For UK signage, Triangles warn, rectangles inform, circles give orders. Stop and give way (the triangle is inverted) have unique shapes, so can be identified even if obscured by snow or dirt. European signs in general use symbols so that language is not important and they will make sense to any driver from another European country. US signs write everything in English.
The Europe signs are not only in Europe. Many Countries in Asia, Africa and South America (+Mexico) use the signs regulated (and last changed) in the "Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals" from 1968 Details you can find here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Signs_and_Signals
Let's not forget that in Europe just a few kilometers can take you somewhere with a completely different language and occasionally alphabeth. The signs make it easier to travel in Greece, for instance, where even the letters, not just the language, are completely different.
Not one person in the UK says "Central reserve" 😂 It's a Central Reservation. That's the (usually) grassy area between opposing direction lanes, more often than not divided by an armco barrier.
@@FrankJazzgaming17We also have a whole zoo of different types of crossings which is why we still include the zebra in it's name. eg: Pelican Crossing: controlled by lights Toucan Crossing: Like Pelican but allows cyclists to cross There are also others each with their own set of rules and features.
@@KenFullman Most are also related to the animal in some way, Pelican comes from Pedestrian Light Controlled, Toucan sounds a bit like two-can, Pegasus are similar to horses, puffin is just for its similarity to a pelican but there is a slight difference. Its worth noting outside of Bristol or London very few Pelican crossings still exist most have been replaced with puffin crossings.
The hazard perception test is part of the United Kingdom driving test. The test is intended to check a candidate’s ability to detect developing situations that require a motorist to take some action, such as changing speed or direction.[ The test was introduced in 2002 and updated in 2015 with computer generated clips replacing the live action videos.
Sadly as an experienced driver I spot far more hazards than the test requires. You are not allowed to spot extra hazards! I also passed the theory test with no revision. 40 years after I took the test. Judging by the number of near misses it doesn't work.
The hazard perception test is ridiculous, it scores you but only when you click when the computer wants you to click. You could see the hazard early and click but it was before the computer wanted you to click and you either get no score or a low score. It's rubbish in my opinion, And I've had to do 3, car, motorcycle and truck. Hated every one of them.
@@derekdelboytrotter8881 was gonna say that. I passed the theory easily but scored terribly on hazard and I'm 100% convinced it's because I spotted a hazard before the computer had that 5 second score gap
It is the USA that is out of step on road signs, almost the rest of the world use a unified system as agreed many years ago. Even China follows the same scheme. As for the direction sign shown, it carries lots of information, including the basic shape of the junction you are approaching, the roads leading off of the junction with their road numbers. The gap in the circle is a reminder not to turn right onto the roundabout. We also have large signs showing the exit name etc, but UK colours are International, as used worldwide. Blue background for Motorways, Green for Major Roads , and White for other roads. One thing we do not have is the dreadful 'Four way stop' , we tend to have mini roundabouts with 'Give Way' lines and signs. Much safer and clearer.
Very narrow country roads aren't the majority, but we do have some. They're called single track roads, and they have passing places, which are cut-outs at the side of road, which you pull into, to let other vehicles pass you. Often it involves a technique Americans aren't familiar with, called reversing. 😁
Europe / UK high proportion of narrow rural roads, with tarmac surface. USofA high proportion of unsurfaced rural dirt roads instead, often one vehicle width.
Also passing places are not just for oncoming traffic, but also for traffic that has caught up with you due to them driving at a higher speed than you are comfortable doing. Use the passing place. Let them through. If they end up in a ditch because they were too going fast for the corners, that's on them.
Try driving a double decker bus down a single track road and meeting a lorry (truck for Americans) coming the other way. Company rules forbade reversing to a passing place (passenger safety & place too small anyway) or pulling onto the grass verge & risking a broken axle dropping a wheel into a transverse drainage, ditch. As a small female bus driver I would just stop, prop my elbows on TV he steering wheel rest my chin on my hands & smile at the other driver until he backed up or me. Never failed😊😊
All 'crosswalks' in the UK are named after animals depending on the type of crossing. The orginal: the zebra is so named because of the black & white stripes marked on the road surface. The sign you were confused about was an information sign which was telling you that a roundabout was ahead and showed the direction of each turning off. The names and road numbers in brackets indicates that the direction will lead to another major road ie in that sign M4 & M32 were in brackets because that turning will take you on a road that you can turn off onto one of the signed roads. 'M' roads are motorways and have blue signage. 'A' roads are marked in green, 'B' & 'C' roads in black and white. This sign is in the city of Bristol.
And the break in the roundabout signs shows that you can't get to any of the turnoffs turning right. You can only access them by going left, keeping all traffic going the the same (correct LOL) direction.
And, for reference, a "Ring Road" is not another term for roundabout, but is a circular/orbital road around a town or city (or a busy area of a town/city), to help cut down on traffic on the interior of the "ring".
We call them traffic lights. They still have Red for stop, Amber to warn it's changing and Green for go. But it has been proven that roundabouts drastically cut the number of serious accidents.
The hazard perception test consists of watching a series of video clips on a computer (as part of, and at the same time, as the theory test). As the clip plays, a hazard will develop and you have to click as soon as the hazard is spotted. The earlier you click, the more points are scored, one clip will have 2 hazards to spot. Score enough points and you pass, fail and you have to do both the theory and hazard perception test again.
It's horrendous. After driving in the US for 20 years I noticed all hazards that weren't "computer" hazards and always clicked at the wrong time because I was noticing them too early. In the end I just had to learn to time my clicks and click 3 times, spaced apart
In the UK, we call it Zebra Crossing because the road is marked with black and white stripes. The roads are narrow and slightly complicated especially in central London. There’s an increase of one way roads with no access 🚫 or blocked from oncoming traffic.
It's called a zebra crossing because it has black and white stripes! As for lights: we call the system as a whole "traffic lights". We don't have names for the individual lights, they are just called the red light and green light.
Fun fact! (Or somewhat dull) We have 5 types of crossing, all named after animals. Zebra crossing - normal pedestrian crossing called that for the black and white stripes Pelicon crossing - PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing, press button which turns lights red and let's people cross Puffin crossing - more modern version of the pelicon crossing, it has sensors that detect when people are still crossing and to detect when people are waiting to cross, still has a push button. Pegasus crossing (also called an Equestrian Crossing) these are for where bridleways reach a road, basically the same as a pelicon crossing but has the buttons higher to be used by a horse rider Toucan crossing - play on "TWO CAN CROSS" these are made for pedestrians and bicycles to use where there is a cycle path
The roads in the UK are far narrower and are much more windy than in the US. Where I've lived in the Lincolnshire countryside all my life most roads are very narrow to the point that they've no pavements lining them and if you meet an oncoming car then one of you has to pull over onto the grass verge to let the other person pass. The two way road, (one lane in each direction) is literally a six foot wide strip of tarmac so it's not wide enough for two cars to pass each other without one having to pull onto the grass. These roads are totally unlit and can be so windy that you drive five miles of road to do a two mile direct journey across the fields between two villages. Obviously these areas are a total contrast to the fully integrated public transport system in London and so a personal car is absolutely essential.
Most of those roads were laid out width wise when all travel was by foot or horse (maybe with a small carriage if you were lucky) I for one am glad they decided to keep them closer to what they were instead of widening all the beautiful country lanes we have, it's really not hard to reverse a little and pull in to let an on coming car pass I never understood why so many people are afraid to drive in narrow lanes most people I know refuse to go near any kind of lane unless I drive for them lol
Stuart Fitch ... Yes the unlit roads are a nightmare here in South Lincolnshire, especially when it comes to animals, deer, badgers and the odd fox litter the side of the roads around here where they have been hit by vehicles. Of course if you are unlucky enough to hit a deer head on then its not only the animal that's worst for wear.
We moved from London to just outside Lincoln 6 years ago and the fact there’s literally no traffic congestion up here was one of the biggest attractions. Yeah the roads are narrow but that’s the same in rural areas all over Europe. We drove to Emmendingen in the Black Forest a few months ago and believe me when I say those roads in the surrounding villages round there made the Lincolnshire lanes look like the M1! 😮
Interestingly enough, the reason why roads wind as much as they do is to do with laws that once prohibited the removal of trees, thus roads had to go round them, usually following the contour of the land.
To put into perspective about not needing a car in the UK, where I live I have 4 train stations, about 10 bus stops, 3 parks, 6 schools, 3 tram stops & 2 large supermarkets & numerous smaller grocery shops all within 5-10 minutes walk from me. ❤️🇬🇧
I can't even imagine that. We don't have any busses or trains. I do have quite a few nice parks near by but if I were to walk it would probably take me 45 minutes to get to the grocery store.
A lot of people in Europe choose where to live and apply for jobs based on access to public transport, hence the less car ownership. It means house prices/rent is more closer to train stations.
US Zoning laws are why the USA is so car centric ... it is relatively recent and nothing to do with the size of the country Australia has very good public transport, most people don't need a car to go work, but most families still own a car (singular), but will also do insane journeys that UAians would think crazy (just pop up to mom's - drive north for 12 hours and you're there, it's easy ... )
It's worth pointing out that public transport is not great everywhere in the UK. I grew up in a village of about 1000 people in the south Midlands and we had a bus that would pick you up in the morning going one direction, then drop you back in the village coming back in the late afternoon. That was it. Learning to drive was absolutely essential as soon as you turned 17.
Having served in the British Army, I had no problems driving on either side of the road nor handling left or right hand drive, I owned a British Car in Germany, so right hand drive, but the military vehicles were left hand drive. Having passed my test in the UK (went from motorcycles to 4 tonne trucks) I have had to complete the theory test in which ever country I served, Germany, UK, Canada, Jordan, Egypt. The most fun I had was passing my tank driving test.
I find the only time I have to concentrate when driving on the right hand side of the road is at roundabouts. Driving in the States is child's play. So easy.
I spent so many years driving various forklifts - will say it's actually better when a vehicle is left hand drive , all forklifts are laid out as a left hand drive vehicle its right hand drive that feels odd to me
There are some country lanes (they are referred to as lanes, even though they are roads) that are so narrow with hedgerows that come right up to the roadside, no one can pass at all. Every so often there is a "cutout" on the side of the road that one car has to pull into to allow the other to pass - if you see someone coming in time, you can pull in and wait for them to pass, otherwise one of you will have to reverse back until there's space for the other to get past you.
One good video to watch is Evan Edinger's 'British vs American' driving video, where they talk about the differences in driving culture and learning how to drive, with both a British and American perspective 😊
I'm surprised he didn't mention 'Turn Right on Red' which doesn't exist here in the UK. A piece of trivia in Australia in the outback they will have wide roads but only the central part of the road is tarmacked. So you drive in the middle of the road until you meet somebody coming in the opposite direction when you drive half on the tarmac and half on the gravel at your side.
