Guide to UNITED STATES

[sydneynick]

A few comments based on recently driving some 800 miles in USA in two car hires in Massachusetts and in Oregon and Washington.

In MA, roundabouts are known as rotaries. Often the centre (sorry, center) of the rotary has a large sign facing approaching traffic reading "ROTARY-->". Presumably in case someone feels like turning left.

In OR, it's illegal to have self-service petrol. There has to be a gas attendant. In country areas, this seems to be a source of employment for the young women of the town, usually in tight t-shirts and skimpy shorts. In Portland, it seems to provide income for derelicts: the smell of cheap booze can be overwhelming.

In all three states, I was struck by the courtesy of American drivers, to each other and to pedestrians. My wife and I could be standing waiting to cross a road, in the middle of a block with no pedestrian crossing, and drivers would stop and wave us across.

[Yankee Guy]

In OR, it's illegal to have self-service petrol. There has to be a gas attendant. In country areas, this seems to be a source of employment for the young women of the town, usually in tight t-shirts and skimpy shorts. In Portland, it seems to provide income for derelicts: the smell of cheap booze can be overwhelming.

New Jersey is the other state that doesn't allow you to pump your own gas. I think the New Jersey government believes that their citizens aren't competent enough to pump their own gas. heh.

[gannman]

Astonishing, yes, but those are causeways I imagine rather than suspension bridges. I don't think there's much in the way of shipping in either of those places!

Chris

Although the Pontchartrain Causeway and the slightly shorter (18mi) Afachalaya Swamp Freeway (elevated) are "simple causeways" (the bridges are no more than 40' high) both have portions which rise up into the 75-100ft height range. Hardly a suspension bridge but can still provide water navigation. I've never been there but would love to drive both (as well as the Keys)

Being a lifelong Baltimore area resident, I-97 is mundane indeed, but it does connect to the Maryland state capitol (Annapolis). My guess is that was the justification for a 2di rather than a 3di interstate.

[gannman]

I think the only two places where traffic signals occur on an interstate is the famous/infamous Breezewood on I-70 where the freeway dead ends and you have to use a surface road US-30 to continue to the Pennsylvania Turnpike where I-76 and I-70 uses. The other place is (I think) in Montana where a spur Interstate is completely at grade (even having a diamond interchange with the parent)

We have two at-grade interchanges on a state expressway in CT. Route 9 expressway in Middletown has two traffic light and man does that create some nasty traffic jams

You mean it only has two traffic signals? Or does it have 2 signal controlled intersections?

2 signal controlled intersections - one being where I-70 "begins/ends" at US30.

[gannman]

[quote="gannmanI think the only two places where traffic signals occur on an interstate is the famous/infamous Breezewood on I-70 where the freeway dead ends and you have to use a surface road US-30 to continue to the Pennsylvania Turnpike where I-76 and I-70 uses.

I-70 is technically disjointed through Breezewood. PennDOT considers that only US 30, as it is referred to as "SR 0030" instead of "SR 0070."[/quote]

Really??? I must've missed that one somewhere 'cause I didn't know I-70 was officially disjointed.

[PAHighways]

Really??? I must've missed that one somewhere 'cause I didn't know I-70 was officially disjointed.

You'll only notice it on the PennDOT VidLog and the small reference markers on the side of the road. I-676 is also considered a disjoined route by PennDOT, ending at I-95 rather than continuing with US 30 over the Ben Franklin Bridge.

[CJ]

I've just come back from a US road trip, and I have to say driving over there was a complete pleasure, makes a real change from this country.

Firstly, the trucks not having speed limiters meant that on the interstates all the traffic quite happily trundled along at 70-80mph, with none of the regular massive queues and slowdowns in the fast lane to get past a 56mph lorry that we get over here.

I didn't see a single speed camera, and while a lot of the speed limits were ridiculously low, everyone just ignored them and drove at an appropriate speed for the road instead. No massive speed differentials, very little aggression; and driving just felt a lot safer as a result. It makes me despair about the state things have come to in this country now...

