Driving in Switzerland

Compared to the UK, drivers here are more considerate of cyclists and pedestrians and in less of a rush. Due to the excellent public transport, there is also far less urban congestion. Due to most parking being underground in newer developments, cars also dominate the urban environmen far less. One personal bugbear is vehicles not having to indicate when turning right at roundabouts, causing me to have to take emergency evasive action on my bike a few times.

A warning for those who fancy excessive speeding. New laws are in force since January 2014.
Excessive speeding (like 200 kph on a motorway where only 120 kph is allowed, or 90 kph in town where only 50 kph is allowed) can result in severe penalties: hefty fines (calculated according to your income - there are quite some stories of wealthy Ferrari owners who "tested" their vehicle on the motorway and were fined 1,000,000 Swiss Francs or more), losing your car and/or licence and a minimum penalty of 1 year in jale.

Most drivers in Switzerland are courteous and have good driving etiquette, with one exception - they hardly ever use indicators at roundabouts!

The car drivers are very considerate of pedestrians and bikers - and of the other motorists as well (mofas, cars, motorbikes, buses).

Bikers on the other hand behave like idiots quite often, breaking probably every rule you can think of (speeding downhill, ignoring red lights, ignoring the fact they are turning into the main road, ignoring pedestrians, ...) - this kind of behavior is quite common in Zurich and can be quite dangerous sometimes (especially if there is a group of them). It seems that because they don't need to pay close attention to cars (thanks to good-guys drivers), they feel they don't need to obey the traffic rules. I ride a bike quite a lot (in SUI as well as back home in Slovakia) and these guys wouldn't survive 1 day on Bratislava's roads