NABRE

[Nic]

North American Board for Road Enthusiasts

Hello from the other side of the pond!

Not much to report so far. I've been driving twice, and in a big SUV (Suburban Urban Vehicle) and Ive noticed that, whist the conception of everything being bigger is generally true, the local roads seem to cling to the car width a little, and with no safety area, just grass, or ditches by the side of the road, it gets a bit hairy.

This thread could be like a NABRE Blog thing for me. Random musings of an Englishman in America.

Ok, Ill post more some day soon.

[PeterA5145]

North American Board for Road Enthusiasts

Hello from the other side of the pond!

Hi Nic

Not much to report so far. I've been driving twice, and in a big SUV (Suburban Urban Vehicle)

Is what what Jesus would drive?

[a228_mb]

I've always thought that SUV meant sports utility vehicle still you learn something new every day

[mistral]

Whereabouts in Georgia are you? Up in the hills, in the Atlanta area, down in Jimmy Carter land or by the seaside?

Make sure you take loads of pics wherever you are!

[Dougman]

I've always thought that SUV meant sports utility vehicle still you learn something new every day

It probably did at the outset, but since none of them ever venture anywhere that could be classed as requiring a sporting utility, it's a better TLA?

Unless Chelsea has a tractor pull?

[Lewis]

I've always thought that SUV meant sports utility vehicle still you learn something new every day

It does, Nic was joking
Suburban Urban Vehicle is more fitting though.

Oh, and 'TLA' is a TLA!

[Nic]

I've always thought that SUV meant sports utility vehicle still you learn something new every day

It does, Nic was joking
Suburban Urban Vehicle is more fitting though.

Sorry for any confusion I caused.

Hello again for the second installment of NABRE.

Firstly, in response to Graham's post, I am now settled in a town (I say town, but America doesn't really do 'towns', just cities) of Ft. Oglethorpe, which is pretty much up in the hills. I'm about 10/15 mins drive south of Chattanooga, and the Tennessee State Line.

So, a few more musings. On Interstates (Which is very much a Motorway equivelent) there are no such things as MSAs. Each junction (more on junctions later) has information about lodgings, petrol stations and fast fooderies, and there is generally a choice for all three at every junction.

Junctions aren't named as such, and you have a choice of words from intersection, exit, ramp. The exit number, as most people know, is given in miles from each state border, so you have no real concept of how many junctions you need to travel, but a very good idea f how far along an interstate you need to travel.

I'll leave it there for now, but there's a great little section of I-40 in Knoxville, if I hadn't been driving, I'd have taken pictures. It looked not too disimilar to the recently featured bus flyover in Birmingham.

Pictures from previous visits, can be found at http://nic-storr.fotopic.net

[Steven]

Glad to hear you're getting on OK, Nic. Keep us posted.

Now, it's your turn to drive to the next Awayday...

[Nic]

Now, it's your turn to drive to the next Awayday...

OK, but if the location is Nuneaton-side of the great East West Split, you'll have to drive to mine first

[IJP1]

Actually you do find "MSAs" in the States (although obviously not where you are), known (quite sensibly) as "rest areas".

I.

[mistral]

Actually you do find "MSAs" in the States (although obviously not where you are), known (quite sensibly) as "rest areas".

And there are plenty of MSAs on the various turnpikes too.

[Nic]

I also forgot to mention that there are welcome centres as you cross each state line, with a kind of Tourist information, lots of leaflets, some loos and a bit of gernal picnicsitery.

[Chris]

Actually you do find "MSAs" in the States (although obviously not where you are), known (quite sensibly) as "rest areas".

And there are plenty of MSAs on the various turnpikes too.

Yup, I have experienced threse on the Florida Turnpike.

[Derek]

The exit number, as most people know, is given in miles from each state border, so you have no real concept of how many junctions you need to travel, but a very good idea f how far along an interstate you need to travel.

As long as you start at a state border. If you join the road somewhere along its length and don't know how far away the border is, it's not much use is it?

