Hello welcome back this is a follow-up video to the one we made at the end of
last year, with hints and tips for people driving in the UK for the first time,
especially for the u.s. visitor. So last time we covered some basics manual
transmission, driving on the left, a bit more this time including
driving on the motorway and things like 'Don't always follow Google Maps", you'll
see why later. In the last video what sparked a lot of debate is why we drive
on the left in the UK. If you want to have a look at some of the rantings and
ramblings, go and check out that video. One thing about driving in the UK are
zebra crossings, the whites and black lines across the road. They often
have those or things there, beacons, there with the
lights on top. If somebody's approaching those you have to stop.In Europe,
especially France they sort of ignore those but in this country as somebody is
approaching now.
That person wasn't on a crossing, the one we nearly knocked over. That isn't a
zebra crossing there's just a different road surface. One thing we didn't mention
in the last video in the u.s. driving on the right, at a red light
you can go right. That's kerb to kerb, in the UK you can't do the equivalent when
there's a red light. There's a red light you can't go, yo Can't go kerb to kerb on the
corner on red you have to wait until the lights go green.
Sometimes they have a filter arrow, a separate green arrow, to say you can go.
But normally if it's just red, you have to wait until the light goes green.
Google maps are really useful especially when you're in a city trying to find the
hotel and directions but sometimes, especially when you're in the
countryside in the west coast of Wales or maybe down in Devon and Cornwall the
route they take you isn't necessarily the best. They often take you on the most
direct routes which may involve country lanes and if you're not used to driving
on narrow roads it may be a bit much for some of you.
And see what's happened now.
This road ain't big enough for the both of us. See what can happen!
Very pretty though.
We're gonna go to the petrol station, the gas station. What you'll
notice there's basically two types, there's diesel, there's more diesel cars
here than in the US and normal petrol unleaded but the octane levels are
much higher than in the US. The standard basic level is 95 octane and the premium
one is 97. You don't need to buy the premium at all. It's more expensive but
the standard is 95 which is a much higher octane level than the standard
in the US which can be 80-something 89, not sure 80
something. This is quite an expensive one.
If you stop it simply unleaded diesel and two choices of diesel so anything
with supreme you didn't have to worry about. They just charge you more, so the
green one's unleaded and the black ones diesel and everything is measured in
litres. By the way the price is 129, one pound 29 pence per litre so it's really
expensive. Oh unlike the u.s. ones there is no clip or lever you have to
press to make it work, they authorise it in the office but there's no lever on the pump.
Also what you'll notice,
you have to keep your hand on the pump
to keep the flow going but in the UK that does not happen you have to keep hold of the
handle all the time. There's the price £21 for
hardly any petrol. Then you go into the office to pay. Right, we're approaching
the motorway now. Most are two lanes
on the approach. You've indicated right to join the main carriageway get up to
the speed of the traffic that's what you do in the u.s. really.
On the left-hand side over there that area is called the hard shoulder and
that's where you stop in emergencies only. An emergency is basically if you blow
the tire , you've broken down. It's not a place where you stop for a picnic or to change
drivers anything like that. It is purely for emergencies and the police do come
down hard if you mess around on the hard shoulder. Also if you do break
down there's emergency phones along here, every so many miles. It's useful to use
the emergency phone and not your mobile phone. It tells you the phones,
there's one coming up now, that orange thing,
they've got a number on so they know exactly where you are. On the motorway it's 70
miles an hour and unlike in the US you can't pass on the
inside you have to pass on the outside. When you have overtaken, you're meant
to pull back in. Indicate to go right, cancel the indicator, go past, you can
stay in their outer lanes when you're passing but as soon as you finish
passing. You pull over, it's not mandatory to indicate to pull back in.
Although if it's busy, on a busy motorway it does help, especially to stop
people pulling out. There's a few times you can pass on the inside. It's when it's
like this, special lane designation for people coming off here
also you can pass on the inside when you're stuck in traffic. If it's
congestion and all the lanes are full and they go at different speeds like
approaching the city. Well you know you're on the motorway, the signs are blue
and white. What's growing and you see more of, instead of having one fixed
speed limit they have an average speed limit to stop people slowing down,
going past the cameras, speeding up. They have it over three or four miles and
they monitor the cars so you have to basically keep at that
speed all the way through. Here comes one now, they give you a
warning. If you look up on top of the bridge
they've got a sign, by the way it's in, well we're in Wales, so it's got the
English version and the Welsh version underneath. 50 miles
an hour so it's 50,
don't be tempted to speed up because it is average, there's cameras at various points
along the stretch. If you see those yellow cameras, the ones check number plates
checking your speed. One thing we haven't mentioned is using
a mobile phone, you get its 200 pound fine and six points or your driver
license and put it into context. When you get 12 points you could lose your
licence.
Ok, the blue signs, that one motorway ends. If you are wondering what
the strange words are, as I mentioned earlier, we are we are in
Wales and lots of the signs are bilingual we get a mixture.
Just to confuse you.
We're stuck behind a tractor.
The joy of country roads.
As I was filming I could see the drivers panicking.
Don't go in the car with the other half. OK so that was quite good, to be in the car for about 45
minutes and we haven't argued. It felt like forever. So just a recap, if you're coming
to the UK , rent a car and you can explore further afield not just the cities. Come
down to Wales, there's always a welcome in the hillside, and just a reminder again if
you haven't seen our first part driving in the UK go and check out the link.
So it's by for me and it is a bye from Melissa.