In message ,
Martin Underwood writes
"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 23:19:21 +0000, Clive Page
wrote:

They need to lengthen the slip roads on service stations as well. The
worst are the oldest ones, which often have a give way right before
the slip road so you can't start accelerating until you're on it, and
most are far too short and often have tarmac in very poor condition.
Most need, IMO, to be twice as long as they currently are.

The worst example of a short slip road is at a Little Chef service station
on the A1 somewhere on the northbound side near Doncaster. I stopped once
there for a pee and it took me about 10 minutes to join the A1 because the
slip road is so short that there isn't sufficient space to accelerate to 70
within the normal gap between cars. And that's with a reasonably powerful
car. How lorries ever manage to rejoin the A1 safely is a mystery to me.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, near Carcroft then you're absolutely
right. It's terrifying. Mind you, I was in the 2CV mentioned
elsewhere in this thread.......
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

"Dr. Zonk" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:34:53 +0100, "tim"
said:



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

You should know that there could have been one those speed cameras
(gatso) on a pole in the school zone, that is why the 30 km/h speed
limit is there. Did you get caught on camera?

Nope, I save that for motorway road works

tim

Martin Underwood wrote:
snip
It's always
intrigued me that America chose to drive on the right, given the large
number of British people who settled there. No doubt the number of
immigrants from other European countries swayed the argument.

This web-page has some interesting ideas on the reasons behind
left/right driving, taken mostly from the book: 'The Rule of the Road:
An International Guide to History and Practice' by Peter Kincaid .

Sounds a fascinating read at $50, but unfortunately currently out of stock.


Martin @ Strawberry Hill

In message , usenet
writes
Martin Underwood wrote:
snip
It's always intrigued me that America chose to drive on the right,
given the large number of British people who settled there. No doubt
the number of immigrants from other European countries swayed the
argument.

This web-page has some interesting ideas on the reasons behind
left/right driving, taken mostly from the book: 'The Rule of the Road:
An International Guide to History and Practice' by Peter Kincaid .

I'm not sure what you mean by "this webpage" but the one I and others
mentioned ....

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandar...ft.htm#history

suggests that the type of very large wagon teams used in the USA (but
not GB) were driven by a rider on the left rear horse ("so he could keep
his right arm free to lash the team") and since he was sitting on the
left the natural position was to keep to the right of road. I have no
idea if that really is the explanation, but it seems plausible.

--
Paul Terry

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:47:21 +0000 (UTC), "Terry Harper"
wrote:

Really the answer is to provide an extra lane between junctions, so that
there is never any need to merge off a slip road.

I don't like that when driving a slower vehicle (e.g. a minibus)
because it means you are forever moving back and forth. I think most
lorry drivers would probably agree - unless such lanes were
permanently marked with dotted lines to be for turning vehicles only.

The solution is just to have a slip road such that the
slowest-accelerating vehicle you're likely to get on a motorway (say,
an oldish, heavily-laden lorry) can accelerate safely to the
prevailing speed of the inside lane (let's say 60mph or so) without
going absolutely flat out.

That would probably, I'd say, involve doubling the length of a good
proportion of existing sliproads with an upwards slope to motorway
level (the downward ones obviously assisting with acceleration), and
tripling the length of all sliproads which have a give way just before
the motorway is met (such as older services stations). Planning the
merge would also be easier with a longer period alongside the motorway
itself.

To merge traffic safely on the motorway, drivers (even of slower
vehicles) shouldn't need to be slamming through their gears attempting
to accelerate to the prevailing speed when they should be already
thinking about the actual merge.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:11:48 -0000, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:

The worst example of a short slip road is at a Little Chef service station
on the A1 somewhere on the northbound side near Doncaster. I stopped once
there for a pee and it took me about 10 minutes to join the A1 because the
slip road is so short that there isn't sufficient space to accelerate to 70
within the normal gap between cars. And that's with a reasonably powerful
car. How lorries ever manage to rejoin the A1 safely is a mystery to me.

There are some turnings onto the A1 from minor roads with poor
visibility and no acceleration lane at all. I encountered one of
these on the way to the MoD vehicle auction at Witham Specialist
Vehicles. Even in a modern car it wasn't fun, and relied on a few
cars moving over to let you out onto what may as well be a motorway in
terms of the prevailing speeds.

Not fun.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

"Adrian" wrote in message
. 1.4...
John Rowland ) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying :

Well, at least there are no longer any countries where
it varies from one part of the country to another.

You've never been down Savoy Court near Aldwych, then.

Or the council car park at the side of M&S in Rickmansworth - that's
"wrong-side-of-road" as you go in.

A lot of multi-storey car parks are designed with the ramps between the
floors do that you go up/down the wrong side (ie on the right-hand side) so
that the two streams of traffic don't have to cross. Makes you wonder why
they didn't simply design the car park as a mirror image to avoid this. At
the very least, if you have to go up the right-hand side, this needs to be
signposted very clearly.

Martin Underwood ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

Or the council car park at the side of M&S in Rickmansworth - that's
"wrong-side-of-road" as you go in.

A lot of multi-storey car parks are designed with the ramps between
the floors do that you go up/down the wrong side (ie on the right-hand
side) so that the two streams of traffic don't have to cross. Makes
you wonder why they didn't simply design the car park as a mirror
image to avoid this. At the very least, if you have to go up the
right-hand side, this needs to be signposted very clearly.

It's a flat outside carpark... In and out are next to each other, just the
wrong way round.

"Paul Terry" wrote in message
...
In message , usenet
writes
Martin Underwood wrote:
snip
It's always intrigued me that America chose to drive on the right,
given the large number of British people who settled there. No doubt
the number of immigrants from other European countries swayed the
argument.

This web-page has some interesting ideas on the reasons behind
left/right driving, taken mostly from the book: 'The Rule of the Road:
An International Guide to History and Practice' by Peter Kincaid .

I'm not sure what you mean by "this webpage" but the one I and others
mentioned ....


http://users.pandora.be/worldstandar...ft.htm#history

suggests that the type of very large wagon teams used in the USA (but
not GB) were driven by a rider on the left rear horse ("so he could keep
his right arm free to lash the team") and since he was sitting on the
left the natural position was to keep to the right of road. I have no
idea if that really is the explanation, but it seems plausible.

It's interesting that many lorries in Italy have RHD, presumably so that
they can position themselves accurately wrt the edge of the road on mountain
passes.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
Web Site: http://www.omnibussoc.org/75th.htm
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/

In message , Terry Harper
writes
It's interesting that many lorries in Italy have RHD, presumably so that
they can position themselves accurately wrt the edge of the road on mountain
passes.

A trait shared with some Swiss Post Buses.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk