Peculiarities of traffic regulations in Ukraine

If you are not the citizen of Ukraine and want to rent a car for the first time, we recommend you to get acquainted with this article. Traffic regulations and driving in Ukraine have its own features which need to be considered for simplification of the ride. In order to not turn the first experience of the use of a car on the Ukrainian lands to an unpleasant surprise on the road, it is necessary to take out all requirement documentation, to make allowance for the road condition, the culture of driving, the high-speed restrictions, etc.

Documentation

According to laws of Ukraine, the drivers from other countries are obliged to have in hand a small package of documents which consist of: the driver’s license of the international sample, the medical certificate about the suitability of driving and also the passport.

Roads and their condition

This is a sore point for the majority of the countries of the former Soviet Union, especially for Ukraine. The quality of roads can strongly differ – everything depends on a location. If in the multi-million-strong cities road conditions are still acceptable, then in medium-sized towns and villages the situation is ambiguous: waves and roughness can be present both in the center and in suburbs. A road horizontal marking generally is visible, but in some places, it is put not accurately or is absent at all. Nevertheless, the movement is forbidden even on imaginary strips, except maneuvers for the purpose of overtaking.

Planning to travel about city suburbs or rural zones, you should be prepared that the road condition occasionally will be not satisfactory.

If there is no visible marking on the asphalt, then pull over close to the right side, you won’t lose.

On some sections, the road can be covered with hollows and ruggedness, therefore in such cases, it is necessary to reduce speed and go on slowly. For prevention of the car damage, we recommend you not to drive at night. Some car rental companies give an opportunity to use navigation systems. It is a useful tool to monitor problem sites on the roads. In order to get to know about availability, you need to contact the employee of the company directly.

High-speed limitations

The speed limits in Ukraine can differ from the foreign countries. Recently, the maximum driving speed inside the city has been 50 km/h, in settlement or suburbs – 90 km/h, on highways – 110 km/h. The excess of any restriction more than on 20 km is considered as the violation of traffic regulations. In this case, different penalties are imposed. If the police stopped your car, you necessarily must demand the protocol of violation If you notice that the officer of the Patrol Police abuses his authority or frankly extorts a bribe – without doubt get the camera and film the process of communication: such simple trick helps in 90% of cases of manipulation.

Etiquette and communication on the road

It’s a very important point demanding acquirement. All drivers know and use unwritten rules to exchange information on the road. These are quite simple signals with more or less accurate messages:

• “winking” of headlights by other drivers towards you means the road patrol is on the road ahead, or you are delicately asked to switch headlights from high beam light to low beam light;

• if the passing car flashes its lights, then it is considered as a request to give way;

• “winking” by emergency lights means a gesture of gratitude or apology.