Perspective

[pseydtonne]

Paris is as far from Amsterdam as Boston is from Philadelphia. Since the speed limit in France is 130 km/h (81 MPH), the 210 km from the outer Parisian orbital to the Belgian border would take only an hour and a half or so. One could drive a Beetle on a full tank of gas and not need to stop, but it'd still be smarter to fill up on the way.

I began thinking about driving distances in Europe thanks to Google Maps. Every time I looked up an address in Google, I'd find the full map just as I would for an American city. Suddenly the spiders of expressways started to unveil and my map fascination set in. Next I wanted to get an idea how far various cities are from each other, so I ran a search on Versailles (which is home to a giant palace and a prominent park and ride station) and learned it was 520 kilometers from there to Amsterdam. That's 320 miles, whereas my house to Philly is 311 miles.

I hear there is a weird rule in Paris where the driver on the right has right of way at a rotary. How can that even function? That's something to research.

Comments

[tckma.livejournal.com]

It's the opposite of US rotaries. Instead of drivers in the rotary having right-of-way, drivers merging onto the rotary have it.

I'm not sure how it works in practice, but it seems straightforward enough.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that form long queues at every entrance, because people in the rotary couldn't get out and it backed up? I'm having a hard time visualizing...

[proudlyfallen.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I had someone stop IN THE ROTARY just last night to let a line of cars in. I almost wanted to pull over, get out, and explain to them that they were going to cause a traffic jam at best, and a godawful accident at worst (from someone ramming them from behind).

You'd think, in a country that does that, everything would get gridlocked. If people moving ONTO the rotary have right-of-way, wouldn't it just end up in a big spiral of cars where no one can move? Or am I thinking too specifically in terms of Mass rotaries (which are screwed beyond comprehension, and would make absolutely no sense to someone from Jersey, where [IIRC] rotaries are more like 4-way stops with a circle instead of an intersection).

Fighters for Texaco

[tckma.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, actually, what the rules are.

Re: Fighters for Texaco

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

I just had a long turn in the shower myself.

I will have to research this rotary craziness, because our anecdotal material is getting us nowhere. It's like we're trying to enter a rotary... but...

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

what's even better is that you don't even have to drive those distances, since there's a train system that actually works. :)

-steve

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Yes, but at some point I'll still need to drive for a day or two, most likely nowhere near Paris. Driving is vital for my sanity.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Their peculiar attitude towards rotaries makes it TOTALLY worth the otherwise-perhaps-cheesy trip down the Champs Elysees, just so you can go up the Arc de Triomphe at rush hour and watch a four-lane rotary melt into horrible magnetic confusion. Seriously, do it.

[michigansundog.livejournal.com]

At the main public library in Copley Sq, there is a wonderful exhibit of maps of Boston and vicinity, from ~1850 to ~1905, most of them in the 1870s. It was interesting to pick out the places I know well and trace the various buildings and streets and names that have come and gone.

In 1852, there used to be a circular structure where I live; by the looks of it, some sort of gas holding tank.

Also, there is a map showing the destruction of 'the great fire'. It is interesting too, to see that the Common and the Public Garden have been long established and common on every map. I'm curious about a giant fountain in the Public Garden that is portrayed several times.