Island Driving #2
For our American visitors, a few traffic rules should be explained. St. Maarten/St. Martin follows European rules and signs. Most importantly: traffic coming from the right has the right-of-way! Because this is the 'default' rule, there are usually no street signs on intersections. Only if the default rule is not valid, the right-of-way is regulated with signs. Drivers on the French side stick to this system much more strictly and assume you know.

Also: Watch out for no-parking zones in Philipsburg and at the Airport. The local towing companies behave like sharks (which, I assume, all members of this industry are) and are just waiting to take your rental car. As a matter of fact, they seem to target rental cars. The fees for picking up the vehicle at the towing companies lot is between $50 to $60.

- posted by Jan @ 1:43 AM