Lesson 1. How the Dutch road is put together

This lesson is not about rules but about the words the rules are written in. Almost every provision of the RVV opens with «op de rijbaan», «op het fietspad», «binnen een erf» or «buiten de bebouwde kom». If you cannot tell those parts apart, there is nothing for the rule to attach to: you know the answer, but you hang it on the wrong piece of asphalt.

So put four questions to the picture before you answer any exam question. Which PART OF THE ROAD am I on — carriageway, cycle path, pavement or verge? Am I INSIDE or OUTSIDE the built-up area? Does a special regime apply here: home zone, expressway, motorway, priority road? And is the thing ahead of me a junction or a driveway exit? Only once those four answers are in place is it clear which rule is in play at all.

Weg, rijbaan and rijstrook: three words, three things

The word weg, road, is the widest: the road is more than the carriageway alone — the pavement, the cycle path and the verge belong to it just as much. Art. 1 already shows it: there the carriageway is called a «weggedeelte», a PART of the road. And art. 4 fills it in, for there the pedestrian is assigned in turn the pavement, the footpath, the cycle path and finally «de berm of de uiterste zijde van de rijbaan», the verge or the outer edge of the carriageway. All of them parts of the same road. A definition of the word weg itself is not in the RVV but in art. 1 of the WVW 1994.

The rijbaan, carriageway, is one part of it. Art. 1 defines it as «elk voor rijdende voertuigen bestemd weggedeelte met uitzondering van de fietspaden en de fiets/bromfietspaden» — every part of the road meant for moving vehicles, excluding cycle paths and cycle-and-moped paths. Two things sit in that sentence. The pavement is out, because it is not meant for moving vehicles. And cycle paths are EXCLUDED in so many words: a cycle path is not a carriageway, however close alongside it runs.

The rijstrook, lane, sits one level lower again: «door doorgetrokken of onderbroken strepen gemarkeerd gedeelte van de rijbaan van zodanige breedte dat bestuurders van motorvoertuigen op meer dan twee wielen daarvan gebruik kunnen maken» — a part of the carriageway marked by continuous or broken lines and wide enough for a motor vehicle on more than two wheels. One carriageway may hold several lanes, and one road several carriageways, the latter split by a central verge.

Exam situation: you are driving outside the built-up area and to your right, behind a continuous line, runs a strip with bicycle symbols on it. May you pull onto it briefly to give an oncoming vehicle room? No. Symbols plus lines make it a cycle lane, and art. 10 closes a cycle lane with a continuous line to you; art. 76 forbids crossing that line as well. Had a sign G11 or G13 been standing there, it would be a cycle path — a separate road, and that is no more yours than the lane is.

Trap: swapping rijbaan and rijstrook. The command to keep as far right as possible (art. 3) is about your place on the carriageway; the red cross above you (art. 73) closes one lane. Two different words, two different questions.

Place on the road: art. 3 to art. 10

The law assigns every road user a part of his own, and does it in a fixed order: first the path meant for him, then the fallback if that path is missing. That order alone answers a great many exam questions.

Art. 3: «Bestuurders zijn verplicht zoveel mogelijk rechts te houden» — drivers must keep as far right as possible. Cyclists may ride two abreast; snorfiets riders may not.
Art. 4: «Voetgangers gebruiken het trottoir of het voetpad» — pedestrians use the pavement or the footpath. If both are missing, the cycle path or the cycle-and-moped path; if that is missing too, «de berm of de uiterste zijde van de rijbaan».
Art. 5: «Fietsers gebruiken het verplichte fietspad of het fiets/bromfietspad» — cyclists use the compulsory cycle path or the cycle-and-moped path, and the carriageway when both are absent.
Art. 6: «Bromfietsers gebruiken het fiets/bromfietspad» — moped riders belong on the cycle-and-moped path, and on the carriageway when there is none.
Art. 7: «Bestuurders van een gehandicaptenvoertuig gebruiken het trottoir, het voetpad, het fietspad, het fiets/bromfietspad of de rijbaan.» The widest choice of all, and the driver picks himself.
Art. 8: horse riders use the bridle path, otherwise the verge or the carriageway.
Art. 9: pedestrians may use the carriageway when they form a column, a procession or a funeral cortege.
Art. 10: drivers other than those named in art. 5 to art. 8 use the carriageway. The car is nowhere spelled out; it is simply what is left over.

Two special links belong here. Art. 2 extends the pedestrian rules to anyone wheeling a bicycle or moped along on foot. And art. 2b: «De regels van dit besluit betreffende fietsen en fietsers zijn, in plaats van de regels betreffende bromfietsen en bromfietsers, mede van toepassing op snorfietsen en snorfietsers, tenzij anders is bepaald.» The snorfiets follows the bicycle in principle, not the moped.

