Driving in Norway

Right

Traffic keeps to the right. Overtake on the left.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Left

Pass on the left. You may pass on the right only in a few named cases: when the car in front is turning left or clearly about to, past a stopped tram, and in traffic so dense that every lane is moving at the speed of the car in front.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

110 km/h

110 km/h is the highest limit used anywhere in Norway, and only on motorways of high standard with lighting and a barrier in a wide central reserve. Many motorways are signed 90 or 100. Read the signs; do not assume 110.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

80 km/h

This is the general limit outside built-up areas where no sign says otherwise. It also applies again after a sign marking the end of another limit.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

50 km/h

The general limit inside a built-up area where no sign says otherwise. Streets with housing, schools or many people on foot are often signed down to 30 or 40.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Motorway — 80 km/h

Where the posted limit is higher than 80 km/h, a car towing a trailer must not go faster than 80 km/h. On every other road the posted limit applies. Two extra rules matter: a car and trailer that both meet the Tempo 100 conditions may do 100 km/h, and you may never go faster than the trailer itself is built for, which is often well below 80.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

0.2 g/l

0.2 g/l, written in Norwegian law as 0.2 promille. A breath reading over 0.1 milligram per litre of air is the same offence. This is very low. Do not drink anything at all before driving, and be careful the morning after. Police stop cars at random and test on the spot.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

18 years

18 for a car. Norwegian learners may practise from 16 with a supervisor, but that is not a licence.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Depends on where your licence is from

A licence from an EEA country, the United Kingdom or Switzerland is enough on its own. Norway is in the EEA but not the EU, and EEA recognition is what matters here. A licence from anywhere else works for three months, but you also need an International Driving Permit if your licence has no photo, is written in a non-Latin alphabet such as Arabic, Cyrillic or Japanese, or uses categories that are not the standard Geneva or Vienna ones. Check yours before you travel.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Warning triangle
• High-visibility vest

A car must carry at least one warning triangle and at least one reflective vest, and the vest must be within reach of the driver's seat — not in the boot. Wear the vest whenever you get out of the car after stopping at the roadside, and put the triangle well back, at least 150 m if you can. The vest is the one people forget. Check the hire car before you drive away.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required at all times

Dipped beam, main beam or approved daytime running lights must be on the whole time the car is moving. Day, night, summer, winter. There is no exception for bright weather.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required

Lights are already required at all times, so they must be on in a tunnel too. Norway has a great many long tunnels. Switch off main beam so you do not dazzle oncoming drivers.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

You may not use a phone in your hand while driving. Waiting at a red light or sitting in a queue still counts as driving.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Allowed, with restrictions

Hands-free, or in a holder fixed near the steering wheel and close to your normal line of sight, you may start, hold and end a call. Hands-free you may also control and play audio. Nothing else is allowed: no texting, no web, no apps, whatever the phone is resting in.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

At a red light you must not pass the signal or the stop line. There is no right turn on red anywhere in Norway.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Depends on the signs

Norway has no special rule for roundabouts; the ordinary junction rules apply. Signs override those rules, and a give-way sign overrides the right-hand rule. So look for the give-way sign at the entry: where it is there, give way to traffic already going round. Where there is no sign, the right-hand rule applies. Signal right as you leave, and signal it as you pass the exit before yours.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Yes — traffic from the right goes first at unmarked junctions

Give way to traffic coming from your right unless a sign or a priority road says otherwise. The same applies when you are turning left and a vehicle is on your right. Coming out of a car park, a petrol station, a private drive or a pedestrian zone, you give way to everyone.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Everyone, in every seat

Belts and other fitted restraints must be used wherever they are fitted, front and back. The driver is answerable for passengers under 15.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

150 cm

A child shorter than 150 cm must use an approved child restraint suited to the child, on its own or together with the adult belt. Between 135 and 150 cm the adult belt alone is allowed only if no suitable restraint is available. A child shorter than 150 cm may not sit in a seat with no belt. If a rear-facing seat goes in the front, the airbag must be switched off.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Pay and display machines
• Payment by phone app
• A parking disc set to your arrival time
• Resident permits

Paid car parks must offer both a machine and a way to pay from inside the car with a phone. Pay or register as soon as you have parked, not on the way out. If you pay by machine and get a ticket, put it face up behind the windscreen; if you pay by plate number, check you typed it correctly. Where a sign asks for a parking disc, set the disc to your arrival time straight away. Cities also run residents' parking zones.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

You may not stop, even briefly, wholly or partly on a pavement, a footpath or a cycle path.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• A junction — 5 m
• A pedestrian crossing — 5 m
• A bus stop — 20 m
• A level crossing — 5 m

These are no-stopping distances, so they cover a quick drop-off as well as parking. The 5 m at a junction is measured from where the kerb or edge line starts to curve. The 5 m at a crossing applies in front of it. The 20 m at a bus, taxi or tram stop is measured from the stop sign; setting someone down there is allowed if it does not obstruct the bus. You also may not stop in a tunnel, on a blind bend or brow, or on a motorway.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• A fine
• Towing

The standard charge for breaking the parking conditions is 660 kr, 990 kr in a disabled bay, and 330 kr for failing to show a disc or ticket in a free time-limited bay. A car can be towed and impounded if it is in the way, and from a disabled bay whether it is in the way or not. Wheel clamping is not used.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required whenever the road is icy or snowy