That's seems a pretty good system. Unfortunately - or fortunately - most country roads in rural areas are very old and have farmers' fields/hedgerows/walls either side
Yep same where I l work and live in the Cotswolds. I also drive for Waitrose and have to go down some unbelievable small roads. Some of which were only originally for horses.
Apart from spine roads (wider roads that run through an area for several miles) rural lanes/roads are often very narrow. I live on the North/Mid Devon borders. When you learn to drive on UK country roads you can drive anywhere.
I used to live in Lincolnshire, hundreds and hundreds of narrow country lanes there, coming to live in Wisconsin, no such thing, lot’s of side roads but still plenty of room, one other big difference in roads, almost every type of road in the states have a wide kept up gravel side strip wide enough so slow moving vehicles like tractors etc can drive on that to avoid ques of traffic building up behind.
@Smear Campaign usually a Londoner In a big car like a merc.but it can apply to any tourists outsiders in Cornwall they call them Emmet's.i just pull in and laugh at the grockels they are everywhere from June onwards to September when they decide to go back home
British signs (in terms of one’s instructing you about directions and distance) are really well thought out for quick readability which is why they mix upper and lowercase and have they spacing they do, colour coding and use of symbols that are pretty standard internationally. Also the signs he compared are somewhat apples and oranges - one is for a large roundabout the other is for an interstate exit warning
"We have Honda Accords, so we have small cars". This kind of demonstrates the difference in car size. The Accord would be considered a medium to large car in the UK. A Civic would be a far more popular and average sized UK Honda model and the Jazz would be the small one.
In the US you maybe can bu a VW-Passat (US-Model is bigger than the European one) and consider the GOLF as a "small" car. But VW in Europe the Golf is a common "middle class" car and the VW-Polo or VW-UP are the smaller ones. Same with BMW/Mercedes and Audi - In the US these are seen as Premium "only for Millionairs" - Cars because only the expensive, big and powerful cars are sold in the US. I looked for the Prices on their web-pages for Germany (without sales discount). Cheapest BMW in Germany: 30.600€ - BMW 1 Tpical US BMW: BMW 3 M Sports 73.900€ cheapest Audi in Germany: Audi A1 - 21.700€ Typical US Audi: Audi RS4 -86.500€ up to RS eTron GT 142.500€ cheapest Mercedes in Germany - A-Class 36.800€ Typical US Mercedes: AMG E63 - 87.000€ (found only price for the E53) All prices for the base model (no extras)
Cars have got bigger over the years though. The current polo is bigger than the original golf. And the current civic is enormous compared to the original.
A Honda Accord would be considered a midsize car in the US as well. A small car is a Civic as you said. We don’t have as many of the sub-compact and sometimes even smaller cars that they have in Europe. When I was in Europe and I saw some of those super small cars. I was just terrified because if you got in an accident with one of those in the US you would be dead.
Yes, in general, in the UK and throughout Europe, rural roads are significantly narrower than country roads in the US. Being much older, other than former Roman roads, they are much more windy too. Fewer than 1 percent of European highway mileage is more than six lanes too. The closest thing I saw to UK country roads during my years in the US were some rural routes in Virginia and West Virginia. My oldest took his test in VA and the supervised road part took about 15 minutes. My youngest took his in England and his road test took almost an hour and incl: parallel parking, hill starts, reversing into a side road, etc. Also, he had to have proof of 20 hrs of registered driving school instruction before the test.
I grew up in a farming area where the roads are only just wide enough for a lorry (normally a milk tanker) to drive though. There was even grass growing in the middle of the road. There was no public transport though, but 3 miles away there was a bus to Exeter twice a week. Now it is 4 times a day and travels from Exeter to Barnstaple. Where I live now there is a regular bus service until 2pm. But due to the way multiple sclerosis effects me I never learnt to drive as I was diagnosed with MS when I was 18.
You sound like you are from my neck of the woods! I drive the lanes every day to get to and from work. I would say that it makes up around 60% of my driving. They are ok when you know them, where the passing places are etc. and other users drive carefully when they get to blind bends etc. The problem is mainly when users that are not familiar with them, enter them and see the national speed limit signs and think it means they are safe to drive down them at 60mph. That is where the trouble lies in every case! Oh and those that refuse, or cannot , reverse (yup, actually had an old lady once tell me that she can't drive in reverse!!) to a passing place 2 car lengths behind them but instead expect others to reverse 400 yards to get out of THEIR way! The lanes are ok for light or local traffic but because of the narrow passing places, are not able to cope with heavy traffic flow at all and diversions or people trying to avoid accidents etc, cause more problems than if they waited it out on the main routes as the passing places are not designed to fit more than 1 or 2 cars in them.
"Licence" is the noun, "license" is the verb (in the UK). The same applies for some other words, for example: "a doctor practises medicine at a doctors' practice." p.s. Thanks for the videos :)
Signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Some counties have English first (Clwyd), while others Welsh first (Gwynedd). A ring road is a road which goes round a town or city in a ring in order to take traffic out of the city / town and make travelling across to the other side easier and quicker, even if it is a longer route (in miles).
A parkway isn’t like a highway. A parkway is a train station located in the outskirts of a city. A train station located in the centre of a city is sometimes called Central.
A non driver discussing driving. As someone who does not drink coffee, look out for my vid on the types and blends of coffee available. I am sure it will be as accurate.
We have a few roundabouts in the UK🤣- 4 miles to our favourite weekly shopping means negotiating 6 roundabouts which we do with the smug confidents of a UK citizen😃
A big difference for me was in teh states you are allowed to drive through a red light if turning right but you must stop in the UK when the red light is showing!
Motorway services are places on the motorway that you can stop, get food, go to the loo or even stay over night (in a Premier Inn or Travelodge usually). They vary in size and will usually have at least garage to get fuel and a shop to a whole load of shops, takeaway places and places for you to buy stuff for your trip as well as an over night stay
When my husband and I were driving in England we found the signs going into the roundabouts overwhelming. In our first roundabout we missed the turn off we wanted and did what we would have done in North America… and got out at the next exit…which took us miles out of our way with nary a place to turn around and go back. Now we know what we should have done was to make another circuit around the roundabout to get back to the right exit. You live and learn🤦♀️
One thing a lot of us native Brits/Europeans don't really notice because it's so normal to us are just how many street signs we have EVERYWHERE. Normally they just kinda merge into the background, but if ever I stop and deliberately notice just how many street signs are on display, I can usually spot at least a dozen every few hundred yards.
@@reactingtomyroots - islands/roundabouts are incredibly easy and efficient to use but, like anything, takes a bit of getting used to if you’ve not used them before.
Factor in high hedges and tight bends and you’re often driving blind. Keep your speed down so you can brake suddenly, watch for the passing places as you may need to reverse into one, and feel free to sound your horn before a sharp bend so that anything that’s out of sight but coming towards you knows to be careful. Tractors always get right of way!!
Thank you for all these videos on your channel, being from the UK it's good to learn the differences and I've learnt a lot from your channel regarding the US.
Fun fact: there is a split in British roundabout signage to remind European tourists that, a roundabout in the UK flows clockwise, where in most of Europe they flow counter-clockwise.
Fender (US) = wing (UK) - the panels with the wheel arches in them. Bumpers are bumpers on both sides of the Atlantic. The UK road sign shown in this video was one you'd generally see around towns and cities, on A or some B roads and on motorway junctions once you've left/before you enter a motorway (the split in it denotes you don't go anticlockwise on a roundabout), so not comparable to the US interstate/highway sign - if he'd put a UK motorway sign (the massive blue ones with white writing), then that was more of a direct comparison to the US one. Motorway signs don't have that level of detail as ones on dual carriageways, A or some B roads. Zebra crossings are called that as they're black and white striped. A classic example of a zebra crossing known worldwide being the Abbey Road crossing the Beatles used on their album cover. There are also pelican crossings and toucan crossings.
It’s called a zebra crossing because like zebras the crossing is marked by black and white stripes. He didn’t mention it but we also have Pelican crossings too.
When I drove a left hand drive car I kept punching the door with my left hand every time I reached for the gearstick. Took me ages to stop doing that. 😂😂
@@susanashcroft2674 I travel from the Uk over to Europe quite a lot, sometimes on the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam in my own car & sometimes I fly to wherever & take a hire car, obviously left-hand drive. It's surprising how quickly one gets used to driving on the right side of the road & sitting on the left to drive!
@@Bikeops2021 That's right, I think it is probably easier for Europeans in respect of people be it for social or commercial reasons travel a lot more around Europe so people adapt more and are used to changing over sides. Where as in the US I think people see it as quite a thing, somewhat daunting or scary even mainly because they have never been abroad, or their neighbouring countries all drive on the right hand side of the road.
I love that you are reading it surprised by the British wording and I'm sitting here surprised by the American wording. Answers so many questions tho for us over here too
Interesting fact about the zebra crossing, as others have mentioned it's because of the black and white stripes on the road. Other road crossings are; Pelican crossing, when you have a button to change the traffic lights for pedestrians to cross, and, Puffin crossing where there is a blinking light on a pole to warn drivers to watch for pedestrians as there are no traffic lights, so they may just walk out. Additional fun fact, crossing guards as called Lollipop Ladies/Men because of their big round warning signs.
The (full-time) blinking light on a pole is used on a zebra crossing. A Pelican (or "Pelicon" for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled) crossing also uses a flashing amber after the red to tell drivers "You can go, but must give way to pedestrians on the crossing". A Puffin (Pedestrian User-Friendly INtelligent) crossing differs from a Pelican in two ways: 1. It has a sensor which detects the presence (or otherwise) of pedestrians on the crossing, so it can lengthen or shorten the time that the light is red for vehicular traffic. 2. It uses the same light sequence as "normal" traffic lights (green -> amber -> red -> red+amber -> green), using red+amber instead of the Pelican's flashing amber.
I don’t recall it being mentioned in the video, but we actually have 3 traffic lights. Red, Amber/Orange, Green. Amber/Orange is to tell the driver to “get ready” for the green light
1:40 - There are a lot of roads in the UK that are so narrow you have to pull over to let someone pass, like there's a lot you will never be more than about 10 minutes away from one. But these are the very very old legacy Roman roads that are still obviously there and do serve some properties but these have basically all been replaced by "normal" 2 way roads that even a lorry (or semi to use US speak) would fit down, plus lots of "highways" so while there are lots of roads like that, you'll very rarely need to use them, many drivers have probably never driven on one because there are so many newer wider roads that serve where you need to go. Generally you'd only go down a very old road to access am address or something that's a very old house and when you do use these roads you rarely see anyone else they are extremely quiet usually.
