"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
news:41e1c553$0$34063$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-


Even on a motorway you'd have to take your eyes off the road ahead and
look a long way off-axis to see the nearside (left-hand) mirror. To be
really sure, an over-the-shoulder check is probably advisable. This
requires you to anticipate the need to overtake further in advance to
allow a bit of extra distance from the car in front yo cover the time when
you're not looking straight ahead.

I had to do this with the 106D anyway.

The main difficulties came with adapting to things that weren't just a
lateral inversion but were differences between US and UK signing and road
marking:

- lack of amber light to warn that traffic lights were about to turn green

- appalling direction signing on non-highway (ie single-carriageway
roads): maybe I'm too used to the British standard of signposting where at
almost every junction the places and distances that can be reached in each
direction are shown, so you don't have to look out for small
white-on-pale-green road-name signs

This can be just as bad in Europe.

- lack of a stop or give-way line across the road where my minor road
meets a major road; this was especially a problem where the minor road met
the major road on a bend: judging where to aim to stop was difficult

Here in Germany the stop line is very far back from the junction.
I think that you are supposed to stop behind it so that peds/cycles
can cross whilst you are waiting. If I stop behind it I often can't see
if there is traffic approaching on the main road (because I'm on the
wrong side)

- four-way stop junctions: any junction which depends on the time (order)
at which cars arrived (instead of their relative position on the road) to
determine who has priority is pretty stupid because it's open to two
people having different ideas as to who has priority

I liked these. I never had a problem with who's turn it was.
As you have noted later, most drivers are far more polite and
no-one tries to jump their turn.

And I liked the idea of temporary speed limits outside schools etc:

agreed

very slow during arrival/departure times but realistic at all other times,
whereas we'd probably have a blanket 30 (or even 20) 24 hours a day.

There's one of these in a small village that I have to drive through
when I come off the motorway back from the UK, when I often
arrive at after midnight. WTF use is a 30km speed limit outside a
school at 1 in the morning?

tim