Canadian American RV Culture Difference

I read somewhere that heavy "dray wagons" in Great Britain in by-gone years would, upon reaching a junction where they had to cross paths, form a circle to keep from having to stop and start such heavy loads which taxed the horses.

When arriving at one of these common crossings you merely joined the circle as space was always kept between the teams and when you got to the road you needed to take you just peeled out of the circle, all without subjecting your poor team to having to stop or start a heavy load perhaps even on a grade.

I found driving in the UK a remarkably civilized experience with no passing lane bandits and roundabouts in the multiple format being a Sterling Moss/Jackie Stewart adventure.

Enter one roundabout and take your designated exit onto another roundabout to then exit onto yet a third one to finally arrive at the exit onto the rodawya you need.

Wonderful things whose safety and practicality are grossly misunderstood here in North America.

Canada vs U.S. culture? How about paying $11 dollars and change for a case of 24 in a Walmart or Sam's in the U.S. and you get dinged $56 up here, eh?

Just to toss out a slightly different take on these roads, I spent 3 months in Australia in 2012.

Now, there's a place that's really made good use of the rotary/roundabout/traffic circle. The Aussies have a solid circle in various places in ordinary width streets and roads. U-TURN permitted or EASY RIGHT TURN (remember, you drive on the left in Oz). It's really great when you think you goofed up on your direction.

& speaking of wonderful traffic circles, check out Washington, D. C. There are streets that can take you right across the normal city rectangles and and save scads of miles of driving.

The District of Columbia was created to serve as the permanent national capital in 1790. Within the District, a new capital city was founded in 1791 to the east of a preexisting settlement at Georgetown. The original street layout in the new City of Washington was designed by Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant (see L'Enfant Plan).

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_and_highways_of_Washington,_D.C.

& that layout borrowed from other European cities.

I wonder if I shall ever drive in European cities and see all that for myself.

;)

retraite wrote:

free radical wrote:
what I find peculiar is how different provinces label the intersections without trafic lights where several roads merge,
in BC its called roundabout,in AB traffic circle and in NS rotary,,

what do they call these in US??

An accident waiting to happen!

Cheers.

Only to drivers who dawdle about not knowing the rules of the open road and need a traffic light or forest of signs to tell them what to do.

Here is an interesting article about different approaches to driving and roads Distracting Miss Daisy - why stop signs and speed limits endanger Americans

free radical wrote:
what I find peculiar is how different provinces label the intersections without trafic lights where several roads merge,
in BC its called roundabout,in AB traffic circle and in NS rotary,,

what do they call these in US??

An accident waiting to happen!

Cheers.

what I find peculiar is how different provinces label the intersections without trafic lights where several roads merge,
in BC its called roundabout,in AB traffic circle and in NS rotary,,

what do they call these in US??

Tequila wrote:


Yeah a fr3eind of mine taught telecommunications classes for BC Tel and they often had Americans in there. He said that he often used the term hydro until one day some guy form Alabama or somewhere liek that asked what electricity had to do with water.

Yeah we Alabama folks hardly ever notice the line of dams on the Tennessee River that make up TVA - one of the world's big hydroelectric projects, too bad we ran out of rivers and had to build other ways to produce power.

Many of us remember that the generation before us considered Franklin Roosevelt (who authorized TVA)almost a saint.

We say "pardon?" They say, "Huh?"

In Upper Canada I'm not sure because they usually start talking before you have finished the sentence....no wait that is just in Parley ment. :) :)

oh oh... :)



Anyhoo here in the Outback we have both cattle guards and Texas gates. I was told the cattle guards are metric.

Z-Peller wrote:

I, a Canadian, call my electrical power hydro. I always have. My American friends call it electric.

And I, a Westcoast Canadian, call my electricity, "electricity or power".....always have!....(must be a cultural thing!).....and Vancouver transit buses that run on electricity are called "Trolley buses"....ask about a Hydro bus and you will get some pretty blank stares......oh yes, and silverware? well, I find that asking for "knife fork or spoon" gets me pretty much what I want either side of the border....

PS...oh yeah, and "BC Hydro" that we get our electrical power from was formerly "BC Electric"

ya but you folk from BC have allways been a little ,,,,,, different,,,;) must be the mushrooms eh ;) :D

I, a Canadian, call my electrical power hydro. I always have. My American friends call it electric.

And I, a Westcoast Canadian, call my electricity, "electricity or power".....always have!....(must be a cultural thing!).....and Vancouver transit buses that run on electricity are called "Trolley buses"....ask about a Hydro bus and you will get some pretty blank stares......oh yes, and silverware? well, I find that asking for "knife fork or spoon" gets me pretty much what I want either side of the border....

PS...oh yeah, and "BC Hydro" that we get our electrical power from was formerly "BC Electric"

Well, you know there are a number of hydroelectric generating stations with power that comes from damns in The States too.

Like as not some folks think those damns were created for boating enthusiasts rather than power or irrigation sources.

;)