"Americans also drive very aggressively: everyone overtakes on the inside, and often fail to indicate, and it’s no surprise that the country’s road fatality rate is vastly higher than Europe’s."
You are so right. For many years, "Visualize Using Your Turn Signal" has been seen on bumper stickers. It's a response to "Visualize World Peace", which was probably somewhere on that car in Richmond. One might also see "Visualize Whirled Peas".
One reason for having stickers or magnets (easier to remove!) is so that you can find your car in a parking lot among all the other black Nissan Altimas or red Honda Civics.
Maybe this is partly related to the fact that the American driving tests amounts to navigating around a crop of cones that have been laid by a broadcast seeder?
Americans are right: people in Britain really are being punished for what they say - even being arrested. And if they say certain words while committing an actual crime, even a minor one, it means a draconian sentence. It began around 2000 and snowballed thereafter, with people in the vast public sector now being sacked for a slip of the tongue or even NOT saying the things their employer insists they say, like the phrase “people with a cervix” instead of women. And there is the obvious thing that celebrating diversity is compulsory in the workplace, with an hour or two off for everyone to rejoice in Hindu festivals, etc but if you suggest migration might be putting a strain on maternity services it’s straight to the principal’s office you go.
Looking at that bleak photo taken from the car reminded me of something Robert M. Pirsig wrote. At one point on his travels he came to a place where it was clear that the land was plentiful and cheap because no one had bothered use it economically. Everything had just been thrown up in random places making it look cluttered.
Sounds like Ed was driving on I-95, which is one of the least scenic highways in America. If you had driven on the parallel 1-81, about 100 miles west, you would have seen 500 miles of uninterrupted farm land. When driving up and down the east coast, we avoid I-95 when ever possible.
Not just farm land, but the Piedmont and mountains which are beautiful in some parts of Appalachia.
I-95 is tolerable (IMO) north of Jacksonville (FL) and south of the DC metro area. Avoid it like the plague through the northeast corridor and in south Florida.
Re the NYC subway - I visited with my daughter last week. Travelling up and down Manhattan (including to a Yankees game) and out to Queens and Brooklyn. Hong Kong it ain’t but we both agreed to feeling less tense than on the London tube these days.
"As people may know, I only travel to confirm my stereotypes and I’m never disappointed. The most obvious one about Americans holds true, too: people are very hospitable and polite and, outside of cities especially, warm and friendly. "
According to psychological studies, you are certainly in the friendly and conventional zone of the US.
Surely as a writer an investment in that 'Legends' t-shirt would pay for itself multiple times over by becoming the basis of an article about the reactions of people in different districts of London as you flaunt it around the metropolis?
I understand why most politically engaged British people, when they see the Buc-ee’s sign, zoom in on the manager who gets paid more than Starmer.
But what struck me was that the vast majority of staff are paid a lot less than me for a yookay call centre job. And also get a lot less paid leave.
I expect most of them are teenagers still living at home so that's fine, but some will be adults trying to support their families, and with things being a lot more expensive in America that must be tough. Probably why tipping culture is a perennially hot topic in the US in a way it never is over here.
On the car culture, this was also my first impression in the U.S.; I didn’t travel all the way from Dubai and the Gulf to visit car-dominated cities! But I remembered then that our roads and cities were redesigned and rebuilt in the 1960s with America as the model to emulate!
"Afterwards I had a tour of the Virginia State Capitol, the first example of classical architecture in the new United States. Thomas Jefferson had been inspired, while ambassador to France, by the Maison Carrée of Nîmes; the Roman influence on America is a subject that fascinates me, and it’s obvious in Washington too, where I couldn’t help but feel like a Greek imperial subject visiting the Eternal City for the first time, and marvelling how many denarius the tavern-owners earn."
For the 250th next year, Trump is planning to built a great, big arch, which certainly goes with a Caesaristic vibe.
I remember visiting Washington DC (the only major US city I have visted apart from... Orlando) and the Roman echoes felt quite thunderous. Whilst European cities often have a classical element it is usually muted by baroque and Italianate ornamentation in the south and the widespread use of gothic in the north to the point where I can think of no large city centre in Europe as singularly neo-classical as central DC.
Amused by your comment on not being allowed to park facing the opposite direction. On my first visit to Britain in the Sixties I was struck by this, and having just returned I can confirm that it's still a thing. It does seem like an odd practice, though, because when pulling out you have to avoid hitting vehicles coming head-on as well as the ones coming up from behind you.
Nice travelogue, and I'm a bit envious because now you've seen more of the South than I have. Looking forward to your next installment.
"America’s gun culture attracts a great deal of attention, but the car culture is even more alienating. That feels like the most negative thing about life here. Baltimore, for example, contains some incredibly beautiful housing, but its often on roads with six lanes and speeding cars. There’s no way you’d want to raise children like this, and this wasn’t unusual.
