D.B.

Here's a thread: there are many posts regarding driving and car rentals around Europe, what is your anecdote, horror story, or catharsis in this domain? For the Europeans and Aussies: what is it you have found strange about driving in the U.S. -- other than the obvious right/left side thing and green/blue traffic lights? <BR>

Jan

One thing stands out...no roundabouts! <BR>

Bob Brown

No roundabouts? What do you call those circles in DC and Boston???

cherie

I am a Veteran on navigating the Arc d' Triomphe at rush hour in a brand new Renault Safrane Rental!!!!My husband said I am responsible for anything coming at us from the right as their right- of- way laws are different than USA. I am still waiting to pass the street he was looking for, however, as I never saw "George Sank"...we did pass George V a long time ago.... <BR> <BR>And also, roundabouts, as anyone from Washington, DC would know, are those clever "here I come ready or not...make your position clear" turn off circles. Drive through the French Countryside and all the exits are roundabouts. They're quite easy if you warn the driver to exit at 3:00 (three o'clock), etc. or take the third one...etc.

gregoire

Got a lot to say ! <BR>But please don't think I'm just criticizing in the following, even a big part of it will sound like that, I'm serious, and just try to understand the differences between european roads and american ones. I definitely want to make my comment constructive. At least it can help know how to drive on our side of the Atlantic ocean... <BR>First of all, when you say "left/right thing", do you mean the fact that you cannot pass a car on the right in Europe, but only on its left ? I kind of guess that it's not a big deal for you, but for us it's so important ! Our entire driving is based on that, and it makes it quite safe. For the reason that left lines will always be faster than right ones, so you always know where the "fast guy" comes from. It happens so often to see a guy on the road here suddenly pulling of a lane he was going into, because he realizes in the last minute that someone is already inthere ! Being French (this is not true in all other EC countries), I can assure you that everybody is eager to get back on the right side once they've passed an other car. Why ? Because then other faster cars can still pass you safely on the left without any risk of collision ! This is how we can afford to drive 120 mp/h or more, otherwise it wouldn't work ! <BR>This reminds me of something terrible : highways in Texas, in summer. A large field filled with tires... To me there are two main reasons to this : the roads are poor, they even added those little bumps between every lanes. And people don't realize that every single time you drive on a whole or a bump, a little piece of your tire is taken off. Repeat this 300 times, and the tire can blast. Ok, we're a little obsessed about that (whenever one drives on a whole in France, he'll just pull off the road and check the tires ! Seriously), but still I think this is the solution to safety. The drawback is you have to pay a lot of taxes to build good roads instead of buying new tires, and I'm affraid this is not feasible in the US. But the thing is that people arround here just leave the tires on the road. A friend of mine got into a really big acident just because someone in front of him drove on a truck tire, which went up in the air and felt down on his shield, which frighten him ; as a result he pulled aside, but there was an other car, and he bumped into it. No death, but what a thrill ! <BR>By the way, this is not to put it on truck drivers, but they really go fast arround here, much faster than cars, and they just don't care. This is really dangerous. Again, we keep them on the right sides, only are they allowed to go left to pass slower cars/trucks, but then they have to get back on the right sides asap. <BR>Since your first question was about horror stories, this might seem a monthly and normal thing to you, but I've seen 3 times a truck laying across the five lanes of I35E in Dallas, after it drove on the little wall which seperates north and south bounds and felt aside. Actually the first time I didn't see it, it was a friend of mine who saw it, but that time the truck even felt off the highway on the road crossing under it ! No way you can see that happening in France, seriously. <BR>Same : in two weeks, I've seen twice mobil homes trucks dropping their load while taking an exit that is a little bent. Obvioulsy, we're to shy to think of mobil homes, so we don't take this kind of risks in France, but I mean... That's wild ! <BR>And I think the word "wild" fits quite well. Some people in France enjoy driving fast, but it's in no way like a game. Here all my friends (american) who own pick-ups show aggresive driving, like in some kind of TV games. <BR>An other rule which is very important to us, is the idea that you should never modify the speed/direction of someone else on the road. When leaving your house, if someone is coming in the middle lane, and you have three lanes, most people think they can enter the right lane. See what I mean ? This is almost fine. But when a car comes in the right lane, you shouldn't try to hop in the middle lane, thinking the other car will have it's lane free once you got there ! Same on the highways -my first paragraph is just about that ! <BR>I'm not sure this is the rule here, but we consider more important the problems I (as a driver) raise for the other drivers than the problem they raise for me ! Honestly, how many times do you see someone not signaling a right or left turn ? How many times did you see someone exit a highway at the point where it's no more allowed, crossing the straight white lanes ? If you missed the exit, don't exit, wait till the next one and U-turn. They made great U-turns in America, just for that purpose, you don't even have to wait for the red light ! So people should use them. <BR>Now obviously I have to acknowledge that roads here are much wider than in France or anywhere in Europe. Very good point for you. It's obviously great to have so much room. <BR>On the other side, distances are so long, that it is hard for one to keep concentrated on your driving. I went from San Jose, California, to Dallas, through Arizona, and I know that it is hard -especially if you are not allowed to drive fast. It just puts you asleep ! <BR>To me the problem of concentration is key thing. I cannot pretend to be better than other people : I had an accident about 2 years ago. And it was just a matter of concentration -I had had very little sleep, and was driving on vacation ! So I was not concentrated. But I think the driving test in France is much harder than it is here, and one of the focus is about concentration. You must see everything at every moment, and never bother anybody for any reason. Seriously, when I took it in California, it was a piece of cake -in France, I failed for the driving test and the writen test both at first time (and I'm not so dumb...). <BR>Again, I'm not pretending we're better (world cup & bla bla bla), but this could be an other point which makes a differences between a young country (us) and an older one. We're full of rules everywhere, and some of them will seem crazy to you. But when we come here we then realize how great it is to have those rules. I am not the only one to say that (all right, ALL the french criticize ALL the time, but I insist here...).

