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:: For Guaka and Platschi: yes, near motorway exits quite many drivers use the emergency lane to go to the exit (yes, more in Germany than in NL or B). But after the exit (between exit and entrance) there is hardly anyone driving over the emergency lane. Also next to petrol stations very few cars drive over the emergency lane (they rather drive through the service area then). With emergency lane hh-ing the most important rule of hitchhiking got ten times more important: ALWAYS look at approaching traffic. Btw it's not really necessary to actually stand on the emergency lane / Notspur, just stand 10 cm next to it, and there are really NO cars driving there. Best is to stay with the feet off the asphalt, or use not more than the outer 20 cm.--[[User:Fverhart|Fverhart]] 09:38, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
== Standing on the emergency lane: fable aspects of playing with your life ==
In some countries, like Germany, drivers often driver over the emergency lane during strong traffic jams to get to an upcoming motorway exit. In some other countries this is much less the case (Netherlands). In general, it is best not to walk on the emergency lane, but you can safely walk over the grass sides. Is walking needed? If you are on an onramp and see a petrol station further on, it might be well worth to go there on foot. Most of the occasions that I hitched on emergency lanes, I stood next to a petrol station, where I got dropped off by a previous driver. Then in case of traffic jam it is much more effective to just go back to the motorway near the little road that goes from petrol station to the motorway. With slow traffic (<50 kmh and optimum <30 kmh) just stand by the edge of the emergency lane just before the spot where the traffic from the petrol station comes up the motorway again. That's a very dull part of the emergency lane where usually nobody rides. Also, nobody is surprised if suddenly a car stops at this place, that's a place where people are attentive. It's also very easily understandable for drivers that a hitchhiker simply came from the petrol station, so it is trusted. I've used this technique at petrol stations De Lucht on the A2 in the Netherlands (both north and south), at Rasthof Michendorf going east and at Rasthof Auetal going west. It works perfect, you can use signs for a really long distance. Just do it. I've also hitchhiked near access lanes and also on motorway junctions during traffic jams (twice on junction Empel near 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, a few times on junction Leenderheide near Eindhoven and at junction Deil north of 's-Hertogenbosch). On motorway junctions of the type cloverleaf (http://www.cbrd.co.uk/reference/interchanges/img/cloverleaf.gif) it's sometimes also well possible to hitch on the small inside curves, though you have to be dropped off on the spot (I would never want to walk all over junction to get to the ride curve... so normally it would work only if your direction is going "to the right", while your driver is going straight ahead AND prepared to stop on the junction).
I strongly disagree with the French police statement that the expected remaining life length of anyone standing on the emergency lane is 20 minutes. Well, it is a rather good stayment, just increase your chances of survival by 99.99% by walking in the grass BESIDES the emergency lane. And always watch the traffic when standing next to the emergency lane. --[[User:Fverhart|Fverhart]] 09:53, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
