Driving in Denmark is easy and nice as roads are excellent, and the Danish drivers are law-abiding and courteous. All motorways are toll-free and only tunnels and two major bridges (Storebelt Bridge and Oresund Bridge) are expensive. In road signs, standard international symbols are used, but sometimes Danish phrases are included.
Foreign visitors from European Union countries, USA, Canada, and Australia may drive with their domestic driver licenses; Americans can drive with their home driver licenses for up 90 days. Visitors from other countries must have International driving permits further to their original driver licenses.
To hire a car, a driver must be at least 21 years old and have held a driver license for 1 year. Drivers younger than 25 years may pay a young driver surcharge.
The main road traffic rules:
- Traffic moves on the right side of the road.
- The legal alcohol-blood level is 0.05%.
- The speed limits are: on motorways – generally 130 km/h (81 mph), but sometimes 110 km/h (62 mph) and even 90 km/h; on the open roads – 80 km/h (49 mph); in towns – 50 km/h (31 mph).
- Dipped headlights must be used during the day.
- The minimum driving age is 18 years.
- Third-party insurance is compulsory.
- Drivers and all passengers from front and rear must wear seat-belts.
- Children over 3 and under 1.35 m must be placed in a child restraint. The airbag must be deactivated if a child
is placed in the front, in a rear facing restraint.
- Visibility vests are mandatory.
- A warning triangle is obligatory.
- Overtaking on the right side is prohibited.
- At a roundabout, drivers must yield to traffic coming from the left.
- A cell phone may only be used with hand-free system.
- The tire thread depths must be at least 1.6 mm.
- Cars need to have parking discs on their dashboards.
- Headlights need to be on at all times.
- Cyclists have the right of way.
- Drivers must give way to the right.
- Stopping is permitted in the right side of the street and forbidden on the motorways and main roads.
- Parking is forbidden at full-drawn centerlines, less than five meters from a pedestrian crossing, less than 10 meters from an intersection, on cycle paths, within 12 meters of a bus stop sign.
- Driving in the emergency lane is prohibited.
- Danish police phone number is 112.
Some advices:
- All the times while driving, carry their driver licenses, vehicle registration document, and certificate of motor insurance.
- Have a fire extinguisher and first-aid kit in your car.
- Be careful when you are turning right across a cycle lane; generally, bicycles have priority.
- On Danish roads, very often speed limits are not on the signs; if you see a sign with a cityscape, you must drive with a speed not faster than 50 km/h (31mph). Leaving the town/village you can see a cityscape sign with a black diagonal line; it means that you can drive with a usual speed.
- Don’t use cell phone while driving.
- Give way to buses.
- Drive safe and friendly.
- All rental cars in Denmark are equipped with parking discs. Foreign drivers using their own cars can bay parking disks in banks, gas stations, or tourist offices. Parking discs are used in free parking areas; they operate as clocks at which you set the arriving time to the parking lot.
Denmark Traffic Signs
Driving Overseas - Short Information