Date published: 2006/09/18
Yes, Americans drive big cars, every other one seems to be a black SUV. But the recent "high" price of gas (although falling this month) seems to have half-awoken the American car companies, so much so that Hummer was running adverts on television proclaiming how energy efficient one of their models was (yeah, right). Given their love of cars, it's amazing that the speed limit on (non-urban) highways is only 65 mph (a legacy of the 1970s oil crisis), so lower than the equivalent speed limits in Europe. And you certainly notice the lower limit when travelling the vast distances between cities in the US. Slow and boring.
Americans seem to be even more obsessed with health than with cars. Every other advertisement on television was for some medicine or other, offering a "solution" for practically every known ailment. Only being America, which is the lawsuit capital of the world, the ads have to list all possible side effects and cautions ("do not take if ...", "see your doctor if ...", etc.). All rather pointless since none of those warnings would stop any lawsuit.
Heathrow Airport is rather dysfunctional. But American airports seem to be far, far worse. Is Boston's Logan Airport the worst of them all? The tunnel connecting the airport to the turnpike (Route 90) is still closed in one direction (after a partial tunnel collapse in one of the Big Dig tunnels, the Big Dig being perhaps the worst public sector project of all time). The road loop around the airport is confusing (at best). Beware trying to let someone off at one of the terminals and then going to park at the central car park. That central car park is permanently under repair, and just finding your way from the car park to the terminals is an adventure by itself. Etc. Washington's Dulles Airport is better but not by much. The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) people who now seem to control these airports do not help. The security checks are all rather perfunctory and played by the book, rather than being sensible or making anyone safe.
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