Not a date rule for a car. The law says a vehicle must not be used without enough grip for the road as it is, using winter tyres, studs or chains if that is what it takes. So if there is snow or ice where you are going, you must have winter tyres, whatever the calendar says. Alongside that there is a tread depth rule with dates: from 1 November to the first Sunday after Easter Monday, tyres on a vehicle up to 3,500 kg must have at least 3 mm of tread; the rest of the year at least 1.6 mm. In Nordland, Troms and Finnmark the 3 mm period runs from 16 October to 30 April. Studded tyres may be used inside those same periods, and outside them only when the going requires it; if you fit studs, fit them on all four wheels. Ask the hire company what the car has on it.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Allowed

A car may use chains, and is never required to carry them — that duty falls on vehicles over 3,500 kg. Chains may not be used from the first Monday after Easter Monday to 31 October, unless the going makes them necessary. In Nordland, Troms and Finnmark that closed period is 1 May to 15 October. Using studs or chains when they are not allowed costs 1,000 kr.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required for rider and passenger

An approved crash helmet must be worn by everyone on a two- or three-wheeled motor vehicle, including a four-wheeled motorcycle, a sidecar and a snowmobile sledge. Rider and passenger alike.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Top speed up to 45 km/h

A Norwegian category B car licence automatically carries category AM, which covers any moped with two, three or four wheels. A moped is defined by design speed: it must not be able to go faster than 45 km/h. The source gives no engine size or power figure for a two-wheeled moped. There is no course or code that lets a car licence cover a 125 cc motorcycle in Norway — for that you need category A1.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

16 years

16 for category AM. Riding a moped with no moped permit or licence is not legal.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• High-visibility vest

Beyond the helmet, the law asks for one thing: a reflective vest must be carried on a motorcycle or moped, kept where the rider can reach it, and worn if you step off the machine after stopping at the roadside. Gloves, jacket and boots are not required by law.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Top speed at least 40 km/h

A motorway or motortrafikkveg may only be used by a motor vehicle that can legally be driven at at least 40 km/h on level road, and the same rule covers the slip roads. Mopeds are banned outright by name, whatever they can do. This is a design speed floor, not an engine size floor: a 125 cc motorcycle is allowed. Riding a moped there costs 2,600 kr.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required at all times

The same rule as for cars: lights on the whole time you are moving. A motorcycle may also run fog lights together with dipped beam in daylight.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Electronic tolls with no barriers
• City charges

There is nowhere to pay at the roadside. Every toll point in Norway is automatic: no booth, no barrier, no cash, nothing to stop for. If the car has no AutoPASS tag and no agreement, a camera photographs the number plate and an invoice for the normal rate follows by post, with no penalty added. A hire car is normally already enrolled by the hire company, which then bills you — ask at the desk how they charge it. Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger also charge rings of toll points around the city, with a higher rate at rush hour; Oslo has three rings and 83 toll points, and you pay for only one crossing per hour on two of them. AutoPASS collects ferry fares too. Oslo's rates and rules are at https://www.fjellinjen.no/en/tariffs-and-toll-stations

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

In some cities

Norway has no separate congestion charge. The city toll rings charge more at rush hour instead: in Oslo, between 06:30 and 09:00 and between 15:00 and 17:00, and not at weekends, on public holidays or in July. You pay it through the same toll gantries as any other passage, so there is nothing extra to buy.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

112

112 reaches the police, and works across the EEA. Norway has two more: 110 for the fire service and 113 for an ambulance. All three can pass your call on, so if you are not sure which to ring, ring 112.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Minor speeding — fine 1250–3350 NOK (Up to 10 km/h over: 1,250 kr up to 5 km/h over, 3,350 kr up to 10 km/h over.)
• Serious speeding — fine 5350–16700 NOK, possible driving ban (More than 10 km/h over. The top fixed rate is 16,700 kr, for 36 to 40 km/h over on a motorway signed 90 km/h or more. Larger excesses are not settled on the spot; they go to court and can cost you the right to drive.)
• Running a red light — fine 10750–10750 NOK (Passing a red light or the stop line.)
• Holding a phone — fine 10750–10750 NOK (Using a phone in your hand while driving.)
• No seatbelt — fine 1500–1500 NOK (Not using required protective equipment — a seat belt or a helmet.)
• Missing required equipment — fine 500–500 NOK (Driving without the required warning triangle in the car.)
• Illegal parking — fine 330–990 NOK (660 kr for breaking the parking conditions, 990 kr in a disabled bay, 330 kr for not showing a disc or ticket in a free time-limited bay.)
• Drink driving — possible driving ban (No fixed figure. Up to and including 0.5 promille is normally a fine, and the fine is worked out from your income. Above 0.5 promille it is a fine and a prison sentence, suspended or not; above 1.2 promille the prison sentence is not suspended. Losing the right to drive is the normal outcome.)

Norwegian traffic fines are among the highest in Europe and the amounts are fixed in law, not left to the officer. The speeding and red light figures are from the simplified penalty table (forskrift om forenklet forelegg i vegtrafikksaker), whose current rates took effect on 15 February 2026. The seat belt and warning triangle figures are from the separate fixed-charge table at https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2021-03-26-963/KAPITTEL_2 and the parking figures from https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2016-03-18-260 . If several offences are dealt with together, the largest fine is charged in full and the rest are halved, up to a ceiling of 29,100 kr.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Yes

Yes, in two forms. Police and Statens vegvesen can issue a fixed charge on the spot for things like a missing triangle or an unworn belt. Police can also issue a simplified penalty notice on the spot for a moving offence, which you accept by signing it. Unpaid charges can be collected from the registered keeper or from the hire or leasing company, so a hire car does not shield you.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source