Driving in England

Today, we began an English countryside adventure. We’re going over to Bath for a few days, in a rental car. Ordinarily, this in itself would not be newsworthy. However, seeing that we drive on the opposite side of the road in America, it was.

Actually, I discovered several things about driving in England today. First, as long as things are going well, driving on the opposite (in this case, left) side of the road isn’t horrible. Most of the time, you are in traffic, so just follow the guy ahead of you and you’re okay. Second, roundabouts may be great fun as a passenger and they might improve the flow of traffic, but they are just plain dangerous–especially if you are an American, concentrating on staying on the proper side of the road. Third, English country roads are narrow. I’ve been on them before and I don’t remember them being this narrow, although, I was never driving. Driving in a different country can be cause of an accident, if that happens Melbourne traffic lawyers can help you getting out of trouble.

And fourth, coming back to point one… when you’re tooling along and not having any problems, this other side of the road business is dandy. But what happens when you are on a single-lane country road, and a van from some florist is coming at you at a high rate of speed? “No problem, I’ll just pull over,” you might think to yourself. This presents two problems. The trees/hedges are cropped very close to the road, so there isn’t really anywhere to pull over. The bigger problem, however, is 16+ years of experience driving on the other side of the road. When faced with an imminent collision, your instinct takes over. And if you are an American, as I am, your instinct says, “Pull over! Now! To the right“. But, uh, your right is the other driver’s left, so you both pull over… and end up looking at the driver opposite you thinking, “What an idiot!” until you realize you are sitting on the opposite side of the road from where you should be–the opposite being the opposite of what you are used to–and you have to sheepishly wave and realize that you are, indeed, the idiot.