Back from Vegas, views on American driving...

[2011G6E]

Just got back from a bit over a week in Las Vegas and surrounding areas...we stayed in the Mirage Casino, but spent most of our time wandering the strip, checking out free shows, seeing Penn & Teller (awesome show and great guys hanging around to ensure everyone got autographs and photos with them), and driving around the surrounding areas of Nevada near Vegas, such as Hoover Dam, etc.

By the way...if you've ever played "Fallout New Vegas", yes, Goodsprings is a real little town, and the general store and saloon look almost the same as the ones in the game.

We had hired a car through Alamo rentals, a "full sized" car. It was to be a "Charger or similar". Unfortunately there was no Charger left in the lot, so we managed to grab a top of the line Chev Impala with all the fruit...great comfortable car, heaps of power, very comfy on the highway and a lot of interesting standard features.

Driving around Vegas was a little intimidating at first, but after half an hour I realised it all worked very well...indicate and people let you change lanes, roads are very well signed and it's fairly hard to get lost...but I managed a few times due to pure skill.

I looked up the road rules before going, and most of the usual stuff was there, but there were things that we could really learn from:
* Right turn on red...if you approach a red light and are turning right from the correct lane, you treat it like a stop sign. Come to a stop, make sure there's no traffic, and keep going to the right. Felt really weird going through a red light.
* "Move Aside" laws...something we could really use here. If you have an accident, and the cars are driveable, it's your responsibility not just to sit there blocking everything up...you have to keep going until you can pull up out of the way of the traffic.
Also, the authorities really have their act together when it comes to accidents...none of the things we see here where, say, the Bruce Highway can be blocked for four hours after an accident, long after the people have been taken away. Over there, every morning we would hear of accidents on the I15, usually near Charleston road, which would be cleared very very quickly...even serious accidents are cleared fast...once the people are removed, the theory seems to be "Right...it's just hunks of metal...drag that crap out of the way quick smart and get the traffic flowing again! Now!"
Awesome, and something that should happen here.

Speed limits...they seemed to be "optional" at best. Looking at the video of us doing a lap of the strip, I can hear the overspeed thing on our GPS bonging away most of the time...on the strip it was a 30mph limit, but everyone was doing 40 or so.
On the highways, it was 55, 65, or 75 depending on where you were. And sitting on a nice 75, I was getting overtaken by everyone...cars, trucks, police cars, everyone, so I sped up to 80+ and it all flowed nicely.

There didn't seem to be many semis on the road...in the USA there are dozens of rail companies, and your first choice to move goods across the country or to the next state is one of them, not a fleet of massive trucks, so you don't actually see many driving around.

Prices of cars...good lord...I heard a radio advert for a new F150, starting at $15,990. A Dodge Ram 1500 "double cab" was available for under twenty, with zero percent interest over 72 months. No wonder every man and his dog had a big truck.

I only saw two mid-sixties Mustangs, amazingly enough...everyone seemed to have new Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, and trucks from either Ford, Chev, or Dodge. The rest of the traffic was older Yank stuff and some Jap cars.

I also went to the Shelby museum...awesome cars and a great place...and free! Also, no wonder I saw so many Shelby Mustangs around Vegas...on top of the base price of your standard V8 Mustang you drop off to the factory to be modified, something like a Shelby GTS only costs...wait for it...under thirteen grand...
Oh...and the 660hp "Super Snake" package? $28,000...or, if you want to man up and go for 850hp, you pay $41,500...

I loved it there...can't wait to go back!

Some pics to follow.