I have never been able to understand what seem to effectively be one lane roads.
No room for two cars to pass.
Yes, it would keep the speed down but what are the fatal accident rates?
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Tarmac the whole country. Life would be so much easier.
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I was amazed to find in the centre of Glasgow a road that was something like 5 lanes wide in each direction.
Australia still has a lot of single lane roads, the advantage we have is plenty of room to enable cars to put at least two wheels in the dirt to pass safely.
Go to 40secs in to see what I mean - that’s in Queensland where road trains have right of way (you’d be foolish to push your luck in other states too)
When I drove from Exeter to the Motorway (in the UK) I went along a narrow country road where you had to find a passing place to get past an oncoming car, it was a squeeze, one of you had to stop.
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Hi
Apart from some remnants of Roman Roads, such as the A5, our roads are so narrow and winding because they follow ancient field boundaries.
Bretrick
There is a good reason why some countrry road are narrow. You have to look at the history of the UK. Most were originally just tracks for a horse and cart. Then along came the motoring age and these cart tracks needed upgrading . Remember the UK dates back hundreds of years when horses werf the only means of transport.
Why do we drive on the left? Again dates back to the time when Knights held the sword in the right hand and used the left to guide the horse.
So a lot of things in the UK are based on our history
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The roads classed B in the UK are often single lane - as noted above because of boundaries and because it would be impossibly expensive to widen them. But they do (should) slow traffic and should also teach respect for other drivers. So anticipating a point where cars will need to pass should also mean anticipating a place to easily pass. Spot a wide part of the road or a side road and pull in the let the other car past. This is made even easier when dedicated passing places are signposted. Yet, guess what, so many push ahead without consideration, cause face-offs with neither side willing to reverse and (my favourite piece of selfishness) using the passing place as a layby to park in.
What is interesting is the difference of approach to single track roads in France, of which there tens of thousands of kilometres. None of the above considerate behaviour about seeking a safe point to let cars pass. Instead another form of considerate behaviour of simply driving on the verge at the point the cars pass. It is assumed both cars (or vans, or lorries, or tractors, or combine harvesters) do this. It works, but requires two things. First a well maintained verge and not an overgrown & rutted verge, and second the confidence the other car will do the same. But I lack the nerve to not slow down at all when executing this passing technique - some locals just charge through.
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Would be frightening encountering a triple road train at night.
I think you will find Australia had horses too for quite a while after the colony was founded in 1788 not too many road trains around then, bullock trains, yes.
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