h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cutting teeth, he used one on me!

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I know!

::bookmarking::

UK roundabout = US traffic circle

If a central reservation is called an island, what do Americans call a traffic island (this is a short raised bit, the height of the pavement [sidewalk] in the middle of the road, usually to allow people to cross more easily or to protect traffic turning right at a junction)?

saw what?

>UK manual = US stickshift< us also calls it manual (at least i do) also referred to as just 'stick', ie. "is your new car an automatic?" "no, it's a stick".

>UK central reservation = US median< us median can refer to anything dividing a road, but a median can be a concrete wall median, or an island median, the island being concrete, grassy, a flower bed, etc.

>UK traffic lights = US traffic signal/stop lights< i know shea said nyers call them traffic lights, but in the midwest we do call them stoplights.

>UK seat belt = US safety belt< we call them seat belts in the midwest.

>UK car crash = US car wreck< usually referred to as an accident in the midwest.

>UK lorry = US truck
UK pick up truck = US wrecker
UK flatbed = US pick up truck<

this one i'm not sure about. i assume that lorry is a delivery truck, or freight truck. (we do call them just 'trucks' but we call about six different vehicles truck, so for the purpose of this discussion i'm attempting to differentiate.) a us wrecker can also be called a tow-truck (and in my part of the country more commonly is). now the flatbed=pick up truck is the one i have a question about. a us pick up truck is a passenger truck, like a ford f150, or a dodge dakota. a us flatbed is a freight trailer (or bed) with no sides (thus it is flat).

>UK "I'm going over the road" = US "I'm going across the street"< us 'over the road' refers to a (frieght) truck driver who drives cross-country as opposed to locally.

>UK minicab = US gypsy cab< what is this?

does uk call the shoulder of the road something different than us?

sorry for the long post

bagpuss, did the above post answer your question?

The 'hard shoulder' of a British motorway is actually not a shoulder at all but an outside lane reserved for breakdowns. The actual edge of the road (i.e. the grassy bit) is the verge. I don't know if this differs from the US parlance at all...

BTW, can someone explain 'jaywalking' to me? It doesn't exist over here.

From what I can understand jaywalking is crossing the road not on a proper crossing point and at the proper time.

In the UK doing this is not illegal, its just entertainment for car drivers

*cars again*

UK accelerator = US gas pedal

Gosho, I've been compiling all of this offline ... I figured since I started it ...

Okay, jaywalking - technically, you're only supposed to cross streets at the corner. There was a sing-songy commercial when I was a kid:
"Don't cross the street in the middle, in the middle, in the middle, in the middle, in the middle of the block ..." I know there was more, but you get the idea ...
So if you do cross in the middle, and a cop sees you and is feeling really nasty, you can be ticketed!

With the exception of walking on Motorways and zebra crossings, a pedestrian can do what ever s/he wishes on a UK road. Of course defenseless soft fleshy person versus fast moving steel car tends to keep them in line

you mean we can't walk on zebra crossings ?
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Yeah that entry is in need of revision....

What I meant to say is that pedestrians can do what they like on roads, but they take their life in their hands when they do so as they do not have right of way. The main exception is walking on motorways which is banned. There are rules with zebra crossings in that pedestrians, for once, have right of way over cars.

Still reads like s**t. I'm going off for a lie down......

It's worth mentioning at this point that although pedestrians have right of way on a zebra crossing in the UK (and cars have to stop for anyone showing intention to cross, if I remember the highway code correctly) - this isn't the case throughout Europe. Treat European zebra crossings as a nicely painted piece of road pointing out good or popular places to cross. Don't expect anyone to stop for you, they won't, although they should try and avoid running you down when you're in the middle....

I heard that in France, if you are run over on a zebra crossing it will be deemed the driver's fault, regardless of the actual circumstances of the accident. Now isn't that a nice comforting thought.....

i've already had experience of it in spain...
there was a nice rfiendly little green man lit up, inviting us to walk across the road, and then when we were in the middle of the road, these motorcycles zoomed round the corner and almost knocked us down. and then the spanish people try to be friends with out country...honestly...if they want all the tourists, maybe they should be nicer to them...
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Nah... I live in a UK tourist town and we hate tourists.
I just drive at them when the lights change and they had better run for it

europeans: can't live with them