The Traffic

In USA, the roads have very short names. In Troy, for example, there are roads by names like Coolidge, Crookes, Livernois, Kirts, Butterfield, Maple and Somerset. The people are not so patriotic and hero-worshippping type as in India to name the roads. In the residential areas, the roads have walklanes, for use by pedestrians and cyclists. In the freeways, no footpath exists. Naturally, no pedestrians will venture along those roads. All vehicles run on the right side of the road. The vehicles observe lane discipline meticulously, especially at the junctions. Each lane has its own signal. In the freeways, there are no signals as there are no intersections. One can get out of the freeways only through 'exits'. The exits are numbered. One should know the exit which leads to his destination and act in time to avoid waste of time. A 'ramp' wll lead him away from the freeway and allow him to 'merge' in the next road to his destination. Many drivers here use an electronic device called GPS (Global positioning System) to guide them to their destination. It is a small rectangular screen which can be fixed to the windshield and powered by the car. All you have to do is to feed your starting point address and the destination address. A road, representing the one you are at, will appear on the screen, with its name below. It will tell you where to take the turn (right of left) after what distance. It gives you sufficient time to take your vehicle to the correct lane and sound a bell to indicate that the spot to take the turn has arrived. It also tells you the approximate time you will reach your destination if you kept up the current speed. Even if you take a turn against its direction, it recalculates and directs another route to your destination. It gives you two options: whether you want the fastest route or the shortest route. It asks you if you want to avoid the freeways. It is a wonderful invention. It works in US, Canada, Mexico, UK and some other countries.

As I had mentioned earlier, all vehicles are left-hand drive, except the postal vans. This is to enable the driver, who doubles as the postperson, to get off the vehicle directly to the pavement, without the need to cross the road. Most of the buses plying in this residential area are empty. But, in Chicago and other towns, I found them fully occupied. Taxis are rare in Troy as all families have one or more cars. but, in Chicago, we could see many taxis. We had an occasion to travel in one in Chicago. Kumaresh paid a tip also over the meter charges.

All the school buses in USA are painted yellow. The vehicles following the bus and coming from the front come to a halt, whenever they see a school bus halting on the road, with a 'STOP' sign put up by the driver.

A notable feature I found here is that the cars have the licence plate only in the back. It is a rectangular plate in white background, with the digits and letters embossed. All vehicles have these plates in the same size, the same font and the siame size letters/digits. In India, it is exactly the opposite. The licencepates are in front and back, and also in the sides. They appear in all sorts of sizes and fonts. Some of the licence plates did not have any digits. I saw words like 'SHRI OM', 'LOVELY', 'SAMVDO', 'NAVNEET' etc. On enquiry, I am told that by paying some premium, you can have any unique name or word in the 'numberplate'.

The trucks are very long and designed to carry specific loads. There are trucks to move the belongings of a house which look different from those to carry cars. The hind-part is attached to the front cabin like a trolley. It was fun watching them negotiate the right-angled turns in the junctions. There are mini-trucks also, of the size of a big car, with its back open to carry load.

Markets and business houses have their parking areas. Normally, no charge is levied for parking here. But, in public parking lots, there are meters fixed at the parkin spot. we have to insert sufficient coins in the slot of the pillar, depending on our coming back to that area to remove our car. A quarterdollar coin allows one to park the car for 30 minutes. If you are found to have excceded the allowed time, you may find a 'ticket' kept on your windshield wiper, asking you to pay the fine at the designated court on the designated date and time. What happens otherwise, i don't know. But, the consequences are severe. In Chicago, we found the parking charges as high as 20 dollars for 8 hours. Here, the vehicles are parked in different 'levels'.