Driving in the UK...

I just had a wonderful visit from my aunt, Mollie. She experienced most of the public transportation system in England coming up to visit us from London. She took trains and taxis and then I picked her up at the Cambridge train station for our final trip back to our house. She climbed into the car, sitting on driver's side (except in the UK). I remember the first time sitting in the front seat of a UK car and not being the driver. I felt like there was so much extra sitting space since you did not have to deal with steering wheels and brake pedals.

On our way home, we squeezed by doubledecker buses and parked cars. We went through half a dozen roundabouts and made at least seven turns before arriving at our house which is only six miles from the train station. You see, there are no straight lines in England. The only way you can go from point A to point B in a relatively straight line is on the train. The problem is that the train is a bit expensive. However, it is the most efficient transport. The trains go fast and run on time. Another bonus is that there are very few accidents. Last week, a Virgin train traveling from London to Glasgow, Scotland crashed going 90+ mph. The last train crash in England was in 2000. Considering that there are hundreds of trains running daily in the UK, I think that this is impressive. Of the 180 passengers only one person was killed and she was 84 years old. I don't mean to imply that someone's life is less valuable at that age. I mean to say that an 84 year old person's body is much less able to cope with trauma. Considering the accident, I think it is amazing that so many people survived. The site of the crash saw train cars off the track and the impact of the wreck caused the engine to fly back past the front train. You would not survive a wreck in a car going that fast.

Driving fast in England seems to be the norm. The speed limit on divided highways is 70 mph. Most people exceed that by at least 10 mph. However, the lorries drive 50 to 60 mph. This causes people to slam on their brakes when one lorry pulls out to pass another lorry on the two lane divided highways. Usually, by the time the lorry pulls back into the "slow lane" there are at least 5 cars stacked up behind it.

The roads are divided up into motorways, "A" roads, "B" roads and then the rest. Motorways are like the highways in the US. They have shoulders and are divided with two or more lanes. The speed limit is never posted on these roads unless there are restrictions posted due to construction, accidents, etc. The understood speed limit is 70 mph. The "A" roads are often divided like highways, but it is not the standard. They never have a shoulder even though many of the "A" roads around us are highly congested and a broken down car or lorry will cause considerable delays. No speed limit signs are posted here, but speed cameras are placed at regular intervals. The understood speed limit is 70 if the road is divided. The "B" roads are like county roads in the US. Depending on what they connect, they can be busy, but usually are used mostly to get from one town to another. Since they do not go straight from point A to point B and are routed through many villages, traffic is not too bad on these roads. However, cars usually traveling on them use the rule that if the car does not roll when you go round a turn, then it is a safe speed. I got passed on a one lane country road the other day by a car that had to have been going over 70 mph. I was afraid to watch him go round the bend up the road. I felt sure that I was going to see the car in the farm field next to the turn. I see a lot of evidence of this happening around us as I have seen may tire tracks going from the road into the field next to the roads.

Despite how fast you drive, you still don't get to go from point A to point B in a straight line and there are always several roundabouts to negotiate. You cannot really cut off much time going fast in the straight sections around here since there are so few of them. However, I guess that there will always be people who try to get to their destination as fast as they can even if they risk their lives to save a minute.