The only problem I found was the quality of the road surfaces, which were often concrete, bumpy and rutted.

[Truvelo]

I didn't see a single speed camera

It depends where you go. The freeways in Phoenix are lined with them. Most parts of the country don't have them yet. Red light cameras are common and they can be found just about anywhere along with cops pointing a hairdryer at you. I saw one in an unmarked car parked on the hard shoulder in Wisconsin last week. I was doing 10mph over the limit along with virtually other car and he didn't do anything, perhaps he was only after those speeding by a huge margin.

10 years ago US speed limits did seem ridiculously low compared to ours but nowadays with 50mph appearing on many UK rural roads the US 55mph limit on most of their rural S2's will soon seem generous.

As for the road surfaces. Yes, they can be quite shocking. Concrete surfaces in the UK are like a sheet of glass in comparison. Even when US concrete is smooth it tends to be laid longitudinally so you end up with a constant tone coming from the tyres which gets a higher pitch the faster you go. At least their cars have soft long travel suspension to iron out the worst of the bumps on poor surfaces.

[J N Winkler]

It depends where you go. The freeways in Phoenix are lined with them. Most parts of the country don't have them yet. Red light cameras are common and they can be found just about anywhere along with cops pointing a hairdryer at you.

Red light cameras are not used in Kansas or, AFAIK, any of the neighboring states. My understanding is that Phoenix is the only large city in Arizona with speed cameras and this started originally as a special concession from the state to experiment with them.

As for the road surfaces. Yes, they can be quite shocking. Concrete surfaces in the UK are like a sheet of glass in comparison.

Not all of them. The UK has some really rough concrete surfaces, notably on the M25 and M271, which are at least as bad as anything the US has to offer. The US spans a wider range of Köppen climate classifications than the UK and many of these are extremely harsh on road surfaces; you would not expect the same longevity from a concrete Interstate in Michigan (climate classification Dwa) that you can get from a concrete motorway in southern England (climate classification Cfb), for example. British concrete roads like the A417/A419 dual carriageway and the former A34 Oxford-M40 (now sadly overlaid with asphalt) are textbook examples of how to build concrete roads, but there are likewise plenty of good concrete roads in the US, including the newly reconstructed Interstate system in Kansas.

American concrete roads tend to have evenly spaced grooves--this accounts partially for the noise (British concrete roads are generally broom-tined instead). There is also joint noise because Americans tend to use JPCP or JRCP in preference to CRCP. JPCP and JRCP are foolproof as long as the subgrade is properly drained and covered either with asphalt tack coat or geotextile and, in the case of JRCP, the reinforcement is epoxy-coated. CRCP theoretically eliminates D-cracking at joints, but it develops potholes like mad and is hard to maintain. Guess which is popular in Britain?

Even when US concrete is smooth it tends to be laid longitudinally so you end up with a constant tone coming from the tyres which gets a higher pitch the faster you go. At least their cars have soft long travel suspension to iron out the worst of the bumps on poor surfaces.

All concrete pavement is laid according to type of reinforcement system; it doesn't matter whether it is in Britain or the US. The difference I have noticed is that in Britain the lane lines in concrete roads do not necessarily correspond to the longitudinal joints. Going over longitudinal joints at shallow angles (as you do often on the Surrey M25) introduces its own NVH issues.

[Truvelo]

The worst section of concrete I've experienced recently is US-20 near Elgin, IL. I don't know if you've driven this Jonathon but it really is a boneshaker and I suspect there may be a sinister reason for leaving it in a rough condition to prevent turnpike evaders like my using it to avoid paying tolls. I would like to see just how bad it is by driving my Mondeo with harder European suspension over it. The A417/A419 concrete near Cirencester is still there and is as good a concrete surface as I have driven. Newer US concrete is also fine but the weather must really destroy it over time. The concrete M25 sections in my opinion are better than US concrete of similar vintage, once again the weather has a part to play. The problem I find with US concrete is not so much the surface but the joins between each section. The car jolts over each joint meaning taking pictures is often hit or miss depending on the timing.

