English highways. Roads of Great Britain Traffic rules of Great Britain in Russian

27.07.2023

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Features of traffic in the UK

If you have decided to go on a trip using your own vehicles, then you just need to study all the features that are characteristic of the roads of this country. First of all, the main difference between road traffic in England is that there is left-hand traffic. It should also be noted that all available road markings, which are typical for England, are very informative. Thanks to this, it will be a little easier for a person to navigate when performing road maneuvers.

It is especially necessary to remember that overtaking any vehicles in England is carried out on the right side of the vehicle you want to overtake. As for sections such as intersections, and especially roundabouts, cars that move relative to you on the right side have the greatest advantage. Also be sure to remember that localities in England have their own speed limits, which are no more than 60 miles per hour, and on motorways and other carriageways that have two-way traffic, the speed limit is 70 miles per hour.

Main types of fuel

Regarding the question of fuel for your vehicles, in the UK there are 4 types of dispensers at a gas station. It is here that you need to be very careful, as they differ in colors. The column with unleaded gasoline is marked in green, it has an octane number of 95. The red color of the column indicates that it contains gasoline with an octane number of 98. The black column is diesel fuel, and the blue one is Eurodiesel. In most cases, other gas stations also use this method of labeling dispensers.

As for the financial side of the fuel, the approximate cost of one liter of fuel will be about a pound. If we take into account the distance between refueling points for vehicles, it ranges from 25 to 50 miles.

Availability of parking spaces

Also important is the issue of places for parking and parking in a given country. First of all, it must be remembered that if there is a special black mark in the form of a line along the entire length of the carriageway, then both parking and parking in this area are strictly prohibited at any time. If there is a yellow line, then parking at that location may only be allowed under special notices, in most cases outside business hours.

If parking has a certain number of rules that must be observed, for example, the correct setting of your vehicle, then you can find out about this from the installed road signs. As for paying for a parking space, it is carried out using specially installed machines that issue a ticket to the driver. It shows both the cost and the time during which you have the right to park. In most cases, these machines pay with coins of 20, 50, pence, and in some cases 1-2 sterling.

It should be noted that not all car parks that are available in England are guarded. You can also find free parking spaces, which in most cases are located near large stores, or in a large direction from the center. But you can leave your car in such parking lots for no more than one or two hours. But there are also special signs here, for example, a sign that says that only those people who live near the place of this parking lot and who have special permission to do so are allowed to park in this parking lot.

Need to pay road tax

Another feature that exists in England, and which will need to be taken into account, is the payment of road tax. The cost is determined depending on the harmful impact your transport has on the natural environment. Owners of cars that emit a lot of harmful gases into the atmosphere will be required to pay a tax of 300 pounds. But besides this, England also has benefits that also relate to road tax. If, for example, your car's engine size is 1.1 liters, the driver will be able to get a special discount of £55.

Also a distinctive feature of London is that you have to pay to enter the city center. It costs £8 for 1 day. You can make a payment at all outlets that have a special pay point mark.

Ability to use a national Russian driver's license

Another issue that interests many is the recognition of a driver's license from other countries. In the UK, it is possible to use a Russian military license. But, as has been proven more than once in practice, the most practical decision will be to obtain a document that has an international type, since it will be much more convenient to obtain information for foreign law enforcement agencies with it.

Car rent

As for car rental, you can safely go online, either at the airport or railway station, upon arrival in the country, and use this service. In most cases, the rental price will directly depend on what class of car you choose, and its configuration with the rental period for which you decide to rent a car. But keep in mind that the minimum amount that you will need to pay for car rental will be from 20 to 22 pounds for one day. This is provided that you take a mini-class car to use it for one week. As for renting a middle-class car, the cost of renting in this case will cost you about 2 times more.

