Roads and Traffic
Roads
Arransia’s roads are divided into A, B and unclassified categories depending on their importance. The numbers A1-A9 are used for the most important routes, with other numbers branching off them in a somewhat haphazard manner. The main routes do not radiate from the capital in UK fashion, indeed both the A1 and A2 run right through the city and out on the other side.
The routes of the nine single-digit A-roads are as follows:
A1: Headlam - Danby - Petersburgh - Stainton - Hebburn
A2: Brunswick border at Laneshaw Head - Alford - Danby - Kirkby Thore - Beadnell
A3: Danby - Bainbridge - Ince - Brunswick border SE of Greenore
A4: Danby - Fishtoft - Wrangle - Aldminster - Barcaldine
A5: Brunswick border - Howick - Lucker - Hebburn - Barcaldine
A6: Brunswick border near Regina - Stainton - Ulpha - Aldminster - Marske
A7: Danby - Ellerdine - Briggswath - Brunswick border south of Gautby
A8: Gilling - Laithby - Holborough - Lucker - Skerne
A9: Sabden - Petersburgh - Wrangle
To understand this, see the maps: North and South
While Arransian roads are generally well-maintained, their standard is significantly inferior to Brunswick, with rural highway widths over 20 feet being rare. There has been little expenditure on smoothing out curves, and away from the Expressway network it is difficult to make rapid progress from A to B. Many towns now have single-carriageway bypasses, generally built to a 24-foot width standard, but these often attract clusters of tacky fast food and retail outlets.
A three-lane stretch of the A33 (former A3) between Firle and Ormsby in |
There are a small number of non-Expressway dual-carriageway bypasses, without access restrictions, but sometimes with grade-separated junctions, such as the Thorganby and Fishtoft bypasses on the A4 and the Kirkby Thore bypass on the A2. Many fairly major routes still run straight through town centres, such as Dacre in Laithe where the A9 and A20 cross each other.
All distances are measured in miles and yards, and bridge heights in feet and inches.
As in Brunswick, driving is on the left.
Street lighting is of a good standard in towns, but virtually no rural roads are lit, and some fairly large villages still do not have street lighting. The vast majority of street lighting is of the orange sodium type, as opposed to Brunswick where white lighting of the SON and Mercury types has made considerable progress.
Roundabouts are not common in Arransia, but are now being installed at some dangerous rural crossroads. Traffic lights are widely used, but even so there are a surprising number of uncontrolled crossroads and T-junctions between major roads.
The road network is generally free to use, although ferries and some major estuarial crossings are tolled. An individual driving licence costs $75 a year, and there is a flat-rate $15 annual registration fee for cars and motorcycles. The cost of road fuel is fairly similar to that in Brunswick, currently about $3.00 a gallon. Fuel is sold in gallons. Diesel fuel is rare for private cars, as the fractional process in Arransia’s refineries would not be able to cope with a large increase in demand, and fuel would have to be imported.
Speed Limits
Speed limits are 30 mph in towns and villages, with 40 mph on some high-quality suburban roads. There is an official formula to determine appropriate speed limits and they are rarely a source of controversy. In recent years there has been some muttering that the rather straggly development patterns typical of Arransian villages, particularly in the North of the country, leads to villages having 40 mph rather than 30 mph limits, but very few have been reduced. 30 mph limits are supposed to be obvious from the built-up character of the road, but 30 mph repeaters are fairly common on main roads in towns. There is no link between speed limits and street lighting. A small number of urban grade-separated dual carriageways and major bridges have 50 mph limits. The latest version of the official Speed Limit Guidelines can be found here.
Arransia has no rural highway speed limits, although there are recommended maximums of 60 mph on normal roads and 70 mph on Expressways. However, the traffic police have successfully prosecuted people for negligent driving for speeds above 80 mph on all-purpose roads and 100 mph on Expressways. Most Arransians drive small, low-powered cars and average speeds are generally lower than in Brunswick. The 85th percentile speed on the Expressways is about 68 mph, whereas it is about 140 km/h on Brunswick’s 130 km/h Trunkways. The police have consistently recommended against rural highway speed limits, which have been considered from time to time, as they are concerned they would set often unsuitable target speeds. The 60 and 70 limits become mandatory when towing a caravan or trailer.
