The holiday in Scotland made me think of a few things that I may or may not return to here later, but one thing that’s really struck me is roads, travel, and traffic.

I love driving in Scotland, and anyone who knows me well will tell you I only drive in the Midlands if it’s required: I prefer to walk, cycle, or catch a bus. Of course, a good amount of this is my liking for visiting public houses, and the fact that I consider visiting a pub while driving is immoral. Outside of the big cities in Scotland, public transport is very sketchy indeed: even more so than the shameful state anywhere outside of London, so the primary mode of transport is the car. Of course, the lower population density makes it more practical too.

‘A’ roads are well surfaced, there’s few speed cameras (and the ones that are there are at actual accident spots, not just where they get the money…). Most people will drive along the ‘A’ roads at a decent speed- and the speed limits are sensible:

1. Outside towns and villages, the limit is 60mph, as most roads are single-carriageway NSL.
2. If there’s a few houses, or other reasonable hazard, it might drop to 40mph.
3. For a town or village, it drops to 30mph, then goes straight back up at the other side. These limits are usually complied with, becase (I think) they’re there because they are needed.

Now, some of the roads are too twisty to maintain 60mph on: but that’s left to the driver to judge- why is it that in so many places this isn’t the case?. There’s very little signage in general, so if you see a bend sign, you know to slow down for it, as opposed to the appallingly low signal-to-noise ratio we get here. The only time it gets tedious is when a caravan, HGV, or (worst of all) dawdly tourist 45mph everywhere, brake halfway around the corners type is in front.

Suffice to say I actually enjoyed a few hundred miles of driving, without breaking the speed limit. 🙂

Oh, and it doean’t seem right driving over a fixed Thelwall Viaduct.