The procedure for acquiring a compulsory insurance policy

Particular attention will need to be paid to the issue of insurance of your car. This process in a country like the UK is regulated by the traffic law. This law has a set of rules whereby a person can either insure his car or deposit the amount of £500,000. In this case, the object of insurance will be the responsibility of a citizen for the possible damage to other people by him and his vehicle in the event that this person commits an accident.

By far the most popular is third party insurance. If you decide to insure your car, then you can do it using the Internet. Thanks to this method, you have the opportunity to significantly save on the insurance procedure.

Remember that the cost of insurance in most cases depends not only on the type of your vehicle, but also on many other factors. For example, from the experience of the driver, especially if during the line when a person is driving, he did not have a single accident. Also note: the cost of insurance will vary directly from the number of people who have the opportunity to use this vehicle. Remember, in the UK it is considered a gross offense to have another person driving your vehicle.

Accident: how to act when creating an emergency in the UK

If you have committed an accident, then you must provide the other participant in the accident, that is, the injured party, with your contact details, data for your car, and installation data for your car. If in an accident you are the victim, then you must necessarily take the aforementioned data from the person responsible for the accident. But sometimes not many perpetrators of an accident want to provide their insurance data, and in this case you will need to call the police, who will have to record the fact of the violation.

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The roads of Great Britain are a completely separate topic, and we will consider it in more detail. The length of the network of all roads here is 398.350 km.

When we first arrived at Heathrow Airport, the first thing we noticed was that the street was unusually deserted. Illuminated fountains beat in the courtyard. And there is a wall ahead. To get out of here, we approach the door, press the desired code and get into the elevator, which takes us to the third floor of the garage parking lot. Here are rich (by our standards) foreign cars. One is tougher than the other.

Dark pavement, lies perfectly even. We approach our car, sit down and drive along the spiral road in circles to the first floor from the airport to the town of Oldbourne.

The roads pass through mountain valleys, green plains and small copses. In Great Britain left-sided movement. Drivers in the car sit on the right. The road is divided by a fence into two halves. On the other hand, endless fences stretch along the edge of the road. Here everything is sedate - stiff to the smallest detail. The roads are excellent. Cleanliness is striking. You have to drive about 100 km. There are no familiar pictures of our dilapidated villages. The car rushes so fast that the nearest trees merge into lanes. Fog-hidden stone walls, breathtaking old villages and grazing sheep... They have very strict rules of the road here. Ride fastened must All and in the back seat too.

The first roads in Britain were built by the Romans. The Romans maintained the roads in good condition, but after they left the island, the roads slowly began to fall into disrepair, despite the law that finally appeared that each church parish was obliged to take care of the road that passed through its territory. All men were charged with the duty to work on the improvement and repair of tracks 6 days a year. The biggest reason for great roads in the UK is that they are watched over there. Otherwise, a big fine.

What are the roads like in London itself? The length of London streets and roads is 13,600 km. You have to pay a toll to enter central London. This is approximately £10. Payment is made once a day, regardless of the number of times you enter the area. We leave the car in the parking lot in front of the city and take the subway.

Road in central London.

Free parking spaces, in most cases, are located near large stores, or in a large direction from the center. But the car in such parking lots can be left for no more than one or two hours. Payment for a parking place is carried out using specially installed machines that issue a ticket to the driver.

Crossroad infrastructure.

For the convenience of pedestrians, the road is divided by "islands" where you can wait out the traffic. At the very edge before the transition there is a ribbed platform (pink) so as not to slip in sub-zero weather.

Pedestrian crossing across the street in Oxford.

Road in Oxford. (View from the window of a double-decker bus)

Such narrow roads in the old towns of England.

So they take care of the safety of children crossing the road. They are dressed in bright reflective clothing.

Roads are divided into different types. The first type is motorways. Designated with the letter M. Mandatory have at least two lanes in each direction and a dividing strip between them, pedestrians and slow vehicles are not allowed. Driving speed up to 70 mph or 115 km/h.

The second type of roads are primary roads. They are marked with the letter A.