The speed limits for lorries and vans between 2 and 8 tons, and all buses and coaches, are 50 mph on normal roads and 60 mph on expressways; for lorries over 8 tons, it is 40 mph on normal roads and 50 mph on expressways. There is no requirement for coaches or goods vehicles to have speed limiters, but the typical Arransian lorry struggles to achieve 50 mph anyway. The speed limits were raised from 30 to 40 for vans and buses, and 20 to 30 for heavy lorries, in 1954, and by a further 10 mph to the current levels in 1966.
The traffic police generally tolerate cruising speeds for heavy lorries on Expressways between 55 and 60 mph, and there has been some pressure to increase their limit to 60 on Expressways and 50 on some of the higher-standard all-purpose roads, but nothing has so far come of this.
Arransia has a general 20 mph limit for pedal cycles, which has been unchanged since the early 20th century. There is no requirement for cycles to be fitted with speedometers, and the police guidelines are that this should only be enforced in cases of gross abuse. In 2003 there was an outcry about the traffic police in Teviot allegedly setting speed traps for cyclists on long rural downgrades, which led to Paul Nordstrom, the national head of the traffic police, issuing a specific instruction that this should not be done. Even so, about 2,000 cyclists are fined for speeding each year, and, if they have a driving licence, they will also receive an endorsement.
Traffic Enforcement
Arransia has no fixed speed cameras, as this form of enforcement is considered a violation of human rights under Arransian law. However, it does have a well-resourced national traffic police force (full name - National Transport Police, Traffic Division), resulting in a more visible police presence on the roads than in Brunswick. The traffic police are widely felt (with some justification) to target drivers from over the border rather than locals. Membership of the traffic police is said to appeal to those who want to ride powerful motorcycles, ignore speed limits, wield power and carry a gun. Membership of Hell’s Angels chapters has been banned for traffic police since 1974, but it is believed there are still close connections. The Arransian Motorists’ Association (AMA) are very critical of the traffic police and monitor their activities closely. The police sometimes use hidden cameras for enforcement in signed speed limit areas, but drivers are always pulled over at the time of the offence, and the tolerances applied are usually fairly high, so that it would be hard to consider any resulting prosecutions as unreasonable.
The current head of the traffic police is the outspoken and controversial Commissioner Paul Nordstrom (b 1960), who has strongly defended their sometimes apprarently capricious enforcement policies as "proactive policing". When off duty, Nordstrom rides a powerful sports bike, and has been clocked by members of the Road Safety League doing 157 mph on the A3 Gedney Bypass. He insists that this represents safe riding and does not compromise his official role, although when a Brunswickian senior advanced riding instructor was jailed for two days for negligent driving for doing 135 mph on the same road, some may detect a slight inconsistency.
Arransia has a system of licence endorsements for native drivers, but cannot endorse Brunswickian licences – just as Brunswick cannot endorse Arransian licences. However, this is compensated for by being able to levy higher fines if an endorsement is not possible. A standard speeding offence will only cost an Arransian driver $40, but can be up to $200 for a Brunswickian. For very serious offences, short jail terms of one or two days can be imposed. The courts are required to consider a period of disqualification if four endorsements are obtained over a four-year period.
Because of the poor roads and the sometimes heavy-handed traffic police, Brunswickians crossing the border for a blast in Arransia is much less of a problem than might be imagined. There are plenty of places in Brunswick where you can indulge in spirited driving on better quality rural main roads with little prospect of encountering any enforcement.
The official minimum driving age in Arransia is 18, but it is possible to learn to drive at 16 if needed for work-related purposes, which is very common in rural areas. There is a fairly tough two-part driving test, and for the first two years after passing the second part, new drivers are restricted to vehicles under 100 bhp, except if driving for work.
The overall result of these policies is that – somewhat to the annoyance of the Brunswickians – Arransia has a somewhat lower rate of road fatalities per head of population, although Brunswick does slightly better in terms of fatalities per mile travelled. A detailed assessment of Arransia's road safety performance can be found here.
