Do you have an example of how they prepare you more for driving than other countries, including the US?
My experience is that in my driver's education class, we spent ZERO time in high speed driving, ZERO time in congested traffic. We got NO practical experience of ANY sort in ANY kind of defensive driving or even how to drive on anything other than a flat straight road in broad daylight.
I failed my UK driving test on Tuesday.
I reached around 50mph (the speed limit), in heavy traffic on a dual carriageway in London. Had I not reached at least some "reasonable" speed (40mph?) on that road, I would have failed for that reason. I turned left on a roundabout to get onto that road, and turned right at a big (multi-lane) roundabout to get off it (so I had to move over to the "fast" lane for that).
The examiner asked me to do a three-point-turn in the road, he could alternatively have asked me to reverse round a corner or parallel park.
There was a lot of driving round smaller roads, dealing with junctions, mini-roundabouts, cars parked on either side of the road, oncoming buses that need the whole road width, pedestrian crossings, etc.
I was expected to be aware of traffic around me (including behind and beside) at all times.
I failed through repeated "undue hesitation", i.e. yielding for too long when I had a chance to go. (This is partly bad luck, but it's something I'm not that great at. I'm overly cautious.)
However, the test is known to be easier in rural areas (e.g. parts of Scotland), since there's a lot less traffic and complicated junctions.
Before the practical test there's a theory test. You can try a mock one online: http://toptests.co.uk/mock-the... (most UK signs follow international convention, although the US doesn't — remember we drive on the left).
There's also a hazard perception test: http://www.driving-test-succes... — the actual test is 15 driving clips, you are expected to identify "developing hazards" in reasonable time. Apparently many people fail this first time, but I passed easily -- probably because I've been cycling in London for 7+ years.
I take public transportation occasionally to and from work in San Francisco. But in general, there's a huge amount of crazy homeless people at all hours of the day who take public transportation.
This seems to be a uniquely American problem. Why do homeless people ride buses all day, and why do people put up with it? (Have the homeless people paid the fare?)
We have "zoos" with pigs, sheep, cows etc in Britain. They're called city farms, and they exist so children who live in a city can see what their food looks like before it appears in Tesco.
It's correct to use assigned addresses for internal hosts. The point is they're unique — you can set up a tunnel between any two organisations, or merge two networks, and not have to renumber things because both were using 10/8.
The cost to renumber and use their assignment more efficiently would be huge, similar to the cost to move to IPv6 but with little gain.
At least with Uber I know I'll be in a clean vehicle with a driver whose name and face are shown to me before I get in.
I used Uber for the first time on Satur^W Sunday morning in London, and although the registration number of the car was correct, the driver wasn't the one pictured. I assumed they were sharing a single car / account.
Assuming China is more like Europe than the US on this one, you probably transfer the money directly into your friend's account using a computer or smartphone.
I'm about to sign a contract for employment in a wealthy European country. It states upfront that severance pay is 2-6 months, depending on length of service. Balancing this, my notice period will be 3 months.
If the company can't afford to pay on these terms them it's going bust. They should have made these developers redundant 6 months earlier (or whatever) but instead took a gamble.
The last time a bridge collapsed in the UK due to a maintenence problem seems to be 50 years ago. I think we've got this one sorted...
(Bridges have been washed away by floodwater within the last decade, usually really old ones. If the river profile was changed by a land use change upstream, that could be blamed on inadequate processes.)
There are laser location sensors in several underground stations in London that have construction work nearby. One laser thing on a robot seems to routinely measure the distance to many fixed targets.
GPS isn't an option, so you could still be right that it's cheaper.
$1000M for 9 miles of light rail isn't completely crazy (expensive, but believable). The average cost in the UK is £25M/mile ($40M), but Edinburgh's cost £100M/mile ($156M). A lot of the cost is moving whatever's buried under the road out of the way, to allow future repairs without disrupting the tram.
It's a lot cheaper to build something outside a city on worthless land, whether rail or road.
The 2009 cost per mile for building a 2+2 road in the UK was £13M, for a basic two-lane road £8M. Are you sure your final figure is correct?
(NB the British rail costs will include all appropriate safety systems. This article is interesting. It's over 8 years since a passenger on a train died in Britain, though some have died falling down stairs/escalators, off platforms etc.)
Fuel is the easy one -- the truck pulls into a fuel station, and the attendant fills it up. The truck company has a contract with the fuel station franchise.