Beverly

They are called "rotaries". <BR>

cherie

I am a veteran of navigating the arc d' triomphe at rush hour in a newly rented Renault Safrane. I was responsible for anything coming at us from the right (they have different right-of-way laws there.My husband wanted me to watch for "George Sank" (although I saw George V a long time ago....) I think we found a new way to Levallios.!!! And those turn circles are easy if you have ever lived in DC. Just "make yuor intentions known" as they say.

cherie

I am a veteran of the Arc d' Triomphe at rush hour in a newly-rented Renault Safrane. I was responsible for anything coming at us from the right (they have different right-of-way laws there.) My husband wanted to turn up "George Sank" and after taking an alternate route, I remembered seeing a similar street, George V!!!!! I think we found a new way to Levallios! The turn circles are easy if you ever lived in Washington DC. Just "make your intentions known".

Dayle

We have one in Orange, Calif. It's kind of famous because it's been used for many movies. "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "That Thing You Do" among many others.

Dayle

We have one in Orange, Calif. that's kind of famous for it's classic small town USA look. It's been used for many films, "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "That Thing You Do" and lots of others.

D.B.

Gregoire: as to the right/left thing, I was referring to the driving on different sides of the road. I had forgotten about your reference, and also that some countries are not too specific at all about where one drives on the road (if there is space, occupy it). The bumps are for reflectors, and the larger ones are to awaken drivers (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). <BR> <BR>Dayle: I am quite familiar with the Orange circle, use to negotiate it all the time when headed for Saddleback or Silverado. Can be very annoying when crowded, didn't know it had been used in movies though. <BR>

Juan

<BR>I've driven all over Europe many times but there is only one place that scared me. The main road at night from Zagreb to Lubijana. <BR>Two lanes (and not that wide) chock full of bumper to bumper cars in both directions and almsot everyone passing most of the time. They simply made a narrow 3rd lane in the middle when they couldn't get back into their lane in time. Very fast speed and in my opinion insane drivers. I was a nervous wreck by the time we made it to Zagreb.

D.B.

Perhaps I should clarify something: when I spoke of "horror story" I was not referring to "blood and guts" on the hi-way type stuff. I was just trying to create a single thread that could be interesting, and give people a place for information about driving in Europe -- hence the title pun. Such as, that one story you may have read a few weeks ago about the lady that had a horrific time trying to rent a car to go from France to Italy and, for whatever reasons, the exhorbitant amount she paid. I also thought to give equal time to any Europeans with comments on driving in the U.S. (or anywhere in the world for that matter). <BR>

cheryl

I don't know if anyone else has ever had a problem like ours, but we still laugh about our one driving experience in Paris. My husband wanted to try driving in France, so we rented a car to drive to Chartres for the day. As we were leaving Chartres, we found that we couldn't get the car into reverse. We tried everything we could think of, and had finally come to the conclusion that we were going to have to put the car in neutral and push it out of that parking spot! We were sure that car just didn't have a reverse gear. Finally, in desperation, my husband pulled the stick shift up and miraculously (it seemed to us at the time)the car popped into reverse. I still don't know if all European cars work that way (I've never seen one in the States) or if it was just the Twingo (we love that name) we rented. Can you imagine how hard the people at the car rental would have laughed at us if we had tried to tell them that the car had no reverse? They would probably still be talking about that stupid american couple!