Beg to differ I live I rural wales and the closest road 2 cars can pass without pulling over is about 7 miles and the Romans didn't make it here rearly lorrys can bearly make it but have to to service the shops and pubs round here
Many if the old Roman Roads have been made into motorways, they were so straight, and led from one main town to the next. They mainly run north south which is a shame when you want to travel across the country. It's about time Cornwall got a motorway. And the M3 should be extended to Exeter. Never going to happen....
Not sure where you live but I've lived in the North East, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Lancashire and there are plenty of narrow roads with passing places. When I lived in Norfolk there was only 22 miles of dual carriageway and no motorways in the whole county
Yes very obvious that you do not live in or even close to the countryside. I'm in rural Norfolk, and close to me we even have a section of dual carriageway, where each side is a narrow single track. Still it's a dual carriageway in a National Speed Limit area, so has a 70mph limit. Back in the day I came close to breaking that by 30mph in my new MkII XR2. Because that's the other thing that is really common here, we do seem on the whole to drive a lot faster than they do in the US, even given our smaller roads.
Motorway services in the UK tend to have at least some kind of convenience store, a coffee shop, and a couple of places to buy a meal, one of which is probably McDonald's or Burger King, they also have toilets, showers and a petrol station.
One thing he didn't mention is the handbrake (UK) or parking brake (US). This is one of the most important controls in the UK driving test, particularly on hills. We are required to have the handbrake applied at any time the vehicle is not moving. When starting off you are tested on the co-ordination between handbrake, clutch and accelerator.
The parking brake or emergency brake, (e-brake) is on the floor in a lot of US cars. Very few manual cars are being sold, and many cars come with a "hill assist" system, where the brakes will hold for a second or two after releasing the foot brake on an incline to allow the driver to get their foot to the accelerator.
@@Cheepchipsable In the UK most manual cars from 2010 or so also have "hill assist" or "hill start assist" that engages when the car detects that you're on an incline.
29:20 those signs are confusing at first but you get used to them. Rather than having a lot of single signs for destinations, they show the entire circuit of the loop of road (ring road) and tell you what exits take you where. Saves on fabrication costs
When I last rented a car in Spain (stick shift) - for the first hour or so I went to change gear and then kept hitting the door with my left hand. Don't worry it doesn't take long - We have easy transport links for vehicles to France - so a lot of us will have driven a right hand drive car on the right hand side of the road (including me) the Eurotunnel links them in around half an hour so you can be driving on different sides within an hour. On the journey I change my dashboard to kilometres from miles per hour and seriously adjust the mirrors (this is the main thing) - we also have to adjust our headlights to point the other way or put stickers on them to direct them so they don't dazzle oncoming traffic. With the narrow roads - they will usually have passing places for you or the other driver to pull into so that you or they can pass
Hi Steve! A lot of the road signs are a little different and yeah, some roads are very narrow. Many eastern European roads are wide, largely to facilitate tanks. I am sure a great many American roads were narrow during the British colonial era. I know, only like 300 years ago 🤣
The gap in the road or 'split' on the road sign is because you are entering a roundabout and the split is there to remind everyone, including foreign visitors, that there is no through way to the right, left turning only. The split will always be on the immediate right of the road you are joining the roundabout from.
Roundabouts work well in the UK (and we have lots of them). Although we’re accustomed to them there are some that fill me with dread. Watch a video about ‘The Magic Roundabout’ in Swindon. It might blow your mind! 😂
The Hazard Perception test is done on a computer - its basically a short video from a dash cam perspective and you have to click to register when you spot a potential hazard (such as vehicles emerging from junctions or hidden behind obstructions, incoming emergency vehicles, and cyclists) along the journey. You're scored based on accuracy, so ideally you don't want to miss any, but you can't just spam the mouse button either because you're marked down for repeated clicks where there are no hazards. It's a relatively brief part of the qualification and something you do at the same time as your theory (i.e. you need to pass these both before you can attempt your physical driving test).
I live in a town with something called the magic roundabout One main roundabout with six other roundabouts around it. Quite famous and totally confusing, even where I live people panic when they have to use it !!!😂
The road sign with Stoke Gifford is very familiar to me, I use that roundabout several times a month. Parkway is the name of the local railway station. Stoke Gifford, Bradley Stoke and Winterbourne are villages. The break in the roundabout is to show that you can only go left not right. You would enter the roundabout from the bottom (having left McDonalds!), the small roads without a pointed end are roads that are entering the roundabout so not available for you to drive onto.
The red border around the name denotes a military Establishment (MOD Abbey Wood). The symbol next to Parkway denotes a railway station. It was the logo for the long defunct BR(British Railways) two opposing arrows which could also mean the tracks of a railway junction.
YES…. 😂 Country roads are very very narrow. Barely getting a car down if another car comes in the opposite direction you need to reverse, all the way back… once I reversed back at least half a mile down a winding narrow road in the dark with the street lights! 🤣🤣🤣 There’s normally no pulling over… there’s a gap every half a mile where the road widens but there isn’t anywhere you can instantly pull your car over.
The Parkway you saw is a railway station, not a highway. Parkway stations are usually located away from urban areas and have 'park & ride' facilities. For example, East Midlands Parkway which is located in a more rural area beside a power station.
Where live in outer London having a car is very costly. You need a parking permit. It costs a lot to park. And now they are trying to introduce the ULEZ zone round me that means cars older than 5 years will cost me £12.50 a day to use on the roads round me. That's pretty much the same as unlimited london transport for the day! A roads are the main roads that are single or sometimes dual carriageway, B roads are narrow country roads that may need a passing pull in and finally motorways are 3 or 4 lane roads. All these have numbers after the type so B123, A123 M25.
The break in the Roundabout sign is there for visitors from right sided driving countries is there to show to have to enter and go around the roundabout from the left, the break is on the right. I only learned this recently and have been driving for over 30 years.
The confusing road sign looks straightforward to me - first exit off the roundabout - Ring Road; second exit - Stoke Gifford; third exit, Ring Road in the other direction; fourth exit - racecourse (probably back where you've come from). And I don't drive! Plus, a ZEB-ra has black and white stripes. Like the crossing. Interestingly, a crossing that's controlled by buttons for the pedestrian is called a PELICAN crossing, or even a PUFFIN crossing. This is because British people like birds, I think. It's strange you say we have a reputation for having a great public transport system. I feel most people would say we have a pretty poor system - compared to the Continent. It's expensive, often not reliable, and is being systematically run down. I have mentioned before, I haven't driven for 25 years. I didn't learn until I was 23 and stopped at 38, so my whole driving career lasted 15 years. I always hated it, and as time went by I grew more and more nervous. (I believe that the opposite is true for most people.) As soon as I was able to, I packed it in. There are the occasional times when I miss some things about it. I used to quite like doing a 'big shop'. I can't hire a car abroad and do some exploring. I can't just wake up and look at a blue sky and drive out to the seaside. And I'm at the mercy of public transport strikes - in a few weeks there's a rail strike, I'm due in London for a concert (Beth Hart), and I have to work how to get home from London at 11 at night. I think I'll have to take the coach to Stansted airport and then on from there. But above all, I know longer have the incredible expense and overwhelming worry of having and driving a car, and that's fine by me.
It's because we have a lot of narrow roads with tractors lorry buses on these rds so you need to know to give way to the large vehicles and they need extra space for turning
Comment from American visitors, “The side you drive on is the smallest of the differences” the signage (like destinations in parentheses) roundabouts, no straight wide roads, no grid, no shoulders, limited expensive parking, speed and bus lane cameras, road numbering system, cyclists.
The split in the roundabout sign informs you which way around that you have to drive, the split is in the sign only not in the actual road. European roundabout signs have the split on the opposite side. A sat-nav would inform you which exit to take, 1st, 2nd etc.
The "narrow road" thing needs a bit more explanation: Yes COUNTRY roads can be narrow. If you went for a drive in touristy, rural Cornwall you'll find narrow roads with high hedges. But most people in the UK live in towns and cities and drive longer distances on motorways. They aren't narrow, they're pretty much the same as the US.
The hazard perception test is part of the United Kingdom driving test. The test is intended to check a candidate’s ability to detect developing situations that require a motorist to take some action, such as changing speed or direction.
The sign you were confused by was for a roundabout. Large roundabout signs will have either a circle or an oval shape with branches coming off them. Each branch refers to one of the exits from the roundabout. Each exit on the sign will tell you where that exit will take you. So first exit takes you to place A, 2nd exit to place B, 3rd exit to place C etc. An American fender is not called the bumped in the UK. The bumper is exactly the same. It's the front or rear metal (on old cars) or plastic (on new cars) bumper strip that runs across the front or rear of the car. An American fender is the car's front or rear quarter panels. The front or rear quarter of the car's body work on either the driver or passenger side of the car. We don't call them fenders, but we can refer to them as quarter panels.
That complicated road sign was coming up to a large roundabout with the town/cities and road numbers for each exit so you know which to take. It wasn't a very fair comparison as the American sign was just directing to one place. Funny that you wondered if we have more roundabouts and then couldn't remember seeing a single one where you live. We even have roundabouts in tiny villages as a painted circle on the road, up to massive ones with trees in the middle. We have them all over the place. I don't know how you can stand all the crossroad junctions with traffic lights and having to stop all the time instead of merging into a round about when there's space. So much easier.
Hazzord purseption in the UK is very important. My fathers car was trashed by a STAG , he was in the Highlands driving in the dark ( in winter its dark for 20hrs a day) a Sttag tryed to jump across the wee road and landed on/in the pasenger seat. Police were suprisingly happy, once they knew he had no plans to remove the dead (venison), all was fine. The Stag was put on a trailor and off it went, the land owner was informed, but it was a nice hall for the locals.
Uk road signs are designed to be independent of language. Being close to Europe we have many foreign drivers unlike the USA. Fender as the bodywork around above the wheel would be wing in UK
Yes the country roads are tiny! I live in the north west of England, surrounded by country side. And I remember back in the 80’s when I was a little girl (showing my age!) my dad had a “wide” car. It was an old Rover, 3.5ltr engine. When going over the country roads, if anyone was driving the opposite way, either they, or my dad had to basically pull into the bushes or whatever was lining the roads, just to get passed.
Driving in the Lake District on a Spring evening,almost took my breath away. I can’t believe the scenic contrasts within a few miles in the U.K. The Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales are next to each other both utterly stunning and yet totally different. I have friends in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire. My God, why was nature so kind to the British. The greenery, the flowers.
I live in a very rural area for the UK. The nearest city is nearly 30miles away. I used to live and work in a big city but about 6 years ago changed to a work from home job and moved back to my small home town. I have a car but frankly it's on its last legs and I haven't driven for over 4 years. Don't miss it. No expenses due to the car. 50min bus ride to the city if I need to go in - maybe once every two months. Nearest train station also in the city which makes traveling further afield more difficult however you just end up prioritising if you really need to make the trip.
