Core
You may only enter a one-way street from one side; reversing and U-turns are forbidden, backing into a parking bay is not (Book p.61-62). Outside the built-up area, a narrow single carriageway demands extra attention for the edge: watch out for a sharp edge and/or a lower-lying verge. If your right-hand wheels leave the road surface, you quickly lose control of your steering (Book p.64). On a road with separated carriageways — for example by a central reservation — a sign usually shows which carriageway to follow. If there is no sign, the fallback rule applies: keep right, so follow the right-hand carriageway (Book p.66). A ventweg (also called a parallelweg) runs alongside the main carriageway, marked by sign C5. The main road is for fast, through traffic; the ventweg is for slow, local traffic (Book p.66-67).
Read this section on its own page: Core: One-way streets, narrow single carriageways, separated carriageways and service roads
Why it matters
These rules protect against exactly the situations where a driver misjudges the road's direction of travel: reversing or making a U-turn on a one-way street puts you head-on against traffic that expects one direction; picking the wrong carriageway on a separated road with no sign does the same. And on narrow roads outside the built-up area, the verge is often lower than the road surface without warning — one brief moment of inattention, and the car is already tipping before you can correct.
Read this section on its own page: Why it matters: One-way streets, narrow single carriageways, separated carriageways and service roads
Source: RVV 1990 art. 3 · checked 2026-10-22
Test yourself
Saturday morning, weekly market in Beuningen, you are driving on a narrow one-way street toward the centre. A parking bay along the kerb just ahead becomes free — exactly big enough to back into. Is that allowed on a one-way street, or is any backward movement forbidden?
Show the answer
On a one-way street you may not reverse and may not make a U-turn (Book p.61-62) — that prohibition concerns driving against or across the fixed direction of travel. Backing into a parking bay is still allowed: you do not leave the direction of travel, you stop in a bay next to the carriageway.
Frequently asked questions
‘On a one-way street you may not reverse at all, not even to back into a parking space’ – is that true?
No. The prohibition applies to reversing as a driving manoeuvre along the road and to U-turns; backing into a parking space is explicitly still allowed
‘If your right-hand wheels leave the road surface on a narrow single carriageway, you can simply steer calmly back to the middle’ – is that true?
No. Watch out for a sharp edge and/or a lower-lying verge on narrow single carriageways outside the built-up area; if your right-hand wheels leave the road, you quickly lose control of your steering
‘On a road with separated carriageways and no sign, you may choose for yourself which carriageway to follow’ – is that true?
No. A sign usually indicates which carriageway to follow; if there are no signs, you must keep right and therefore follow the right-hand carriageway
‘A service road (ventweg) next to the main carriageway is simply an extra lane you can use for fast, through traffic’ – is that true?
No. The main road is intended for fast and through traffic, the ventweg for slow and local traffic (sign C5 at the entrance)
‘Sign C4 (blue rectangle, sideways arrow) obliges you to turn the way the arrow points at the junction’ – is that true?
No. C4 = one-way road: traffic in the SIDE STREET drives in the arrow's direction — a rectangular information sign about that street, not a command for your direction; commands are round (D series)
