Tolls and speed limits

Tolls: the vignette is enough

Distance-based tolls apply only to vehicles over 3.5 t. For a car, the electronic vignette is enough across the entire charged network; all our cars are covered by an annual vignette. The only tolled structure in the official tariff is the Danube Bridge between Ruse and Giurgiu, which leads to Romania: our vehicles do not leave Bulgaria.

Speed limits

For a car (category B), the Road Traffic Act sets the following maximum speeds, unless signs indicate otherwise:

Signs may impose a different limit. The same limits apply to average speed, measured between two points on sections of the Trakia, Struma, Hemus, Maritsa and Europa motorways, and of several national roads.

Penalties

The fine increases with the excess. In built-up areas, exceeding the limit by more than 40 km/h also leads to licence suspension for two months, or three months beyond 50 km/h; outside built-up areas, exceeding it by more than 50 km/h leads to a two-month suspension. For a repeat offence, the fine is doubled.

A fine recorded by a speed camera is sent as an electronic notice to the vehicle’s owner, who has 14 days to pay it or name the driver; if paid within that period, it is reduced to 70% of its amount.

Motorways

• A1 Trakia: Sofia – Plovdiv – Stara Zagora – Yambol – Burgas.
• A2 Hemus: Sofia – Varna, open from Sofia to beyond Boaza, and from Buhovtsi, near Shumen, to Varna; other sections are under construction.
• A3 Struma: Sofia – Pernik – Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad, towards Bansko and the south-west; the last section, around Kresna, is not yet complete.