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RE: Things you've found in your travels that you wish we had in the US.

RE: Things you've found in your travels that you wish we had in the US.

Old Jul 10th, 2003, 04:54 PM
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RE: Things you've found in your travels that you wish we had in the US.

I've done a bit of driving in the UK/Europe, and I'm convinced that roundabouts are the way to go. They just make total sense to me!

What things have you discovered in your travels that we just don't know about, or if we know about them, still don't use, in the US? Things that you think would improve our quality of life, so to speak?
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 05:14 PM
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I would never trust american drivers in a roundabout. There are a few places where I've seen small ones. Chaos, I tell you!

I miss bidets, paprika flavored Pringles and Laughing Cow wedges, those 4-square public urinals they use in Amsterdam on Queen's day, and reasonable public transportation.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 05:18 PM
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We have a little roundabout near our house in Bellevue WA, just north of I-90. I'm not sure people know how to use it, though. Heck! Lots of people driving in Seattle think a turn signal on a car ahead in the next lane means "close the gap." Turnabouts assume a certain level of traffic awareness that doesn't seem to characterize the driving population here.

How about "jug handles?" This is an interesting NJ way of managing traffic flow at an intersection, in which you have to make a right to make a left, an official version of what happens when you realize you need to go left and are in the right turn lane.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 05:21 PM
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South of France - topless bathing.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 05:24 PM
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This is weird, but LC1 yogurt (by Nestle) available in Switzerland is among the most memorable foods I've ever eaten. It's super creamy and tastes like sweet vanilla mousse, but not too heavy. Why won't someone import it??!!

Why can't gelato in the US taste as good as it does in Italy?

I wish Americans had an attitude about life and their country more like that of the average Australian.

There should be a genuine French bakery for every 25,000 people in a city.

Glad, however, that we don't have haggis, shepherd's pie, vegemite, Austrian restaurants, and British dentition throughout the US.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 05:45 PM
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Ummm...we DO have shepherd's pie and Laughing Cow wedges, at least here in NYC. (yum yum yum!)

I love roundabouts. No waiting to go through intersections! But there's too many bad drivers here, it's true...they wouldn't work very well.

So my wish is for better drivers, like the ones in Europe. Drive on the right, pass on the left, yeah!! I might even buy a car then.


(oh yes, European dairy products too, that would be great....)
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 05:51 PM
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Forgive my ignorance......what are Laughing Cow Wedges?
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 06:13 PM
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Cross country train travel.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 06:18 PM
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Brimham: Laughing Cow is a brand of soft cheese. (I ate tons of it as a kid...it also comes in itty-bitty foil-wrapped cubes...)
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 06:33 PM
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Here in Port Orchard, WA people KNOW how to use the roundabout. I've never had a problem with it.

I wish Americans had a more open mind when it comes to body piercings and tatoos. When my husband and I were in Canada we went to several nice resturants where the servers had piercings or visable tatoos.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 06:59 PM
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That general western European openmindedness and expansive world view PLUS the tolerance of Canadians. Also, the excellent public transit systems of places like Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid AND a de-emphasis on the auto. Also, more vibrant cities and less suburban sprawl.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 07:10 PM
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I wish we had as good of public transportation in the big cities in the U.S. as they do in most European cities. Also, wish we had the cultural advantages of the arts that they do in Europe. And last, I wish we allowed dogs into restaurants here as they do in several European countries, especially France.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 07:23 PM
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"Give Way" signs, like in Australia. At lesser intersections, where a side street joins a main street, the side street, instead of having a stop sign will have a Give Way sign. If there's nothing coming then don't bother stopping. Kind of like a Yield sign, but at 4-ways rather than merges.

In the US, you have stops signs at one little subdivision road joining another one and the speed limit is only 25mph to begin with.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 07:25 PM
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ohhh... and rock walls like in Ireland or hedge rows like in the UK. We don't need them everywhere, but it's kind of nice on country lanes.
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 07:55 PM
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European or Japanese work days. You can have a life with the former, or a good nap (with 2-hr lunches) with the latter.

Better public transportation.

Cities where residents want to live in the inner city, not the faux settlements called suburbs.

Physical planning. In Europe, development may take years or decades, but the results are gorgeous. Case point: the vistas you find in Paris or Rome. In the U.S.: let 'er rip, it's time for a mall!!
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Old Jul 10th, 2003, 08:10 PM
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This is something that we used to not have in the US, but that was readily found in the UK: beautiful packaging for ordinary things.