[owen b]

I came across this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odF4GSX1y3c "How highways wrecked American cities" I thought it was really interesting with lots of great road pics. Not nearly as anti-road as the misleading title suggests.

[CallumParry]

What i liked about driving in the US:
- Lot's of lanes on the freeways, interstates and expressways as well as no petty lane hogging traffic laws.
- Right on red rule at most intersections.
- HGV, Trucks and Tractor -Trailers doing the same speeds as the cars
- HOV, Carpool 2+ lanes
- Freeflow interchanges on the Interstate in the US they wouldn't dream of connection 2 major interstates with a roundabout or stackabout yes i'm talking about the A1(M) / M18 interchange.
- Hardly any speed cameras or VSL Smart "Motorways"
- Paying for gas before you fill up
- Frequent traffic reports on the radio some are every 10 minutes that is accurate and up to date

What i hated about driving in the US
- Surfaces riddles with potholes, ruts and cracks missing markings and reflective studs
- multi lane freeways 4+ lanes like the 101 in Los Angeles not been lit at night
- The lack of directional signage off the main highways must either have a GPS or good local knowledge
- The US unleaded gas pump is coloured black many times i nearly filled up with diesel because thats coloured green in the US
- Many drivers not using indicators when changing lanes or exiting/joining the freeway.

[KeithW]

One thing to watch out for in the USA are road rules that vary with time of day.

I worked in Columbus Ohio for some years and there were junctions with rules like 'No left turns between 4 PM and 6 PM Weeekdays'
Another one I recall was 'Right turn on Red prohibited between 8 AM and 6 PM'. Then there were roads were parking was prohibited at some times. A favourite example was :

'No Stopping
Tuesdays
12 AM to 6 PM
for Street Sweeping
Apr 1 to Nov 1'


The whole right turn on red thing is a minefield as the laws vary from state to state and even city to city. New York City for example prohibits right turns on red except where explicitly permitted. Some junctions are signed 'After Stop right turn permitted on Red'. To make things even more complicated if you turn right on red onto a road where u turns are permitted you have to yield to anybody making a u turn. In many US cities its very easy to get information overload from the sheer variety of signs and their erratic positioning. Then there are the traffic lights suspended from wires over the centre of the intersection which cause confusion with many British drivers especially when they are set to flashing red or amber. In Columbus outside rush hour many traffic lights at such intersections would be set to flashing red - essentially a 4 Way Stop or flashing amber which means 'caution'

[Truvelo]

As far as I'm aware you must always stop before turning right on red. Not far from Columbus there is a red light camera at a junction where right on red is allowed. I'm always wary of performing the manoeuvre but the camera has never flashed me. There must be a mechanism which detects if the vehicle has stopped first and if it is turning or going straight ahead.

[WHBM]

One thing to watch out for in the USA are road rules that vary with time of day.

A thing that fascinated me when I first visited the USA, in Washington State, was differential speed limits on main highways between day and night. Often varying by only 10 mph, the sign used some sort of special paint so on the same sign in daylight it read SPEED 60, but when picked up by headlights at night it read NIGHT SPEED 50. Both completely filled the same signboard, if you looked closely you could just see the ghost of the alternative version.

If anyone has a technical explanation of how they work I'd like to hear it. Nothing electrical, it appeared to just be done with paint.

[J N Winkler]

Another one I recall was 'Right turn on Red prohibited between 8 AM and 6 PM'. Then there were roads were parking was prohibited at some times. A favourite example was :

'No Stopping
Tuesdays
12 AM to 6 PM
for Street Sweeping
Apr 1 to Nov 1'

Besides parking restrictions for street maintenance activities, a common head fake in dense urban areas is to use parking signs in restrictive red with a very limited restriction (e.g., no parking 3rd Thursday of the month between 2 AM and 3 AM) so that parking is thereby all but decontrolled but looks like it is forbidden.

Red-ink parking sign conceals free parking on weekends and off-peak during the week, Grovelands Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota

A rather less common but more dangerous head fake, which I have encountered in St. Louis, is to have part-time parking control with bays marked by posts but not pavement markings and no upright signs (MUTCD-compliant or otherwise) to indicate the hours of control and whether parking is payable when it is in effect.

Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri (current StreetView imagery dates from April 2015 and shows conventional curbside parking meters, which are self-explanatory; by April 2016 these had been removed in favor of labeled posts and a computerized payment box)

The whole right turn on red thing is a minefield as the laws vary from state to state and even city to city. New York City for example prohibits right turns on red except where explicitly permitted.

RTOR is pretty much universal now and New York is now the only US city with a blanket RTOR ban. It used to be more tricky in Canada, where it was rolled out later and Québec was a longtime holdout, but at this point just the Ile de Montréal has a blanket RTOR ban. It has been almost 15 years since I was stopped for making an illegal right turn on red, and that was in Mexico, which does not have RTOR anywhere.

In many US cities its very easy to get information overload from the sheer variety of signs and their erratic positioning.

There is a considerable amount of regional variation in sign clutter. Pennsylvania is especially bad.

Treatment of lane drops on surface streets through forced turns is also highly uneven. The best way of handling them, which is used extensively in Arizona and which I think should be universal, is simply to use a graphic sign showing the direction of the turn with the word "ONLY": this is easy to read from a distance and eliminates the unfair advantage of local knowledge, which often results in strangers being blocked from changing lanes as needed to avoid an unwanted turn. However, the majority of agencies still cling to the word-message "Right Lane Must Turn Right"/"Left Lane Must Turn Left" signs, which cannot be differentiated from each other at a distance.

Arizona approach--Houghton Road and Speedway Blvd., Tucson

The approach to avoid--2nd and Meridian, Wichita, Kansas

In areas subject to heavy snowfall during the winter (far heavier than in any of the populated parts of the UK), there are often signs that look either pointless or cryptic when viewed during the summer. For example, Minnesota has special blade-up and blade-down signs (yellow rectangle with black isosceles triangle, pointing up or down as appropriate) which are secured to the ends of guardrails on two-lane rural highways and are intended to instruct snowplow operators to raise their blades when passing each guardrail. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois also have "Right Turn Lane"/"Left Turn Lane" signs which indicate the beginning of right- and left-turn lanes so they can be found in heavy snow.

Then there are the traffic lights suspended from wires over the centre of the intersection which cause confusion with many British drivers especially when they are set to flashing red or amber. In Columbus outside rush hour many traffic lights at such intersections would be set to flashing red - essentially a 4 Way Stop or flashing amber which means 'caution'

Tricolor signals are often set to flash red 24/7 (apparently in anticipation of future decommissioning) in derelict neighborhoods that are slowly turning into "urban prairie." Another marker of such neighborhoods is four-way stops at every block even at intersections where one road would be expected to have priority owing either to more lanes or a marked centerline.

Tricolor signal now being used as flashing red beacon--Page Blvd. and Euclid Ave., St. Louis, Missouri

Urban prairie four-way stop, N. 8th and MLK Dr., East St. Louis, Illinois

Americans are no more enthusiastic about span-wire installations than foreign visitors, but they continue to be used because of cost. It has been recognized for over a decade now that infrastructure investment (including in highways) has to increase massively, but political gridlock has largely prevented action (federal gasoline tax is still 18.4c per gallon, its last increase in 1994--under the Clinton administration--being regarded as a heavy lift even then).

[J N Winkler]

A thing that fascinated me when I first visited the USA, in Washington State, was differential speed limits on main highways between day and night. Often varying by only 10 mph, the sign used some sort of special paint so on the same sign in daylight it read SPEED 60, but when picked up by headlights at night it read NIGHT SPEED 50. Both completely filled the same signboard, if you looked closely you could just see the ghost of the alternative version.

If anyone has a technical explanation of how they work I'd like to hear it. Nothing electrical, it appeared to just be done with paint.

The secret to these "magic speed limit signs" was to block out the first digit for the night speed limit in the white retroreflective sheeting background of the sign, and to use retroreflective black sheeting for the parts of the lead day speed limit digit that did not overlap the night speed limit digit.

