Belgian Motorways & Roads

[SarahJ]

Belgium motorways may be lit, but they turn off at 12pm, but only in the flemmish areas. When they turn off it's quite strange. It's also quite strange driving the E40 from Brussels to Leige. It's dark, you pass through a section of french belguim and it's lit, then flemmish and it's dark, then back into french belguim and they are lit all the way to germany. Madness I tell you, madness!!!!
But as for Belguim it's self, the roads there are for me, just a way to pass through. They are not that bad, though some signposts are a bit hit and miss. Coming from Aachen round Leige the E40 pull of is the last thing signposted for that turn off. I've come that way 5 times and allways almost miss it.

SJ

[M11 Man]

I was in Belgium recently, to watch the Belgian Grand Prix. At the time I didn't know that Belgium's motorway network was fully lit (or almost). When I crossed the border into Belgium from France, as the E40 from Calais to the border was fully lit, the lights stopped, so I thought, oh great, another country with hardly any lit motorways. About 15 miles later there were some lights, and then about 10 miles later I noticed they were still fully lit, so I thought maybe most of it was. It was then lit all the way to Spa (save a couple of miles of the E42). I didn't find the surface too bad either.

The only grumbles about Belgian motorways is that most of them are only 2 lanes, and signposting is pretty poor as well, particularly from the E40 to the Brussels orbital. Typically I missed it and it result in nearly an hour driving around in Brussels, where there are NO SIGNS WHATSOEVER. It was a miracle when I got out, and it will certainly go down as a very scary driving experience for anyone.

[Bryn666]

Bit cheeky, but I deleted the duplicate post, M11 Man. I imagine you had a timeout when sending the message.

[SarahJ]

I have to admit I've never had a problem on the E40 onto and off the brussels ring, just gotta know where you are heading and watch out for different spelling of towns, Luik/Leige, Lille/Rijsel and so on. Mind i have seen a few smashes in the link from the the E40 from Genk/Ghent onto the Ring clockwise, plus joining the ring going uphill behind a hgv is not fun

SJ

[M11 Man]

When you get of the E40 eastbound(is it?) to go on the Brussels ring clockwise, that is what I think catches alot of people out, as on none of the gantries or signs leading up to the junction did it say "R0" which is what would confuse alot of people

[firefly]

The belgians never mention their national road numbers when a road carries an E-route. You shouldn't be to much focused on road numbers on the continent anyway. We have destination based signage systems over here. To watch out for Luik or Liège would have been the better idea.

[Tom]

We have destination based signage systems over here. To watch out for Luik or Liège would have been the better idea.

Yes, that illustrates the problems of having destination-based signage when the same town can be known as two different things within a few miles. And at least the dual name for Luik/Liège is generally marked on maps, unlike Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) which appears on Wallonian motorway signs.

[firefly]

Yes, that illustrates the problems of having destination-based signage when the same town can be known as two different things within a few miles.

That is a belgian Problem. They sign a place in the language that is spoken where the sign stands and not in the language that is spoken in the signed place as it should be. The Swiss do it much better. And they have to deal with different languages as well.

[Bryn666]

Some Belgian signs are billingual though - as are some French signs.

For example, you see plenty of "GAND (GENT)" signs, and a few "RISJEL (LILLE)" signs...

[Jam35]

Some Belgian signs are billingual though - as are some French signs.

For example, you see plenty of "GAND (GENT)" signs, and a few "RISJEL (LILLE)" signs...

<OT>
What's really bizarre is that one way the train is advertised as going to Rijsel-Flandres, and the other way to Gand-Sint-Pieter - the suffixes stay in the "wrong" language (they never become -Vlaams or -Saint-Pierre)*! The station signs themselves of course read Lille-Flandres and Gent-Sint-Pieter respectively. The only stations I've come across having dual-signage are Bruxelles-Midi (Brussel-Zuid) and Mouscron (Moeskroen - or something like that), the latter being the bit of Tourcoing that ended up on the wrong side of the border.

* Actually, that's not the only oddity about that line - when I last rode it, the single fare was 5 centimes cheaper when going to Belgium (and therefore paying SNCF) than when going to France (and therefore paying SNCB).
</OT>

[IJP1]

Can't say I've ever seen Gent (Gand) or Gand (Gent) outside Brussels (where it is Gand-Gent), but I'm open to correction.

The system actually appears to be this:
- in Flanders (with the exception of a small area on the French border cut off from the rest of Flanders by French territory where signs are bilingual Dutch first), all place names are in Dutch, with local name in brackets *only if it is actually in France* (thus 'Lille' with reference to Lille in France).
- in Wallonia (with the exception of the German-speaking area where signs are bilingual German first), all place names are in French, with local name in brackets *only if it is actually in the Netherlands or Germany*.