I used to stock up on soaps and other toiletries from Boots every time we visited England. Even the Boots brand (the house brand) had beautiful boxes, bottles, or labels. You didn't feel like the stuff had to be hidden away in the medicine cabinet--it was more than pretty enough to display.

The same was true with food items. I used to buy a particular brand of baking powder because the little tin it came from was so quaint looking. It was a pleasure to use English products.

Now I don't need to load up my suitcase because Americans have caught up in the "pretty" department. One retailer in particular, Target, does an excellent job with its product line, and it could match Boots any day.

Stamps, too, are something that were always more lovely in the UK, but not anymore!
 
Old Jul 11th, 2003, 02:05 AM
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I find myself nodding in agreement with a lot of your answers.

I love the smaller village/neighborhood schools here in the UK. I went to big public schools in the US where we got bused everywhere.

I enjoy seeing parents walking down the sidewalk with their kids, and the 'lollipop' man or woman (usually a retired person, who always seems to have a smile on their face) who blocks traffic for them every morning and afternoon. There are big schools here, too, and I do see buses every day, but the small village schools are neat. That would be great to see more of, in the States.

One thing that I don't like, however, is the fact that drivers are NOT required to stop for school buses here. I see cars zooming around stopped school buses all the time - so scary!!
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Old Jul 11th, 2003, 04:01 AM
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We've been living for four years in Europe. I disagree with a couple of previous posts:
1. Roundabouts/European drivers are better than American. Sorry, NOT TRUE. There are many bad drivers and plenty of TERRIBLE drivers in Europe. We lived around one very busy roundabouts and fender benders, near collisions, and lost tempers were a daily problem. Anyway, don't they have a lot of roundabouts in Massachusetts?
2. Cities where people live downtown. Both Philadelphia and Portland (OR) have vibrant inner city neighborhoods. Also, European cities also have sprawl...there are plenty of drab neighborhooods around the edges of Paris and large stretches of outer London are downright grim. There are many attractive U.S. communities--people tend to overlook those. The villages and small towns of Vermont, for example, can be as pretty as almost anyplace.
However, the points about train travel and mass transit in general are well made. There are relatively few places in continental Europe that don't have some form of bus/tram/train service. Mass transit as a whole is very good and good value for money.
What I wish the U.S. had more of are casual little restaurants/cafes where you can have an excellent meal in civilized atmosphere and some nice wine or coffee--at a reasonable price. At my favorite cafe in Brussels, they offer a selection of excellent wines for as little as $2 a glass. People take that kind of thing for granted. There are way too many chain restaurants and too much impersonal, "corporate" dining establishments in the U.S. And the places that do try to mimic the European style are either expensive (or more expensive than they should be) and often have serious attitude problems (i.e. Rouge on Rittenhouse Square in Philly; that kind of place is a dime a dozen in France).
Like others have noted here, we think the U.S. could benefit from a less isolationist viewpoint. But Europeans bicker with each other plenty (as in the current Germany/Italy row or Britain's off and on spats with France).
We love living in Europe, but every time we go back to the U.S., we also see many things we enjoy and miss. We had kind of hoped to move back in 2004 but looks like we'll have to wait til 2008 <g>.
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Old Jul 11th, 2003, 04:13 AM
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As a matter of fact we do have a lot of "roundabouts" (we call them rotaries) in Massachusetts. Anyone who thinks they're a good idea has obviously never spent any time here. I'm convinced they locate auto body shops and hospitals close to rotaries just to make it more convenient for their customers - sort of one-stop shopping.

I particularly like the ones that are two and three lanes wide - navigating your way around (on the inner lanes) and then working to the outer lanes so you can get off is roughly the equivalent bungee jumping on the thrill scale - and considerably less safe. The best strategy is to drive an old dented vehicle, never look the other driver in the eye (if he believes you don't see him, then he can't intimidate you), and, of course, never, ever use turn signals, which is the equivalent of passing information to the enemy in wartime. I have a friend who moved here from Colorado and he's never gotten the hang of it - he routinely takes several laps around before he finds an opening he can slip into and get off.

If 1942 ever comes back, Massachusetts has the perfect road system for it. And that's even before we start talking about potholes.

On a serious note, Rhode Island used to have a lot of them as well but removed them all about ten years ago just because they were so dangerous.
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Old Jul 11th, 2003, 04:15 AM
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Yes, in Massachusetts we have plenty of roundabouts (known here as rotaries), also Laughing Cow wedges, decent public transportation and a capital city where the wealthy live in the inner city (Beacon Hill, Back Bay) and sit at sidewalk cafes. So if you can't make it to Europe this year, come to Boston!
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