The 1978 MUTCD (§ 2B.11) explains how it was supposed to work:

A changeable message sign may be used, so that only the appropriate regulation is visible at a given time. The sign may have interchangeable panels, or reflectorization of the nighttime speed superimposed over the unreflectorized numerals of the daytime speed, to permit only the nighttime speed to become legible in the beam of motor-vehicle headlamps at night.

As a technical solution it was too clever by half, and was largely abandoned around the time the NMSL ("double nickel") was introduced in 1974, since the NMSL was (depending on the state) either lower or only slightly higher than pre-NMSL night speed limits. It remained as an option in later editions of the MUTCD in 1978, 1988, and 2000 before it was deleted in 2003. The NMSL was modified in 1987 to allow 65 on rural Interstates and on rural Interstate-compatibles in certain states, but large-scale signing of night speed limits didn't occur until the NMSL was abolished in 1995 (took effect March 1996), when Texas and Montana started using them extensively, in both cases with the reversed-color plate ("NIGHT" and the limit in white on black). As of 2011 Texas has abandoned its day/night speed limits, which were tiered by facility and vehicle type (took two billboards to display at each state line crossing), in favor of 75 day and night everywhere rurally except on facilities that qualify for 80 or 85. Montana (judging by recent signing plans) still uses night speed limits extensively on its secondary state highway system.

[Stevie D]

What i liked about driving in the US:
- Lot's of lanes on the freeways, interstates and expressways as well as no petty lane hogging traffic laws.
- Right on red rule at most intersections.
- HGV, Trucks and Tractor -Trailers doing the same speeds as the cars
- HOV, Carpool 2+ lanes
- Freeflow interchanges on the Interstate in the US they wouldn't dream of connection 2 major interstates with a roundabout or stackabout yes i'm talking about the A1(M) / M18 interchange.
- Hardly any speed cameras or VSL Smart "Motorways"
- Paying for gas before you fill up
- Frequent traffic reports on the radio some are every 10 minutes that is accurate and up to date

What i hated about driving in the US
- Surfaces riddles with potholes, ruts and cracks missing markings and reflective studs
- multi lane freeways 4+ lanes like the 101 in Los Angeles not been lit at night
- The lack of directional signage off the main highways must either have a GPS or good local knowledge
- The US unleaded gas pump is coloured black many times i nearly filled up with diesel because thats coloured green in the US
- Many drivers not using indicators when changing lanes or exiting/joining the freeway.

A lot of those things you put down as positive, I'm really not sure about.
- Lots of lanes meaning chaotic driving, especially combined with it being largely a free-for-all with no slow lane - tends to lead to platoons of traffic all moving at similar speeds, which means it is difficult if you want to drive faster or slower, and leads to more weaving.
- Not keen on trucks doing the same speed as cars, the weight in those things means that at 70mph they take a hell of a lot of stopping (especially with liquid cargo) and the damage they can do at higher speeds is catastrophic.
- The A1(M)/M18 interchange was built at a time when traffic levels were much lower and it was perfectly appropriate for the time. It's only since the A1(M) has started carrying a lot more traffic that it has stopped being up to the job, and I would say that has happened within the last 5–10 years, I certainly don't remember it being much of a problem before that.
- Paying for fuel before you fill up ... why? I want to fill the tank, I have no idea how much that is going to cost, just let me brim it and pay for what I have used. It's an absurd system.
- Traffic reports that frequent are really annoying!

[Burns]

What I found a bit disconcerting was how narrow the lanes were, especially when you consider that the average American car is bigger than the average British car. Take, for example US101 north of the Golden Gate Bridge and compare it with the M90. I'd say the M90 with its two lanes and hard shoulder takes up more space than four lanes of US101.

[Truvelo]

Perhaps US101 had three lanes when it was built and it was widened on the cheap?

As for prepaying fuel it works the same as pay at pump over here although many forecourts have pumps that ask for your postcode in which case you have to pay inside. If you put in less fuel than you paid for the remainder will be refunded so you don't lose out.