Seat belts must be worn by drivers and front seat passengers; rear belts have to be fitted but it is not compulsory to use them.
Mobile phones, whether hand-held or hands-free, may not be used while driving. This stems from an obscure 1930s law about in-car telephones and did not need any new legislation. This is an endorsable offence. Mobile phone use gives the traffic police a new opportunity of targeting Brunswickian drivers.
The legal drink-driving limit is 80 mg/100 ml. In a country proud of its distilling and brewing traditions, this was a controversial measure when introduced in 1979. While disqualification is available to the courts, if there are no aggravating circumstances, magistrates will usually only impose a licence endorsement for first offenders. The traffic police must have "reasonable grounds for suspicion" to carry out breath tests and are not allowed to set up drink-drive roadblocks.
It is illegal in Arransia for cars to use headlights in conditions of good visibility (although motorcycles may). Any foreign vehicles with daytime running lamps must disconnect them before crossing the border. Foreign drivers ignoring this law are considered one of the choicest pulls of all by the traffic police, as they can immediately take the vehicle off the road and issue a Vehicle Rectification Notice.
Signing
Originally, Arransia adopted a pattern of road signing very similar to that used in Brunswick. However, while the Brunswickian system was completely revamped in the 1960s, that in Arransia, in typical fashion, has been amended piecemeal.
Warning signs have a red triangle above a rectangular pictorial plate, with a description of the hazard at the bottom. In recent years designs have been produced which integrate the triangle with the pictorial plate in one sheet of metal, and where the pictogram is obvious the description is dispensed with. An interesting quirk of Arransian signing is that six different designs of the “wild animals” sign are used, variously showing a deer, bear, wolf, wild cat, badger and wild boar, although the placement of these signs bears little relationship to whether you are likely to encounter that particular kind of wild animal.
The international standard eight-sided STOP sign was adopted in 1984, but many of the old “Halt” signs remain.
A selection of typical Arransian road signs can be seen here.
Directional signs are usually diagrammatic, with the road numbers and destinations in white boxes. Road numbers are given priority over destinations; sometimes signs simply say “A45 East” and “A45 West”. A distinctive sans-serif font is used rather similar to Gill Sans. All lettering on road signs is in capitals. Traditionally, direction signs had a white background, but since the mid-1960s pale blue has been used to make the boxes stand out better. The fork signs on Expressways are a variation on this style.
The south-western counties of Marchwood, Bucklow and Hanwold traditionally used a serif font for direction signs, although the government are trying to phase this out.
Overhead gantries are used in the rare locations where there are grade-separated urban dual carriageways, but not on rural Expressways.
Destinations on direction signs can be a little haphazard. The broad convention is that they should sign the next major town, with an intermediate town below if there is one, but this can be interpreted inconsistently - for example, Beadnell, which as a major naval base and ferry port, is a strategic destination, doesn't appear on A2 signs heading west from Danby until you have passed Kirkby Thore. There is no national list of main control destinations. Very distant destinations never appear, so the A1 north from Danby is successively signed "Petersburgh", "Stainton" and "Hebburn". Generic destinations such as "The North" are not used, likewise there are no signs for "Brunswick" or "The Border", they are always for a specific town or city in Brunswick, with the "BR" country designation on a dark blue oval. The A2 west from Danby is signed "A2 Ynysforgan (BR) (T-85), Alford". Trunkways are always referred to as "T-85" etc - the Arransians don't like Brunswickian trunkway shields on their signs.
Speed limit signs are the conventional black numbers on a white background in a red ring, although the number font is different to that used in Brunswick and the red ring is thicker. The “derestriction” sign usually shows the limit being cancelled in the background in pale grey.
Arransia uses two-aspect traffic lights, with a flashing green for five seconds before the lights change to red.
Border Controls
The border between Arransia and Brunswick was historically very porous, with many minor crossings, and it was impossible to exercise strict border controls. During the Great War, there was relatively little fighting on the border, but many crossings were physically blocked off by concrete blocks and earth banks, and a handful of these still remain in isolated parts of Marchwood and Hanwold.
