First time Driving in US - Advice?

megapixel

Always remember you as the driver should be in the middle of the road.(As in nearest to the center line)

Skedaddle

I find when driving on the continent it's useful to put something ON the dashboard to mark which side I'm supposed to be on .. it's very easy to forget, especially when turning across a road onto a divided junction. I ended up on the wrong side of a barrier in Italy once! Oddly nobody seemed that put out by it and didn't even beep at me, just helped me over to the correct side by giving me plenty of space.

Harpy

Roscoe P Coltrane wrote: »

A few tips on renting a car- use a broker website to find the best deal, it can save you a fortune. Try to get a special on full tank & return empty- it saves money & hassle when returning car not looking for a gas station near an airport (you normally get up to 5 additional drivers on this deal also). Get car hire excess insurance before you go- its only about €50, you can add drivers for free and with the hire laws in most states, your insurance is covered with rental. If anything happens, you just pay the excess and get a refund on your insurance.
Check all lights, indicators etc before driving out- I refused to take 2 vehicles on last trip due to indicators.
Allow plenty of time for returning vehicle at airport, rental is often off site.
Check your phone provider for daily cost in us, most big companies do a roaming deal for about €3 per day giving you access to your own satnav, rentals are $12-$15 per day (stick your phone cradle in carry on bag to aid quicker drive off.
Lastly, dont drink on the plane- its easy to forget you have to drive in 5 hours!

When youh say broker website for car rentals do you have any links to what these are??

A2LUE42

2 things I haven't seen mentioned so far, I think.

Roadworks, especially at night be careful as they normally have a reduced speed limit around them and take any infractions very seriously.

U turns at freeway underpasses overs when you are first in the line of traffic, especially when quiet. Make sure to enter the correct lane.

jasonb

tac foley wrote: »

Also that not EVERY state allows you to pump your own gasoline - Oregon is one that does not. All gas-stations are full-serve.

tac

I was in Washington State a couple of years ago, and got stuck behind a driver at a Gas Station who just sat in the car and didn’t seem to be doing anything. I decided to go into the store and buy some snacks while waiting, and they eventually came in, wondering why they weren’t being served. Turns out they were from Oregon. Staff from the station had to go out and show them how to put petrol in their car, they’d just never done it before.

ceadaoin.

mrs.doubt.fire wrote: »

Most if not all American credit cards are chip and pin now, for the past about year and a half.

Chip but not pin. The pin is only used for debit cards and even then , not all the time.

Re turning right on a red light, treat it like a stop sign. You have to come to a complete stop first, then proceed if safe. You can't just turn without stopping even if you can see it's clear, you could get a ticket if you do this

Panjandrums

This post has been deleted.

Roscoe P Coltrane

Harpy wrote: »

When youh say broker website for car rentals do you have any links to what these are??

I use rentalcars.com

rushfan

Roscoe P Coltrane wrote:

I use rentalcars.com

+1 for Rentalcars.

Heebie

Another biggie in the states...
Here were supposed to put on the hand brake when stopped at a light.
In the US it is illegal to put your hand brake on when you're stopped at a light.

tac foley

Also, in some states there are double fines for speeding in a construction zone between flaggers.

tac

**Timbuk2**

When turning right on red, you must yield to pedestrians crossing (fairly obvious).

When turning left or right on green, you may also have to yield to pedestrians crossing who may also have a green man. Less obvious as this doesn't happen in Ireland.

Manic Moran

Heebie wrote: »

In the US it is illegal to put your hand brake on when you're stopped at a light.

First I've heard of it. I've been driving here 18 years. But on that topic, when parking on an incline, if you don't already, in some places it is necessary to 'curb' the wheels. (i.e. turn the wheels to lock). Watch out for required nose-in parking. Due to smaller spaces, in Ireland we usually reverse into parking spots. This is specifically forbidden (for reasons I cannot comprehend) in some places, but usually it's well signposted.

Another one which gets folks... In Ireland, when an emergency vehicle is on the road towards you, it seems the general rule is just to make sure you're not in its way. In the US, it's expected that you will pull over and stop, even if it's in the opposite direction of traffic (excepting divided roads like dual carriageways etc).

If you are getting pulled over, another thing to bear in mind is that you may receive instructions over the car's loudspeaker before you actually stop. For example, a common one these days is to instruct the person being pulled over to keep going and to take the next off-ramp. There have been a spate of incidents recently where drivers are drawn to the flashing lights and colliding with stopped vehicles on the side of the freeway.