It is funny driving on the left hand side of the car abroad on holiday with manual gearstick when your brain goes to change gear and you put your hand in the door storage pouch 🤣🤣
There’s a really good video on the roundabout sign somewhere, but the gist is; the split is telling you to go around clockwise (you can’t turn right onto it), the names and numbers at each branch are telling you what towns and roads are down that branch (you would say, for example “Take the second exit to get to Stoke.”) the branches with points on are exits that you can drive down and the ones with flat ends are entrances that other people will be driving onto the roundabout from.
I'm originally from a country that drives on the right but I'm living in England for the last 10 years I have a car drives licence for almost 20 years I can tell that the gear changer is not a issue the most important issue is to evaluate the car dimensions related to the road it was my only struggle I was constantly hitting the curb (sidewalk) on the left for the first month or so
Parkway with the little hash means railway station. As I’ve driven on the road where this sign exists I promise it’s not really complicated, usually just stop start traffic on a roundabout in every direction!😊
The theory test and hazard perception test are generally taken at the same time. It is all done on a computer with the hazard perception portion being a timing test. Essentially the student needs to click the mouse button when they notice something come on screen that could be a road hazard like a car approaching from a side street or children playing ball near the road. Also the theory portion probably covers a lot more than its equivalent in the USA as it includes subjects like first aid. Generally people need to study a book called the 'Highway Code' which is updated every year as well as use tuition programs that can be obtained online (which also change on an annual basis in line with the highway code) before they are able to take this part of the test. Another point is that until you get your full licence, learners have to be accompanied by an adult (who has held a full driving licence for at least 3 years and is over 21 years old), there must be an insurance policy that provides for learner drivers booked and there must be 'L' plates affixed to the front and back of the car to signify that a 'learner' driver is controlling the vehicle. After the tests have been passed many people swap out the 'L' plates for 'P' plates to signify that they are a 'probationary' driver and may not be very confident on the road by themselves. This part is entirely voluntary. Just an aside, pick-up trucks are quite rare in the UK. Generally speaking they don't work very well on our roads. Generally speaking the only people that make much use of them are either builders (who usually fit a lockable top over the flat-bed) and farmers. Most of our vehicles are small city cars (like the VW Up), hatch-backs (like the VW Golf or Ford Focus), large family cars and SUV's. There are also vans (a van is what we call smaller goods vehicles like the Ford Transit range) and trucks. The sign that caused confusion at 27:47 denotes a roundabout. The text on there denotes the roads leading from the roundabout are going (for example Yate) along with the roads name or designation (such as A 432) to aid navigation. You are always approaching from the bottom line. Also what you describe as a 'fender' we would describe as a wheel-arch. Generally most of us Brits think that your term of 'fender' translates as 'bumper' over hear because of what we hear from American media such as the prhase 'fender bender' to denote a collision.
Not sure where you live but I would disagree. Many of the people I know drive 4wd or trucks. Think of all the Land rovers or Range rovers about. My last vehicle was an Isuzu denver truck. Steve in London you can see a number of large 4wd vehicles. They have the nickname Chelsea Tractors
Zebra Crossing comes about because it is a black and white lined crossing... Very thick white lines, same size black. And the road sign he showed was actually for a roundabout, showing what is at each exit.
There is more to it than just public transport or lack of it. Zoneing/planning laws play a huge part in the need for cars in America. In the UK there are shops, restaurants, bars, etc where people actually live. In the USA these are restricted, so the need for a car is much greater, this is also reflected in the annual mileage.
Yup! Irish woman here. Yes, the majority of Irish country roads are extremely narrow. I'm 51 years old now, living in Dublin my whole life, when I was a child, my Dad would take us down to Wexford for holidays during the summer. He would take the "back roads" as they were called. They were extremely narrow. Back then, ALL country roads were so narrow, you could fit only one car on them, if a car was coming in the opposite direction, it took great skill to move to the side to let them pass. Even more skill if you had a tractor coming the other way. In Ireland we call pavements paths. We call them Zebra Crossings because of the black/white stripe design like the patterns of the zebra.
As a Brit, I have visited the USA and driven many miles there. The main thing I noticed is that must towns and city are on a grid system. Many of the small townships have the same selection of shops and motels, like a Skooby Doo catoon! However, I found the standard of driving in the USA was very good. I found the right turn on right very convenient. That would be left turn on red in the UK if allowed. I did get to drive down Lombard Street in San Francisco.
That is a thing. Not regular roads, but country lanes are definitely a thing, at least around here (near swansea) and back where I'm from (near the rhondda valleys). edit - the junction sign with the ring road sign looks so odd because it'll be a roundabout. We have loads and you only have a few.
29:27 I knew I recognized that sign. It's literally down the road from my university and as a brit learning to drive and can tell you those roundabouts are quite daunting when you see them.
Zebra crossings are painted white and black stripes (like a zebra) with yellow flashing lights at each end. They are pedestrian controlled which means If a pedestrian touches the crossing with their foot the cars must stop by law. We also have light controlled crossings often called pelican or puffin crossings (Don't ask me why). That sign shows a large roundabout - The red symbol is a railway station, Blue backgrounds are motorways, green are major roads that are not motorway. Our roads go M (motorway) A (Major roads) B (minor roads) and unclassified which tend to be the narrowest and can be single vehicle width. The roads in brackets are roads that join up later - so if you want to get to the motorway follow the junction pointing to the road in brackets.
What advice I would give to anyone thinking of visiting the UK and driving is to purchase the most recent edition of The Highway Code. It is the guidance for all road users. It explains the differences between what is allowed on different roads (ie no parking on motorways unless you've broken down, different speed limits), types of road crossings, all road signs, and everything you could possibly need to know about driving such as best practice overtaking or indicating to leave a roundabout.
Being British myself, obviously I find the interchange sign easy to read, but that's because I'm used to it. In many ways it gives a lot more information than the American one - in particular it shows a map of the roads immediately ahead. The line pointing downwards is the road you're on, so in this example (in north Bristol), the gap in the loop means that there's no way through by turning right as you enter the loop, so you must turn left. Once on the loop, the first exit is the A38 to Filton (a suburb of Bristol, which is historically important as it's the location of the airfield from which Concorde flew its first test flights back in the late 60s - in those days they flew supersonic tests over the Bristol Channel, which were amazing to see and hear as a young boy living in South Wales - the sonic booms used to rattle the old wooden-framed windows we had back then - but I digress). The second exit is the A4174 ring road that serves as a route around Bristol without having to go through the city. Third exit is Stoke Gifford Parkway train station (the red and white symbol indicates a train station in Britain - two white lines with arrows going in opposite directions on a red background). Fourth exit links to the ring road again as well as to the M32 motorway, which heads right into the city, as well as to the M4 which is the main motorway from West Wales all the way to London. Any UK road number that starts with M means that it's a motorway - as does the white text on a blue background The fifth exit heads off to Yate on the A432 while the sixth exit goes to Abbey Wood which is a government (Ministry Of Defence in this case) office complex that was first opened in the mid 90s So yeah these kind of signs are pretty easy to read once you realise that they're effectively just a simple map of the road junctions directly ahead - the same sort of thing you'd see on your satnav screen
There is an exception to getting your full license at 17in the UK. You can, if disabled and receiving the highest rate of disability welfare benefits, get your full license at 16.
For UK signage, Triangles warn, rectangles inform, circles give orders. Stop and give way (the triangle is inverted) have unique shapes, so can be identified even if obscured by snow or dirt. European signs in general use symbols so that language is not important and they will make sense to any driver from another European country. US signs write everything in English.
The Europe signs are not only in Europe. Many Countries in Asia, Africa and South America (+Mexico) use the signs regulated (and last changed) in the "Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals" from 1968
Details you can find here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Signs_and_Signals
Let's not forget that in Europe just a few kilometers can take you somewhere with a completely different language and occasionally alphabeth. The signs make it easier to travel in Greece, for instance, where even the letters, not just the language, are completely different.
It's same inside cars, in Europe a lot of the buttons and switches use symbols, but in America it's actually written in English 😂
I was always confused by the American sign "PED XING". I thought it was the name of some Chinese guy, but he's everywhere!!
@@DSP16569 I think the Vienna Conventon adopted a similar system to the one introduced in the UK in 1965 which was developed from the Continent.
Not one person in the UK says "Central reserve" 😂
It's a Central Reservation.
That's the (usually) grassy area between opposing direction lanes, more often than not divided by an armco barrier.
Signs it's a roundabout and the bit in blue m22 is a motorway aka highway
Zebra crossing is called that because it's painted black and white
@@FrankJazzgaming17We also have a whole zoo of different types of crossings which is why we still include the zebra in it's name. eg:
Pelican Crossing: controlled by lights
Toucan Crossing: Like Pelican but allows cyclists to cross
There are also others each with their own set of rules and features.
@@KenFullman Most are also related to the animal in some way, Pelican comes from Pedestrian Light Controlled, Toucan sounds a bit like two-can, Pegasus are similar to horses, puffin is just for its similarity to a pelican but there is a slight difference. Its worth noting outside of Bristol or London very few Pelican crossings still exist most have been replaced with puffin crossings.
The hazard perception test is part of the United Kingdom driving test. The test is intended to check a candidate’s ability to detect developing situations that require a motorist to take some action, such as changing speed or direction.[
The test was introduced in 2002 and updated in 2015 with computer generated clips replacing the live action videos.
Sadly as an experienced driver I spot far more hazards than the test requires. You are not allowed to spot extra hazards! I also passed the theory test with no revision. 40 years after I took the test. Judging by the number of near misses it doesn't work.
@@womble321 Agreed, Its a rubbish test. It shows you have practice the test.
@@womble321 it was the same for me.
The hazard perception test is ridiculous, it scores you but only when you click when the computer wants you to click. You could see the hazard early and click but it was before the computer wanted you to click and you either get no score or a low score. It's rubbish in my opinion, And I've had to do 3, car, motorcycle and truck. Hated every one of them.
@@derekdelboytrotter8881 was gonna say that. I passed the theory easily but scored terribly on hazard and I'm 100% convinced it's because I spotted a hazard before the computer had that 5 second score gap
It is the USA that is out of step on road signs, almost the rest of the world use a unified system as agreed many years ago. Even China follows the same scheme.
As for the direction sign shown, it carries lots of information, including the basic shape of the junction you are approaching, the roads leading off of the junction with their road numbers. The gap in the circle is a reminder not to turn right onto the roundabout.
We also have large signs showing the exit name etc, but UK colours are International, as used worldwide. Blue background for Motorways, Green for Major Roads , and White for other roads.
One thing we do not have is the dreadful 'Four way stop' , we tend to have mini roundabouts with 'Give Way' lines and signs. Much safer and clearer.