The T-9 in Brunswick approaching the turn-off for the T-83 |
The exception to this is exciseable goods, mainly alcohol and tobacco, where historically Arransia has had much lower levels of duty than Brunswick, and Brunswick imposes limits on the amount that can be carried. This is currently 50 litres of beer, 15 litres of table wine, 10 litres of spirits and 500 cigarettes per person. In recent years Arransia has increased taxes on tobacco, so prices are now similar to those in Brunswick – the government seeing it as a convenient source of revenue – but beer and spirits are typically about 20% cheaper. There is very little domestic wine production in Arransia and retail wine prices are much the same as in Brunswick. These savings are worthwhile for those who live near to the border or who are visiting Arransia anyway, but not sufficient to encourage people to make long journeys. As Arransian bottles use traditional measures, while Brunswickian ones are metric, any attempt to resell bottles smuggled across the border will inevitably arouse suspicion. There are beer and spirit superstores in Arransia near the main border crossings – that at Laneshaw Head on the A2, which is situated in a remote and unspoilt area, being widely regarded as something of an eyesore.
There are also restrictions on the cross-border transport of goods such as shotgun cartridges. Motor fuel – in the past more expensive in Arransia than in Brunswick – can only be carried either way across the border in a vehicle's own standard fuel tank, and not in additional tanks or jerrycans. Passports are required for residents of both nations visiting the other but are only randomly checked.
The Brunswickians have manned border posts at the principal crossings, and do pull cars and lorries over on a random basis for checks, but the Arransian border posts, where they exist at all, are mothballed apart from a token presence at the four big Trunkway crossings on the A3, A2, A5 and A6, which are little more than somewhere for traffic officers to stop for a cigarette and a coffee. The traffic police will occasionally stop foreign lorries within the country to confirm their papers are in order. On the Brunswickian side there is usually a speed limit of 70 km/h through the immediate area of the border post, but there is a derestriction sign upon crossing the border into Arransia.
The Brunswickian and Arransian currencies are freely convertible between each other and Brunswick dollars are generally accepted in Arransia, and Arransian dollars in border areas of Brunswick. However, a bureau de change is generally found amongst the cluster of retail and dining outlets that has sprung up at most of the main crossing points, invariably, because of the lower alcohol prices, on the Arransian side. The conversion rate is currently around A$1 = B$1.45.
The Arransian border is marked on all A-class roads by large signs saying:
Most recent ones are also adorned by the annoyingly cute national cartoon mascot of "Bill the Badger". Some crossings have also acquired unofficial pictures of a rather more vicious-looking badger sitting astride a motorbike dressed in Hell's Angels regalia.
Most of the border runs through rural areas, and cross-border commuting is limited apart from a substantial flow up the A6 from the area of Regina into Stainton. The police on either side have no right of hot pursuit across the border, but it is doubtful whether this gives any worthwhile advantage to criminal elements.
Fuel Supply
The vast majority of road fuel sold in Arransia has always been produced by the Arransian National Oil Corporation (ANOC), who have large refineries at Headlam and Elswick. ANOC also have their own petrol station franchise under the "National" brand. However, confusingly, over two-thirds of Arransian petrol stations still carry the main Brunswickian brand names such as Prime Fuels, albeit generally operated by Arransian franchisees. Despite the Great War and a long history of rivalry, there is still a widespread perception of trust in Brunswickian automotive brands – indeed the leading third-party brand of car parts is also Brunswickian.
Historically, fuel specifications in Arransia were slightly inferior to those in Brunswick, which gave rise to frequent complaints from Brunswickian visitors. They were supposedly harmonised in the early 1980s but the perception still remains to some extent. Over 80% of retail fuel sold in Arransia is now 95-octane unleaded, but 98-octane super unleaded, diesel and four-star leaded are also generally available. There is an independent "Lo-cost" garage chain typically charging 5p per gallon less than the major operators; opinions are divided as to whether their fuel actually is of inferior quality or whether they simply charge slender margins.
The phenomenon of supermarkets selling own-brand fuel is unknown in Arransia, and the country still has a fair number of small two-pump rural petrol stations, sometimes combined with a pub. Compared to many other countries there is a high level of loyalty to particular fuel brands, and the fuel companies provide free location maps which are the only maps some motorists possess.