Trap: getting annoyed at a cyclist on the carriageway when a cycle path is right there. Read the sign first: if the path is optional, he is entitled to be where he is.

Cycle paths: G11, G12a and G13 are not the same thing

Three signs, three regimes. Bijlage 1 gives each of them its name, and the name is exactly where the difference lies.

G11 — verplicht fietspad, compulsory cycle path. Cyclists MUST ride here (art. 5); the carriageway alongside is no longer an option for them — except for wide bicycles: art. 5 lid 4 allows the carriageway to anyone wider than 0.75 metres including the load or a trailer.

G12a — fiets/bromfietspad, the cycle-and-moped path. This path serves bicycle and moped together. Art. 6 sends the moped rider here on purpose: on an ordinary cycle path he does not belong.

G13 — onverplicht fietspad, optional cycle path. Art. 5: «Zij mogen het onverplichte fietspad gebruiken. Bestuurders van snorfietsen uitgerust met een verbrandingsmotor mogen het onverplichte fietspad slechts gebruiken met uitgeschakelde motor.» May, not must — and a snorfiets with a combustion engine only with the engine switched off. The cyclist may equally stay on the carriageway.

Exam situation: you approach a path with sign G12a and see a moped rider about to join the carriageway from it. He is performing a special manoeuvre and must let you go first (art. 54) — but you now also know why he was riding there: that path is his place, not yours.

Trap: swapping fietspad and fietsstrook. The cycle path is a separate road with a sign of its own; the cycle lane lies inside the carriageway and has no sign at all, only lines and a bicycle symbol.

Lanes inside the carriageway

A lane is not a path — and the lanes are not all alike either. The cycle lane and the bus lane art. 1 calls in so many words a «gedeelte van de rijbaan», a part of the carriageway: there the carriageway rules simply keep applying. The hard shoulder and the acceleration and deceleration lanes art. 1 calls an «afgescheiden weggedeelte», a part separated from the carriageway — they lie beside it and carry bans of their own. For the hard shoulder that difference is hard: art. 43 lid 3 forbids using it except in emergencies.

The fietsstrook, cycle lane, is a «door doorgetrokken of onderbroken strepen gemarkeerd gedeelte van de rijbaan waarop afbeeldingen van een fiets zijn aangebracht» — marked by lines and carrying images of a bicycle. Art. 10: «Andere bestuurders dan fietsers en bestuurders van een gehandicaptenvoertuig mogen fietsstroken met doorgetrokken strepen niet gebruiken.» So: with a continuous line the lane is closed to you; with a broken line the law is silent — but art. 3 and the cyclist himself are still there. Standing still is out either way: art. 23 forbids it «op een fietsstrook of op de rijbaan langs een fietsstrook», on a cycle lane or on the carriageway beside one.

The busbaan is a whole carriageway with the word BUS or LIJNBUS painted on it; the busstrook is a marked part of the carriageway with the same word. And the word decides who may drive there. Under «BUS» art. 81 admits the service bus, any other bus and the tram: those lanes «mogen slechts worden gebruikt door bestuurders van een lijnbus, een autobus of een tram». Under «LIJNBUS» the ordinary coach drops out: those «mogen slechts worden gebruikt door bestuurders van een lijnbus of een tram» — the service bus and the tram only. The word on the asphalt is the sign, not the red colour.

The vluchtstrook, hard shoulder, is «door een doorgetrokken streep van de rijbaan van de autosnelweg of autoweg afgescheiden weggedeelte, dat bestemd is voor gebruik in noodgevallen» — for emergencies. The spitsstrook is that same strip at the moments when sign C23-01 designates it as a running lane. Art. 73 belongs here: a green arrow above a lane means you may use it, a red cross means you may not.

Trap: treating a traffic jam as an emergency. Stationary traffic is not an emergency; that is exactly when the hard shoulder has to stay clear for the emergency services.

Pavement, footpath and verge

The trottoir, pavement, is the usually raised part of the road for pedestrians. The voetpad, footpath, is a path designated as such by sign G7.

G7 — voetpad, footpath. Drivers do not belong there, cyclists included. The exception is art. 7: the disabled person's vehicle may use it.

The berm, verge, is the unpaved strip beside the surfacing. It belongs to the road but not to the carriageway. Two consequences come back on the exam: art. 4 sends the pedestrian onto the verge when there is no pavement, footpath or cycle path, and art. 43 forbids on a motorway or expressway precisely the use of «de vluchtstrook, de vluchthaven of de berm», except in emergencies.

