Look Right: Are You Ready To Drive In Britain? Quiz

Answer: 30 mph

The British seem intent on preventing foreign visitors from discovering the speed limit, but I have penetrated the mystery. Knowing the speed limit in Britain is dependent on having a proper understanding of the national speed limit. Notice that the phrase "national speed limit" would seem to imply a single quantity.

In fact, the phrase "national speed limit" refers to default speed limits in at least three circumstances. In a "built up area" the national speed limit is 30 mph. "But", you ask, "how does one distinguish that an area is built up".

The official highway code online site advises, "Street lights usually mean that there is a 30 mph speed limit unless there are signs showing another limit." Incidentally, British speed limits always end in "0". (See also subsequent questions on speed limits).

Answer: You should give way to traffic in the roundabout.

I did come to appreciate roundabouts after attaining a reasonable level of competence in navigating them. However, my initial attempts at traversing them were reminiscent of the Keystone Cops. I will say that most British drivers were gracious and forgiving, and I am willing to assume that fellow American tourists were responsible for the more insistent honking and interesting hand gestures to which I was sometimes subjected. Broken lines of the type encountered at the entrance to roundabouts indicate that you should "give way" - yield in American parlance.

Answer: You should look right.

Roundabouts are being constructed and, therefore encountered, with greater frequency in the United States. The United States roundabout database kept at http://roundabouts.kittelson.com/dbase/queries/inv.cgi lists 326 existing roundabouts in the US with many more planned. Roundabouts are touted as both reducing collisions and improving traffic flow. American roundabout enthusiasts designate US roundabouts as being "modern".

The "Modern Roundabouts" website informs us that "Prior to the development of 'Roundabouts: An Informational Guide', the few state and local agencies interested in roundabouts had to rely on foreign roundabout design guides." It seems to this quiz author that adopting the already existing British model with its record of safety and efficacy makes more sense than trying to reinvent the roundabout. Could it be that there is more profit potential in promoting a "new" and questionably "improved " product?

Answer: You must steer around it.

On a national highway code quiz, 87% of respondents indicated that you were permitted to pass over the island. The highway code indicates otherwise.

Answer: Enter the roundabout from the right lane, activating your right turn signal. Go left around, in the inner lane. Pass the second exit, activate your left turn signal, migrate left to the outer lane and turn into the left lane of the third exit.

One reason for Europe's greater reliance on roundabouts relates to safety. Fatal collisions occur with three times the frequency at non-roundabout intersections in Britain as compared with intersections governed by roundabouts. In the Netherlands, replacement of nine intersections regulated by traffic lights with roundabouts resulted in an approximate 30% reduction in both fatalities and total number of collisions. (http://www.ourston.com/safety.html)

Answer: You may come through first; he will wait.

Although the British highway code does not endorse the practice, flashing one's high beams is a common method for a UK driver to indicate that he or she is ceding the right-of-way. The highway code would limit use of a flash of the high beams to serve as a warning of your presence to other drivers.

Answer: Unless marked, there is no law or custom to guide you (since both sides may be used). On most streets, one side is consistently used by unspoken agreement.

As an American, I was at first puzzled at the highway code's admonition not to park on the pavement. When it explained that this could impair pedestrian traffic, I realized that "pavement" was a British term equivalent to the American "sidewalk". The British penchant for naming pedestrian and cyclist crossings after wildlife was also an initial source of confusion.

In America "alligator crossings" or "duck crossings" are literally, albeit humorously, set aside for alligators and ducks respectively. I initially believed that zebra, pelican and toucan crossings were whimsical UK inventions of the same sort.

Answer: 70 mph

This is another instance of the UK "national speed limit". For dual carriageways and motorways it is 70 MPH. It may not only be uninformed tourists who have difficulty with the "national speed limit" concept. According to Hertz Rentals, 56% of the British public was unable to correctly answer the following question, "What is the national speed limit for a motor car on a single carriageway road outside a built-up area, unless there are signs stating otherwise?" (It's 60 mph, by the way.)

Answer: The speed limit is now 60 mph.

The sign described is one that indicates that the national speed limit is in force. For a single carriageway, outside a built up area, that would be 60 MPH. If any of you were stuck behind a slow moving, red Toyota Avensis in southern England in August of 2004, I apologize.

In the absence of a specific sign telling me what speed I should drive after leaving a village, I was left to guess. I blush as I confess that I guessed 40 mph.

Answer: No stopping (clearway)

In the UK, circular signs give orders; triangular signs give warnings; and square signs give information. My candidate for most unnerving British road sign is an oft seen rectangular sign coupling a triangular warning sign with a square explanatory sign.

The top portion of the sign contains a red triangle showing two lanes merging into one. The bottom of the sign contains an informational square explaining the specific hazard about which the triangular sign is warning you, "Oncoming vehicles in middle of road". Shudder...