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Comment by PaulRobinson | Hacker News Reader

Other things to look out for:

- Every tube station has a "labyrinth" to find. https://art.tfl.gov.uk/labyrinth/about/

- Vehicles drive on the left hand side in the UK. Except at the entrance to the Savoy, where road markings make it clear they must drive on the right.

- We love roundabouts. Londonist has a nice article on some of the weird things you can find on some of them here: https://londonist.com/london/secret/the-strange-things-you-c...

- When using transport, the normal rule of thumb is that the underground will be quicker than a bus or even a taxi on many journeys, but sometimes walking beats even that. TfL has a tube map that helps you figure that out (check out Covent Garden to Leicester Square - a 90 second tube journey that takes at least 8-10 minutes due to the depth of the line): https://content.tfl.gov.uk/walking-tube-map.pdf

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London traffic lights are all equipped with PCATS — pedestrian countdown at traffic signal. It’s the timeout signal that shows how many seconds you have left to cross the road.

The implementation is very hacker friendly. The PCATS counter is literally bolted onto the side of the existing lights and learns the pattern of the system to which it is attached by monitoring its behavior. There is basically all but an air gap between the counter and the lights themselves, and the counter is making an informed guess. They start their installation-lives having no idea how much time will be left.

As such, each counter is equipped with a 4 bit error display to indicate its status — out of sync, could not sync, faulty lights, etc. Keep your eyes peeled for little LEDs telling you something about the internal status of the system.

Example: https://uk.yunextraffic.com/portfolio/traffic-signal-control...

Error codes shown here, on page 7: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/PCaTS-Note-4-Technical-Specificat...

Another cool feature of of pedestrian crossings (and I think this applies to the whole UK) is the accessibility aids. We're all used to beeping traffic signals, but did you know that on the underside of the control box there is a tactile cone that rotates when the green signal is active?

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/pedestrian-facilities-b...

> We love roundabouts

“Look kids, there’s Big Ben! Parliament!”

National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985):

https://youtu.be/iAgX6qlJEMc

I don't know why this scene is so memorable. My older brother and I last saw this movie 30 years ago and we still remember and laugh about this scene when we think of London.

Chevy Chase's laugh/cry moments of utter hysteria and derangement have always made me laugh at/with those scenes even more so as I've gotten older as I can totally relate.

> We love roundabouts

Context for our American friends. This isn't specific to London. Everywhere I've lived in Europe is more roundabout-heavy than the USA. Because, you know, they're objectively superior ;-)

They are also spreading in the USA. New Jersey has had them for quite a long time, and is building more. I've been surprised to see them as an apparent new default for new intersections in central Wisconsin where my wife's family is from. There are even some new ones being added around Santa Fe where I live.

Yes, I agree both that they are objectively superior and that happily they are spreading!

At first I would see people treat them like a slight curve in the road and blow through them, but we seem to have figured them out now

The ones in Indianapolis suck because heavy traffic flows can blow through as a train, completely blocking entry from other directions.

Any SF-based Adobe employee will attest to the novelty of working next to The City’s only rotary.

Many of the ones popping up in San Francisco at 4-way intersections RETAIN four stop signs ... <facepalm>

The ones I've seen are really more of a half-hearted traffic-calming measure than proper roundabouts. The intersections I can think of, they're in residential neighborhoods and there's just some new island in the middle of a four-way stop. It might be impossible to widen these into proper roundabouts due to the houses up to the property lines?

Placing new STOP signs in the UK required written permission from the secretary of state until some years ago. They're still quite uncommon here, typically reserved for more risky junctions.

We most commonly use the "Give Way" sign at junctions instead, indicating that other traffic has priority.

New England sits back smugly with our rotaries and judges you all. Politely--but we do.

>objectively superior*

*Given that the roundabout is fed by single-lane streets with low traffic and excellent visibility and no stop signs before entry, which would otherwise negate the advantage of quicker entry.

Single-lane roundabouts aren't very uncommon in America. Maybe not as common as in the UK, but they're definitely around and virtually every driver in America should be familiar with them. There will always be a few fools who don't grok them, but the same can be said for any aspect of driving.

I think when Americans say they're baffled by UK roundabouts, they're almost always talking about the huge multi-lane roundabouts. Those, to me, are nightmare fuel.

not just multi lane, multi-roundabout multi-lane roundabouts, some with patial or alternating clock rotation patterns, exist there as well.

famously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_%28Swindon%29...

My French relatives are always impressed with the (mostly) civil behavior at 4 way stop signs in California and claim they would never work in France. It’s funny to me because every time they visit, they comment on them. I left France too young to know if they are right though.

How do they work in California?

