As an American who has been there. let me try to answer. UK motorways have somewhat more distance marking than American freeways. Highways outside towns have A LOT more distance marking than similar US roads.
Few of the roads are on any kind of a straight grid system, and you frankly need directions at most intersections (well, at least if you are a lost American on the "wrong" side of the road). Those directions usually include distance as well as pointing you to the correct road. Parts of New England in the US are similar in this respect (around Boston, where I lived for several years) Also a lot more signage includes countdown or distance to an obstruction or situation you need to be aware of. Most American signage considers headway (the time to travel to the point at legal speed) and places the signage accordingly. They simply use the word "Ahead" rather than a precise distance, because they believe they put the sign where it is time to think about it. The main exception is freeway exits, 0.5 mi, 1 mi, 2 mi, etc.. --- On Sun, 3/8/09, Jeremiah MacGregor <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Jeremiah MacGregor <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:43497] Re: Jerry's questions regarding "imperial" fuel & fish > sales in the UK. > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Date: Sunday, March 8, 2009, 12:54 PM > Ken, > > Would motorways be more likely to show distance signs then > city streets? Most of the signs on our city streets > don't give any measurements or distances. The only > ones I encounter on my drive about are speed limit signs, > and they just show a number, like SPEED LIMIT 35. > Distance signs are only seen (rarely) on rural roads giving > distances to the towns. The freeways however do have a lot > of distance and speed limit signs, both public and > private. Is this true in the UK too? >
