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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Re: I am sure I've seen something like this in Boston, Mass
i think Boston MA is one of the hardest cities to drive in; many narrow, one way streets, with no clear way to back track, since the streets all run at different angle and were laid out by following a the path taken by a drunk cow. and then there are the Boston drives to contend with... easily as aggressive as NY drivers and as bad at driving as NJ drivers!
Salt Lake City has the reputation for being the easest city in US to drive in, when Joseph Smith (or was in Brigham Young?--not to sure of Utah/Morman history) laid the city out, all the streets were made wide enough for a horse and wagon to make a U turn. (or in modern terms, about 2 lanes in each direction, and room for parking on both sides of the street!)
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
were laid out by following the path taken by a drunk cow. ~ of troy
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
Excerpt from 'The Rolling English Road' by G.K. Chesterton
The Big Dig was underway when I was driving in Boston which complicated things still further. Several times I found myself undesignedly and irretrievably bound for Cambridge where I had to turn around, head back and try again!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
The Big Dig was a major issue when we drove through Boston in 2001. Shambolic! But not as bad as ... oooh, Auckland City without the Big Dig or Sydney (with or without the Big Dig) or the East End of London (which seems to be a permanent Big Dig).
We don't seem to have any mental regearing problems with which side of the road to drive on. When you're in the US or Europe, it all just comes natural-loike to drive to the right.
The biggest problem (as someone above said) are the give way rules. It's panic stations in the US when you come up to a controlled intersection which doesn't have a "Right Turn On Red" sign. Can you or can't you? Quite often the car behind you will "remind" you that it's okay, but if you just chance it the odds are that a cop will be waiting somewhere just for li'l ol' moi.
A recent example of the give way rules confusion is that in Britain the de facto rule is that right gives way to left. Well actually, that ain't the formal rule, but it's the way everyone drives, and I've got used to it over the past 18 months. Back in the Zild last month, I had to remember that left gives way to right. Nearly had an accident, which drove the point home. But when I came back I had to remember the opposite all over again. Damn!
- Pfranz
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
in Britain the de facto rule is that right gives way to left.
Um--would that be right turns giving way to left turns? That would only make sense, since they'd be turning from the far lane(s), unless it was a one-way road in which case it wouldn't matter.
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 180
member
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member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 180 |
In one state in Australia, oncoming traffic gives way to drivers turning right. I found that out the year I lived in Melbourne. People in South Australia (where I spent the first 3 weeks of that year) warned me that in Victoria, if I was waiting to turn right at an intersection, the oncoming traffic would wait for me to turn, as they were legally obliged to do so. I forgot that sometimes, but everyone was patient, possibly because our car had South Australia license plates on it. I wanted to hold up a sign saying "You don't know the half of it!"
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