I think what your relatives mean is that if everyone has a stop then it'll be messy because everyone will try to go first after they have stopped...

Here in the UK they have installed 2 stops and 2 give ways at a nearby crossing and it's already quite dangerous because no-one is sure what to do: those with give-ways think they should go before those with stops, those with stops think they should go first if they arrived first... honking ensues very often. If you're lucky it ends in a very British "you go first, no you go first" contest, which is not very practical, either.

> How do they work in California?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-nvo4BzOM

you stop and go in the order you arrived to the stop line.

That sounds dangerous. It’s not uncommon for different people to order events differently, I can see two cars crossing at the same time, each driver convinced to be first.

It does lead to quite a few 'what the f.. arms up.. stares' when there is a perceived violation but it works. Probably because the cars within the stop signs are going relatively slow.

If two people arrival at the same time, the person on the right gets right of way.

It works fine most of the time and 4-way stops are usually only used in city streets where the speed limit is 40-50 km/h.

They are dangerous if used on more rural roads where people aren't expecting they have to stop or misjudge right of way.

given that people generally don't spin their tires off the line from a stop sign, it's fairly safe. If it's obvious that two people are going at the same time then one that has advanced less far in that time will generally ease off the throttle and let the more advanced party continue.

there are accidents, of course, but i'm not sure of any 4 way traffic junction that's infallible.

and as others stated, right-of-way rules are observed atop the social norms.

For near-simultaneous arrivals the right of way goes to the driver on the right.

Specification unclear. If two or more entries to the intersection have at stopped vehicle waiting to cross, a waiting vehicle is somewhere "on the right" of each waiting vehicle. If only two vehicles are present, and are across from each other, and at least one of them wants to turn across the path of the other, each vehicle is _equally_ "on the right". A relative reference is not sufficient.

Some people try clock-relative turns, but that only works if the vehicles arrived while an existing rotation (of prior vehicles) was in progress.

Europe is definitely heavier on environmental design to enforce behaviours rather than signs, as nobody will obey a sign if they can get away with it.

I think most people obey 4-way stop-sign intersections because they're afraid of getting T-boned by another car, not because they obey signs for the sake of obeying signs. People ignore signs when they can get away with it, but a 4-way stop-sign intersection is not such a case to anybody but the suicidally reckless.

They are increasingly common in new developments in the US, but no one is spending money to retrofit old intersections (rightly so I think)

The ~dozen or so roundabouts near where I live (northern suburb of Atlanta, Georgia) have all been 4-way stop retrofits. And all in the last 10 years or so.

LA and southern California could use some roundabouts. There's so many places with stop lights almost stacked on each other.

No one except beautiful Portland, Maine. And probably loads of other towns in New England.

Carmel, Indiana has been retrofitting extensively.

Just got a new one near our house. Greater Los Angeles. My wife, an Aussie, is delighted.

They do take a huge amount of space, unfortunately.

> Vehicles drive on the left hand side in the UK. Except at the entrance to the Savoy, where road markings make it clear they must drive on the right.

Similarly on Palatino bridge (Ponte Palatino) in Rome, vehicles drive on the left side.

There's also a geographically accurate map: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/224813/response/56039...

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-informa...

The Savoy entrance on Google Maps, in case anyone else is curious.

Does anyone know why they have drivers enter on the right instead of the left? Does it make valet parking faster or something?

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5106158,-0.1210778,3a,17.4y,...

It makes it easier for the driver/chauffeur to get out and open the passenger's (rear, driver-side) door.

That may be true, but it's not quite that.

In Savoy Court, vehicles are required to drive on the right. This is said to date from the days of the hackney carriage when a cab driver would reach his arm out of the driver's door window to open the passenger's door (which opened backwards and had the handle at the front), without having to get out of the cab himself. Additionally, the hotel entrance's small roundabout meant that vehicles needed a turning circle of 25 feet (7.6 m) to navigate it. This is still the legally required turning circle for all London cabs.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Hotel#Savoy_Court

Hackney carriages still exist. And a great deal of them made the move to electric. That's just another name for car for hire or taxi.

That was a til for me too, i though that means the shape of the vehicle.

> That's just another name for car for hire or taxi.

There's a legal distinction between taxis and hackneys. Taxis can be taken from a taxi rank or flagged down, but hackneys must be called to collect you. I'm sure there was a reason for the distinction at some point, but it remains.

A hackney cab is a type of taxi (one used in london), and can be hailed. A mini cab must be pre booked, like Uber or Addison Lee.

The distinction is usually to avoid lots of drivers milling about for riders and causing congestion for everybody else.

Oh yes, I've seen those labyrinths! There's one right next to the elevator at Holloway road station, and I just end up ogling at while waiting for the lift to arrive. It's great!

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