05 Jul 2009 |
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For the last year and half, I’ve lived in the States… and for a lot longer than that, I was living in the UK for over a decade. My periods of stay have made me think about the differences in living in both places… especially from the perspective of a Nigerian.
So in this series of articles, I’ll be talking about those differences between the United Kingdom and the United States in different areas (although my perceptions will be heavily coloured by the cities that I’ve lived in – London and Seattle). For each area, I’ll also be giving my opinion on which country Nigeria would resemble more if it were as prosperous as either country…
Part One - Roads
The UK Experience
Most UK towns are quite old, built at a time when the only means for getting about were by foot and horse. Add to this the fact that the UK is a very densely populated place… and it’s not surprising that the roads are so narrow and twisty. Multi-lane roads are few and far between, and even moderately wide roads typically have to surrender some of their space to bus and bike lanes.
As if all this was not bad enough, the population density I spoke of earlier means that most roads have parking on both sides of the road – meaning that the space left is just enough for one car. So heaven help you if you’re blocked by a car coming from the other direction and your reversing skills are very poor (unless, of course, you can face down the other car and get it to reverse instead).
And even if there are no cars, you have to hope that there’s no bus or bike ahead slowing your journey down. Oh, and did I forget to mention the interminable traffic lights and pedestrian crossings? Or the roadworks which choke the little remaining fluidity from the traffic? Uh-huh – driving in the urban UK is an experience designed to test your patience to the limits.
The one prominent feature of UK roads is the roundabouts which come in all kinds of strange configurations. You have minibouts which have no discernable island, and which many cars just drive over; proper roundabouts with a distinct island; multilane roundabouts which are tricky to exit if you find yourself in the wrong lane at the right time; and the much larger traffic controlled roundabouts which are helpful for cars joining the roundabout which otherwise would probably never get on due to the volume of traffic. There are even a few ‘magic roundabouts’ where each road leading to the main roundabout is connected to the roundabout by a smaller roundabout. Such is the fascination for roundabouts that a book on roundabouts has even been published.
The US Experience
The one overriding thing to remember about the US is that the Car is King. That’s why it’s common to find wide multilane roads, freeways (or motorways, if you like) within towns, straighter main roads and fewer traffic lights.
Even pedestrians have to bow before the might of the car – if you think you have exclusive right of way just because the pedestrian crossing sign say you can walk, you are very much mistaken. All the ‘WALK’ sign means is that you can dash across in relative safety, taking care not to hold up the real owners of the road who are still allowed to proceed if the way is clear. Oh, and if you’re so unlucky to miss your narrow window of opportunity to walk, then you might have to wait for another ten years before the lights change and your presence is once more tolerated on the tarmac. In fact, as a pedestrian, you may even consider yourself lucky to have a pavement (sorry, sidewalk) to walk on, as many quieter roads dispense with this ‘irrelevance’ altogether.
But it’s not all plain sailing for cars. For one thing, there is the ubiquitous annoyance of the STOP sign. This means that when you get to a junction, you have to STOP – whether it is 3 am at night and there’s not a car in sight. This can be very irritating if you have lots of these signs and you have to endure a start-STOP-start-STOP-start-STOP sequence. I have to say that the UK roundabouts are much more preferable, as you don’t have to stop.
The other confusing aspect of driving on US roads is the very variable speed limits. On UK roads in urban areas, the speed limit is usually 30 mph; in the US, it’s no big deal on a single road to see the speed limit vary from 30 to 35 to 40 to 30 to 40 to 50 to 40 to … you get the idea. A pain for drivers, but a real boon for speedster-hunting cops.
One last frustration about driving in the US is the poor lighting on roads. The UK is pretty good about lighting pretty much all roads in urban areas – but lighting in the US is patchy. Could this be because people in the US are more environmentally friendly and don’t take kindly to wasting electricity lighting roads when no cars are driving on them in the dead of night? More likely, it’s because Americans are very individualistic and just as they like listening to their own music and feeling their own air-conditioning in their cars, they also like seeing by their own lighting.
Naija – UK or US?
I observe that in Nigeria, there is more of a tradition of cars having the run of the road – there are very few pavements and designated crossing points. Because of this, I believe that Nigeria would come resemble the US more if were as prosperous as Western countries.
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