Lots of journeys probably don't involve any complicated roads. Port or rail freight yard to supermarket distribution centre, from there to the out-of-town supermarket, etc.
Think of the London metropolitan area as the new Royal Court. A royal toilet cleaner isn't privileged relative to the nobility, but he is privileged relative to toilet cleaners elsewhere.
Either you're one of those super-privileged people who live close to the center of London and Paris
You have no idea about London.
When I was a student I lived 15 minutes walk from St Pancras International Station. Immediately north of the station used to be really bad, but since its redevelopment (The Guardian / Google offices etc) you need to walk a little further -- about 10 minutes is plenty.
The main local issue for the area is the expansion of one of the stations, which is criticised because an area of council houses behind the station would be demolished.
(Incidentally, I live relatively close to LHR, it's about the same time by public transport to either that airport or St Pancras. I'd still prefer the train if I'm going to Paris.)
You might be correct in 10 years or so, if the new government's desired changes to the way social security is paid are fully implemented. (Poor people will no longer be allowed to live in inner London, and the state-owned housing will be sold off.)
Trains are obviously a terrorist target worldwide, but the only one I know of in Europe with a security checkpoint is between London and Paris/Brussels (where there is a passport check anyway). If someone wants to crash a train, it's *far* easier to drive a road vehicle onto the tracks, and probably more deadly and disruptive to target a busy commuter train (example).
Seats have airline-style fold-down tables (but larger), except the facing ones that have real tables. It's generally possible to pre-book the type you prefer — 4 seats around a table is nice for a family, but on a peak-time train will be used by business travellers. There will be power sockets, WiFi, a drinks trolley.
750 people can sit on the 387 metres of a London to Paris/Brussels train. They're particularly long, since they were built for a system with a serious limitation (a very-much-in-demand undersea tunnel) and the expectation of high demand.
French TGV trains carry 350-500 people. British national long distance express trains a bit more, up to 600.
There are 16 London-Paris trains per day (plus London-Brussels, and some others), from 05:40 to 20:31, slightly more than one per hour.
A train is just a much better experience. You can show up 2 minutes before departure, get on without a strip search, get a nice big seat, have a dining car, can get up and walk around at will, and just grab your luggage on the way out.
Sounds like what this guy said about living in London and commuting to his job in Paris at 25:10 in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The Eurostar is one of the few services in Europe where there *is* a security check and a requirement to arrive 10-30 minutes beforehand (it's 10 with the expensive ticket, 30 otherwise, and they're actually very accommodating if you're late). California shouldn't need this, as there's no international / undersea borders.
For other trains, 2 minutes is a bit short. For a long-distance journey, I aim to be waiting at the correct platform 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time, or a bit more if it's an infrequent (>20m) service.
I'm not too bothered by the distance from LGW and STN -- the platforms are below the terminal buildings, so it's little more bother than in many European airports. Train ticket price is perhaps a shock for many visitors, especially as the cheaper non-express almost-as-fast trains aren't advertised very well. Gatwick has good connections with Thameslink. It's not reasonable to compare London to smaller cities, and the travel time is similar to other metropoli.
I agree the old LHR terminals are terrible, one of the worst airports I've used. T5 is great though, for an airport its size. I've never queued more than a couple of minutes when leaving, maybe 5 when arriving though UK Customs. (I use it every two-three months.) I haven't used T2 yet, work favours BA.
Connecting between terminals is probably confusing and awful.
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Do you have an example of how they prepare you more for driving than other countries, including the US?
My experience is that in my driver's education class, we spent ZERO time in high speed driving, ZERO time in congested traffic. We got NO practical experience of ANY sort in ANY kind of defensive driving or even how to drive on anything other than a flat straight road in broad daylight.
I failed my UK driving test on Tuesday.
I reached around 50mph (the speed limit), in heavy traffic on a dual carriageway in London. Had I not reached at least some "reasonable" speed (40mph?) on that road, I would have failed for that reason. I turned left on a roundabout to get onto that road, and turned right at a big (multi-lane) roundabout to get off it (so I had to move over to the "fast" lane for that).
The examiner asked me to do a three-point-turn in the road, he could alternatively have asked me to reverse round a corner or parallel park.
There was a lot of driving round smaller roads, dealing with junctions, mini-roundabouts, cars parked on either side of the road, oncoming buses that need the whole road width, pedestrian crossings, etc.
