I’ve always known that our road network was a bit shoddy. My daily commute takes 40 minutes (each way) on a weekend, or nearly 90 minutes on a week day, but I have always just accepted it.
I’ve just come back from holiday in Florida, where I have driven abroad for the first time. I was dreading it before we went: No lane discipline, slow speed limits, no roundabouts, traffic lights everywhere. Now that I’ve experienced it though it is So Much Better than the way we do things here!
Traffic is always moving. The only time the traffic slowed down noticeably was when a sinkhole appeared on the motorway and they had to close 2 lanes for repairs. The fact that the speed limits are 5 or 10 mph slower than in this country (for similar routes) means that traffic just keeps moving. Traffic lights work how they are supposed to — keeping traffic flowing. I especially like the fact that if you are turning right at an intersection, a red light essentially means give way rather than stop. The no lane discipline works too, if you want to go around someone, you go around them. You make your own decision about where and when you are going to move, and as a result you are more vigilant to what you are doing. Even the way traffic queues is better — when they closed 2 lanes of the motorway people didn’t bunch into the open lane and refuse to let anyone in, people spread out over the 3 lanes of motorway and where the lanes merged they went in like a zipper, one by one. All very fair, and much more civilised in my opinion.
Compare that to my drive to work this morning, where the motorway invariably stops for no reason whatsoever. If it does this because of “volume of traffic” (as the news reports on the radio like to call it) then there aren’t enough lanes on the road to cope. It is not fit for purpose. They either need to build more lanes, or whole new roads to supplement the motorways. I also really like the idea that all roads barring the smaller residential streets should have a minimum of 2 lanes per direction. I do however understand that this would be difficult to implement in hindsight, with building either side.
I think drivers are as much to blame. To steal a phrase from the radio this morning where they are talking about binge drinking — we need a culture change, and I think the american driving culture is the way to go.
