels is 4.5 m. Tunnels with lower clearances are posted ahead of each entrance with a round prohibited sign with a red border and the restricted height of vehicle in black on a white background.

Tyres (Dekk)

Tyres are sold and serviced as they are elsewhere in Europe; look under bilgummi (”car tyre dealers”) or bilgummiverksteder (”car tyre services”) in the Yellow Pages.

Studded tyres (piggdekk) were developed in the 1960s and rapidly became popular in the Nordic countries, prompted in part by road laws requiring that a car have sufficient grip for the road conditions. A studded tyre usually has 80 to 120 steel studs, each projecting about 1.5 mm out from the running surface of the tyre. The purpose of the studs is to increase grip on ice and snow. So they have been permitted for winter use, but prohibited in the summertime, from the first Monday after Easter until 1 November in most of the country, and from 1 May to 15 October in the three northernmost counties. This requirement prompted car owners to have two sets of tyres, usually mounted on hubs to simplify changing twice a year.

However, studded tyres were soon found to have serious drawbacks. Most obviously, the studs abrade roads. Asphalt surfaces wear three times as fast when wet than when dry. So the combination of a long winter and a high percentage of vehicles fitted with studded tyres accelerated road wear. In the late 1990s, some 200,000 tons of asphalt a year were worn off the roads of the country. Aside from expense of road repair – some NOK 250 million a year – the pulverised asphalt dust in the air became a serious health hazard, particularly in cities, where the roads were clear of ice and snow for most of the winter. Another drawback was that the noise generated by studded tyres bothered both drivers and those who lived along roads. Moreover, the grip of new studded tyres diminishes as the studs wear, and worn studded tyres were found to give drivers a false sense of security – which, in turn, contributed to increasing the chances of collisions in winter. Consequently, the Public Roads Administration now advises against studded tyres, and cities may impose an extra duty on cars fitted with them. Oslo and Trondheim now impose a duty of NOK 1,000 a year, NOK 350 a month or NOK 25 a day, and twice as much for vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons. For further information, call 81000190 for Oslo or 72546501 for Trondheim or visit the studded tyre information website at www.piggav.no.

Because studded tyres have been so popular, the alternatives to them are called “studless” (piggfrie). Studless winter tyres are not the same as all weather M+S (mud and snow) tyres. The designs of most M+S rated tyres emphasise high-speed highway performance ahead of grip on snow and ice. True, studless winter tyres usually are made of softer rubber than are ordinary road tyres or M+S tyres, for better grip at low temperatures, but the softer rubber will wear more quickly in higher speed summertime driving. So if used in summer, studless winter tyres may be less safe than ordinary road tyres in braking and manoeuvring at high speeds. Consequently, just as for studded tyres, car owners usually have two sets of tyres mounted on hubs, one for winter and one for summer, and a set of chains (kjettinger) for grip on icy stretches of road when needed. This solution is recommended if you intend to drive to central Europe in winter, as studded tyres are forbidden on motorways in Austria and in Switzerland and forbidden on all roads in Germany.

Vehicle dismantlers (Biloppsamlere)

Each year, more than 80,000 cars and other motor vehicles are scrapped. After taking in a car, a dismantler will drain fluids from it, remove its tyres and major parts that can be resold, and after a few weeks, compact it flat and send it off to a metal recycler.

The companies involved usually are listed in the Yellow Pages under Bilopphogging (”car breaking”) and often use that word in their names. But other terms are also used, including Bildemontering (”car dismantling”) and Bilskroting (”car scrapping”). The dismantlers authorised to accept vehicles for refund of the end-of-life vehicle deposit are also called Biloppsamlingsplass (”car collection depot”), and may be so listed in the Yellow Pages or may mention that status in their advertisements in listings under Bilopphogging. Most dismantlers are members of the Norwegian Car Dismantlers Association (Norges Biloppsamlefrs Forening, NBF), Parkveien 9, 0350 Oslo, Tel: 22598894, Fax: 22567575, www.nbfbildeler.no.

If you are an amateur mechanic interested in saving money or maintaining a car more than 10 years old, for which non-expendable parts are scarce, you may find the vehicle dismantlers to be reliable sources of used parts. The NBF website has a searchable database of used parts in stock at dismantlers across the country, classified by marque, model, year and parts category. Moreover, NBF is a member of the European Group of Automotive Recycling Associations (EGARA) and can access vehicle dismantlers across Europe via their associations, including the Motor Vehicle Dismantlers Association (MVDA) in the UK and Ireland.

Some 30 dismantlers associated in the Car Dismantlers Data Network (Bil-Demontørenes Dataring) keep stocks of used parts in quality categories and either stock or order expendable and non-expendable parts, such as bodywork, and maintain a searchable database, Hegsbroveien 46, PO Box 44, 3401 Lier, Tel: 32858753, Fax: 32845191, www.bruktbildeler.com, dataring@start.no.

Vehicle regulations (Kjøretøyforskriftene)

If you buy a new car or a previously registered used car, it will comply with the national vehicle regulations, so you need not be concerned with them – unless you are in the international car trade. However, if you bring in a car from another country, you may need to know the details of its compliance with the regulations.

The Norwegian national vehicle regulations are based on the European vehicle regulations compiled and published by the UNECE (Chapter 20). Consequently, vehicles made in Europe for the European market will comply with Norwegian regulations. However, vehicles made outside Europe, or in Europe for export to markets elsewhere, may not comply, as vehicle regulations vary round the world. In practice, the most frequent difficulties are with cars made in the USA for the North American market, in compliance with the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). In many respects, the FMVSS and UNECE regulations are alike, such as for safety belts. But they differ in some respects, so if you import an American car, you may be required to modify it before it can be registered.

American cars are popular in Norway, so as this book goes to press, the Public Roads Administration has proposed that the vehicle regulations be amended to sanction vehicles made in compliance with current FMVSS regulations, provided the lights have colours in compliance with European regulations.

Internationally, the UNECE’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations works to address global issues on vehicle safety, environmental pollution, energy and anti-theft. Extensive information and publications are available on the UNECE website at www.unece.org.

Winter equipment (Utstyr for vinterføre)

In most of the country, snow and ice can be expected on the roads from late October on, and earlier in the far North or in the central mountain ranges. So in addition to having the proper winter tyres and anti-freeze solution (frostvœske) in the radiator, it’s best to be prepared with a few extra items in your car; all are sold by car parts and accessories shops and by larger petrol stations:

• chains or speed-mount chains (kjetting, hurtig-kjetting)
• jump leads (startkabler)
• lock de-ice fluid (låsolje)
• sand or gravel in a small bag (sand eller grus)
• scraper (skraper)
• snow brush (børste)
• snow grip spray (dekkspin)
• snow spade (snøskuffe)
• towing rope (slepetau).

Wintertime road restrictions

Some roads are closed for the winter (vinterstengte veger) or may in adverse weather be open only to traffic in convoys of vehicles (kolonnekjøring), to prevent lone vehicles being stranded by drifting snows. Most of the affected roads are in the high-mountain plateau region in the central, southern part of the country or close and along the coast in the northern part of the country, including the northern part of Nordland county, Troms county and Finnmark county. For instance, in the wintertime, convoy driving is often required along stretches of the E6 south-north highway. In all cases, closed roads or convoy conditions are posted alongside the road, usually at the last junction or town open to road traffic. For the latest information for the entire country, contact the road user information service or one of the automobile associations.