Driving in London

The best way to describe driving here is organized chaos. At first glance the roads here look like absolute mayhem. There seems to be no system in place and cars, bikes and pedestrians are just ripping around the streets at random. While there is still a lot of truth to that, after a couple weeks on the road I definitely feel like I understand it a bit more. A perfect example is the roundabouts. They look completely insane at first, with people flying in and out of them with blinders on, but after a while you do kind of get into a groove and now I really prefer them to intersections because more often than not you can zip through without having to slow down too much. It's that kind of difference that is pretty nerve racking at first but actually
ends up being a benefit.

As confusing as the roads are here, seeing as none of them seem planned and are almost exclusively old sheep walking trails or horse paths to the brothel, they are relatively well marked once you get the system. It's similar to the tube map, when you first arrive it's daunting, but soon you get the system and it all makes really good sense. Give them credit for trying to put some modern rational into the medieval mess they're working with.

Here are some of the interesting differences I've noticed, and since the laziest way to put your thoughts to words is a bullet list, here goes:

• While the roads here are chaotic, drivers in general seem to be much more alert and aware of their surroundings than in Vancouver. I'll leave that open to interpretation.

• There is no jaywalking here, it's just crossing the street, and it's common to see a parent standing in the middle of a busy street with their small children. Nobody waits for lights to change to cross at crosswalks either, we learned that early as pedestrians. You have to really pay attention to your peripherals here.

• Lights go yellow again between red and green so you get a head start. Seems a risky given people often run the yellow before a red, but there is just so much traffic here there are lots of little things like that to keep it moving.

• Motorcycles and scooters are allowed to pass you on the inside and there are tons of them always ripping by weaving between you and oncoming traffic.

• In the rare event that a street actually has a sign, it won't be on a post where you can see it, it'll be halfway up the side of a building or at knee height on the sidewalk behind a bush.

• GPS's are called SatNav's and everybody has one because there are no straight lines here. For me to get to work I stay straight on the A24 almost the whole way, but it takes around 100 turns to do so.

• Speed limit signs are few and far between, and are often just a tiny plate sized circle on a stick with nothing more than a number on it.

• Lanes end with little or no warning and everyone just kind of ends up back in one lane with no signals or proper merging.

• Street lights are never up high, always about 6 feet off the ground, and sometimes not even in front of you. I've been stuck a couple times where I don't get into the intersection before it changes, but I'm past where I can see the light so I just have to wait there until someone behind me lets me know it's gone green.

• Pedestrian controlled lights will go red for a bit, then flash yellow for a bit before going green so if the person has made it across you can start going. I love this.
• Gas is called Petrol and it's around £1.50 a litre.

• Cars are often parked on the side of a road clearly not wide enough for it, which shifts traffic over and makes any lines on the road completely useless. Just kinda have to go with the flow because it's not often clear where exactly on the road you're meant to be.

• On country roads there will be arrows indicating when a passing vehicle needs to re-enter their own lane. When you are new to driving on the right side of the road and you see an arrow in your lane pointing in the other direction it can really throw you off.

Hopefully the car allows us to see more of England outside of London. There is such a contrast as soon as you leave the city and I've really enjoyed every chance we've had to explore elsewhere.

-Justin