Many of the towns I passed through were totally car-dominated, the result of which is that they are quite desolate, and no one is walking around creating a sense of civic life. I don’t know how people can live like that. This is especially true in the South, and in Republican-run areas, while Democrat towns make more effort to create pedestrian zones; the only downside is that they are full of homeless people muttering to themselves, and the smell of weed, which also destroys civic life. Cars and crime are the twin enemies of urban civilisation."
My part of Ontario is by and large friendly to neither cars nor pedestrians. Most cities are built around the car but there isn't nearly enough highways to carry them all so they have a reputation as among the most congested in the world.
That said a British visitor in 20 or 30 years is less likely to find the widespread use of automatics so strange as has been the case for decades if the current tendency of new car sales is to be believed.
Washington has been gentrifying for years now. Yet some people still persist in portraying it as Scary Big City. It's tempting to attribute that to partisan propaganda, but there's a strain of anti-urban sentiment in the US that dates back to colonial days.
Baltimore (where I lived from 2008 until 2022-- and I was back for a visit just last month) is a problematic place though its crime rate has declined precipitously over the last two years. I lived just behind the back part of the B&O Railroad museum. The neighborhood was a little sketchy though no where near as bad as West Baltimore to its north. It was billed as The Next Gentrifying neighborhood of Baltimore for years, but there's still a distinct lack of gentry, though the area near the stadiums has come up a ways.
It used to be technically an offence to park facing the wrong way at night in Britain, perhaps it still is?
I lived in NY, twice in fact (1989 then again 1995-7). I have been many times since. It's mainly quite safe, there are some sketchy neighbourhoods of course and as in most places, you need to be a little careful. Outside of Japan, I can't think of anywhere you are completely safe, that I have lived at least. Maybe Singapore.
Love to hear a view from abroad. We have so much work to do(all of us) to Make America Great Again. Everyone needs to pitch in. Love your community, love your country!!
"Americans also drive very aggressively: everyone overtakes on the inside, and often fail to indicate, and it’s no surprise that the country’s road fatality rate is vastly higher than Europe’s."
You are so right. For many years, "Visualize Using Your Turn Signal" has been seen on bumper stickers. It's a response to "Visualize World Peace", which was probably somewhere on that car in Richmond. One might also see "Visualize Whirled Peas".
One reason for having stickers or magnets (easier to remove!) is so that you can find your car in a parking lot among all the other black Nissan Altimas or red Honda Civics.
Maybe this is partly related to the fact that the American driving tests amounts to navigating around a crop of cones that have been laid by a broadcast seeder?
It depends on the state.
Americans are right: people in Britain really are being punished for what they say - even being arrested. And if they say certain words while committing an actual crime, even a minor one, it means a draconian sentence. It began around 2000 and snowballed thereafter, with people in the vast public sector now being sacked for a slip of the tongue or even NOT saying the things their employer insists they say, like the phrase “people with a cervix” instead of women. And there is the obvious thing that celebrating diversity is compulsory in the workplace, with an hour or two off for everyone to rejoice in Hindu festivals, etc but if you suggest migration might be putting a strain on maternity services it’s straight to the principal’s office you go.
What a great piece of writing!
Looking at that bleak photo taken from the car reminded me of something Robert M. Pirsig wrote. At one point on his travels he came to a place where it was clear that the land was plentiful and cheap because no one had bothered use it economically. Everything had just been thrown up in random places making it look cluttered.
Sounds like Ed was driving on I-95, which is one of the least scenic highways in America. If you had driven on the parallel 1-81, about 100 miles west, you would have seen 500 miles of uninterrupted farm land. When driving up and down the east coast, we avoid I-95 when ever possible.
Not just farm land, but the Piedmont and mountains which are beautiful in some parts of Appalachia.
I-95 is tolerable (IMO) north of Jacksonville (FL) and south of the DC metro area. Avoid it like the plague through the northeast corridor and in south Florida.
It’s horrendous
Re the NYC subway - I visited with my daughter last week. Travelling up and down Manhattan (including to a Yankees game) and out to Queens and Brooklyn. Hong Kong it ain’t but we both agreed to feeling less tense than on the London tube these days.
That's the American 'visted with' or the British? i.e. Your daughter lives in New York or you were both travelling together?
We flew over from London, together.
"As people may know, I only travel to confirm my stereotypes and I’m never disappointed. The most obvious one about Americans holds true, too: people are very hospitable and polite and, outside of cities especially, warm and friendly. "
According to psychological studies, you are certainly in the friendly and conventional zone of the US.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-3-psychological-regions-of-america/
It would be less so if you were in the Northeast it seems.
