I had a hire car for the for the first stage of my holiday and which I handed back intact – not a scratch. Phew. But I thought that readers might be interested in how I found the driving experience in the US.
First, there’s the whole “driving on the wrong side of the road” thing. This is actually not a problem – it’s such a glaring fact when you’re driving that I’ve never strayed onto the wrong (left) side of the road. That said, it’s much, much easier if you have an automatic – I really wouldn’t want to be driving a manual car in which the gear lever was on the wrong side. Of course, it helps that almost all cars in the US are automatics, or at least almost all hire (“rental”) cars. There was one situation in which being on the wrong side of the car become a real problem, and that was trying to do reverse (“parallel”) parking. I just couldn’t manage it at all. There was this small town in upstate New York where I had three goes at it, and failed miserably each time. It was something to do with the fact that I was on the wrong side of the car, and looking over the wrong shoulder – I just couldn’t manage it at all.
In terms of general driving, I’ve found US drivers to be more considerate than their UK counterparts. This is true both in rural areas, where everybody gives way at intersections – to the point where you can have three or four drivers all waiting for someone else to move – and on the Interstates. Note, however, I didn’t drive in a major city.
Regarding the Interstates, I’m impressed with many aspects of the signage – particularly around Newark where there are a lot of roads, some of them having both “express” and “local” variants, and everything was signed very well. They’re busy, but not as bad as the M25 or the lower end of the M1, say. (At least, not when I was on them.) The one aspect of Interstate signage that I found lacking was the absence of long-distance information. Whereas in the UK you will generally get some long-distance information when you join a motorway, e.g. ‘London’, or ‘The North’, there’s nothing like that here. Local destinations are well signposted but there’s no information to help with longer directions. The Interstates and most other roads have signs indicating which direction you’re going, e.g. “I-84 South” or “17 East”, so you do need to know the longer-distance geography. This perhaps explains something I noticed inside the car – there was a direction indicator on dashboard, and this displayed the broad direction you were headed, e.g “N” or “SW”. So when you were in the middle of nowhere you at least knew your general direction of travel. But I found a couple of maps that I bought before I left very useful. These were Rand-McNally State Maps of New York and New Jersey. I could have done with one of Pennsylvania as well.
Drivers generally keep fairly close to the speed limit, although where some interstates had a 55mph section between longer 65mph sections, not many drivers slowed down in the slower section. I didn’t see any real speed merchants, however. Typically on a 65mph Interstate, almost everyone was doing between 65 and 75, I don’t remember seeing anyone in something big and flash hammering along at 90 (BMW drivers, you know who you are….).
What is different is the speed the trucks go at, of course. They’re not governed as they are in the UK/EU, so you will find big trucks overtaking you at 65 or 70mph. This is a bit disconcerting at first, but you do get used to it – the truck drivers seem to be used to having to pull out to overtake slower vehicles.
The final difference is is the lane discipline, or rather its absence. There doesn’t seem to be any requirement on drivers to sick to the inside lane (which is the right-most lane). Undertaking – passing on the inside – seems to be acceptable here.
Finally, there’s the question of the distances. These are staggering. I did about 800 miles or more in the 5 days I had the car, and that was with one day when I didn’t touch it. Added to this is the paucity of rest stops – opportunities to visit a toilet specifically. Some of the Interstates have “Rest Areas”, and most of these have facilities, but they’re a long way apart (60 miles) even on roads that have them and they may well not be open 24/7. Some roads don’t have any. I spent a long time driving on US Highway 17, which although a dual carriageway (in UK parlance) and pretty much up to Interstate standard, didn’t have any. Thinking about it, it might be a State thing – I saw several along I-80 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey but probably none along the roads in New York.
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