Free travel for classic cars in the bus lane
It has taken many sessions and required enormous effort and perseverance. But now the breakthrough seems to have been achieved. After more and more restrictions and harassment, classic car drivers are now to be rewarded, or rather relieved, for their commitment to this mobile cultural asset.
It is a well-known fact that many drivers of old cars are suffering from ever-increasing traffic jams and more and more stop-and-go in city traffic. As the technology of classic cars is often not designed for constant braking and restarting, European countries have joined forces to open up the bus lanes to classic car drivers. As the individual countries are responsible for the road traffic regulations, it will probably be some time before the new regulation is introduced. However, some countries, including Switzerland, have already agreed to pilot projects that are due to start soon. Which countries and cities will take part in the pilot projects and later in the final introduction can be found on a dedicated website "Fast Lane for Classic Cars" .
The pilot tests will now verify whether the addition of classic cars to the bus lanes will not have a negative impact on public transport and how the measure will affect traffic in general. The aim is also to check whether classic car drivers can cope with the special traffic light systems used by public transport. It will also be tested whether "activation devices" for traffic light control (where available) can be handed out to classic car drivers for a fee without being abused.
Heribert Volontiers from FIVA is convinced that the pilot tests will prove that this will benefit everyone. He himself has already been able to test drive his pre-war classic car in Paris: "It's amazing how much more relaxed driving a classic car in a big city becomes with this regulation. And it's also more ecological, because I needed around 15% less gasoline than usual. The fact that the water temperature was also five degrees lower on average is a further bonus. The clutch thanks the free drive anyway."
As is well known, the proportion of classic cars (cars over 30 years old) on the road is low, so there is unlikely to be a major impact on the driving times of other road users.
"We hope that more classic car drivers will now show their old cars to the urban population again, because that's what mobile cultural assets are all about," says an ADAC representative. And from Switzerland, a board member of the SHVF adds: "It's nice that for once there are no differences of opinion between Switzerland and the EU; we are of course pleased that Switzerland is participating in both the pilot tests and the final implementation."
However, green-minded politicians are already warning that the new regulation could motivate more people to buy a classic car with bus lane right of way instead of a new and ideally electrically powered car: "This would of course be a step backwards in terms of environmental protection," said Carla Verde in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
It will be interesting to see. At this point, however, we would like to warn against making use of the future regulation now, before the ordinance is official in the municipalities. Only those who drive in cities that are taking part in the pilot scheme (see the website mentioned above ) will soon be able to drive their old car in the bus lane. It is uncertain whether youngtimers will be granted the same privilege at a later date. Some countries have already indicated that they may even introduce the regulation only for cars (and motorcycles) over 50 years old. So it remains exciting!
... or not. The attentive reader will perhaps have noticed the publication date of this article and will have recognized, even without clicking on the references, that this was our April 1st joke of the year 2025. However, we would like to take this opportunity to point out that the classic car associations are politically committed to the historic automobile in many respects and have already achieved a great deal. We would like to take this opportunity to expressly thank them for their work. (The Zwischengas editorial team)
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