Parking has its own rule here. Art. 10 allows other parts of the road to be used for parking, «behalve het trottoir, het voetpad, het fietspad, het fiets/bromfietspad of het ruiterpad». Two wheels on the kerb is therefore not half an offence but a whole one.

Exam situation: outside the built-up area someone is walking towards you along the left-hand verge and there is no pavement. Is he breaking anything? No — art. 4 assigns him exactly that place.

Markings are traffic signs too

Art. 62: «Weggebruikers zijn verplicht gevolg te geven aan de verkeerstekens die een gebod of verbod inhouden» — road users must obey traffic signs that contain a command or a prohibition. The word «verkeerstekens» covers boards, traffic lights AND markings on the road surface together. Art. 63 puts those signs above the ordinary traffic rules, as far as rule and sign cannot both be obeyed. Paint on the road binds you just as much as a board on a pole.

Continuous line, art. 76: «Een doorgetrokken streep die zich niet langs de rand van de rijbaanverharding bevindt, mag niet worden overschreden.» The edge line along the rim is therefore outside this rule. Art. 76 names three exceptions itself; the important one is that you MAY cross the line when a broken line lies on your side of it.
Block marking, art. 11: «Bestuurders die zich rechts van een blokmarkering bevinden mogen bestuurders die zich links van deze markering bevinden rechts inhalen.» The blocks separate the acceleration or deceleration lane from the through carriageway — and there overtaking on the right is expressly allowed.
Hatched area and gore, art. 77: «Bestuurders mogen verdrijvingsvlakken en puntstukken niet gebruiken.» The hatched area is the «gedeelte van de rijbaan waarop schuine strepen zijn aangebracht»; the gore is the «meerhoekig vlak op het wegdek, opgenomen bij splitsingen of samenvoegingen van wegen, rijstroken of rijbanen».
Turning lane, art. 78: «Bestuurders die de rijbaan volgen zijn verplicht op een kruispunt de richting te volgen die de voorsorteerstrook waarop zij zich bevinden aangeeft.» The arrow is a command, not a suggestion.
Stop line, art. 79: «Bestuurders moeten voor een voor hen bestemde stopstreep stoppen, indien stoppen op grond van dit besluit is verplicht.» The line says WHERE you stop, not THAT you stop.
Shark's teeth, art. 80: «Haaientanden hebben de volgende betekenis: de bestuurders moeten voorrang verlenen aan bestuurders op de kruisende weg.» Art. 1 calls them «voorrangsdriehoeken op het wegdek», priority triangles on the road surface. They work with no sign at all.

Trap: thinking shark's teeth make you stop. They make you give way; if the crossing road is empty, you drive on.

Junction or driveway exit: the most expensive mix-up

Art. 1 defines the junction briefly: «kruising of splitsing van wegen», a crossing or fork of roads. A T-junction counts, and so does a roundabout. At a junction art. 15 applies: «Op kruispunten verlenen bestuurders voorrang aan voor hen van rechts komende bestuurders», give way to drivers coming from your right. Art. 15 lid 2 hangs two exceptions on that rule: «Op deze regel gelden de volgende uitzonderingen: a. bestuurders op een onverharde weg verlenen voorrang aan bestuurders op een verharde weg; b. bestuurders verlenen voorrang aan bestuurders van een tram.» So the unpaved road waits, and the tram goes first even when it comes from the left. The words «op deze regel» matter: these are exceptions to the priority-to-the-right rule itself, not a general priority for the tram. Where a sign or shark's teeth settle the order, they decide.

A uitrit, driveway exit, is something else. There you drive onto the road from a property, and under art. 54 that is a special manoeuvre: «Bestuurders die een bijzondere manoeuvre uitvoeren, zoals wegrijden, achteruitrijden, uit een uitrit de weg oprijden, van een weg een inrit oprijden, keren, van de invoegstrook de doorgaande rijbaan oprijden, van de doorgaande rijbaan de uitrijstrook oprijden en van rijstrook wisselen, moeten het overige verkeer voor laten gaan.» Letting the others go first is the whole story here: everyone, including from the left, including the cyclist on the cycle path and the pedestrian on the pavement you cross. And note the word «zoals», that is «such as»: the eight manoeuvres are examples, not the whole set. Anything of the same nature falls under it too — joining the carriageway from a cycle path, for instance, like the moped rider at sign G12a earlier in this lesson.

