Driving Abroad

I returned from 2 weeks in Canada recently.

Canada is a massive country, the second biggest in the world in fact, and a population of over 31million. The distances involved in doing tasks like shopping, or going to work, its hardly surprising that there are so many cars are on the road there. You may think this causes lots of problems and issues, however there are a few things they do differently which appear to make driving a bit easier than it might be for your average city dweller in the UK.

The Roads: The roads are much wider than we are used to here, almost UK motorway sized even in small suburbs. This leaves more room for traffic to move about in lanes before causing a hazard and increases visibility, rather than crowding traffic into a smaller space. You are also likely to find 4 lane roads going through most cities, unlike Dundee which gets by with 2 lanes at the most.

The RoadSigns: These seem to be much simpler than over here. Plenty of "STOP" signs, with very few give ways. As with "STOP" signs here the traffic must come to a complete stop. This is used frequently, particularly at crossroads which may have a "major" and "minor" road in the UK. There is also the option to turn right at any time(which is treated like a "give way") even at a red traffic light. This seems to help traffic keep moving when the road is clear, when they would normally be sitting waiting on the green light.

The Layout: Many of the roads are built in "Blocks" similar to the American system, where roads are designed to go in long straight lines, often north, south, east or west. This keeps navigation much easier and avoids problems we encounter in the UK with roads which haven't been straight since some of them were built over 100 years ago!

The Pedestrian: Although it is a massive car orientated country, Canada's roads are kept safe for pedestrians. Each large crossroads is controlled by traffic lights, with clear signals given to pedestrians when they can cross(red and white, rather than red and green) and, surprisingly, a countdown timer on how long they have before the light changes, on larger roads this is around 30 seconds, letting the pedestrian decide if they have time to cross an 8 lane freeway in time.

All of these things, as well as numerous other things which as a tourist are not obvious help keep Canada's roads safe. Could some of these lessons be applied to UK roads? My favourite is the option to turn right, this might be introduced in the UK as an option to turn left(other side of course!) treating the turn as a give way to other traffic. The hope would be to reduce traffic build-up, as well as journey times and fuel consumption.

Does anyone know if this has been seriously considered before?