On 2012-11-23 20:03, Philip Barnes wrote :
Again in most of Western Europe, not the UK, a system giving priority
to traffic from the right exists so many minor junctions have no road
markings but the priority to the right rule exists. My experience is,
I have no problem giving way but taking it took some time to master.
In Europe when a stop sign is used, there is always a main road which
has priority.
The priority to the right is quite a story in Belgium.
One day, lawyers correctly noticed that some minor crossings had no
priority signals or that rust or a crash can have them fall down. So,
mainly for a matter of law, so that a culprit would exist instead of the
administration, right of way to the right by default was decided.
But then, bourgmestres/burgemeesters (mayors) decided to /*remove*/ some
existing priority signs, mostly in towns, alleging that this would slow
down the traffic and increase security. And the more they did the more
the next towns would do too.
This resulted in anti-natural priority and in drivers from minor road
not daring to use their priority right and stopping anyway. Fortunately,
there was a rule stating that someone who stops looses his priority and
people knew how to behave in that case.
But now, that rule has been abolished, so that if someone gently waves
at you to go first, your answer must be a no no.
The four cars at a crossing situation has never been solved.
I remember having discussed that with an Englishman. He couldn't
understand much of what I was saying. To him, priority was always
natural. Indeed, most of the crossings in that (new)town were T
crossings, or otherwise clearly prioritized, one could not miss the
Major Road Ahead and, on the main roads, the roundabouts were plenty and
wide, where you can revolve until you're sure of your direction.
Some Belgian roundabouts I call "a stone in the middle of the road
around which those who U-turn have priority over those driving straight
ahead" (indeed they're sometimes so small that you almost cross them in
a straight line and the center is almost flat so that the line can be
perfectly straight for the lorries).
Stop signs are much less common in the UK than North America, in most
cases the minor road just has to give way sign, or in the UK just road
markings on minor roads. Stop signs are relatively rare in the UK,
they are generally only used where visibility is difficult. In other
countries I find myself thinking, 'why the stop sign, I can see'.
Stop signs are rare in Belgium. Their reason for being is to to stop
even if no traffic is coming on the major road. I think they were
decided where accidents occurred. They fit my definition of the ideal
road sign: warning from whose who know the place to those who don't.
Each country his story. I wonder about Roman ways ;-) (don't you ever
mock OSM
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=46.567&lon=6.788&zoom=9&layers=M&relation=124582>.)
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