I was expected to be aware of traffic around me (including behind and beside) at all times.
I failed through repeated "undue hesitation", i.e. yielding for too long when I had a chance to go. (This is partly bad luck, but it's something I'm not that great at. I'm overly cautious.)
However, the test is known to be easier in rural areas (e.g. parts of Scotland), since there's a lot less traffic and complicated junctions.
Before the practical test there's a theory test. You can try a mock one online: http://toptests.co.uk/mock-the... (most UK signs follow international convention, although the US doesn't — remember we drive on the left).
There's also a hazard perception test: http://www.driving-test-succes... — the actual test is 15 driving clips, you are expected to identify "developing hazards" in reasonable time. Apparently many people fail this first time, but I passed easily -- probably because I've been cycling in London for 7+ years.
I take public transportation occasionally to and from work in San Francisco. But in general, there's a huge amount of crazy homeless people at all hours of the day who take public transportation.
This seems to be a uniquely American problem. Why do homeless people ride buses all day, and why do people put up with it? (Have the homeless people paid the fare?)
"The UK's Space industry has an annual turnover of around £9billion, employs over 28,000 people and achieves an average annual growth rate of 7.5%."
According to https://www.adsgroup.org.uk/pa...
We have "zoos" with pigs, sheep, cows etc in Britain. They're called city farms, and they exist so children who live in a city can see what their food looks like before it appears in Tesco.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.timeout.com/london/...
It's correct to use assigned addresses for internal hosts. The point is they're unique — you can set up a tunnel between any two organisations, or merge two networks, and not have to renumber things because both were using 10/8.
The cost to renumber and use their assignment more efficiently would be huge, similar to the cost to move to IPv6 but with little gain.
At least with Uber I know I'll be in a clean vehicle with a driver whose name and face are shown to me before I get in.
I used Uber for the first time on Satur^W Sunday morning in London, and although the registration number of the car was correct, the driver wasn't the one pictured. I assumed they were sharing a single car / account.
Is this uncommon?
The scale bar is very useful in unfamiliar countries. Is the next building to my hotel is 2km away, or 200m, or 20m? Can I walk to the beach?
It's much quicker to look at a scale than to ask for directions, especially when I don't know what the destinations are called.
How big is the average human bladder?
400-600mL.
("3.4oz" is obviously an approximation of 100mL, which is the volume used outside the US.)
Assuming China is more like Europe than the US on this one, you probably transfer the money directly into your friend's account using a computer or smartphone.
I'm about to sign a contract for employment in a wealthy European country. It states upfront that severance pay is 2-6 months, depending on length of service. Balancing this, my notice period will be 3 months.
If the company can't afford to pay on these terms them it's going bust. They should have made these developers redundant 6 months earlier (or whatever) but instead took a gamble.
Apples will be made from applewood.
Wormwood fibre would surely lead to electronic hallucination.
Only for the products you buy, so why not charge the purchaser, rather than subsidising the transport of their purchases?
If goods you buy are transported by ship, you pay a tiny amount for the maintenance and fuel of the ship, but your neighbour doesn't.
The last time a bridge collapsed in the UK due to a maintenence problem seems to be 50 years ago. I think we've got this one sorted...
(Bridges have been washed away by floodwater within the last decade, usually really old ones. If the river profile was changed by a land use change upstream, that could be blamed on inadequate processes.)
There are laser location sensors in several underground stations in London that have construction work nearby. One laser thing on a robot seems to routinely measure the distance to many fixed targets.
GPS isn't an option, so you could still be right that it's cheaper.
$1000M for 9 miles of light rail isn't completely crazy (expensive, but believable). The average cost in the UK is £25M/mile ($40M), but Edinburgh's cost £100M/mile ($156M). A lot of the cost is moving whatever's buried under the road out of the way, to allow future repairs without disrupting the tram.
It's a lot cheaper to build something outside a city on worthless land, whether rail or road.
The 2009 cost per mile for building a 2+2 road in the UK was £13M, for a basic two-lane road £8M. Are you sure your final figure is correct?
(NB the British rail costs will include all appropriate safety systems. This article is interesting. It's over 8 years since a passenger on a train died in Britain, though some have died falling down stairs/escalators, off platforms etc.)