If being pulled over in the middle of nowhere with no other traffic around, put on the hazards, and drive slowly to the next place of civilisation. It's not unusual to call 911 and ask the dispatcher if anyone is pulling over a (insert your car/location here), just to verify that the guy is a legit cop.

ceadaoin.

Also, some states have laws that say the far left lane on the freeway is for "faster traffic only". So use it to overtake and get back over to the middle or right lane. Sitting at or below the speed limit in the left lane with a line of cars stuck behind you isn't allowed and can get you a fine.

Panjandrums wrote: »

If a cop has someone pulled over in the shoulder of the dual carriageway , pass in the left lane.
In South Dakota at least , it's illegal to in the right lane and I've seen a cop run back to his car and pull over a car that passed in the right lane.

Im not sure its illegal to be in the right lane altogether? you should change lanes but if it's not possible to do that then you have to slow down when passing the police officer. Once you don't blast past them at full speed it should be ok.

circular flexing

tac foley wrote: »

If you are over in Oregon, please be aware that Oregon has legal 'jay-walking'. A driver is obliged by law to stop and let a pedestrian continue to cross the road if they arrive after the pedestrian has begun to cross.

Also that not EVERY state allows you to pump your own gasoline - Oregon is one that does not. All gas-stations are full-serve.

tac

The state law in Oregon changed lately - in some areas you are now allowed to pump your own gas

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/01/03/i-dont-even-know-how-some-oregonians-panic-about-new-self-service-gas-law/?utm_term=.1c89189edd44

Heebie

Jimbob1977 wrote:

Left shoulder I have two shoulders

You don't get it. Your shoulder should be next to the centre line is the road... The line shouldn't be across the other side of the passenger seat.

Heebie

mrs.doubt.fire wrote:

Same thing if you come to a cross roads and all 4 roads have stop signs (no traffic lights), who ever get's there first goes first.

There's one more part to this.
If multiple people get to the four-way stop simultaneously, the person furthest to the right (the furthest anti-clockwise) has the right of way.
I have never seen how you're supposed to handle it if two people arrive at such a junction from opposite directions on parallel paths are supposed to handle it, but it tends to work out.

Jimbob1977

Heebie wrote: »

You don't get it. Your shoulder should be next to the centre line is the road... The line shouldn't be across the other side of the passenger seat.

Yes I know.... The centre line of the road should be next to your LEFT shoulder. Out the driver's window.

My point is.... he didn't specify which shoulder. Humans have two shoulders. I was making a joke

Heebie

Skedaddle wrote:

I find when driving on the continent it's useful to put something ON the dashboard to mark which side I'm supposed to be on .. it's very easy to forget, especially when turning across a road onto a divided junction. I ended up on the wrong side of a barrier in Italy once! Oddly nobody seemed that put out by it and didn't even beep at me, just helped me over to the correct side by giving me plenty of space.

That's technically illegal. In some places, especially in the deep South, people with out-of-state registration plates, as rentals often have, may find themselves pulled over and fined for having anything on the dash where it might distract the driver.

Heebie

Manic Moran wrote:

Another one which gets folks... In Ireland, when an emergency vehicle is on the road towards you, it seems the general rule is just to make sure you're not in its way. In the US, it's expected that you will pull over and stop, even if it's in the opposite direction of traffic (excepting divided roads like dual carriageways etc).

In addition to this, it's generally illegal to follow emergency vehicles within 400 feet.

Heebie

ceadaoin. wrote:

Also, some states have laws that say the far left lane on the freeway is for "faster traffic only". So use it to overtake and get back over to the middle or right lane. Sitting at or below the speed limit in the left lane with a line of cars stuck behind you isn't allowed and can get you a fine.

This is supposed to be true in Ireland as well.. it's the overtaking lane. (Although it's rightmost here)

Gravelly

Heebie wrote: »

This is supposed to be true in Ireland as well.. it's the overtaking lane. (Although it's rightmost here)

I have seriously considered having "IT'S AN OVERTAKING LANE YOU DONKEY" signwritten on the bootlid of my car. If an alien travelled down the M7 he'd think the rule here was that the right lane was for those who wish to travel below 100km/h.

stargazer 68

May have been mentioned already but watch out for road works - fines are doubled and speeds reduced in some states when there are workmen.

