Phil

"I have always been surprised at the difficulties overseas visitors experience driving on British narrow roads, with their reports of nearside scratches and dents and lost wheel trims. Is this because they are worried about crossing the central white line?"

No, as Mme Perdu noted, it's about disorientation. I tended to lose the left side hubcaps by driving to far to the left this sumer in Northamptonshire. Sitting on "the other side" inside the car causes you to lose the feeling where precisely your car is sitting on the lane, so you tend to over-copensate.

As to the Malhamdale wave (I think I have heard it called the "Yorkshire salute"), no problem in Nothamptonshire, I spent days waving and acknowleding.

annhig

we had some German guests, who in their drive from the airport had lost both left-hand hub-caps and punctured both tyres, all within about 2 miles from our house.

the tyre man who came out to us said that it was a common occurrence with european drivers.

Nikki

We just spent ten days driving around Scotland. Didn't see a whole lot of people waving when we stopped to let them pass, which surprised me, it's something commonly done where we live in New England.

And I do think a lot of the discomfort my husband and friend felt while driving had to do with the narrowness of the lanes as compared with the lanes we are accustomed to, and that the driver felt he was too close to the center line (while I felt like I was in the ditch).

PatrickLondon

>>fact is, they just don't like the cut of your jib, old bean.<<

Another thought, flanner. I can't quite work out how to put this nicely, but is it all poaaible that, having seen your driving, they were clutching the wheel with both hands in terror?

bilboburgler

"a mandatory instruction" is more focusing when the police are armed

khunwilko

flaner - where is "home"?

annhig

In Texas, at least, the solid white line is not legally supposed to be crossed, although that bit of annoying law is honored in the breach, mostly.>>

whilst out driving today, I realised that there may be a misunderstanding about the white line down the middle of the road in the UK. [always supposing there is one!]

if there's one broken white line, it's advisory only.

if there's one solid and on broken line, the vehicles on the side of the broken line may overtake if safe to do so but if you've got the solid line, you can't.

if there are two solid lines, no overtaking allowed.

you never, so far as I know, see one unbroken white line.

most of the roads round here have no white lines at all.

MmePerdu

Annhig, the configurations of center lines, solid and broken, are the same as you describe in the US where I've driven. I don't think I've ever seen a single unbroken line in the center either although they are used to divide the lane from the shoulder sometimes or lanes in proximity to intersections.

jaja

annhig, one unbroken white line is to delineate where the shoulder begins so would be on the right in Texas. You are correct that we don't have single unbrokens between lanes.

alanRow

<i>They may have a sixth sense that you're not from round there.</i>

Waving is so they can count fingers.

ribeirasacra

Driving a pink Cadillac will not help you even if you wave ;-)

indy_dad

I like a few of the differences here in the UK (roundabouts, red/amber before green, center line crossing awareness, etc.) but one thing that the US has that is helpful is that the lines are white if the traffic is going in the same direction and yellow if going in the opposite direction. One more sensory clue when on a one-way / two-way, divided street or not.

alanRow

<i>one thing that the US has that is helpful is that the lines are white if the traffic is going in the same direction and yellow if going in the opposite direction.</i>

The signs saying "one way" aren't sufficient?

annhig

I'm sure that I've seen single unbroken lines somewhere - in Europe perhaps.

Nice to know that I won't have THAT problem to deal with if I'm driving in Texas.

MmePerdu

Roundabouts are making belated appearances in the US recently, in the very small town I left recently in Arizona and a new one where I am now in N. California. They do not, however, come with instructions so there sometimes appears to be confusion about right-of-way. I was almost removed by a lumber truck entering (does size trump right-of-way?) but the name of the company was on the side of the truck so I had a word next time I was there. Maybe the driver has now been educated.

jane1144

Chartley,
I'm in Canada and recently read where a woman had rolled through a stop sign and was ticketed. She chose to fight the ticket. The judge asked her why she had not stopped. She said "there was no one coming". The judge said, 'Madame, a stop sign is not a suggestion...it is a requirement"!!

Mucky

Something else they have in Somerset that I find funny.
At a traffic calming lane narrowing part if the road, they have give way signs at both ends! That's just so they can do the nooo after you bit there as well.
I don't think I have seen this in Wales.
But it makes for polite and patient driving.

flanneruk

"flaner [sic]- where is "home"?"

The Cotswolds. Where, though our population density and settlement patterns are similar to rural, inland Devon, we have far wider roads and a healthier retail economy than Devon in our smaller towns and villages.

So when we use single-track roads, we've usually chosen to do so for a scenic view or whatever - and simply don't allow anything to be built that might encourage tourists to come and clog them. In inland, rural Devon using single track roads is a non-negotiable necessity, several times a day, for most inhabitants - a pain that gets seriously aggravated in the tourist season. I suspect something similar explains Nikki's encounters with uncharacteristically graceless Highlanders

MmePerdu

Single lane country roads can be useful, I'm told, for containing vehicles driven by those under the influence as was the case when a friend of mine was following a certain duchess whose husband lives near Tetbury. She only had difficulty when she emerged from the narrow lane onto the wider road and while attempting to turn into her husbands driveway smacked into a pole. It's a secret so don't pass this along please.

Josser

A Google search on lady's name and car crash brings up an interesting video supposedly from a police camera. The radio operator's remarks are interesting.
Of course, it doesn't have to be genuine. It could easily be staged. Video technology is pretty sophisticated these days