Parking underlines the distinction once more. Art. 24 forbids parking «bij een kruispunt op een afstand van minder dan vijf meter daarvan» and «voor een inrit of een uitrit» — at the driveway with no distance stated at all, because the resident simply has to be able to get out.

Exam situation: you come off a car park and cross a lowered kerb onto the street. A car is approaching from the right. Does the priority-to-the-right rule apply? The question is wrongly framed: this is a driveway exit, so you let everyone go first, from the right and from the left.

Trap: letting the shape of the asphalt decide. It is not the angle of the join that settles the answer but the nature of the manoeuvre.

Built-up area: it starts at a sign

Bebouwde kom does not mean «where the houses are» but the stretch between sign H1 and sign H2. Bijlage 1 names them exactly so: «Bebouwde kom» and «Einde bebouwde kom».

Inside the built-up area art. 20 applies: «Binnen de bebouwde kom gelden de volgende maximumsnelheden: a. voor motorvoertuigen 50 km per uur». For mopeds it is 30 km/h on the cycle-and-moped path and 45 km/h on the carriageway; for a motorised disabled person's vehicle and for the snorfiets of art. 5 on the pavement or footpath, 6 km/h.

Outside it art. 21 applies: «voor motorvoertuigen op autosnelwegen 130 km per uur, op autowegen 100 km per uur en op andere wegen 80 km per uur». The moped is allowed 40 km/h on the cycle-and-moped path there. Art. 22 adds vehicle-specific maxima on top: lorries and coaches 80 km/h, a T100 bus 100 km/h, microcars 45 km/h, snorfiets 25 km/h.

The sign changes more than the speed. Art. 24 forbids parking «buiten de bebouwde kom op de rijbaan van een voorrangsweg» — outside the built-up area on the carriageway of a priority road. Inside, that ban does not apply.

Trap: letting the built-up area start at the blue place-name board along the motorway. The boundary is marked by the signs themselves — the BABW puts it this way: «De grens van de bebouwde kom, aangegeven door bord H1 en H2». For you the built-up area therefore runs from H1 to H2, and the place-name board does not count.

Erf: a world of its own with a sign of its own

G5 — erf, the home zone. Bijlage 1 calls the sign simply «Erf»; what the regime contains sits in three short articles.

Art. 44: «Voetgangers mogen wegen gelegen binnen een erf over de volle breedte gebruiken.» Not at the side, not on a path: across the full width. That is why there is no zebra crossing — not an oversight by the council, but the design.
Art. 45: «Bestuurders mogen binnen een erf niet sneller rijden dan 15 km per uur.» Roughly the pace of a cyclist.
Art. 46: «Het is bestuurders van een motorvoertuig verboden binnen een erf te parkeren anders dan op parkeerplaatsen die als zodanig zijn aangeduid of aangegeven.» If the erf is also a parking-disc zone, the disc comes on top of that.

The erf runs on until sign G6, straight through side streets. And leaving the erf is not a junction but a special manoeuvre: you let all other traffic go first.

Trap: confusing the erf with a zone 30. A zone 30 is an ordinary road with a lower limit; the erf is a different ordering altogether, with the pedestrian across the full width.

Autoweg and autosnelweg

Art. 1 defines both through their sign. The autoweg is a «weg, aangeduid door bord G3 van bijlage I», the autosnelweg a «weg, aangeduid door bord G1 van bijlage I». Both definitions add the same proviso, each in its own words: «langs autosnelwegen gelegen parkeerplaatsen, tankstations en bushalteplaatsen maken geen deel van de autosnelweg uit», and for the autoweg «langs autowegen gelegen parkeerplaatsen, tankstations en bushalteplaatsen maken geen deel van de autoweg uit» — the car parks, filling stations and bus stops alongside are not part of the road itself.

G3 — autoweg, expressway. Art. 42: use is allowed only for a motor vehicle that may and can be driven at at least 50 km/h.

G1 — autosnelweg, motorway. There art. 42 puts that threshold at «ten minste 60 km per uur». Art. 43 adds the bans that belong to both road types: no turning round, no reversing, no standing still on the carriageway. And further: «Behoudens in noodgevallen is het de weggebruikers verboden op een autosnelweg of autoweg gebruik te maken van de vluchtstrook, de vluchthaven of de berm». On a motorway with three or more lanes, a lorry or a combination longer than 7 metres may use only the two rightmost lanes, except when they have to get into a turning lane.

The words of the slip roads sit in art. 1 as well. The doorgaande rijbaan, the through carriageway, is a «rijbaan zonder de invoeg- en uitrijstroken»; the invoegstrook, acceleration lane, is the part separated by a block marking and «bestemd voor bestuurders die de doorgaande rijbaan oprijden». Merging is therefore a special manoeuvre under art. 54, and art. 55 requires you to announce it with the indicator.