The colder the climate the colder the people.
Surely as a writer an investment in that 'Legends' t-shirt would pay for itself multiple times over by becoming the basis of an article about the reactions of people in different districts of London as you flaunt it around the metropolis?
I understand why most politically engaged British people, when they see the Buc-ee’s sign, zoom in on the manager who gets paid more than Starmer.
But what struck me was that the vast majority of staff are paid a lot less than me for a yookay call centre job. And also get a lot less paid leave.
I expect most of them are teenagers still living at home so that's fine, but some will be adults trying to support their families, and with things being a lot more expensive in America that must be tough. Probably why tipping culture is a perennially hot topic in the US in a way it never is over here.
On the car culture, this was also my first impression in the U.S.; I didn’t travel all the way from Dubai and the Gulf to visit car-dominated cities! But I remembered then that our roads and cities were redesigned and rebuilt in the 1960s with America as the model to emulate!
"Afterwards I had a tour of the Virginia State Capitol, the first example of classical architecture in the new United States. Thomas Jefferson had been inspired, while ambassador to France, by the Maison Carrée of Nîmes; the Roman influence on America is a subject that fascinates me, and it’s obvious in Washington too, where I couldn’t help but feel like a Greek imperial subject visiting the Eternal City for the first time, and marvelling how many denarius the tavern-owners earn."
For the 250th next year, Trump is planning to built a great, big arch, which certainly goes with a Caesaristic vibe.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7e8lv176go.amp
I remember visiting Washington DC (the only major US city I have visted apart from... Orlando) and the Roman echoes felt quite thunderous. Whilst European cities often have a classical element it is usually muted by baroque and Italianate ornamentation in the south and the widespread use of gothic in the north to the point where I can think of no large city centre in Europe as singularly neo-classical as central DC.
"Peter Fallow in Bonfire of the Vanities being the most famous example." Based on Christopher Hitchens, apparently!
Amused by your comment on not being allowed to park facing the opposite direction. On my first visit to Britain in the Sixties I was struck by this, and having just returned I can confirm that it's still a thing. It does seem like an odd practice, though, because when pulling out you have to avoid hitting vehicles coming head-on as well as the ones coming up from behind you.
Nice travelogue, and I'm a bit envious because now you've seen more of the South than I have. Looking forward to your next installment.
Very good to know what you are up to Ed!
"America’s gun culture attracts a great deal of attention, but the car culture is even more alienating. That feels like the most negative thing about life here. Baltimore, for example, contains some incredibly beautiful housing, but its often on roads with six lanes and speeding cars. There’s no way you’d want to raise children like this, and this wasn’t unusual.
Many of the towns I passed through were totally car-dominated, the result of which is that they are quite desolate, and no one is walking around creating a sense of civic life. I don’t know how people can live like that. This is especially true in the South, and in Republican-run areas, while Democrat towns make more effort to create pedestrian zones; the only downside is that they are full of homeless people muttering to themselves, and the smell of weed, which also destroys civic life. Cars and crime are the twin enemies of urban civilisation."
My part of Ontario is by and large friendly to neither cars nor pedestrians. Most cities are built around the car but there isn't nearly enough highways to carry them all so they have a reputation as among the most congested in the world.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pFBQDIY3V74&pp=ygUTV29ybGQgYXRsYXMgaHd5IDQwMQ%3D%3D
Meanwhile, railways are not nearly extensive enough to use as an alternative.
That said a British visitor in 20 or 30 years is less likely to find the widespread use of automatics so strange as has been the case for decades if the current tendency of new car sales is to be believed.
Washington has been gentrifying for years now. Yet some people still persist in portraying it as Scary Big City. It's tempting to attribute that to partisan propaganda, but there's a strain of anti-urban sentiment in the US that dates back to colonial days.
Baltimore (where I lived from 2008 until 2022-- and I was back for a visit just last month) is a problematic place though its crime rate has declined precipitously over the last two years. I lived just behind the back part of the B&O Railroad museum. The neighborhood was a little sketchy though no where near as bad as West Baltimore to its north. It was billed as The Next Gentrifying neighborhood of Baltimore for years, but there's still a distinct lack of gentry, though the area near the stadiums has come up a ways.
It used to be technically an offence to park facing the wrong way at night in Britain, perhaps it still is?
I lived in NY, twice in fact (1989 then again 1995-7). I have been many times since. It's mainly quite safe, there are some sketchy neighbourhoods of course and as in most places, you need to be a little careful. Outside of Japan, I can't think of anywhere you are completely safe, that I have lived at least. Maybe Singapore.
Love to hear a view from abroad. We have so much work to do(all of us) to Make America Great Again. Everyone needs to pitch in. Love your community, love your country!!