The following are a few observations made whilst driving about the UK over the past couple of weeks.
1. Take a few days to acclimatize yourself before jumping behind the wheel of a left hand drive car. Don't underestimate how hard the transition to driving on the left can be, particularly in a manual-gearbox equipped car. I found that taking a few days to get used to watch how traffic flows and how all types of vehicles interact to be invaluable.
2. Motorways (M-roads). These are the high speed highways that crisscross the UK. Simple rule to live by, drive on the left when you can and only pass on the right. The police will stop you and ticket you for breaking either of these rules, so be kind to others & just follow the rules.
3. Main roads (A-roads). These come in two flavours, green and red on the maps. Green roads tend to be widest and have good traffic flows. They're also often widened to dual-carriageways which also helps to keep traffic flowing. Red roads can be quite narrow and slow. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because they carry the 'A' moniker they are wide and fast.
4. Secondary roads (B-roads) and less. Slow, twisty and can be very narrow..... No, I mean NARROW. These can be brilliant to drive on and will get you into the real British countryside, but be prepared to have to backup to allow others to pass or to pull over to allow a bus to squeeze past. Confidence and a knowledge of your vehicle width is mandatory to survive these roads.
5. City driving. Don't even think about driving in the larger cities. The British seemed to have invented some of the most complex one-way systems I've ever seen along with the fact that there seems to be 1 parking space for every 100 cars on the road (all of which seemed to be sized for small cars and require you to parallel park on the busy high street). In the larger cities public transit is the way to go and taking a city bus or train is all part of the adventure.
6. Roundabouts. These come in all sizes and configurations. Mini 3 exit "bumps" in smaller towns to mega 6, 8 or more exit multi-lane monsters serving motorway on and off ramps as well as multiple main roads and industrial parks. Some now even have traffic lights on the roundabout to better allow traffic on and off of them. The rules are the same and simple for them all, traffic on the roundabout has the right-of-way.
7. Navigating. When hiring a car, get a GPS to make your life easier. We chose not to and if given the choice again, I'd get one. Barb did a brilliant job of map reading, but occasionally I'd make a wrong turn and then the pressure on her to understand where I'd turned and how to correct the mistake made for some tense moments in the car.
8. Navigating - Part 2. To properly interpret road signs you need to know where the road goes and not where you are going in order to be able to navigate easily. Not all towns and villages are listed on all signs. This can be a challenge as the city listed on the road sign could be on the other side of the country and therefore not visible on the map you are currently viewing.
9. Traffic cameras. They're everywhere and will take your picture if you're caught speeding. The British police are very polite however and put up signs telling you when you're approaching a speed camera. They even use average speed cameras where your speed is calculated between two points and a ticket is issued if your average is too high. I saw these typically in construction zones. Brilliant!
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