@@josephturner7569 as do the US, I found them pretty dangerous when I worked there as most people just drove straight through them
@@josephturner7569 yep lol. 🙂
@@josephturner7569 The Netherlands also has flashing yellow lights on some low-traffic junctions at night.
I like 4 way stops as at least we know what they mean. I have no clue how to use a roundabout and I doubt many Americans do x
In the UK we give way to traffic from the right in Europe they give way to traffic from the left it's quicker and easier to move
It's called a Zebra crossing because it's made up of black and white stripes. Look at the cover of the Beatles album "Abbey Road" for reference.
Very narrow country roads aren't the majority, but we do have some.
They're called single track roads, and they have passing places, which are cut-outs at the side of road, which you pull into, to let other vehicles pass you.
Often it involves a technique Americans aren't familiar with, called reversing. 😁
Europe / UK high proportion of narrow rural roads, with tarmac surface. USofA high proportion of unsurfaced rural dirt roads instead, often one vehicle width.
Also passing places are not just for oncoming traffic, but also for traffic that has caught up with you due to them driving at a higher speed than you are comfortable doing. Use the passing place. Let them through. If they end up in a ditch because they were too going fast for the corners, that's on them.
Try driving a double decker bus down a single track road and meeting a lorry (truck for Americans) coming the other way. Company rules forbade reversing to a passing place (passenger safety & place too small anyway) or pulling onto the grass verge & risking a broken axle dropping a wheel into a transverse drainage, ditch. As a small female bus driver I would just stop, prop my elbows on TV he steering wheel rest my chin on my hands & smile at the other driver until he backed up or me. Never failed😊😊
Living in the south west of the UK many of the Grockles/Emmets (tourists) we get down here also can’t reverse yes even the English ones.
Stop sign vtraffic light
All 'crosswalks' in the UK are named after animals depending on the type of crossing. The orginal: the zebra is so named because of the black & white stripes marked on the road surface. The sign you were confused about was an information sign which was telling you that a roundabout was ahead and showed the direction of each turning off. The names and road numbers in brackets indicates that the direction will lead to another major road ie in that sign M4 & M32 were in brackets because that turning will take you on a road that you can turn off onto one of the signed roads. 'M' roads are motorways and have blue signage. 'A' roads are marked in green, 'B' & 'C' roads in black and white. This sign is in the city of Bristol.
And the break in the roundabout signs shows that you can't get to any of the turnoffs turning right. You can only access them by going left, keeping all traffic going the the same (correct LOL) direction.
@@glennleader8880 good point that I forgot to include
And, for reference, a "Ring Road" is not another term for roundabout, but is a circular/orbital road around a town or city (or a busy area of a town/city), to help cut down on traffic on the interior of the "ring".
@@MajorMagna "come on down to the M25, the biggest carpark in the country!"
I remember this as a joke back in the day. I'm old 😪
@@toddlerj102 To be fair, I don't think it's much different now!
We call them traffic lights. They still have Red for stop, Amber to warn it's changing and Green for go. But it has been proven that roundabouts drastically cut the number of serious accidents.
If you intend to drive in UK , the "Highway code " is the go to document. Gives rules of the road and driving test is based on its contents.
Lorry is from the 16th century to Lurry, meaning to pull or haul.
The hazard perception test consists of watching a series of video clips on a computer (as part of, and at the same time, as the theory test). As the clip plays, a hazard will develop and you have to click as soon as the hazard is spotted. The earlier you click, the more points are scored, one clip will have 2 hazards to spot. Score enough points and you pass, fail and you have to do both the theory and hazard perception test again.
I think it was Johnny Vegas when he was on Top Gear when he said "when you've never driven before, you perceive everything as a potential hazard" 😂
It's horrendous. After driving in the US for 20 years I noticed all hazards that weren't "computer" hazards and always clicked at the wrong time because I was noticing them too early. In the end I just had to learn to time my clicks and click 3 times, spaced apart
In the UK, we call it Zebra Crossing because the road is marked with black and white stripes. The roads are narrow and slightly complicated especially in central London. There’s an increase of one way roads with no access 🚫 or blocked from oncoming traffic.
the sign in your post means no waiting just for your info no entry or access sign is different ⛔
It's called a zebra crossing because it has black and white stripes!
As for lights: we call the system as a whole "traffic lights". We don't have names for the individual lights, they are just called the red light and green light.
And amber light.
......and amber. Which also means 'stop' but is a warning that the lights are about to change.
we do also have puffin, pelican, toucan and pegasus crossings
In South Africa, traffic lights are referred to as 'robots'.
@@christineharding4190 Flashing amber too on Pelican crossings when light is about to go green.
Fun fact! (Or somewhat dull)
We have 5 types of crossing, all named after animals.
Zebra crossing - normal pedestrian crossing called that for the black and white stripes
Pelicon crossing - PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing, press button which turns lights red and let's people cross
Puffin crossing - more modern version of the pelicon crossing, it has sensors that detect when people are still crossing and to detect when people are waiting to cross, still has a push button.
Pegasus crossing (also called an Equestrian Crossing) these are for where bridleways reach a road, basically the same as a pelicon crossing but has the buttons higher to be used by a horse rider
Toucan crossing - play on "TWO CAN CROSS" these are made for pedestrians and bicycles to use where there is a cycle path
Perfectly correct
except it's Pelican ...
Also, the animals stuck with children crossing roads safely. All infomercials used 'Beatrix Potter' type characters
The roads in the UK are far narrower and are much more windy than in the US.
Where I've lived in the Lincolnshire countryside all my life most roads are very narrow to the point that they've no pavements lining them and if you meet an oncoming car then one of you has to pull over onto the grass verge to let the other person pass. The two way road, (one lane in each direction) is literally a six foot wide strip of tarmac so it's not wide enough for two cars to pass each other without one having to pull onto the grass.
These roads are totally unlit and can be so windy that you drive five miles of road to do a two mile direct journey across the fields between two villages.
Obviously these areas are a total contrast to the fully integrated public transport system in London and so a personal car is absolutely essential.
Nothing raises a heart rate like a pitch black game of "Where's the dyke?" on an East Lindsey back lane.
Most of those roads were laid out width wise when all travel was by foot or horse (maybe with a small carriage if you were lucky) I for one am glad they decided to keep them closer to what they were instead of widening all the beautiful country lanes we have, it's really not hard to reverse a little and pull in to let an on coming car pass I never understood why so many people are afraid to drive in narrow lanes most people I know refuse to go near any kind of lane unless I drive for them lol
Stuart Fitch ... Yes the unlit roads are a nightmare here in South Lincolnshire, especially when it comes to animals, deer, badgers and the odd fox litter the side of the roads around here where they have been hit by vehicles. Of course if you are unlucky enough to hit a deer head on then its not only the animal that's worst for wear.
We moved from London to just outside Lincoln 6 years ago and the fact there’s literally no traffic congestion up here was one of the biggest attractions.
Yeah the roads are narrow but that’s the same in rural areas all over Europe. We drove to Emmendingen in the Black Forest a few months ago and believe me when I say those roads in the surrounding villages round there made the Lincolnshire lanes look like the M1! 😮
Interestingly enough, the reason why roads wind as much as they do is to do with laws that once prohibited the removal of trees, thus roads had to go round them, usually following the contour of the land.
To put into perspective about not needing a car in the UK, where I live I have 4 train stations, about 10 bus stops, 3 parks, 6 schools, 3 tram stops & 2 large supermarkets & numerous smaller grocery shops all within 5-10 minutes walk from me. ❤️🇬🇧
And where I lived in Norfolk there were 4 buses a week
I can't even imagine that. We don't have any busses or trains. I do have quite a few nice parks near by but if I were to walk it would probably take me 45 minutes to get to the grocery store.
A lot of people in Europe choose where to live and apply for jobs based on access to public transport, hence the less car ownership. It means house prices/rent is more closer to train stations.
US Zoning laws are why the USA is so car centric ... it is relatively recent and nothing to do with the size of the country
Australia has very good public transport, most people don't need a car to go work, but most families still own a car (singular), but will also do insane journeys that UAians would think crazy (just pop up to mom's - drive north for 12 hours and you're there, it's easy ... )
It's worth pointing out that public transport is not great everywhere in the UK. I grew up in a village of about 1000 people in the south Midlands and we had a bus that would pick you up in the morning going one direction, then drop you back in the village coming back in the late afternoon. That was it. Learning to drive was absolutely essential as soon as you turned 17.
Having served in the British Army, I had no problems driving on either side of the road nor handling left or right hand drive, I owned a British Car in Germany, so right hand drive, but the military vehicles were left hand drive. Having passed my test in the UK (went from motorcycles to 4 tonne trucks) I have had to complete the theory test in which ever country I served, Germany, UK, Canada, Jordan, Egypt. The most fun I had was passing my tank driving test.
I find the only time I have to concentrate when driving on the right hand side of the road is at roundabouts.
Driving in the States is child's play. So easy.
@@gillfox9899 I did notice thy are some what lazy drivers, auto gear box, long roads, hardly any curves let alone bends - everything was right angles.
I loved the look on the car drivers faces when it dawms on them that the Chieftain Tank coming towards then has "L" plates...😄
@@iangregory3719 Have seen that too when taking my Familiarisation out in Sennelarger, the horror on their faces seeing three tanks with L plates
I spent so many years driving various forklifts - will say it's actually better when a vehicle is left hand drive , all forklifts are laid out as a left hand drive vehicle its right hand drive that feels odd to me
There are some country lanes (they are referred to as lanes, even though they are roads) that are so narrow with hedgerows that come right up to the roadside, no one can pass at all.
Every so often there is a "cutout" on the side of the road that one car has to pull into to allow the other to pass - if you see someone coming in time, you can pull in and wait for them to pass, otherwise one of you will have to reverse back until there's space for the other to get past you.
The A9 in Scotland is a major road with passing places ...
One good video to watch is Evan Edinger's 'British vs American' driving video, where they talk about the differences in driving culture and learning how to drive, with both a British and American perspective 😊
I'm surprised he didn't mention 'Turn Right on Red' which doesn't exist here in the UK.
A piece of trivia in Australia in the outback they will have wide roads but only the central part of the road is tarmacked. So you drive in the middle of the road until you meet somebody coming in the opposite direction when you drive half on the tarmac and half on the gravel at your side.
That's seems a pretty good system.
Unfortunately - or fortunately - most country roads in rural areas are very old and have farmers' fields/hedgerows/walls either side
I live in rural Cornwall, pulling into passing places is normal on the country roads. Lots of rural roads are single track.
Yep same where I l work and live in the Cotswolds. I also drive for Waitrose and have to go down some unbelievable small roads. Some of which were only originally for horses.
Apart from spine roads (wider roads that run through an area for several miles) rural lanes/roads are often very narrow. I live on the North/Mid Devon borders. When you learn to drive on UK country roads you can drive anywhere.
