How Do You Enjoy Driving When You Visit The UK?

Englishman

..I'd hate to have to have one of these stuck on my car:

Englishman.

Undecided

Englishman,

Are you kidding? Drive on the left side of the road with a GB sign, don't think I could handle it.

Ken P.

Englishman

Ken,

I'm just curious, some Americans don't like our roundabouts much. Here's some info:http://www.eastmead.com/driving_uk.htm

Englishman.

I wish I could come over and give it a try. A good friend of mine from the US lived in England for a while and married a woman from there, she died a few years ago and he was devastated. I can't remember where he lived there though. He comes up several times a week and we sit in the swing in my back yard and have some good conversations. He liked it over there.

If I ever win the lottery I'll visit you there.

Ken P.

undercover

I love the roundabouts. It keeps traffic moving much better than signaled intersections. Us Americans just have to get used to driving on the left and entering the roundabouts to the left instead of the right. Of course there were some tricky ones. I remember a couple of times there were roundabouts beside each other and you had to go from one to the other to get to your next destination. Some had traffic signals entering the roundabout. Once we got used to it, we prefered roundabouts much better to having to stop at an intersection and sit in traffic. I wish the States would do more of that. But, since we've got the stupidest drivers on the planet, it'll never happen.

ozziepost

Ahhh, those roundabouts! Unknown downunder until a decade or so ago, they've been popping up everywhere in Oz. They appeal to governments as being a cheaper alternative to traffic lights. Trouble is, the larrikin (read "undisciplined") aussie doesn't quite play by the pommie's idea of rules, so some roundabouts have ended up being traffic "black spots". Who has priority on a roundabout? Since so many of our motorists have shown ignorance of it, that the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority have issued leaflets to try and educate drivers as to who goes first and where on roundabouts. From what I've seen, this has not been successful. The trend here now is for roundabouts to be dug up and traffic lights installed, which IMO they should have been in the first place.

Cheers, Ozzie

TresHappy

I didn't do well driving in Britain. That's why they invented Brit Rail, for people like me.

Jourles

Back around '96 when I was living up in the mountains, the town of Vail put in some roundabouts. It was strictly a stoplight town that all of a sudden changed to these round marvels. I have to agree, they seem to make the traffic flow quite easily. But put in a few inexperienced drivers during the peak of ski season on a weekend who are totally unaware of what they are supposed to do and it can get jammed up. This happened frequently since most of the out-of-towners came from places that never saw a flake of snow, let alone a "roundabout." It was bad enough having tourons come up in their rental 4x4's exceeding the speed limit on a snow-packed I-70 and flying off into the ditch. "I've got a 4x4. Nothing can stop me." except the ice, dummy

Englishman

Roundabouts are easy. You just give way to the traffic that is already on the roundabout. So if you drive on the left you give way to traffic approaching from the right and vise versa.

Englishman.

ozziepost

You just give way to the traffic that is already on the roundabout

Easy for you maybe! Not for us, though. Remember that the poms thought of queues during rationing? Try telling aussies to queue! Maybe in the banks and post offices.

Anyway, the rule about giving way to traffic already on the roundabout is the "official" rule here in NSW too but it's not the "de facto" rule which operates as "give way to the right". This arises because before the days of controlled intersections we had a rule that stated you should give way to the right. Although this does not apply now, it still is assumed by the vast majority of drivers. Result? Many (most?) of our traffic accidents occur at roundabouts.

Cheers, Ozzie

How Do You Enjoy Driving When You Visit The UK?

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