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Tuesday, December 14, 2021

I SUPPOSE WE HAVE THE UNITED KINGDOM TO THANK FOR THESE!

 Richmond Hill and Hilton Head Island have many roundabouts. Hilton Head has had them for years.

In Richmond Hill, we have two major Interstate-95 interchanges that employ these in order to get off and on the interstate, both of these new and both of them being used by people who are clueless. I saw someone trying to make a left onto one as though this is the United Kingdom which it isn't of course, we drive on the correct side to the street.

2 comments:

Fr. Michael J. Kavanaugh said...

The interstate traffic arrangements are actually diverging diamond interchanges rather than roundabouts. These interchanges usually have traffic signals, whereas roundabouts rely on the willingness and/or the ability of drivers to yield the right of way as required by law. They can be a bit confusing, but the one up I95 at highway 21 doesn't cause problems since folks got used to it.

John Nolan said...

I feel for Americans who land at Heathrow, pick up a RHD hire car and the first thing they have to negotiate is one of the busiest roundabouts in Europe.

Driving on the left is not confined to the UK; 34 per cent of the world's population do so. By no means are they all countries of the British Commonwealth, since they include Indonesia, Thailand and Japan.

Since one mounts a horse (or a bicycle) from the left, driving on the left is arguably more 'natural'. In the US teamsters would lead their horses from the left, and if they met another team they would pass left-to-left so they kept to the drier part of the road and could converse with the oncoming teamster. This, I'm told, is why Americans drive on the right.