I used to live in Lincolnshire, hundreds and hundreds of narrow country lanes there, coming to live in Wisconsin, no such thing, lot’s of side roads but still plenty of room, one other big difference in roads, almost every type of road in the states have a wide kept up gravel side strip wide enough so slow moving vehicles like tractors etc can drive on that to avoid ques of traffic building up behind.
I'm in Devon over the border isint it fun when you get a grockle down the lane. Emmett youre side of the border
@Smear Campaign usually a Londoner In a big car like a merc.but it can apply to any tourists outsiders in Cornwall they call them Emmet's.i just pull in and laugh at the grockels they are everywhere from June onwards to September when they decide to go back home
British signs (in terms of one’s instructing you about directions and distance) are really well thought out for quick readability which is why they mix upper and lowercase and have they spacing they do, colour coding and use of symbols that are pretty standard internationally.
Also the signs he compared are somewhat apples and oranges - one is for a large roundabout the other is for an interstate exit warning
They are Vienna convention compatible .... i.e. they use the same in Mexico, Europe, China, and most of the rest of the world ... except the USA
"We have Honda Accords, so we have small cars". This kind of demonstrates the difference in car size. The Accord would be considered a medium to large car in the UK. A Civic would be a far more popular and average sized UK Honda model and the Jazz would be the small one.
In the US you maybe can bu a VW-Passat (US-Model is bigger than the European one) and consider the GOLF as a "small" car.
But VW in Europe the Golf is a common "middle class" car and the VW-Polo or VW-UP are the smaller ones.
Same with BMW/Mercedes and Audi - In the US these are seen as Premium "only for Millionairs" - Cars because only the expensive, big and powerful cars are sold in the US.
I looked for the Prices on their web-pages for Germany (without sales discount).
Cheapest BMW in Germany: 30.600€ - BMW 1
Tpical US BMW: BMW 3 M Sports 73.900€
cheapest Audi in Germany: Audi A1 - 21.700€
Typical US Audi: Audi RS4 -86.500€ up to RS eTron GT 142.500€
cheapest Mercedes in Germany - A-Class 36.800€
Typical US Mercedes: AMG E63 - 87.000€ (found only price for the E53)
All prices for the base model (no extras)
Cars have got bigger over the years though. The current polo is bigger than the original golf. And the current civic is enormous compared to the original.
Very true
A Honda Accord would be considered a midsize car in the US as well. A small car is a Civic as you said. We don’t have as many of the sub-compact and sometimes even smaller cars that they have in Europe. When I was in Europe and I saw some of those super small cars. I was just terrified because if you got in an accident with one of those in the US you would be dead.
A Smart Car is a City car .. a Mini (even the new bigger ones) is a small Car, any hatchback is a medium car ...
Yes, in general, in the UK and throughout Europe, rural roads are significantly narrower than country roads in the US. Being much older, other than former Roman roads, they are much more windy too. Fewer than 1 percent of European highway mileage is more than six lanes too. The closest thing I saw to UK country roads during my years in the US were some rural routes in Virginia and West Virginia. My oldest took his test in VA and the supervised road part took about 15 minutes. My youngest took his in England and his road test took almost an hour and incl: parallel parking, hill starts, reversing into a side road, etc. Also, he had to have proof of 20 hrs of registered driving school instruction before the test.
I grew up in a farming area where the roads are only just wide enough for a lorry (normally a milk tanker) to drive though. There was even grass growing in the middle of the road. There was no public transport though, but 3 miles away there was a bus to Exeter twice a week. Now it is 4 times a day and travels from Exeter to Barnstaple.
Where I live now there is a regular bus service until 2pm. But due to the way multiple sclerosis effects me I never learnt to drive as I was diagnosed with MS when I was 18.
You sound like you are from my neck of the woods! I drive the lanes every day to get to and from work. I would say that it makes up around 60% of my driving. They are ok when you know them, where the passing places are etc. and other users drive carefully when they get to blind bends etc. The problem is mainly when users that are not familiar with them, enter them and see the national speed limit signs and think it means they are safe to drive down them at 60mph. That is where the trouble lies in every case! Oh and those that refuse, or cannot , reverse (yup, actually had an old lady once tell me that she can't drive in reverse!!) to a passing place 2 car lengths behind them but instead expect others to reverse 400 yards to get out of THEIR way! The lanes are ok for light or local traffic but because of the narrow passing places, are not able to cope with heavy traffic flow at all and diversions or people trying to avoid accidents etc, cause more problems than if they waited it out on the main routes as the passing places are not designed to fit more than 1 or 2 cars in them.
❤
Lapford near Exeter the farming roads would give you heart attack so narrow
@@kimtodd61 I grew up in a farming area between Winkleigh and North Tawton and the proper roads looked like a farm lane. Take care and best wishes
My favourite uk sign is just "sudden gunfire" really useful information
One of mine is...'Beware low flying aircraft' just how low is it going to be, if I have to be warned about it? 😂😂
"Licence" is the noun, "license" is the verb (in the UK). The same applies for some other words, for example: "a doctor practises medicine at a doctors' practice." p.s. Thanks for the videos :)
@@neuralwarp Ohk, that's interesting, can you give an example please?
@@SamTier ‘Whoo hoo, I got my driving licence!’
‘Ah crap, before I can work as a surgeon, I need to be licensed first.’
@@autumnwinter1462 Are you saying that's not a noun, then a verb??
@@wessexdruid7598 Both (in the UK)
@@autumnwinter1462 licence is a noun, you can put the in front of it. License is a verb, it has "to" in front of it as in your sentence
Signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Some counties have English first (Clwyd), while others Welsh first (Gwynedd).
A ring road is a road which goes round a town or city in a ring in order to take traffic out of the city / town and make travelling across to the other side easier and quicker, even if it is a longer route (in miles).
A parkway isn’t like a highway. A parkway is a train station located in the outskirts of a city. A train station located in the centre of a city is sometimes called Central.
fender we call the wing. zebra crossing is because we have black and white stripes on the ground where you cross the road.
The freeway sign he showed should be compared to one of our blue motorway signs. He bizarrely showed a sign for a roundabout.
A non driver discussing driving. As someone who does not drink coffee, look out for my vid on the types and blends of coffee available. I am sure it will be as accurate.
We have a few roundabouts in the UK🤣- 4 miles to our favourite weekly shopping means negotiating 6 roundabouts which we do with the smug confidents of a UK citizen😃
@@neuralwarp Is Milton Keynes the one with the contraflow roundabout or is that Melton Mobray ? Used to visit both - never sure which was which.
A big difference for me was in teh states you are allowed to drive through a red light if turning right but you must stop in the UK when the red light is showing!
This is what, as a European driver, I don't understand. The light is red then you stop. Surely it is dangerous not to?
Motorway services are places on the motorway that you can stop, get food, go to the loo or even stay over night (in a Premier Inn or Travelodge usually). They vary in size and will usually have at least garage to get fuel and a shop to a whole load of shops, takeaway places and places for you to buy stuff for your trip as well as an over night stay
When my husband and I were driving in England we found the signs going into the roundabouts overwhelming. In our first roundabout we missed the turn off we wanted and did what we would have done in North America… and got out at the next exit…which took us miles out of our way with nary a place to turn around and go back. Now we know what we should have done was to make another circuit around the roundabout to get back to the right exit. You live and learn🤦♀️
Those roundabouts look so confusing. I probably would have done the same thing.
One thing a lot of us native Brits/Europeans don't really notice because it's so normal to us are just how many street signs we have EVERYWHERE. Normally they just kinda merge into the background, but if ever I stop and deliberately notice just how many street signs are on display, I can usually spot at least a dozen every few hundred yards.
@@reactingtomyroots - islands/roundabouts are incredibly easy and efficient to use but, like anything, takes a bit of getting used to if you’ve not used them before.
There are a lot of "single track roads" in the countryside where you have to use passing places that are not "Main Roads".
Factor in high hedges and tight bends and you’re often driving blind. Keep your speed down so you can brake suddenly, watch for the passing places as you may need to reverse into one, and feel free to sound your horn before a sharp bend so that anything that’s out of sight but coming towards you knows to be careful. Tractors always get right of way!!
They can be A roads therefore a main road in some areas
Thank you for all these videos on your channel, being from the UK it's good to learn the differences and I've learnt a lot from your channel regarding the US.
Fun fact: there is a split in British roundabout signage to remind European tourists that, a roundabout in the UK flows clockwise, where in most of Europe they flow counter-clockwise.
Anti-clockwise 🙂🙂🙂
Another example of the differences between UK English and US English language: 'anticlockwise'and 'counter-clockwise'😊
Fender (US) = wing (UK) - the panels with the wheel arches in them. Bumpers are bumpers on both sides of the Atlantic.
The UK road sign shown in this video was one you'd generally see around towns and cities, on A or some B roads and on motorway junctions once you've left/before you enter a motorway (the split in it denotes you don't go anticlockwise on a roundabout), so not comparable to the US interstate/highway sign - if he'd put a UK motorway sign (the massive blue ones with white writing), then that was more of a direct comparison to the US one. Motorway signs don't have that level of detail as ones on dual carriageways, A or some B roads.
Zebra crossings are called that as they're black and white striped. A classic example of a zebra crossing known worldwide being the Abbey Road crossing the Beatles used on their album cover. There are also pelican crossings and toucan crossings.
Lawrence has been in the States for a long time now, so is 'out-of-date' with a lot of UK things he comments on
@@anitawhite2669 Road signs haven't changed in the UK in past 50 plus years, so he's just not clued up on UK road signs as he doesn't drive.
I have a 11.5 years old Mini Cooper with only 42,000 miles on the clock!
It’s called a zebra crossing because like zebras the crossing is marked by black and white stripes. He didn’t mention it but we also have Pelican crossings too.
And Puffin and Toucan crossings.
@@jerry2357 Don't forget the rarer pegasus crossings (horse rider height buttons)
When I drove a left hand drive car I kept punching the door with my left hand every time I reached for the gearstick. Took me ages to stop doing that. 😂😂
It is amazing really when you yhink how many trucks in Europe travel through the countries and across into UK seemlessly.
Changing to drive on different sides of the road and back again many times.
@@susanashcroft2674 I travel from the Uk over to Europe quite a lot, sometimes on the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam in my own car & sometimes I fly to wherever & take a hire car, obviously left-hand drive.
It's surprising how quickly one gets used to driving on the right side of the road & sitting on the left to drive!
@@Bikeops2021 That's right, I think it is probably easier for Europeans in respect of people be it for social or commercial reasons travel a lot more around Europe so people adapt more and are used to changing over sides. Where as in the US I think people see it as quite a thing, somewhat daunting or scary even mainly because they have never been abroad, or their neighbouring countries all drive on the right hand side of the road.
