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Martin Underwood · June 1st 04, 04:29 PM posted to uk.transport.london

"Peter Beale" wrote in message
o.uk...
In article ,
(Jeremy Parker) wrote:

What would really
help here in the USA is British style roundabouts.

Try Massachusetts. You too can drive like a Bostonian.

Just spent two weeks in MA, during which I came across about three
"rotaries". Anyone going to Boston is well-advised to park on the
edge and take the "T". The "Big Dig" is coming to its completion, but
some way to go yet!

One thing which struck me as very odd (apart from driving on the wrong
side of the road) was a number of quite major cross-roads where traffic
from all four directions is required to stop. They then look at each other
until one of them decides to proceed, hoping that the other will not do so
at the same time.

I have driven a bit (probably about 1000 miles in total) in Massachussetts,
around small towns such as Ipswich, on the main highway between there and
Cape Cod, and in the centre of Boston.

My over-riding impression was that drivers there seemed more laid-back and
more willing, both in small towns and in Boston, to let pedestrians cross in
front of them. As a pedestrian I found cars would stop for me if I even
*thought* about crossing!

My other lasting impression is that road signing is appalling once you get
off the multi-lane highways: maybe I'm used to British signing where every
significant road junction has direction signs to the next village/town, and
not just a road name. A map that includes street names is essential. Also,
compass directions on signs tend to relate to where the road ends up, not
the next town it's heading for: if you know that you want a town that's due
east, it's disconcerting to have to follow signs that say "west" because
although the road initially goes east, it then turns south and *finally*
west.

I found it very disconcerting that there is often no give-way or stop line
where a minor road joins a major road - it's especially difficult to judge
where to stop if the minor road meets a major road on a bend.

Roundabouts (rotaries, traffic circles) are very rare. I can only think of
one that I encountered: on the entrance to Cape Cod over the Saggamore
Bridge. I found it dead easy to negotiate - just like a British roundabout
except you give way to traffic on your left. But I found that American
drivers were inclined to hesitate, fumble around and change lanes without
any regard for other traffic on roundabouts!

Four-way stop junctions are tedious: firstly because *all* traffic has to
stop, not just traffic on the road that is deemed to be minor, and secondly
because priority is based on the *order* in which traffic arrived (very
difficult to remember) rather than being based on *position* on the road,
such as the priority-to-the-right (or left) rule in roundabouts.

Some good points: variable speed limits that apply during specific hours: eg
25 outside a school, rising to 45 outside of the times when children will be
arriving or departing. Here in the UK there would be a blanket,
24-hour-a-day 30 (or even 20) limit.

Public transport in the centre of Boston is excellent: trains are frequent
on most lines of the T. But main-line trains (eg from Ipswich to Boston) are
*very* infrequent: at irregular times with about 90 minutes in between;
services on lines leading into a similar-sized British city (eg Leeds,
Manchester) would probably be every 30 minutes at the same number of minutes
past every hour.

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