Roadgeeking While On Vacation

Written at 430pm, Tuesday, 4 September on Crown Princess at 28° 9.19′N, 72° 2.34′ W

I’ve been joking to my wife that given the past three encounters with road traffic—on Anguilla, St. Thomas, and Grand Turk—have all been in drive-on-the-left regions, driving home from Union Station on Thursday could be interesting.

Sadly, I didn’t do the best job of photo-documenting items of roadgeek interest. My wife hasn’t quite caught on with my odd fondness for photographing roadsigns and license plates. However, once I get reconnected and caught up with the world, I’ll upload a few more photos.

However, for any roadgeeks who might be interested:

San Juan: U.S./MUTCD standards apply, except word-based signs were in Spanish, rather than English.

Anguilla: Signage and pavement markings were very roughly European standard. Both shoulder and center line striping was white (where it existed), warning signs were white triangles with red borders, and the speed limit signs were white circles with red borders. Speed limits were expressed as just a number with no units; I suspect that they were given in mph. No apparent highway numbering, although I did see a couple of street signs. And, overall, the signs seemed much shorter than you’d expect, at least coming from the States.

St. Thomas: U.S./MUTCD standards apply here, with the exception of the relevant changes necessary to accommodate left-hand drive. USVI highway trailblazers are MUTCD-default black numerals on white circles and ovals:

Grand Turk: Pavement markings also followed European standards. Like Anguilla, there are no highway numbers, but street signs are posted. Road signs were a hodge-podge of European and North American standards. I saw several US-style “SPEED LIMIT 20″ signs (including some “SCHOOL SPEED LIMIT 10″ signs donated by various businesses), as well as some round-with-red speed limit signs showing both mph and km/h limits (e.g. “20 mph / 32 kmh”)

I didn’t get to see petrol prices on San Juan or Anguilla. But, I did see gas priced in the mid-to-upper $3.60’s/gallon on St. Thomas, and our tour guide on Grand Turk said that they were paying around $5.50/gallon.