I love that you are reading it surprised by the British wording and I'm sitting here surprised by the American wording. Answers so many questions tho for us over here too
Interesting fact about the zebra crossing, as others have mentioned it's because of the black and white stripes on the road.
Other road crossings are;
Pelican crossing, when you have a button to change the traffic lights for pedestrians to cross, and,
Puffin crossing where there is a blinking light on a pole to warn drivers to watch for pedestrians as there are no traffic lights, so they may just walk out.
Additional fun fact, crossing guards as called Lollipop Ladies/Men because of their big round warning signs.
The (full-time) blinking light on a pole is used on a zebra crossing.
A Pelican (or "Pelicon" for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled) crossing also uses a flashing amber after the red to tell drivers "You can go, but must give way to pedestrians on the crossing".
A Puffin (Pedestrian User-Friendly INtelligent) crossing differs from a Pelican in two ways:
1. It has a sensor which detects the presence (or otherwise) of pedestrians on the crossing, so it can lengthen or shorten the time that the light is red for vehicular traffic.
2. It uses the same light sequence as "normal" traffic lights (green -> amber -> red -> red+amber -> green), using red+amber instead of the Pelican's flashing amber.
I don’t recall it being mentioned in the video, but we actually have 3 traffic lights. Red, Amber/Orange, Green. Amber/Orange is to tell the driver to “get ready” for the green light
1:40 - There are a lot of roads in the UK that are so narrow you have to pull over to let someone pass, like there's a lot you will never be more than about 10 minutes away from one. But these are the very very old legacy Roman roads that are still obviously there and do serve some properties but these have basically all been replaced by "normal" 2 way roads that even a lorry (or semi to use US speak) would fit down, plus lots of "highways" so while there are lots of roads like that, you'll very rarely need to use them, many drivers have probably never driven on one because there are so many newer wider roads that serve where you need to go. Generally you'd only go down a very old road to access am address or something that's a very old house and when you do use these roads you rarely see anyone else they are extremely quiet usually.
Beg to differ I live I rural wales and the closest road 2 cars can pass without pulling over is about 7 miles and the Romans didn't make it here rearly lorrys can bearly make it but have to to service the shops and pubs round here
Many if the old Roman Roads have been made into motorways, they were so straight, and led from one main town to the next. They mainly run north south which is a shame when you want to travel across the country. It's about time Cornwall got a motorway. And the M3 should be extended to Exeter. Never going to happen....
Not sure where you live but I've lived in the North East, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Lancashire and there are plenty of narrow roads with passing places.
When I lived in Norfolk there was only 22 miles of dual carriageway and no motorways in the whole county
Yes very obvious that you do not live in or even close to the countryside. I'm in rural Norfolk, and close to me we even have a section of dual carriageway, where each side is a narrow single track. Still it's a dual carriageway in a National Speed Limit area, so has a 70mph limit. Back in the day I came close to breaking that by 30mph in my new MkII XR2. Because that's the other thing that is really common here, we do seem on the whole to drive a lot faster than they do in the US, even given our smaller roads.
Motorway services in the UK tend to have at least some kind of convenience store, a coffee shop, and a couple of places to buy a meal, one of which is probably McDonald's or Burger King, they also have toilets, showers and a petrol station.
One thing he didn't mention is the handbrake (UK) or parking brake (US). This is one of the most important controls in the UK driving test, particularly on hills. We are required to have the handbrake applied at any time the vehicle is not moving. When starting off you are tested on the co-ordination between handbrake, clutch and accelerator.
The parking brake or emergency brake, (e-brake) is on the floor in a lot of US cars.
Very few manual cars are being sold, and many cars come with a "hill assist" system, where the brakes will hold for a second or two after releasing the foot brake on an incline to allow the driver to get their foot to the accelerator.
@@Cheepchipsable In the UK most manual cars from 2010 or so also have "hill assist" or "hill start assist" that engages when the car detects that you're on an incline.
@@TheIceMurder2really? Our car is a 2006 Renault, so I didn’t know that. How does that work, then?
29:20 those signs are confusing at first but you get used to them. Rather than having a lot of single signs for destinations, they show the entire circuit of the loop of road (ring road) and tell you what exits take you where.
Saves on fabrication costs
Country roads were originally built for horses and farmers carts and they’ve never been changed
When I last rented a car in Spain (stick shift) - for the first hour or so I went to change gear and then kept hitting the door with my left hand. Don't worry it doesn't take long - We have easy transport links for vehicles to France - so a lot of us will have driven a right hand drive car on the right hand side of the road (including me) the Eurotunnel links them in around half an hour so you can be driving on different sides within an hour. On the journey I change my dashboard to kilometres from miles per hour and seriously adjust the mirrors (this is the main thing) - we also have to adjust our headlights to point the other way or put stickers on them to direct them so they don't dazzle oncoming traffic. With the narrow roads - they will usually have passing places for you or the other driver to pull into so that you or they can pass
Hi Steve! A lot of the road signs are a little different and yeah, some roads are very narrow. Many eastern European roads are wide, largely to facilitate tanks. I am sure a great many American roads were narrow during the British colonial era. I know, only like 300 years ago 🤣
The gap in the road or 'split' on the road sign is because you are entering a roundabout and the split is there to remind everyone, including foreign visitors, that there is no through way to the right, left turning only. The split will always be on the immediate right of the road you are joining the roundabout from.
Roundabouts work well in the UK (and we have lots of them). Although we’re accustomed to them there are some that fill me with dread. Watch a video about ‘The Magic Roundabout’ in Swindon. It might blow your mind! 😂
I recently found out that Swindon isn’t the only place to have one of those Magic Roundabouts!😮🙈
Hemel Hempstead
The Hazard Perception test is done on a computer - its basically a short video from a dash cam perspective and you have to click to register when you spot a potential hazard (such as vehicles emerging from junctions or hidden behind obstructions, incoming emergency vehicles, and cyclists) along the journey. You're scored based on accuracy, so ideally you don't want to miss any, but you can't just spam the mouse button either because you're marked down for repeated clicks where there are no hazards. It's a relatively brief part of the qualification and something you do at the same time as your theory (i.e. you need to pass these both before you can attempt your physical driving test).
I live in a town with something called the magic roundabout
One main roundabout with six other roundabouts around it. Quite famous and totally confusing, even where I live people panic when they have to use it !!!😂
There are two magic roundabouts in the UK. I'm guessing you're from Swindon though, as mine is less heard of.
@@Hirotoro4692 where is the other one which isn't in Swindon. That's interesting.
Zebra crossing is black and white lines, and a zebra Stripes are black and white Also
Try saying. Red lorry Yellow Lorry, Red lorry Yellow Lorry...... until your tongue refuses to co-operate any more
I am from Dundee, Scotland, we are known as the only city/town in the U.K. to call roundabouts circles!
The road sign with Stoke Gifford is very familiar to me, I use that roundabout several times a month. Parkway is the name of the local railway station. Stoke Gifford, Bradley Stoke and Winterbourne are villages. The break in the roundabout is to show that you can only go left not right. You would enter the roundabout from the bottom (having left McDonalds!), the small roads without a pointed end are roads that are entering the roundabout so not available for you to drive onto.
The red border around the name denotes a military Establishment (MOD Abbey Wood). The symbol next to Parkway denotes a railway station. It was the logo for the long defunct BR(British Railways) two opposing arrows which could also mean the tracks of a railway junction.
YES…. 😂 Country roads are very very narrow. Barely getting a car down if another car comes in the opposite direction you need to reverse, all the way back… once I reversed back at least half a mile down a winding narrow road in the dark with the street lights! 🤣🤣🤣 There’s normally no pulling over… there’s a gap every half a mile where the road widens but there isn’t anywhere you can instantly pull your car over.
The Parkway you saw is a railway station, not a highway. Parkway stations are usually located away from urban areas and have 'park & ride' facilities. For example, East Midlands Parkway which is located in a more rural area beside a power station.
If you learn to drive a vehicle with a manual gearbox in the uk, you can drive an automatic but not the other way round. Licence restriction applies.
Where live in outer London having a car is very costly. You need a parking permit. It costs a lot to park. And now they are trying to introduce the ULEZ zone round me that means cars older than 5 years will cost me £12.50 a day to use on the roads round me. That's pretty much the same as unlimited london transport for the day!
A roads are the main roads that are single or sometimes dual carriageway, B roads are narrow country roads that may need a passing pull in and finally motorways are 3 or 4 lane roads. All these have numbers after the type so B123, A123 M25.
That U.K. road sign at 29:21 is a roundabout sign.
What you call a fender we call that a wheel arch.
The break in the Roundabout sign is there for visitors from right sided driving countries is there to show to have to enter and go around the roundabout from the left, the break is on the right. I only learned this recently and have been driving for over 30 years.
The confusing road sign looks straightforward to me - first exit off the roundabout - Ring Road; second exit - Stoke Gifford; third exit, Ring Road in the other direction; fourth exit - racecourse (probably back where you've come from). And I don't drive!
Plus, a ZEB-ra has black and white stripes. Like the crossing. Interestingly, a crossing that's controlled by buttons for the pedestrian is called a PELICAN crossing, or even a PUFFIN crossing. This is because British people like birds, I think.
It's strange you say we have a reputation for having a great public transport system. I feel most people would say we have a pretty poor system - compared to the Continent. It's expensive, often not reliable, and is being systematically run down.
I have mentioned before, I haven't driven for 25 years. I didn't learn until I was 23 and stopped at 38, so my whole driving career lasted 15 years. I always hated it, and as time went by I grew more and more nervous. (I believe that the opposite is true for most people.) As soon as I was able to, I packed it in.
There are the occasional times when I miss some things about it. I used to quite like doing a 'big shop'. I can't hire a car abroad and do some exploring. I can't just wake up and look at a blue sky and drive out to the seaside. And I'm at the mercy of public transport strikes - in a few weeks there's a rail strike, I'm due in London for a concert (Beth Hart), and I have to work how to get home from London at 11 at night. I think I'll have to take the coach to Stansted airport and then on from there.
But above all, I know longer have the incredible expense and overwhelming worry of having and driving a car, and that's fine by me.
Uk, you don’t ever go through a red light.
It's because we have a lot of narrow roads with tractors lorry buses on these rds so you need to know to give way to the large vehicles and they need extra space for turning
Comment from American visitors, “The side you drive on is the smallest of the differences” the signage (like destinations in parentheses) roundabouts, no straight wide roads, no grid, no shoulders, limited expensive parking, speed and bus lane cameras, road numbering system, cyclists.
The split in the roundabout sign informs you which way around that you have to drive, the split is in the sign only not in the actual road. European roundabout signs have the split on the opposite side. A sat-nav would inform you which exit to take, 1st, 2nd etc.
License (with an 'S') is notification that the word is a verb. Licence with a 'C' is a noun.
