driving in England

Driving in England merits attention. In a word, the experience is nerve wracking, whether you’re behind the wheel or in the passenger’s seat. If you’re behind the wheel, the brain plugs into the responsibility and safety centers so you don’t have to focus on the fact that you’re on the opposite side of the road.

We wisely rented a car at Heathrow and immediately hopped on the M4, the motorway that delivered us to Oxford. Being on a road equivalent to our interstates or freeways meant that we could go with the flow of traffic to get a feel for all the new variables without needing to negotiate roundabouts or roads that are only two Yugos wide.

So we’re clipping along blithely, and at some point, we realized we had no idea what the traffic signs meant, nor did we know the general rules of the British road. What is a circle with a 50 in it? Is that the speed limit? Is the speed limit in mph or kph? Are we really meant to drive 50 mph on what would be a 25 mph road at home?

Soon we dove right onto those small A and B roads. We gritted our teeth and quickly found strategies for dealing with oncoming traffic (lorries [trucks] barreling at us, often well over the generous speed limit) and bicycle tourists; roundabouts (which spur do we take, to whom do we yield when entering); road signs that occasionally drop a destination, leading us to wonder if we missed an exit; and hedgerows. When I drove, John would tell me when the car veered too close to the left line because the road often had no forgiving shoulder. When John drove, I would remind him to swing out wide for right turns because if you make a right turn as you do at home, i.e., as is hardwired, you’ll end up on the wrong side of the road. And, often, there’s no way to pull a U-turn.

In the end, we turned in our rental car without incident and without any (obvious) extra scratches. I’m glad I had the experience of driving under incredibly unique circumstances.