The third type of roads are non-primary roads. They are denoted by the letter B. Very often very narrow and often winding. May be hilly with poor visibility. The width of the lanes is sometimes less than 2 m. Or there is another option when the road, for example, is 3-3.5 m wide. Before entering each settlement, you are reminded of the speed limit. The maximum permitted speed is also indicated by special markings on the roadway. At the same time, for all road markings, not paint is used, which is erased in a couple of months, but a special embossed thermoplastic that will last more than one year. Such roads pass through small towns and villages.

Crossroad signs.

On busy roads, at the entrance to the settlement before the first intersection on the road, a transverse yellow marking begins, which creates a strong vibration for the car to attract the attention of the driver. Also in the mountains, before a sharp turn, a special uneven surface has been laid on the road so that the driver does not doze off on the way and does not miss a dangerous turn.

And the fourth type of roads are local roads. The peculiarity of such roads is that they are maintained and maintained in working condition by local district councils and city authorities. At the intersection of small roads, roundabouts are often arranged.

On all minor roads every few kilometers there are pockets for temporary parking. Signs like P ½ m warn about them in advance - parking half a mile away. There is usually a trash can in the parking lot.

On the same secondary roads, often in addition to the “Dangerous Turn” sign or even without it, a special “Slow” marking is applied to the road, which means a recommendation to slow down on this section of the road. By the way, trees and bushes sometimes grow so densely that the road turns into a green tunnel.

Such "retro cars" come across on the way.

A characteristic detail is that all street lighting poles do not have external wires, all wiring is laid underground in special cable channels. This applies to all roads, cities and even small villages. One standard for the whole country.

Special reflectors, reflectors, are installed on the dividing strip, thanks to which the border of one's lane is clearly visible at night. On motorways, reflectors are also installed along the edges of the road.

August 24th, 2014 04:58 am

From today, as the time comes, I will analyze British road signs, rules, markings and the like, and analyze whether their borrowing would help improve the traffic situation in Russia.

Let me start with an extraordinary statement: in Russia, there are idiotic non-optimal traffic rules and road layout, and here's why:

I also want to talk about such a wonderful invention as Box Junctions.

One of the primary causes of congestion is entering an intersection when the exit from the intersection is blocked.

Somewhere in Russia:

At the same time, alas, it is not always possible to understand in advance whether you can completely pass the intersection without creating obstacles for perpendicular traffic. For example, with a large area of this intersection and heavy traffic. Disputable situations may also arise here, when you and the traffic police have different opinions about whether you created an obstacle or not.

This problem was solved in the UK with Yellow Box Junction:

You can enter it either if the exit is free, or if you turn right (in countries with right-hand traffic, respectively, to the left) and let oncoming traffic pass. Thus:

What do you think, would the presence of Box Junctions in Russia (well, specifically in Moscow) help?

Traveling in England

Traveling in the UK has been a dream since childhood. Finally, they gathered their courage, put aside money and went on a trip around England to finally see with their own eyes the places familiar from childhood from photographs.

We prepared well, we even bought a tourist SIM card so that we could always go online and make phone calls. It was possible, of course, to buy a card on the spot, but we decided to purchase one that can still be used on other trips, since we often travel around the world both on business trips and on vacation. They offered us a really favorable rate - Go Europe from Orange. Only euro - and 100 MB of traffic, and an hour of calls throughout the country. I think that in England they did not find a more profitable one. Moreover, one SIM card was enough for two of us, since the tariff allows you to distribute Wi-Fi.

We visited, as planned, all the main attractions of England. We rented a car from Europcar and plunged into English life. At first, of course, we devoted several days to getting to know London. There are a lot of historical buildings here. We visited Westminster Abbey, admired Big Ben and the Tower. We even climbed the London Eye. Don't miss the opportunity to see Windsor Castle.