An unwritten rule in the UK is, you have to refer to another driver who has annoyed you, as a "f***ing Muppet" 🤣
The "narrow road" thing needs a bit more explanation: Yes COUNTRY roads can be narrow. If you went for a drive in touristy, rural Cornwall you'll find narrow roads with high hedges. But most people in the UK live in towns and cities and drive longer distances on motorways. They aren't narrow, they're pretty much the same as the US.
The hazard perception test is part of the United Kingdom driving test. The test is intended to check a candidate’s ability to detect developing situations that require a motorist to take some action, such as changing speed or direction.
The sign you were confused by was for a roundabout. Large roundabout signs will have either a circle or an oval shape with branches coming off them. Each branch refers to one of the exits from the roundabout. Each exit on the sign will tell you where that exit will take you. So first exit takes you to place A, 2nd exit to place B, 3rd exit to place C etc.
An American fender is not called the bumped in the UK. The bumper is exactly the same. It's the front or rear metal (on old cars) or plastic (on new cars) bumper strip that runs across the front or rear of the car. An American fender is the car's front or rear quarter panels. The front or rear quarter of the car's body work on either the driver or passenger side of the car. We don't call them fenders, but we can refer to them as quarter panels.
That complicated road sign was coming up to a large roundabout with the town/cities and road numbers for each exit so you know which to take. It wasn't a very fair comparison as the American sign was just directing to one place. Funny that you wondered if we have more roundabouts and then couldn't remember seeing a single one where you live. We even have roundabouts in tiny villages as a painted circle on the road, up to massive ones with trees in the middle. We have them all over the place. I don't know how you can stand all the crossroad junctions with traffic lights and having to stop all the time instead of merging into a round about when there's space. So much easier.
Hazzord purseption in the UK is very important. My fathers car was trashed by a STAG , he was in the Highlands driving in the dark ( in winter its dark for 20hrs a day) a Sttag tryed to jump across the wee road and landed on/in the pasenger seat.
Police were suprisingly happy, once they knew he had no plans to remove the dead (venison), all was fine. The Stag was put on a trailor and off it went, the land owner was informed, but it was a nice hall for the locals.
Uk road signs are designed to be independent of language. Being close to Europe we have many foreign drivers unlike the USA.
Fender as the bodywork around above the wheel would be wing in UK
Zebra has B/W stripes as do the road.
Yes the country roads are tiny! I live in the north west of England, surrounded by country side. And I remember back in the 80’s when I was a little girl (showing my age!) my dad had a “wide” car. It was an old Rover, 3.5ltr engine. When going over the country roads, if anyone was driving the opposite way, either they, or my dad had to basically pull into the bushes or whatever was lining the roads, just to get passed.
Driving in the Lake District on a Spring evening,almost took my breath away. I can’t believe the scenic contrasts within a few miles in the U.K. The Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales are next to each other both utterly stunning and yet totally different. I have friends in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire. My God, why was nature so kind to the British. The greenery, the flowers.
I live in a very rural area for the UK. The nearest city is nearly 30miles away. I used to live and work in a big city but about 6 years ago changed to a work from home job and moved back to my small home town.
I have a car but frankly it's on its last legs and I haven't driven for over 4 years. Don't miss it. No expenses due to the car. 50min bus ride to the city if I need to go in - maybe once every two months. Nearest train station also in the city which makes traveling further afield more difficult however you just end up prioritising if you really need to make the trip.
Wow, that's amazing the bus runs that far out. I couldn't even get a bus in town here. lol
It is funny driving on the left hand side of the car abroad on holiday with manual gearstick when your brain goes to change gear and you put your hand in the door storage pouch 🤣🤣
There’s a really good video on the roundabout sign somewhere, but the gist is; the split is telling you to go around clockwise (you can’t turn right onto it), the names and numbers at each branch are telling you what towns and roads are down that branch (you would say, for example “Take the second exit to get to Stoke.”) the branches with points on are exits that you can drive down and the ones with flat ends are entrances that other people will be driving onto the roundabout from.
I'm originally from a country that drives on the right but I'm living in England for the last 10 years I have a car drives licence for almost 20 years I can tell that the gear changer is not a issue the most important issue is to evaluate the car dimensions related to the road it was my only struggle I was constantly hitting the curb (sidewalk) on the left for the first month or so
Parkway with the little hash means railway station. As I’ve driven on the road where this sign exists I promise it’s not really complicated, usually just stop start traffic on a roundabout in every direction!😊
The theory test and hazard perception test are generally taken at the same time. It is all done on a computer with the hazard perception portion being a timing test. Essentially the student needs to click the mouse button when they notice something come on screen that could be a road hazard like a car approaching from a side street or children playing ball near the road. Also the theory portion probably covers a lot more than its equivalent in the USA as it includes subjects like first aid. Generally people need to study a book called the 'Highway Code' which is updated every year as well as use tuition programs that can be obtained online (which also change on an annual basis in line with the highway code) before they are able to take this part of the test. Another point is that until you get your full licence, learners have to be accompanied by an adult (who has held a full driving licence for at least 3 years and is over 21 years old), there must be an insurance policy that provides for learner drivers booked and there must be 'L' plates affixed to the front and back of the car to signify that a 'learner' driver is controlling the vehicle. After the tests have been passed many people swap out the 'L' plates for 'P' plates to signify that they are a 'probationary' driver and may not be very confident on the road by themselves. This part is entirely voluntary.
Just an aside, pick-up trucks are quite rare in the UK. Generally speaking they don't work very well on our roads. Generally speaking the only people that make much use of them are either builders (who usually fit a lockable top over the flat-bed) and farmers. Most of our vehicles are small city cars (like the VW Up), hatch-backs (like the VW Golf or Ford Focus), large family cars and SUV's. There are also vans (a van is what we call smaller goods vehicles like the Ford Transit range) and trucks.
The sign that caused confusion at 27:47 denotes a roundabout. The text on there denotes the roads leading from the roundabout are going (for example Yate) along with the roads name or designation (such as A 432) to aid navigation. You are always approaching from the bottom line.
Also what you describe as a 'fender' we would describe as a wheel-arch. Generally most of us Brits think that your term of 'fender' translates as 'bumper' over hear because of what we hear from American media such as the prhase 'fender bender' to denote a collision.
Not sure where you live but I would disagree. Many of the people I know drive 4wd or trucks. Think of all the Land rovers or Range rovers about. My last vehicle was an Isuzu denver truck.
Steve in London you can see a number of large 4wd vehicles. They have the nickname Chelsea Tractors
This explains a lot thank you.
Zebra Crossing comes about because it is a black and white lined crossing... Very thick white lines, same size black. And the road sign he showed was actually for a roundabout, showing what is at each exit.
There is more to it than just public transport or lack of it. Zoneing/planning laws play a huge part in the need for cars in America. In the UK there are shops, restaurants, bars, etc where people actually live. In the USA these are restricted, so the need for a car is much greater, this is also reflected in the annual mileage.
Yup! Irish woman here. Yes, the majority of Irish country roads are extremely narrow. I'm 51 years old now, living in Dublin my whole life, when I was a child, my Dad would take us down to Wexford for holidays during the summer. He would take the "back roads" as they were called. They were extremely narrow. Back then, ALL country roads were so narrow, you could fit only one car on them, if a car was coming in the opposite direction, it took great skill to move to the side to let them pass. Even more skill if you had a tractor coming the other way. In Ireland we call pavements paths. We call them Zebra Crossings because of the black/white stripe design like the patterns of the zebra.
As a Brit, I have visited the USA and driven many miles there. The main thing I noticed is that must towns and city are on a grid system. Many of the small townships have the same selection of shops and motels, like a Skooby Doo catoon! However, I found the standard of driving in the USA was very good. I found the right turn on right very convenient. That would be left turn on red in the UK if allowed. I did get to drive down Lombard Street in San Francisco.
That is a thing. Not regular roads, but country lanes are definitely a thing, at least around here (near swansea) and back where I'm from (near the rhondda valleys).
edit - the junction sign with the ring road sign looks so odd because it'll be a roundabout. We have loads and you only have a few.
29:27 I knew I recognized that sign. It's literally down the road from my university and as a brit learning to drive and can tell you those roundabouts are quite daunting when you see them.
Zebra crossings are painted white and black stripes (like a zebra) with yellow flashing lights at each end. They are pedestrian controlled which means If a pedestrian touches the crossing with their foot the cars must stop by law. We also have light controlled crossings often called pelican or puffin crossings (Don't ask me why). That sign shows a large roundabout - The red symbol is a railway station, Blue backgrounds are motorways, green are major roads that are not motorway. Our roads go M (motorway) A (Major roads) B (minor roads) and unclassified which tend to be the narrowest and can be single vehicle width. The roads in brackets are roads that join up later - so if you want to get to the motorway follow the junction pointing to the road in brackets.
What advice I would give to anyone thinking of visiting the UK and driving is to purchase the most recent edition of The Highway Code. It is the guidance for all road users. It explains the differences between what is allowed on different roads (ie no parking on motorways unless you've broken down, different speed limits), types of road crossings, all road signs, and everything you could possibly need to know about driving such as best practice overtaking or indicating to leave a roundabout.
Being British myself, obviously I find the interchange sign easy to read, but that's because I'm used to it. In many ways it gives a lot more information than the American one - in particular it shows a map of the roads immediately ahead. The line pointing downwards is the road you're on, so in this example (in north Bristol), the gap in the loop means that there's no way through by turning right as you enter the loop, so you must turn left. Once on the loop, the first exit is the A38 to Filton (a suburb of Bristol, which is historically important as it's the location of the airfield from which Concorde flew its first test flights back in the late 60s - in those days they flew supersonic tests over the Bristol Channel, which were amazing to see and hear as a young boy living in South Wales - the sonic booms used to rattle the old wooden-framed windows we had back then - but I digress). The second exit is the A4174 ring road that serves as a route around Bristol without having to go through the city. Third exit is Stoke Gifford Parkway train station (the red and white symbol indicates a train station in Britain - two white lines with arrows going in opposite directions on a red background). Fourth exit links to the ring road again as well as to the M32 motorway, which heads right into the city, as well as to the M4 which is the main motorway from West Wales all the way to London.
Any UK road number that starts with M means that it's a motorway - as does the white text on a blue background
The fifth exit heads off to Yate on the A432 while the sixth exit goes to Abbey Wood which is a government (Ministry Of Defence in this case) office complex that was first opened in the mid 90s
So yeah these kind of signs are pretty easy to read once you realise that they're effectively just a simple map of the road junctions directly ahead - the same sort of thing you'd see on your satnav screen
There is an exception to getting your full license at 17in the UK.
You can, if disabled and receiving the highest rate of disability welfare benefits, get your full license at 16.
The theory test was only introduced about 30 years ago.
Hi Steve, a ring road is a road that circumnavigates the inner city area of any given town/city.