Helen

Yes, Twingo, what a name, also the Smart, how cute they are! (And what makes them so smart, anyway? I was wondering if they're electric. Anyone know?) We had the same near-egg-on-face experience last month in the Avis parking lot in Tours. We were ready to march right back into the office because reverse on our SEAT Ibiza wasn't working, even though I had the stick in what looked like the position pictured. Finally I pushed down, and voila! (I think old VW drivers would do this in their sleep.) No road horror stories to speak of, unless you count driving endlessly around the environs of Tours.

Helen

Yes, Twingo, what a name, also the Smart, how cute they are! (And what makes them so smart, anyway? I was wondering if they're electric. Anyone know?) We had the same near-egg-on-face experience last month in the Avis parking lot in Tours. We were ready to march right back into the office because reverse on our SEAT Ibiza wasn't working, even though I had the stick in what looked like the position pictured. Finally I pushed down, and voila! (I think old VW drivers would do this in their sleep.) No road horror stories to speak of, unless you count driving endlessly around the environs of Tours.

Kavey

Ho ho <BR> <BR>HAve any of you ever seen the multi roundabout at Hemel Hempstead in England? <BR> <BR>Seven roundabouts are arranged around a central circle, each one is a seperate roundabout so to get to an exit opposite you you have to negotiate about 3 or 4 tiny roundabouts all touching each other. <BR> <BR>Totally manic. <BR> <BR>Even I would think I was making it up if that didnt imply I was becoming slightly schizophrenic. <BR>

Dayle

Cheryl, thank God, you made my day. I no longer feel like a total idiot. I had the same problem with my Renault in the Loire Valley. I've owned a VW, so pushing down (or in) to get into reverse I was familiar with. When I parked the car for the first time, I struggled for 10 minutes trying to find reverse! Finally two local teenage boys came by and I asked (in English) for help. With out limited understanding of each other's languages, we figured out what the problem and solution was. They asked me twice if it was my car, because they couldn't believe I didn't know where Reverse was!

MollyDonnelly

I have heard of a double (figure-8) roundabout in England in which you drive on the left side of the road for one and the *right* side of the road for the next!!!!! Can you imagine how schizophrenic that must make people? It's too scary to comprehend! <BR>My friend had a similar problem with getting their car into reverse in Ireland. They had just relocated there from Arizona, rented their car and sat in the parking lot for an hour before they figured out that there was a little button hidden away somewhere that they had to push before the car would go into reverse. They are just beginning to be able to laugh about that now!!! <BR>Driving here isn't too bad, but we did develop a mantra...."Driver in the middle. Driver in the middle."...that we repeated endlessly to keep us on the correct side of the road. In roundabouts in Britain, you always yield to the car to the right of you. If there is no one to the right, you can go. Roundabouts are the single most efficient driving system in the world... as long as you know this rule. But, look out for the big roundabouts that have lights in them. Sometimes the lights are in your blind spot and are hard to see! The reason they don't work in the States is that they are not standard practice and they probably do more harm than good when drivers come upon them and have to negotiate them. There is a book in Britain called the Highway Code, it costs 99p and will help anyone learn the rules of the road here quickly. Trust me. It is a valuable tool to use when driving here. Pay particular attention to pedestrian crossings as there are several types, the roundabout rules and speed limit signs. You will notice once you get on a road here that there aren't many signs with actual numbers on them. The speed limit signs are circles with lines running diagonally thru them. Some are blue with red lines and some are white with black lines and each means something different. <BR>Good luck to anyone trying to drive on the "other" side of the road. It's always an experience!

mitchell

Does anyone have trouble reading the "universal" traffic signs, they drive me crazy, I'd rather just learn the phrases for do not enter and one way. <BR>