Driving in the US

I've been mentally adding to this post for a few months now, and it seems prescient to post it now with the first of our summer visitors coming. This is meant as a personal guide to driving over here for people who haven't done it before, but I'm not going to start with "drive on the right" and "enjoy spending less than £20 to fill your car from empty". Instead, these are curiosities that I've found over here that I want to share ahead of time.

1. Right on red - Jeremy Clarkson once described this as America's only contribution to Western civilization, and while I disagree with the word "only", I do think it's one of the better road rules over here. The basic gist is to keep traffic moving, especially in rural states like New Hampshire, when you could be waiting for ages for a light to turn green with no traffic coming for miles. If you're at a red light and turning right, you may proceed if it's safe to do so after stopping. There are some intersections where you can't do this, and there will be a big sign saying NO RIGHT TURN ON RED to remind you. If it doesn't say it, you're free to go. It's exhilarating the first time you "run" a red light, but after a while, I wonder how I'll cope without it when I leave the US.

2. Stop means stop - again, this tends to apply to back roads and quieter city streets where the cost of a traffic light intersection isn't worth it for the traffic volume. Instead, you end up with big red STOP signs on each corner. Unlike the UK, where you can proceed at a junction like this if there's no oncoming traffic, here you are expected to stop fully for 3 seconds before moving on. In moving traffic, this rule allows for "zipper" movement, allowing one car in turn from each road to cross so no one road gets blocked by others. On a quiet night, however, it feels strange - made stranger still be item number 3:

3. Police as speed traps - each town has it's own police cars (each one is marked differently) and they are in part responsible for traffic safety within their borders. This includes the usual looking at missing tail lights and dealing with accidents, but also setting up speed traps. In somewhere like my hometown, where there's very little crime, the 3 police cars will often spend their time trying to catch people speeding (and not stopping fully at stop signs). On the one hand, it reduces the pressure of remembering where all the speed cameras are, and as you know there are very few police around, it's tempting to speed everywhere. However, the number of trees and winding roads means there are some great hiding places, so you do have to be careful how fast you go, especially given item 4:

4. Slow speed limits - this applies everywhere. Most roads in New Hampshire look like single lane highways to me, which indicates a 60 mph speed limit. In fact, most of them are 40 (or 45), and those designated as high population (lol) are even 30. It can feel like a snail's pace, especially as you know it's highly unlikely that you'll get busted due to the low police to roads ratio, but the fines are high and it's hard not to giggle (having watched Super Troopers too many times) when you're asked for your license and registration (for the record - this has happened once to me here for a broken tail light). The highway speeds in New Hampshire are 55 or 65 (with a minimum of 45) which makes number 5 even more frustrating:

5. Highway driving - this is one of the things that will drive my friends Vicky and Dave insane; they're from two different circles of friends, but equally irate about motorway driving rules. As far as I can work out, the rules are still the same as the UK, just mirrored. Right hand lane slow and for exits, middle for overtaking the right and left lane for overtaking the middle. However, this isn't the way it works at all. Most Americans refer to the left lane as the "fast lane" and treat it as such. I've happily been driving in the right lane and watched someone move from the middle to the left with no other cars on the road. I've also been driving in the middle lane overtaking one car and watched every single car stay in the middle lane, forcing everyone into 2 lanes. There's no sense of needing to move over, even when you're merging on, and people seem confused when I move to an empty right lane even when I'm driving at 75.

6. Move over for emergency vehicles - this is another one of Vicky's bug bears in the UK. However, in the US, it's the law that you are expected to pull over for an emergency vehicle with sirens on, even if you're on a two lane highway, and even if you're on the other side of the road. It seems excessive to me, but I guess the idea is that if you make it a big deal all of the time, then there's no ambiguity and everyone just gets out the way.

I think that's it for now. I'm sure there are other things that I've just added to my driving repertoire and now no longer consider strange, but they will be brought into sharp relief when I get behind the wheel of a British car again in July.