I agree that it would, in fact, make more sense to place all names in the local language regardless of where the sign is located.

Best,
Ian P.

[M4Simon]

Belgian motorways are ok, from what I recall, apart from the terrible surfacing (they may, of course, have fixed this since I was there 10 years ago...).

As I posted in the Guide to Belgiumthread, driving in Brussels remains the most scary experience in my driving career to date.

Simon

Well, the surfacing is much better than I remember it, but part of the E17 westbound carriageway between Antwerp and Gent was pretty awful.

The drivers in Belgium still make me nervous, but as I didn't venture off the motorway network this time, my worst experience was having someone pul into my lane when I was about to overtake them - happened a number of times.

Turning to the original point of this thread, it was easy to pick out the Belgian border on the Dutch A67 as that's where the heavy duty concrete street lighting columns began.

Simon

[Glenn A]

I was over there in 1990 and the drivers are very fast, though a speed limit of 130 km/h, which seemed to be widely ignored, will make their motorways faster than ours. One thing I did see in Antwerp was a Porsche 911 police car, which seemed different to the usual four door saloons and estates favoured in other countries.

[wibble]

I was over there in 1990 and the drivers are very fast, though a speed limit of 130 km/h, which seemed to be widely ignored, will make their motorways faster than ours. One thing I did see in Antwerp was a Porsche 911 police car, which seemed different to the usual four door saloons and estates favoured in other countries.

I tend to have to drive from Brussels Airport to Namur (or Namen a couple of times a year.

I thought the general motorway limit was 120km/h, and I have always thought that the locals are very good at keeping to it (in anycase, the hire car driven by my German colleagues always seems to be the fastest car on the road by far!)

[A43Corby]

I was over there in 1990 and the drivers are very fast, though a speed limit of 130 km/h, which seemed to be widely ignored, will make their motorways faster than ours. One thing I did see in Antwerp was a Porsche 911 police car, which seemed different to the usual four door saloons and estates favoured in other countries.

I tend to have to drive from Brussels Airport to Namur (or Namen a couple of times a year.

I thought the general motorway limit was 120km/h, and I have always thought that the locals are very good at keeping to it (in anycase, the hire car driven by my German colleagues always seems to be the fastest car on the road by far!)

I was there 2 weeks ago and can confirm the speed limit is 120 km/h and not 130.

My route was the A18/A10 from the French border to Gent, the A14 to Antwerp, around the Antwerp ring, then the A21 to the Netherlands border (both directions in the space of 5 days). The roads were indeed well lit throughout (I don't recall any unlit sections but I could be wrong) but the surfaces in many places definitely left something to be desired and felt uncomfortable even when staying within the speed limit. The Antwerp ring at night on my return journey was quite a scary experience (although not the most scary) mainly thanks to a Belgian numpty in a Toyota who couldn't seem to decide which lane to drive in and almost took almost every exit before deciding not to. Two police motorcycles that passed me seemed completely oblivious to this!

In general, I've found Belgians to be the most dangerous drivers in Europe... as the weather gets worse they seem to drive faster (as I've found on at least two occasions driving through the country in heavy snow!)

[Ciaran]

I do find it impressive, however the lights they use on belgian motorways are mainly the older versions of Urbis ZX4 dual-optic lanterns, therefore the quality of light is not good. Also Belgium does not have a wide variety of lighting on motorways because they only use that lantern, in the UK you can find a wide variety of street lighting on the M6 alone.

[Was92now625]

More interesting as well is that Holland and Belgium were the first countries to abolish formal border controls in the EU. Crossing the border was as easy as crossing the border between England and Scotland.

<pedantic> but Holland does not border Belgium. The only provinces of the Netherlands to border Belgium are Zeeland, North Brabant and Limburg. Neither North Holland nor South Holland borders Belgium. </pedantic>

[exiled]

According to the Belgian francophone paper Le Soir, the Brussels-Capital Region is introducing regulations allowing at certain junctions cyclists to jump the amber and red. The normal Belgian give way sign with a red or an amber bicycle. They are also trialing a congestion charge based on the km travelled in the restricted zone.

[Glenn A]

Are there any road signs in German as Eupen Malmedy is mostly German speaking?
I was over in Belgium in 1990 and found their autoroutes fast, with a speed limit of 130 km/h, but generally safe with most of them lit at night. Also the standard motorway car then was a Porsche 911, rather different to the Fords and Vauxhalls favoured over here.

[Octaviadriver]

Are there any road signs in German as Eupen Malmedy is mostly German speaking?
I was over in Belgium in 1990 and found their autoroutes fast, with a speed limit of 130 km/h....

Was it ever 130kph? I can only remember it being 120kph. I notice it as being lower in Belgium when crossing from France, which is 130kph (when dry) and Holland, which has some sections 130kph and some at 120kph.