It’s important to impart key, though more light-hearted, tips that will make your transition to your new life in Marbella all the more enjoyable. Our aim is to help reduce any potential culture shock and on this occasion the risk of permanent physical injury!
Our topic today is “Driving in Marbella”.
So I am going to take this from the perspective a car driver. Although I am fascinated by hefty motorcycles, besides several years as a Vespa rider in London, they scare the bejeezus out of me! Anyone who has the guts to drive a high powered motor bike on Marbella’s roads just gets my respect.
So a car it is. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if it’s electric, hybrid or old school, whether it’s a vast high-sided pantechnicon of a 4×4 or a minuscule Smart, taking your position on the road as a driver in Marbella is the first of a vital piece of strategic thinking. A positive expression of this strategy is “My Bit of Road” and I am primed to defend it. A London cabbie once told me it mattered not what vehicle you were driving but being determined to hold your piece of road was vital.
There are a host of other matters that you’ll need to keep a wary eye out for, loose horse, kamikaze pedestrians -who refuse to break step as they hit the curb and just keep walking – yes that’s a thing – and all manner of traffic dodging wildlife that miraculously makes its way to the other side.
Simple science, while modern cars are undoubtedly fitted with indicators, often quite elaborate sets positioned along the four sculptured corners of the car, striking in design and appearance, their use on the roads of Marbella appears to be entirely optional.
There are precious few occasions when one indicator seems almost essential. One instance is when overtaking a singular cyclist or a peloton. The law, for the best of reasons, has made the passing of cyclists into quite a Herculean feat. This involves leaving the inside carriage way and virtually meeting the central reservation to pass those under pedal-power then returning in front of the cyclist to continue your journey. The car in the fast lane is obliged – on the pain of leaving with a fine and points deducted – to come to a screaming holt behind your while you execute your maneuver.
The more frequently used, two indicators, are reserved to announce suddenly stopping traffic. Indeed, car manufacturers perhaps should connect the double hazard indicator to the rapid deployment of the foot brake to avoid the driver or his/her occupants scrabbling to find the warning triangle lamp on the dash.
It’s entirely feasible that learner drivers, as part of the famously rigorous Spanish driving test – both the theory and practical – are, once they have completed their training, given free reign as to the use or not of their vehicle’s indicators.
Roundabouts are called in Spanish variously a “redonde” or a “glorieta”. The former meaning quite simply “round” – no biggy there – but the latter has a more far-reaching meaning: The Scene of Victory, The Crushing of the Vanquished and The Spoils of War (Ed – you sure?).
Roundabouts are Spain’s new Bull Rings where those familiar with the exit they are proposing to use will parry and thrust, spar, cajole and barge themselves into a position where your timidity is trashed. They will enter and leave the roundabout by a complicated system that feels like a contra-flow but I am assured is entirely logical and legal. Above all, they will not at any point indicate their proposed path leaving you open mouthed by the proximity of mortal injury.
Whether or not you sense that the approaching car is due to leave the roundabout before it gets to you, please think again. It will rarely telegraph any formal intention even if they know where they are headed. Nothing will be predictable about the driver’s intention, but in any event, it is unlikely to be shared with you until its virtually too late.
Diagram of the correct way to take a roundabout! Courtesy of www.Inspain.news.
The best advice is to walk but if you must drive, wait perhaps fifteen or more seconds longer than is already long enough before attempting to enter a roundabout.
Once on the roundabout if you are going all the way round, and why would you, you need to be in the outside lane. If you are going exit at the first, second or third exit you likewise need to be in the outside lane. As a result simply avoid the inside lane, nothing good can come from guessing whether the driver in the outside lane is going the whole way round or not. However, his role is to sever your ability to turn off the roundabout. A word of warning cars entering from your left have priority and their course may well pass directly in front of you as they head to the right. Its the easiest way to clip the side of a fellow driver, so beware.
What’s my motivation to observe this road tomfoolery?
The spectacular ball-dropping by a Gestor in Marbella, who in the process of delivering my wife’s UK driving licence to the DGT (Spain’s DVLA) well within the December 31st 2021 deadline, lost it. They LOST her license!!! As a result she was denied the prospect of swapping for a Spanish version within the time limits. The upshot of which has meant as of May 1st 2022 should she wish to continue to drive in Spain she would have to take the aforementioned tough Spanish Driving Test, which, not surprisingly, she’s loathed to do. So until the Powers That Be manage to agree a new, and I suspect spectacularly simple UK-Spanish driving license swap arrangement, I have added a new role to my CV – that of part-time Chauffeur.
In truth, the quality of driving in Marbella is probably not much better and no worse than anywhere else in the Free World, but my recent and deeper acquaintance with it is, I confess, the cause of some frustration. Be careful out there!
Should you be interested in discussing the legal process involved in buying a property in the Marbella region, we would be delighted to assist you. Our multi-disciplinary team of bi-lingual, highly experienced and wholly independent Abogados and Asesores Fiscales are ready to help you.
Please call me, Mark FR Wilkins, during usual business hours on +34 600 343 917 or, if you prefer, or e-mail me at mark@roslegal.es
Please note that our posts are for general interest. There is no substitute for proper legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances as provided by a qualified Abogado who is experienced in the application of the Spanish Law.
Nothing contained in this article should be seen or taken as the writer or the publisher providing legal or financial advice.
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