Terry,
Agreed. Those M roads in the UK are among the best I've experienced, apart from the circular M25 parking lot around London. Toll roads in France are just as good IMHO- the hoon element stays away to avoid paying 5 euros, and the roads are lovely. There is a toll road from Caen to Deauville that crosses 2 enormous, beautiful bridges, an attraction in itself.
Driving in California and Midwest USA is pretty easy, especially in the Midwest- people are so polite. Would you believe, they have uncontrolled intersections where everybody gives way according to the order in which they pulled up at the intersection. Imagine that in Italy!
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
