WATER

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May 15th 2016, 11:00 pm

#91

Nutek

Joined: Apr 2012

Location: CT

Posts: 33,581

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc koop

I must admit I have some problems using roundabouts in the UK after driving here for 40 plus years. It's enough to have to cope with driving on the left and re-familiarizing myself with stick shifts. I've never been able to hit the right turn off first go. It keeps my wife amused as I do the circuit 2 or 3 times before I manage it. Course I couldn't get her behind the wheel of a car in the UK if I paid her a kings ransom and as for her navigational skills ... well thank God for the Tom Tom at least.

Look kids... Big Ben... Houses of Parliament...

May 15th 2016, 11:09 pm

#92

mikelincs

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Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nutek

Look kids... Big Ben... Houses of Parliament...

repeat as necessary...

May 16th 2016, 1:03 am

#93

robin1234

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Joined: Jul 2007

Location: North Norfolk and northern New York State

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Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

Folks in MA drive like clunts enough as it is. I've already come close to being hit by a few cars and trucks coming the wrong way around a roundabout and this town has had them for years.

I love Massachusetts but the great majority of people who live there are complete morons. I don't know why it is, but it's true.

May 16th 2016, 1:48 am

#94

SultanOfSwing

I have a comma problem

Joined: Feb 2009

Location: Fox Lake, IL (from Carrickfergus NI)

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Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc koop

This sounds to me that the 4 way stop that was replaced was a problem place for drivers failing to give way to other drivers in order of precedence causing T-boning and other kinds of collisions in which case a roundabout would work better.

I haven't encountered any problems at stops so far. If a driver to my right arrives at his stop the same time as I do mine I always give him right of way across the intersection per the California drivers handbook.

I must admit I have some problems using roundabouts in the UK after driving here for 40 plus years. It's enough to have to cope with driving on the left and re-familiarizing myself with stick shifts. I've never been able to hit the right turn off first go. It keeps my wife amused as I do the circuit 2 or 3 times before I manage it. Course I couldn't get her behind the wheel of a car in the UK if I paid her a kings ransom and as for her navigational skills ... well thank God for the Tom Tom at least.

I don't think there were an lot of accidents there, but there were issues with wait times during periods of busier traffic. Once the roundabout was put in, that went away. 4 way stops are a pain in the arse, when people don't get the 'first come first served/give way to the right' convention. The handful of roundabouts they have put in on roads I use regularly all seem to be working better in terms of traffic flow.

Luckily when I go back, the roundabouts we encounter are easy ones, so I get used to them again pretty quickly.

May 16th 2016, 7:03 am

#95

dc koop

Banned

Joined: Dec 2015

Location: california

Posts: 6,035

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nutek

Look kids... Big Ben... Houses of Parliament...

Funny I was thinking of daddy Griswold as I was doing the circuit

May 16th 2016, 7:15 am

#96

mrken30

Lost in BE Cyberspace

Joined: Jul 2008

Location: Portlandia Metro

Posts: 7,427

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by moneypenny20

It's actually really easy to navigate. It's just looking at it on paper it's a bit omg

My driving instructor used to make me use it when I was learning.

I navigated it without any issues many time when I was 14 on my push bike (bicycle)

May 16th 2016, 7:17 am

#97

mrken30

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Joined: Jul 2008

Location: Portlandia Metro

Posts: 7,427

Re: WATER

I have never seen a mini roundabout in the US, you know the ones you drive straight over the middle.

May 16th 2016, 7:29 am

#98

dc koop

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Joined: Dec 2015

Location: california

Posts: 6,035

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrken30

I navigated it without any issues many time when I was 14 on my push bike (bicycle)

I had no problem with them when I lived in the UK. I just got out of practice after being away so long

I was at least lucky in one respect in that I managed to get the right turn off after a couple of tries. Not doing so means a long, long drive to the next exit on the motorways

Last edited by dc koop; May 16th 2016 at 7:34 am.

May 16th 2016, 7:32 am

#99

SultanOfSwing

I have a comma problem

Joined: Feb 2009

Location: Fox Lake, IL (from Carrickfergus NI)

Posts: 49,598

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrken30

I have never seen a mini roundabout in the US, you know the ones you drive straight over the middle.

They don't have them here to the best of our knowledge, but back in NI, our town council developed a fetish for them in the late '90s. They'd replace T-junctions with them like they were going out of fashion.

I later came to learn that the function of the mini-roundabout wasn't so much to be driven around, more that it was to signify that at the junction, priority was given to traffic from the right, rather than the left, if it were a normal T-junction. Driving straight over the painted circle is apparently quite fine.

May 16th 2016, 7:41 am

#100

Matt Sabre

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Joined: Apr 2016

Posts: 211

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Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc koop

Yeah you seem to be one of those Brits with a blown up sense of your own superiority, the type that gets the rest of us Brits a negative reputation among some Americans

I'm absolutely superior to most yanks.

May 16th 2016, 11:06 am

#101

Bob

BE Site Lead

Joined: Aug 2004

Location: MA, USA

Posts: 92,172

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc koop

Why they'd ever want them in the US is a mystery since all streets in towns and cities run either north-south or east-west and four way stops work just fine.

Have you never driven on the east coast?

May 16th 2016, 11:07 am

#102

Bob

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Joined: Aug 2004

Location: MA, USA

Posts: 92,172

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc koop

I haven't encountered any problems at stops so far. If a driver to my right arrives at his stop the same time as I do mine I always give him right of way across the intersection per the California drivers handbook.

The way 4 way stops work around here, and much of New England...who ever has the biggest motor goes first and they don't care who got to the sign in which order.

May 16th 2016, 11:09 am

#103

Bob

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Joined: Aug 2004

Location: MA, USA

Posts: 92,172

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by robin1234

I love Massachusetts but the great majority of people who live there are complete morons. I don't know why it is, but it's true.

They just drive like dickheads. The worst drivers, for actually being bad at driving would be a close toss up between CT and NJ...verging on CT as the winner.

Southie, though, yeah, definitely a interesting bunch

May 16th 2016, 11:56 am

#104

dc koop

Banned

Joined: Dec 2015

Location: california

Posts: 6,035

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

Have you never driven on the east coast?

No I havent

May 16th 2016, 11:57 am

#105

dc koop

Banned

Joined: Dec 2015

Location: california

Posts: 6,035

Re: WATER

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

The way 4 way stops work around here, and much of New England...who ever has the biggest motor goes first and they don't care who got to the sign in which order.

Must be a lot of angry drivers reaching for the glove box

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