Trap: treating autoweg and autosnelweg as the same. An autoweg may have junctions and traffic lights, and its default speed is lower.

Voorrangsweg: a property of the road

B1 — voorrangsweg, priority road. Bijlage 1 calls the sign «Voorrangsweg»: you are on a road whose crossing roads must give way to you, and that holds at every junction until sign B2 marks the end. That is the difference from the priority-junction signs, which speak about one junction only.

For this lesson what counts most is that «voorrangsweg» is a property of the ROAD, just like built-up area, erf, autoweg and autosnelweg. Which is why a parking rule hangs off it: art. 24 forbids parking outside the built-up area on the carriageway of a priority road.

What to remember

The road is the whole; the carriageway is where vehicles drive; a lane is a strip inside the carriageway. Cycle paths are by definition NOT carriageway.
A path has a sign of its own; a lane lies in the carriageway and has only lines. Cycle path and cycle lane are two different things.
G11 means must, G12a is for bicycle and moped together, G13 means may.
Art. 3 to art. 10 assign everyone his place; the car is what is left over.
Paint binds like a board: shark's teeth, hatched areas and the arrow in your lane apply with no pole in sight.
The stop line says where you stop, not that you stop.
A driveway exit is not a junction: there you let everyone go first, including from the left.
The built-up area begins at H1, not at the houses.
In the erf: 15 km/h, pedestrians across the full width, parking only in the marked bays.
Autoweg and autosnelweg are defined by their sign, and the car park beside them is not part of them.

In the law

art. 1 — definitions: carriageway, lane, cycle lane, bus lane as carriageway and as lane, hard shoulder, rush-hour lane, acceleration lane, deceleration lane, through carriageway, hatched area, gore, shark's teeth, junction, autoweg, autosnelweg.
art. 2 — the pedestrian rules also cover someone wheeling a bicycle along on foot.
art. 2b — the snorfiets follows the rules for the bicycle in principle.
art. 3 — keep as far right as possible; cyclists two abreast, snorfiets riders not.
art. 4 — the pedestrian's place: pavement, footpath, cycle path, verge.
art. 5 — the cyclist's place; the optional cycle path is allowed, with a special rule for the snorfiets with a combustion engine.
art. 6 — the moped rider belongs on the cycle-and-moped path.
art. 7 — the disabled person's vehicle may choose among five parts of the road.
art. 8 — riders use the bridle path, otherwise verge or carriageway.
art. 9 — columns, processions and funeral cortèges on foot may use the carriageway.
art. 10 — everyone else uses the carriageway; never park on pavement, footpath, cycle path or bridle path; cycle lanes with continuous lines are closed.
art. 11 — to the right of a block marking you may overtake on the right.
art. 15 — priority from the right, with the unpaved-road and tram exceptions.
art. 20 — maximum speeds inside the built-up area.
art. 21 — maximum speeds outside the built-up area.
art. 22 — special maxima per type of vehicle.
art. 23 — ban on standing still, among others on a cycle lane and beside a bus lane.
art. 24 — ban on parking near a junction, in front of a driveway and on a priority road outside the built-up area.
art. 42 — minimum speed for autoweg and autosnelweg.
art. 43 — turning, reversing, standing still, hard shoulder and verge forbidden; lane ban for lorries.
art. 44 — the pedestrian may use the full width inside the erf.
art. 45 — inside the erf no faster than 15 km/h.
art. 46 — inside the erf park only in designated places.
art. 54 — special manoeuvres, including driveway exit, driveway entry, merging and changing lanes.
art. 55 — indicate when moving off, overtaking, merging, leaving and changing lane.
art. 62 — traffic signs containing a command or prohibition are binding.
art. 63 — traffic signs override the traffic rules.
art. 73 — lane signals: green arrow, red cross, white arrow.
art. 76 — the continuous line may not be crossed, with three exceptions.
art. 77 — hatched areas and gores are forbidden.
art. 78 — follow the direction of your turning lane.
art. 79 — stop before the stop line when stopping is compulsory.
art. 80 — shark's teeth: give way to the crossing road.
art. 81 — bus lanes: under «BUS» the service bus, any other bus and the tram; under «LIJNBUS» only the service bus and the tram.
art. 1 WVW 1994 — the formal definition of the word «weg» sits there, not in the RVV.
BABW, signs H1 and H2 — the boundary of the built-up area is marked by these two signs.