Stonehenge - boulders with an ancient history. They read a lot about them and did not miss the opportunity to see with their own eyes. We visited many cities besides the capital - Oxford and Cambridge, Chester, Bath, Lincoln, Stratford, Durham, etc.

What have we not seen in two weeks. Of course, a lot of money was spent on car rental and entrance tickets, but the memories will last for a long time. Hampshire with Winchester Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, Alber Hall in South Kensington, Beatles Museum in Liverpool, Buckingham Palace, Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, Sherwood Forest, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Madame Tussauds, many castles in England - all of us we will remember until the next trip to Foggy Albion, which we are already planning.

And now I will give useful information for those who, like us, are planning to travel around England.

Toll roads

England has toll sections of roads, including a number of bridges and tunnels. For example, the M6 motorway is a toll road. For regular cars without trailers the cost is £5.50 weekdays, £4.80 weekends and £3.80 nights. They pay in different ways: by credit card (Visa, American Express, Mastercard), using electronic payment systems, coins, manually.

The electronic payment system, denoted by the letter T, provides benefits such as discounts and dedicated lanes. This is very convenient and ensures travel without delay.

As for tunnels, the passage for a passenger car is:

Dartford £2.50 Mersey (Kingsway) £1.70 Mersey (Queensway) £1.70 Tyne £1.60

Passenger car drivers will pay for crossing the bridges:

Cleddau - £0.75, Humber - £1.50, Itchen - £0.60, Middlesbrough - £1.30, Queen Elizabeth II - £1.50, Severn - £6.60, Second Severn - £6.60, Tamar - £1.50.

Just in case, I will give information on the Eurotunnel. This 51 km tunnel connects the kingdom with mainland Europe. There are several ticket options:

Day Trip & Overnight implies that the return trip is paid, but as part of a two-day return before midnight. Cost - from £ 23.
Short Stay is also a round trip as part of the return until midnight on the fifth day. Cost - from £ 59.
Single or Long Stay - tickets for each trip - from £ 79.

parking

There are many police officers in England, and fines are high. Park wisely - check a hundred times whether it is possible to leave the car in one place or another. Pay attention to the yellow and red lines, which can be double or single. One yellow - you can drop off passengers, but there are restrictions at certain times. Where the line is double - you can not park. The red line also indicates parking restrictions, and the double red line indicates a ban on it.

If you want to enter the center of London by car, you will have to pay a fee of £ 11.50. If you forget to pay, a fine will come - £ 130. True, if you pay it within two weeks, the amount will drop to £ 65. But if you do not pay for 28 days, then you will need to unfasten £ 195 already. The boundaries of the zone are marked with signs. There are no barriers, no toll collection devices. However, the cameras vigilantly monitor the cars. The fee can be paid online - https://congestioncharging.tfl.gov.uk/e/providePCN.faces.

SDA

The speed limits for ordinary cars without a trailer in the country are as follows: 48 km / h in the village, 96 - outside it and 112 km / h on roads and highways. If there are no signs nearby, drive 48 km / h - you won't lose.

In England, a driver's blood alcohol level must not exceed 0.8%. The police officer may suggest a test. In general, I do not advise you to drink, since the fines are huge and you can easily be left without a license. Fine - up to 5000 pounds.

Dipped beam at night is required. For those with children, child seats are mandatory, as are special restraint systems for children under three years old. The fine is £30-500.

Everyone in the car must wear a seat belt, front and back. There is a ban on talking about the phone while driving, unless, of course, you need to dial 999 or 112, and there is no way to stop the car. The fine is fixed - £100.

Windshield tinting - at least 75% light transmission, and front windows - at least 70%. There may be a protective film of 15 cm on the windshield. If violations are found, the film will be forced to be removed.

fines

Fines are paid on the spot. Foreigners may be asked to pay a deposit of £300 or a fine. Fines are large - 100 - 2500 pounds for speeding, for example. Lack of insurance - up to 2500 pounds. Inattentive driving - up to 5000, etc.