There are four London Underground lines with Automatic Train Operation. There's even a Wikipedia category: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
It's not 100% automatic, the driver has to press a button to close the doors, and another (I think) to tell the train "go when ready".
165mph through Ashford, Kent.
(I'm sure there are faster examples, and this isn't the top speed of the train, but that could be the track layout rather than the urban area.)
engine and motor are essentially synonyms in modern usage.
I don't think much has changed from older usage. The terms "motor car", "motor vehicle", "motor boat", "motorway", "motorbike", etc aren't new.
Fuel is the easy one -- the truck pulls into a fuel station, and the attendant fills it up. The truck company has a contract with the fuel station franchise.
Lots of journeys probably don't involve any complicated roads. Port or rail freight yard to supermarket distribution centre, from there to the out-of-town supermarket, etc.
Think of the London metropolitan area as the new Royal Court. A royal toilet cleaner isn't privileged relative to the nobility, but he is privileged relative to toilet cleaners elsewhere.
You're a fucking idiot.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e...
http://www.newstatesman.com/po...
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-...
Either you're one of those super-privileged people who live close to the center of London and Paris
You have no idea about London.
When I was a student I lived 15 minutes walk from St Pancras International Station. Immediately north of the station used to be really bad, but since its redevelopment (The Guardian / Google offices etc) you need to walk a little further -- about 10 minutes is plenty.
Council (social) housing on all sides on Copenhagen Street, 0.7 miles from trains to Paris.
The main local issue for the area is the expansion of one of the stations, which is criticised because an area of council houses behind the station would be demolished.
(Incidentally, I live relatively close to LHR, it's about the same time by public transport to either that airport or St Pancras. I'd still prefer the train if I'm going to Paris.)
You might be correct in 10 years or so, if the new government's desired changes to the way social security is paid are fully implemented. (Poor people will no longer be allowed to live in inner London, and the state-owned housing will be sold off.)
Trains are obviously a terrorist target worldwide, but the only one I know of in Europe with a security checkpoint is between London and Paris/Brussels (where there is a passport check anyway). If someone wants to crash a train, it's *far* easier to drive a road vehicle onto the tracks, and probably more deadly and disruptive to target a busy commuter train (example).
Trains should be something like every 30-60 minutes, if the service is to be useful. Compare http://traintimes.org.uk/londo... or (so I'm not picking such major cities) http://traintimes.org.uk/brist...
Seats have airline-style fold-down tables (but larger), except the facing ones that have real tables. It's generally possible to pre-book the type you prefer — 4 seats around a table is nice for a family, but on a peak-time train will be used by business travellers. There will be power sockets, WiFi, a drinks trolley.
750 people can sit on the 387 metres of a London to Paris/Brussels train. They're particularly long, since they were built for a system with a serious limitation (a very-much-in-demand undersea tunnel) and the expectation of high demand.
French TGV trains carry 350-500 people. British national long distance express trains a bit more, up to 600.
There are 16 London-Paris trains per day (plus London-Brussels, and some others), from 05:40 to 20:31, slightly more than one per hour.
A train is just a much better experience. You can show up 2 minutes before departure, get on without a strip search, get a nice big seat, have a dining car, can get up and walk around at will, and just grab your luggage on the way out.
Sounds like what this guy said about living in London and commuting to his job in Paris at 25:10 in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The Eurostar is one of the few services in Europe where there *is* a security check and a requirement to arrive 10-30 minutes beforehand (it's 10 with the expensive ticket, 30 otherwise, and they're actually very accommodating if you're late). California shouldn't need this, as there's no international / undersea borders.
For other trains, 2 minutes is a bit short. For a long-distance journey, I aim to be waiting at the correct platform 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time, or a bit more if it's an infrequent (>20m) service.
I'm not too bothered by the distance from LGW and STN -- the platforms are below the terminal buildings, so it's little more bother than in many European airports. Train ticket price is perhaps a shock for many visitors, especially as the cheaper non-express almost-as-fast trains aren't advertised very well. Gatwick has good connections with Thameslink. It's not reasonable to compare London to smaller cities, and the travel time is similar to other metropoli.
I agree the old LHR terminals are terrible, one of the worst airports I've used. T5 is great though, for an airport its size. I've never queued more than a couple of minutes when leaving, maybe 5 when arriving though UK Customs. (I use it every two-three months.) I haven't used T2 yet, work favours BA.
Connecting between terminals is probably confusing and awful.