Franklin

Come on ... got to have a few.

I have loads, biggest one is the lack of roundabouts. The number of times I have come off at a wrong exit and driven miles before I could get back on course. How I miss them, roundabouts I mean! God how I miss them!

It's no funny matter either. On one occasion the map told me to get off at exit "#7" (I think it was #7, but my mind has removed most of my memory because of the trauma of it all!) ... but there was exit 7A, 7B, 7C ... you get the picture. I took the wrong exit and boy did I get payback. I was driving a truck full of furniture from Chicago to my "new" apartment near DC. I ended up on what I can only describe as an unwanted journey into rural USA ... exit road turned into a narrow country lane and I started to panic. The truck was very big and the roof was getting an undeserved thrashing from low cut trees and tree branches ... but there was a ditch running parallel to the narrow road and I couldn't risk a 3 point turn ... finally I drove onto someone's long drive and finally managed a 3 point turn (more like a 10 point the truck was so big and awkward). Boy was that a terrible panic/mess.

Roundabouts ... Give me roundabouts or give me death! Mutated from Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death!"

AdobePinon

Ah, you've just got to choose where you live !

There's at least 8 of them in that map!

BTW, last time I was in England, I noticed that the latest obsession is to fill every roundabout with traffic lights just to make it totally unusable. In fact, a few days of traffic light-perverted roundabouts, speed cameras and obsessive-compulsive lane markings leaves me ready to head back to Heathrow...

megs

Strip malls and box stores that are deliberately designed to make you drive from one to another, or risk your life playing chicken on four lane highways.

Bob

I miss roundabouts to...and decent road signs, there really bad, espcially on the highway...for instance, to get to the bcis building, the website address says to use whatever exit, doesn't help all the numbers were changed and the website didn't, so that exit goes straight off into a closed road that's becoming part of the extended runway, but oh well...so bad road signs, and no decent notice of exits is one.

Having to pay for incoming calls on mobiles, having no off peak charges, and thats for all utilities, and also, having phone calls rounded up to the minute.

Resumes, can't stand them, there all fine and dandy if you've loads of experience, but as a recent graduate, they suck, a CV looks far more impressive

How shite the car milages are over here, in general, but also with the european imports.

How early it gets light and dark over here, espcially in maine anyway.

The complete lack of double glazing, can feel the wind straight through the windows

Curtains, there aren't any, there all blinds, and if you do get curtains, the curtain rails are flimsy and shite so can't hold any decent curtains to stop the light getting through, and more importantly to trap the drafts. Maybe that's from living in apartments, but it's the norm in all the places I've seen in this state too.

Bad parking, ok, that's a peeve fullstop, but made worse over here because there is so much more space to park that there shouldn't be an excuse for taking up three parking spots *l*

How early people go to bed over here, well in maine, just so early, the "city", which by blighty standards isn't much bigger than a large village, is so quiet and empty at night, even on the weekends. That's not so much a peeve, but just a weird observation.

NC Penguin

Did you use online mapping software to get the route? In my experience, Mapquest is guilty of not putting sufficient info about exits on its directions, i.e. when an a single number exit actually consists of A, B, C, etc.

For that reason, I usually use www.mappoint.com (owned by Microsquish, I mean Microsoft).

I've noticed that some Americans like to take their lives into their hands if they get off at the wrong exit by reversing back onto the exit (into the direction of traffic getting off the exit at faster than posted speeds) and back onto the highway or Interstate. :scared:

dunroving

One of my pet peeves is the library of "SALE!" flyers I get with every Sunday newspaper. What a waste of paper!

And on the subject of newspapers, I also get peeved by the number of spelling errors in our local rag.

And the number of letters to the Editor that carp on about Christianity, including the obligatory Bible quote.

See, now you've got me started.... I miss British newspapers!

Franklin

All I know is I want to do a Pope. Kiss the ground around a roundabout back in blighty. Call it sacred ground. Ban all Highlander combats on that sacred ground and worship that ground. Oh, I want to build a house on a roundabout, put it on stilts and call it a cathedral. I want to be buried in that Cathedral because it is above sacred ground. I want my living hands to constantly hold a piece of sacred ground. The only way anybody could take my piece of sacred ground is from my cold dead fingers!

NC Penguin

These days, if someone says something like the above, I assume they "want to croak!"

Or, you want to wear what is essentially a yarmullkeh (sp?) and sound unintelligible?




NC Penguin

Celtic_Angel

Well I've never even driven in the u.K i learnt to drive in good ol' louisianna hehe

I've been here a while and one thing still really gets my goat!

Why oh why do we have to endure 10mins of commercials ....well every ten mins!!!

And then you endure the last 10 mins of commercials and all you get for your wait is closing titles!! grrr!

Franklin

Yeah, we would half the price of oil if road signage was up to par.

Around DC you can get lost, get lost again, get totally lost (even with a DC metro area map at your side) and still be lost miles away from your ultimate destination. Because of bad signage and lack of roundabouts it is very easy to travel miles in the wrong direction.

Only NW DC makes sense (it has a grid/block system similar to Chicago).

Thing is, make a mistake (or two) in and around DC and you can find yourself in a very dangerous part of town ... and lost too!

I think the high DC murder rate is linked to bad road signs. People unintentionally drive up the wrong street in a wrong part of town at the wrong time. (Bit Kerryesque, sorry).

Tip: if you visit DC get a cab! Don't drive around DC!

Texas Brit

Yes but your town is called "Bend" -- roundabouts are a matter of civic pride.

AdobePinon

Sounds to me like they're trying to give you a big hint....

AdobePinon

(Well, Bend is on my wish list at least - damned good brewery.)

Franklin

cute!!!

sibsie

My pet peeve. They'll start a new season of a TV show, then in the middle of it, flip back to and old one so you don't know what the hell's going on. Then after that they seem to alternate between new show, old show. WTF!!!