Highways, country roads and urban driving

Hard shoulders and accelation lanes

• Acceleration lanes are designed to enable vehicles that want to enter a motorway to pick up speed. Which means that using the brakes on the acceleration lane to allow another car to overtake could be dangerous since all vehicles, especially the ones already on the motorway, are driving at a high speed. Therefore, the traffic on the acceleration lane must move with mutual adaptation and no one has priority.
• The hard shoulder is an emergency lane by the verge of a motorway and is most often marked by a solid line. If it is marked by a solid line, then you may only use it in order to stop temporarily, for instance if your car has broken down or you got a flat tyre, or if you have to tow another car.

If a hard shoulder does not have a solid line, then you can use them to provide more space for road users behind you to overtake you, for instance when reducing your speed before taking a turn.

• Sometimes you may have to tow a car due to engine failure or other such scenarios. This must be done on the hard shoulder or in absence of it, on the far right side on the motorway. The towed car is allowed to have the hazard lights on, but not the car that is towing. Mopeds class II and other vehicles that cannot or may not drive faster than 40 km/h must stay on the hard shoulder, this prevents disruption of traffic.

General facts and regulations on country roads and highways

• A crawler lane is an extra lane used for overtaking.  These are found at certain slopes that are either quite long or going upwards rather steep.
• The speed limit in most of the densely populated areas in Sweden is 50 km/h, and the speed limit in most areas outside of densely populated areas in Sweden is 70 km/h. So, if you´re not sure what the speed limit is when driving outside densely populated areas, it´s safe to assume that the speed limit is at least 70 km/h.
• The LGF or Långsamtgående fordon are slow-moving vehicles with a maximum speed of 45 km/h. So if you’re for instance driving on a road with a 70 km/h speed limit and you encounter a LGF vehicle, then that vehicle is driving at a significantly slower speed. Therefore, if you spot the vehicle with LGF plates, you must be ready to slow down if you can not overtake it.
• You shall put up a warning triangle in case of an accident, engine failure or other similar situation, when the speed limit is 50 km/h or higher where the vehicle is prohibited from stopping or parking. This is to ensure that traffic knows about a stationary vehicle on the carriageway or hard shoulder.
• If you´re leaving a country road in order to drive onto a parking space next to it, it´s mandatory to indicate this by using your brake lights. The brake lights should be applied well before taking the exit, to make it clear to traffic behind that you´re going to stop.
• You´re not allowed to make a U-turn nor reverse on dual carriageways and motorways because this may disturb other road users and could possibly lead to dangerous situations.
• Sometimes you will encounter these 'roads' (image 1), which are connecting the opposite lanes. These are not to be used by anyone besides emergency vehicles. It would be very unsafe if regular road users were able to use these 'roads' because there is no acceleration lane nor ramp.

Image 1: These areas may only be used by emergency vehicles

Flow of traffic and driving in traffic

• It´s helpful to follow the flow of traffic most of the times. The tempo can sometimes be rather high, but as long as it´s within or near the speed limit, it´s the best thing to do. Besides, if the traffic flow is slow on an icy day, it´s safer if you follow that slower tempo. Most important is adaptation to your current situation and conditions.
• When driving behind a car as shown in this picture (image 2), and it seems to have loose cargo in the trunk, then there is a high risk of something falling out of it in front of your car. In such situation, the best for you to do is to keep more distance than normal between you and that car to avoid any problems. Overtaking the car requires you to move near to it and is therefore not the preferred option.

Image 2: Keep distance due to possibly loose cargo

• The general rule is that you're not allowed to drive across a solid line or obstruction marking. However, you are allowed to drive across them in certain situations, such as if you have to pass that marking in order to pass an obstruction located on the road you're driving on.