And of course, as we've mentioned before, in America you have to pay to use "freeways" - as well as drive on the wrong side of the road AND have to do it at 50 mph (or have they done away with that yet?). Hmmph.

Derek

[Lewis]

The exit number, as most people know, is given in miles from each state border, so you have no real concept of how many junctions you need to travel, but a very good idea f how far along an interstate you need to travel.

As long as you start at a state border. If you join the road somewhere along its length and don't know how far away the border is, it's not much use is it?

And of course, as we've mentioned before, in America you have to pay to use "freeways" - as well as drive on the wrong side of the road AND have to do it at 50 mph (or have they done away with that yet?). Hmmph.

Derek

Freeway dentotes a road that is free from at-grade obstructions, not free to use. And some states have speed limits up to 80mph.

[si404]

And of course, as we've mentioned before, in America you have to pay to use "freeways" - as well as drive on the wrong side of the road AND have to do it at 50 mph (or have they done away with that yet?). Hmmph.

you only have to pay to use some multilane, divided highways, mostly in the North and East (and Florida). The ones with tolls aren't called freeways, they are turnpikes, tollways and so on.

As for the 50 limit, it was 55, and was repealed about 12 years ago. Fatality rates fell at beyond the rate that they were falling, rather than the fearmongering "thousands more will die" brigade being right. Other than Montana's (now 75mph) "reasonable and prudent" limit, the highest posted speed is 80mph in very rural parts of Texas, on I-10 and I-20. here's the speed limits. All states but Hawaii have limits of more than 55 nowadays.

[Chris]

Unlike many parts of our motorway network however, Interstate freeways can change speed limit rather erratically. This maybe becasue a lot of them travel through city centres instead of bypasssing them however. I-4 in Florida springs to mind, I think it goes down to 40mph through downtown Orlando, and is 60/70 on the outskirts near all the theme parks (but this was 5 years ago)

[J N Winkler]

The exit number, as most people know, is given in miles from each state border, so you have no real concept of how many junctions you need to travel, but a very good idea of how far along an interstate you need to travel.

As long as you start at a state border. If you join the road somewhere along its length and don't know how far away the border is, it's not much use is it?

In that case you just use the mileposts, which are invariably posted on Interstate highways and also on state and U.S. route freeways in many states. Not knowing the milepoint of your entry point isn't really an issue anywhere except in California, where Caltrans finally introduced exit numbering in 2002 but has faffed about putting up proper white-on-green mileposts to supplement its existing black-on-white postmile markers, which reset at county lines.

[Nic]

I think you just need to be a bt good at Math(s), Derek. For examp-le, if you enter the interstae at exit 353 and are travelling to, say exit 287, you know you are travelling 66miles. See.

Two updates today.

Banking. The americans are pretty good with banking of roads. From Sliproads to normal bendy S2 roads. You can see obvious banking with a road turns the corner. Im not sure whether its to do with the general newness of the roadbuilding programme over here.

School Buses. You know the types. The yellow ones. Well, Americans take school safety a lot more seriously then the English. All schools have reduced speed limits outside, that only become operational at School peek times. They are given with orangle flashing lights, and can be as low as 15mph. Also, where you are following a school bus, when the bus stops to allow children on or off the bus, you are not allowed to overtake it, whether it be a S2 or a D4.

[J N Winkler]

Banking. The Americans are pretty good with banking of roads. From Sliproads to normal bendy S2 roads. You can see obvious banking when a road turns the corner. I'm not sure whether it's to do with the general newness of the roadbuilding programme over here.

The U.S.A. has had superelevation standards for about the same length of time as the U.K. In fact early American state standards from the 1920's were used to make the argument that superelevation should become standard in Britain.

The real difference is that the proportion of the sealed-surface highway mileage that has not been formally engineered for geometric design is much higher in Britain--the real comparison is between country lanes which date from medieval times but have been surfaced with bitumen or asphalt to keep dust down, and gravel county roads which typically follow section lines (particularly in the Midwestern states) and receive little maintenance beyond regrading and occasional application of calcium chloride to suppress dust.

Nic--have you moved to the U.S. permanently?