Saw a great one when driving in Colarado - 'you are in the vicinity of a state penitentiary - do not stop for hitch hikers'!

jack presley

One thing that baffled me with my last hire car in the States was locking the boot. Don’t know if it’s just a US car thing (Chevrolet) or whether it happens everywhere though.

Basically it was a keyless car with the fob but even after locking the car, the boot would still open. As a typical lazy tourist I couldn’t be arsed flicking through the manual for the first few days and as a result we wouldn’t leave anything in the boot.

When I did eventually read the manual it turned out the lock on the boot kicked in when you were a certain distance away from the car and the fob was out of range (think it was around 20m or so).

So it was locked all along.

jack presley

I was driving in Arizona once and not only did they have the permanent speed camera signs up in areas where they checked speeds, when there was a cop out checking, he had a temporary sign up in the hard shoulder about a mile before where he was parked.

Surely only the biggest idiots would still get caught

rgodard80a

Some roads may have car pool lanes too.
Think they're called "multiple occupancy vehicles" or the like... so you might see "MOV" and a different coloured driving lane.

I've heard that certain tolled roads will calculate your average speed between tolls and automatically fine you for speeding.

Definitely you need a GPS.
Some of them support assisted GPS I think, where they use radio signals in cities for better navigation. I bought an cheap Garmin Nuvi over there about 8 years ago and it went nuts in the city, telling me to take turns when I incorrectly thought I wasn't on the right road.
Not sure the key words you need to search there for sat nav features, but worth looking out for increased accuracy in cities.

towger

I find that quite often you are in the right hand lane, going straight, but at some point it becomes a right only lane. I know that happens here too, but not nearly as much. It is usually well signed, but if you are focused on the sat nav you can miss a sign.

Also, slip roads onto the freeway are sometimes very short, be prepared to floor it to get into the stream, you do not want to be stopping at the end of the slip.

circular flexing

jack presley wrote: »

One thing that baffled me with my last hire car in the States was locking the boot. Don’t know if it’s just a US car thing (Chevrolet) or whether it happens everywhere though.

Basically it was a keyless car with the fob but even after locking the car, the boot would still open. As a typical lazy tourist I couldn’t be arsed flicking through the manual for the first few days and as a result we wouldn’t leave anything in the boot.

When I did eventually read the manual it turned out the lock on the boot kicked in when you were a certain distance away from the car and the fob was out of range (think it was around 20m or so).

So it was locked all along.

That's an optional extra on most models of car in North America. Usually only found in the higher level trims (e.g Titanium for Ford)

knockoutned

AlanG wrote: »

Driving is generally easy as there are so many dual carriageways, most likely place to go wrong is pulling out of a petrol station or restaurant if there is no traffic so you end up on the wrong side.
be aware of local laws - when I was there you could not turn right on a red light in New York city but you could in most states (ie. treat it like a stop sign).
Many car rentals don't let you go to death valley or Manhattan.
They are really strict about school zone speed limits - usually 15 or 20 mph - stick to them.
If there is snow do not park on the road or you will get a ticket as they need to be kept clear for ploughs.
If there is a lot of snow make sure you have a blanket, candle and tape in your car to mark it if you abandon it.
If you go into the Appalachian Mountains or some of the state forests be aware of where gas stations are as you could easily forget the distances are huge even on the east coast.

What about all the rental companies based in Manhattan I rent cars all the time in and around Manhattan and I've never been told this

knockoutned

tricky D wrote: »

Watch for others doing sudden lane changes.

When filling up, your card might not work at self-service gas pumps as they can require a ZIP code not a PIN. First, you go into the station and give them an rounded up estimate of what you will fill, they hold that money, then you fill and go back in and sort out the difference. I'm a bit rusty on that so hopefully some one can fill in anything I've missed or got wrong.

If using an international credit card, you can also enter 00000 as your zip code and it will normally work.

A few other things since you are driving in New York:
There are tolls on most inter-states so make sure you have cash. Some tolls entering Manhattan are cashless (RFK, Henry Hudson, Hugh Carey) so just keep driving. The rental company will charge your credit card, along with a fee, after they get billed for it.

In practical terms, there are no driving lanes and over taking lanes. Drivers will over and under take you, so make sure you look at both lanes when changing lanes on an inter-state

Trucks are not restricted and will travel at 60-70-80mph. Unless stated, they can drive in any lane.

Be weary of anyone with a New Jersey reg. Not to generalise, but they are shocking drivers.