Author Topic: Driving on the left-hand side of the road (Read 1167 times)

soda72 · « **Reply #15 on:** May 23, 2005, 11:35:40 AM »

You needed to be here in the 60's, beetle...

As for american cars... Most American car's made in the mid to late 70's were pretty bad...

lazs2 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 23, 2005, 01:45:04 PM »

8' wide roads!! I woulda killed for a 8' wide road in limey land.

I wonder how well these "women" do on our freeway system in LA traffic while shifting with their right hand and staying in the right lane and reading our traffic signs?

80 mph? where I live the soccer moms in mini vans will drive over the top of you if you slow to 80mph. They will flip you off with the hand not holding the cell phone too.

I guess our roads could be called "easy mode" for being wide and mostly straight but... driving through the mountains through all the turns at high speed is a lot different than the 40mph creeping around I seen everyone doing in england... there were only a few freeways and they were heavily patroled by cops and it was a monsoon most of the time anyway... I never seen anyone doing what we would call "speeding" here. They were all driving very slowly everywhere I went.

lazs

Eagler · « **Reply #17 on:** May 23, 2005, 02:09:49 PM »

after I stepped in front of a car when I was a kid in Tynemouth England, my parents had my vision checked when I couldn't read a license plate from so many feet away. The doc told them I was legally blind and needed glasses ( I had told them that a year earlier in New Orleans but my A/B report card from catholic school mislead them - I could read fine)

they felt bad, thinking I almost got run over cause I couldn't see - I thought it was because the car came from the wrong direction - never used to looked to the right before stepping off the curb ..

Furball · « **Reply #18 on:** May 23, 2005, 02:11:04 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2

I guess our roads could be called "easy mode" for being wide and mostly straight but... driving through the mountains through all the turns at high speed is a lot different than the 40mph creeping around I seen everyone doing in england... there were only a few freeways and they were heavily patroled by cops and it was a monsoon most of the time anyway... I never seen anyone doing what we would call "speeding" here. They were all driving very slowly everywhere I went.

lazs

depends where you are i guess, i have to drive into london every day along the major N/S motorway, traffic in the outside lane tends to stay around 90mph, often raising to 100 or more.

on the normal roads traffic tends to flow about 10mph faster than the speed limit. so in 30 area's it would, as you say, be around 40mph.

its the small country lanes that are national speed limit that are the real killers here.

beet1e · « **Reply #19 on:** May 24, 2005, 12:25:57 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
8' wide roads!! I woulda killed for a 8' wide road in limey land.

LOL Lazs! - one like this?

I drove down this yesterday. Yes, it IS a two-way road, and sometimes I have had to back up when coming head to head with another vehicle. Farm vehicles along here and/or horses are a high possibility. The general rule is that the driver coming downhill gives way to uphill traffic and is the one who's supposed to back up. Not everyone is aware of this convention, however.

Lazs, a good driving test is to do what many of us Brits have done - drive in a hired car in a large city, on the side you're not used to, where the signs are in a foreign language. We'll make a driver of you yet!

NUKE · « **Reply #20 on:** May 24, 2005, 12:29:03 AM »

Beetle, that pic is nice and makes me think of even more about how interesting Britain is. (even though to you it's just a normal pic)

I hope to be able to go to Britain some day. Politics aside, I really love Britain and always have.

When I think of Britain, I think of so much history and culture.

aztec · « **Reply #21 on:** May 24, 2005, 05:55:12 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nilsen
I dont like to offend anyone so i always drive in the middle unless im drunk.. then i use both sides.

I drive liberal style!

My sentiments exactly Nilsen....wish I'd have read this first though cause I tried it the drunk way and the results were less than pleasant.

beet1e · « **Reply #22 on:** May 24, 2005, 06:35:58 AM »

NUKE! Yes you'd like England, I'm sure.

Those stone walls that Lazs spoke of - designed to keep out the vikings - are actually called "dry stone" walls. Here's another pic - they are very common in northern England, particularly the Yorkshire Dales where this pic was taken. The stones are laid one on top of another, with no cement or mortar. Many were built before the days of cement mixers.

This road is more than 5 feet wide, so of course it's a two-way road.

cpxxx · « **Reply #23 on:** May 24, 2005, 07:13:32 AM »

Narrow roads. There are plenty here too. Boreens we call them. You know they're narrow when when your wing mirror keeps brushing the undergrowth. I remember overhearing an American warning another about the risk of rubbing off your wing mirror on the stone walls. How I laughed until shortly afterward I managed to do just that.

Hill roads are the best, you can lurch along at 60 miles an hour or so from crest to crest like a speedboat. One mistake and you plunge off the road and into the bog never to be seen again.

Actually that would be speeding. The speed limit on roads like that in the picture is 50 mph. Used to be 60. I believe it still is in Britain ???? Even so driving at 50 on a road like that is insane.
The other day I drove down a road with a 60 limit (100 Km We've gone metric). At one point there was a tight right curve with humpback bridge followed by tight left. Right before it stood a sign with a 100km limit.
I always get a sore left arm when I try to drive at the speed limit on those roads. Not from driving but from the wife punching me

lazs2 · « **Reply #24 on:** May 24, 2005, 09:14:50 AM »

yep... those are the walls but they were even closer to the pavement in a lot of the places I went.

I don't know about the driving test thing but I drove rush hour london traffic and all over the island... 1200 miles worth.. I didn't wreck anything but felt very claustraphobic.

furball... what I mean is... everyone around here drives fast and... accelerates very fast. Impromtu drag races everywhere... You go to sleep on a quiet night listening to flowmasters at 6 grand and 3rd gear rubber. I never seen anyone in england actually getting on it. Everyone accelerated like gas was gold.

lazs

beet1e · « **Reply #25 on:** May 24, 2005, 09:20:59 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
yep... those are the walls but they were even closer to the pavement

You mean the road. The pavement is what pedestrians walk on!

Torque · « **Reply #26 on:** May 24, 2005, 09:30:59 AM »

curious, what side of the bed do most of you married brit bananas sleep on?

i drive on the right but sleep on the left side of da bed.

lazs2 · « **Reply #27 on:** May 24, 2005, 09:54:20 AM »

beetle... pedestrians walk on the sidewalk and.... it is not paved it is made of cement.

lazs

beet1e · « **Reply #28 on:** May 24, 2005, 10:11:57 AM »

lazs, there's no such thing as a sidewalk in Britain. It's a pavement, and sometimes (often) there isn't one.

Seeker · « **Reply #29 on:** May 24, 2005, 10:42:30 AM »

@CPXX

Got any good pix of Irish road racing?

I think Laz would like it