How to drive in the USA - A tourist's guide

[Music] welcome to the tourists guide to driving in the USA as you can probably tell by my accent I'm British I've been driving in the UK and in Europe for 22 years but I've never driven in the States until this week and I've never driven a left-hand drive car either so it was really intimidating so onto the video some of the things I found our show some dashcam footage hopefully you'll find it useful it will reassure you if you want to come and drive out here in the States because do you know what a road trip is a fantastic way an absolutely fantastic way to see the state's I have driven this week through six Lane highways through cities through deserts with fields of cactus through towns through the countryside and on those really really long roads where you can see forever and there's no one else on the road so it's a great thing to do okay so the first thing you need to do is prepare and I would suggest googling USA road signs and just having a look at them just try to understand what all the different signs mean for different colors try and get your head around that and also you need to prepare prepare for the weather so I'm down here in the Arizona desert down in the southwest it is 43 degrees outside of a moment it is really hot and apparently it gets hotter it's the beginning of June at moment he gets hotter later on the end of June and July so you need to prepare so I took loads of water I've got a map in case my phone doesn't work my iPhone earlier stopped working cause it was so hot and that was when it was in the window in the car you know as a Sun up so you need to prepare for the weather you might be going somewhere else in the states where it's a lot colder where you might need to have some blankets and some hot drinks instead of water just make sure that you're prepared now sat-nav wise the best something I've I've had in in different countries in Europe and in here in the States is the one on my iPhone it is really good they have done a lot of work getting that right a lot of work you know it tells you exactly at the right time what Lane you need to be and it tells you exactly where you need to be it is really good so I I've used that over here my iPhone just make sure that you've got a way to charge your iPhone when you're in the state so when you long because on these road trips it's a really big country it could take you quite a while and you're gonna need power in an iPhone because it really drains the battery having a screen left on so you're probably gonna hire a car I hide this car it's my first left-hand drive as I said it did take me a couple hours I've got 22 years hardwired of driving over on that side of a car really concentrate on on one eye in the center of a lane and especially on the highways I soon got used to it been a couple of hours my brain is sort of rewired itself and and you will get used to it so please don't worry about driving on the left I suggest you also hire an automatic I had an automatic most of them in the states are but we don't want to do is hire a manual transmission and staff to start changing gear with your right hand if you used to doing it with your left it's just one less thing to think about it to get an automatic so I'd suggest that and then finally don't don't make the mistake that I did I didn't ask him if it was petrol or diesel so I've pulled up at the gas station and know we're in this car does it say and I opened up the fuel cap doesn't say in there ended up having to smell the fumes coming out of a tank to work out what you want to put in which was a bit of a risk but I got it right so make sure you know what fuel it is before you leave now while we're talking about fuel I happen to notice at the same time that in the States diesel is in the green hose unleaded is in the black it's the same colours as the UK but swapped so if you ain't paying attention it would be really really easy to accidentally put the wrong fuel in your car now let's talk about speed I actually find the signs telling you what speed you're doing quite easy to miss so we're going on the road look out for a speed sign and that was it did you see that so it's not like in the UK and in Europe where it's colorful it's on both sides of the road it is just one sign on the right-hand side and then it's very easy to miss so you really need to be moved about you really need to account for those signs so that brings us to speeding really you know and and I always try to stick to the speed limit especially when I'm abroad because I do not want to run-in with the local police I don't know want to being incurred a fine well on the way and pretty much f1 was overtaking me which is interesting but here's the thing I recommend you stick to the speed limit because you're thinking about 101 things he had because you're working out you're on the other side of a road you set on the other side you're trying to read signs you don't know your way around you know if the local people who know the area well it's gonna be easier for them to drive on a speed then ideal I suggest you stick to the speed limit if you get stopped by the police here's what you need to do I mean in UK people get stopped by the police quite often they'll get out of the car to come and speak to speak to the police officer that's okay in the UK but over here I mean there's a lot of cops murdered in the US every year they lost something like a hundred and fifty cops in 2017 killed him a lot of duty so you can understand you know you can understand why you're a lot more cautious than the cops back in Europe now if you stopped by the police and you get out and you walk towards them they are going to interpret that as a hostile action then they put a hand on a gun they may even draw their gun so if you get stopped by the police stop open the window and get your hands up on the steering wheel they can be seen leave your hands leave it open so that you know they know you're not a threat if you've got other people in the car just get them to put their hands up like that you know you're just gonna show that police officer look we're not any weapons we're not armed you're gonna completely deescalate that encounter and the officer is gonna know you know this group of people in this car they're compliant they're doing exactly what we should be doing in you and you're not going to end up coming into that conflict so whatever you do don't get out if you stop by the police now talking about law and order I see a lot of people over here using the mobile phones mask for driving now I don't know if it's a legal or or legal it probably varies between city to city or state to state but boy if I seen people swerving over the road as a couple of times a fortune I didn't get it on dashcam where I was about to overtaking and a lorry or a car almost swept in front of me so there's a lot of in car distraction going on now you can't do anything about the other drivers all you can do is drive the best you can but just be aware of that right couple of things to talk about before we finish then you can go for a red light you can go for a red light and how great is that so if you are stopped at a red light and you are turning right and it's clear you can go I mean essentially in the States if you're turning right you can treat the red light like a stop sign so you've got to make sure there's no one coming you've got to make sure there's no pedestrian run across the road and if that's all clear you can go that's quite a good system takes a bit of getting used to when you first do it the other thing here I mean throw around advancement run that many roundabouts and a lot of them are replaced with something called a 4-way box and a 4-way box is basically is a crossroads and people go in the order in which they arrive so if you have a second to arrive at a crossroad you let the first one go and then you go yourself so when you're approaching that 4-way box you need to look out see what who else is here when is it my turn everyone's very courteous I've been for a few this week it's been absolutely fine so the final thing is the freeway in the interstate now these are big roads six lane freeways and some examples I've been on today people will overtake on the right and on the left so there is no overtaking Lane you know back home in the UK you can only overtake on a certain side here it seems to be a bit of a free-for-all so you need to be aware of that need to be alive to that when you're changing lanes in the lane on the very right is tempting to think well I'm gonna sit in there because you know in my head maybe that's the slow lane and everyone else will just come pass me I wouldn't recommend it because there's people joining over time as people getting off all the time you just have to move in and out so personally I just sit in one of the middle lanes that one perhaps the second one from the right I'm not getting disturbed not having to worry about moving out for people joining the freeway overtime the other thing is look out for those shoulders on the left-hand side you can see on this bit of video there's two white lines there that lane is only for people with two people in the car now it depends there's restrictions you have to look up a sign see if the times are see what restrictions are you don't to be fine for going in that lane unless you're permitted to go in that lane so keep an eye on that the interstates are great and there are good rest areas for our good rest areas on the interstage mouth to wait for one for what are but I'll suggest sticking to those main rest areas and making use of them and planning that into your journey well I hope that helps I hope the videos have helped I hope my experiences have helped please do let me know what you think please like it down there I will put a couple of interesting links in the description thank you very much and when you go on a holiday stay safe prepare but most of all enjoy it what a fantastic way to see any country to drive through it and see those parts that you wouldn't see on a train or a plane so have a really good time and good luck [Music] you

Channel: A guide to....

Views: 77,459

Keywords: road trip, usa, america, driving, drive, how to drive in usa, how to drive in america, tourist, holiday, hire car, holiday driving, brit, brits, driving in america, driving in usa, driving in usa from uk, driving in america from uk, brit driving, travel

Id: VqZa96qCmB0

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 02 2018