Thoughts on Driving in the U.K. Part 2

Kevin here, back with a follow-up to my previous post: Thoughts on Driving in the U.K. Part 1.  Or, what I like to call "Thoughts on Driving in the U.K. Part 2."

It was with a great sense of relief that I pulled into the Enterprise Car Hire location in Edinburgh last week to drop off the Peugeot 5008 mini station wagon-thing.  And it was with an even greater sense of relief that I climbed into a black cab to have someone else drive us to Waverly Station for our train to London.  (heh, heh… I start to giggle like a school girl every time I say "our train to London.").  Win.

Ahem.  

Ok, here's an executive summary: # of parking tickets: 0.  # of wrecks: 0.  # of fender benders: 0.  # of pedestrians maimed or killed: 0.  # of tickets for speeding or moving violations: 0.  # Children lost or abandoned along a motorway: 0.  # of filings for divorce by my wife: 0.

Overall, I'm going to call that a success.  Let's review in a bit more detail and I'll add some additional thoughts and "lessons learned."

Reverse

Yes, it was a rough start, as you may recall.  I specifically mentioned putting the car in reverse as an issue.  Well, once I had that figured out it was no longer a problem. Although there were moments when I had to think hard about how to get the car to go backwards.  As a reminder:  You pull the ring at the bottom of the stick shift column UP, then move the stick LEFT, and the move it FORWARD.  For those keeping score at home:  that's UP, LEFT, and FORWARD --  three directions that I did not want the car to go in.

Roundabouts

The second big issue I had concerned roundabouts, particularly multi-lane roundabouts.  I had to  navigate those big boys another 4 or 5 times while in Scotland, exclusively in larger cities (like Oban, Inverness, and nearer to Edinburgh).  Those never became intuitive to me, but they did get easier.  The secret appears to be to know where you want to go and get in the correct lane before you get to the roundabout.  But on my first try, that was will nigh impossible since I couldn't understand what the road sign was telling me.  As I got to understand the road signs better, navigating the big roundabouts become a bit easier.  So the real secret is that the quicker you understand the road signage the easier all driving becomes, and in particular navigating multi-lane roundabouts.

Not that I didn't occasionally make a mistake and take the wrong exit out of a traffic circle.  I did that a couple of times.  But, normally there was another roundabout a short distance away and… funny thing… they make doing a u-turn really easy.  You get in and go all the way around and come back the way you came.  Super simple.

A few other observations after driving in the U.K.:

Keeping the car in my lane

One, driving from the right side of the vehicle on the left side of the road really messes with your ability to keep the car centered in your lane.  At least for me, I think that in the U.S. I'm able to keep the car in the center of my lane by keeping my eye on the line on the left side of the road closest to me.  I can judge my distance to that line and keep the car where it needs to be.  But when you switch sides of the road -- and sides of the car -- it's almost impossible to look all the way to the left side of the road to that line and do the same.  Instead, you look to the line on the road closest to you (if there is one).  And that's the line in the center of the road, next to oncoming traffic!  That takes some getting used to.  It's difficult and I ran the left/passenger side of the car up onto the curb at least one time (sorry honey!).  Thankfully, curbs in Scotland aren't what they are in the U.S.

Roads are not clearly marked

Man, Scotland is loaded with roads that have no signs or markings whatsoever.  None.  Particularly in rural areas.  One time -- leaving Inverness -- I took a right turn thinking that I knew were we were going.  Clearly, I did not.  We went down several more roads with nary a street sign either; nothing but sheep and farmland.  After several miles, we decided to turn back and try another route.  However, it was a fortuitous side trip in the sense that we got to drive under a cool-looking brick trestle bridge.  Too bad we don't have more of those in the U.S. (and more passenger trains).

Road signs

As I mentioned in my last post on the topic of driving in the U.K., one of the hardest parts is learning the road-language of the culture.  A few examples:

Yes, there are in fact sheep everywhere in Scotland.  Unless you're in a large city, you can't go a quarter of a mile without seeing sheep.  And sometimes that's true in the larger cities too.

If you're walking your dog, bring a little bag:

The one below represents an awfully existential approach to the roundabout:

In the Highlands of Scotland, most signs are in both English and Gaelic, with Gaelic often coming first.  At our B&B in Oban, we had breakfast while the local Gaelic talk radio station was on.

I love this sign.  It often appeared at crosswalks; and sometimes it said "Disabled People."  I don't see this sign making it in the U.S.

Ok, so one day I'm driving and I come up over a hill and I see this sign on both sides of the road… and about wet my pants.  

I was just sure this was the U.K. symbol for "do not enter."  Or as I like to think of it: "if you drive this way you will have a head-on collision and kill your whole family."  If that happened, it would be like dying twice:  I would die once physically.  And then I would die the death of humiliation as the authorities called my family and friends and tell them what happened.  He drove the wrong way down the road while in the U.K.  Thankfully, it turns out that this sign means "no parking."  I think.

This one above took me a minute.  I thought for a moment it had to do with turtles crossing the road or something.  Or maybe that I was required to yield to people wearing hats.  Or maybe Napoleon was buried in the sand up ahead.  Quickly, I surmised that it means that there is a bump in the road.

Speed

After driving in the U.K. for a week, I was really curious as to the U.K.'s use of the metric system (rather than the English Imperial System, which we use in the U.S.).  It appears that they have only half-adopted the metric system.  Most speed limit signs are the miles per hour, rather than kilometers per hours.  But we did see a few exceptions.  And most road signs specify an upcoming street or obstruction in yards, rather than meters.  The inconsistency is a little disorienting at times.

One Lane Roads

Ok, another adventure story.  During our trip out to Iona -- read this account, if you haven't already -- I was ready for a leisurely drive across the Island of Mull, about an hour-and-a-half road trip each way.  After all, our trip to Iona is taking place in March, during the low season, and few people are out that way then.  So in my imagination, Mull is an idyllic island with a 2-lane road that I can drive on in a completely relaxed manner far away from U.K. city driving while looking at sheep and harry coo and whistling Scottish folk music.  This is gonna be great.

Reality #1: I don't know any Scottish folk music.
Reality #2: the entire trip across the Island of Mull -- is on a one-lane road.

So, here I am in a rented Peugeot on the left side of the road, in the right-hand side seat, with an indecipherable stick shift to my left... hurtling down a one-way (called a "single-track"), twisty, winding, mountainous road on a desolate island in Scotland. Except that it's not all that desolate.  Cars are coming at me, sure enough.  Not a lot of them, mind you (it is, after all, winter in a climate that is similar to Canada).  But enough.  And the real problem is: I don't know the rules here.  When you meet up with an oncoming car... who gets to go?

Is it based on direction?  Maybe the person going east has to yield to the person going west?
Is it based on time of day?  Maybe traffic yields one way in the morning, another in the evening?
Is it based on the size of your vehicle?  Small car wins?  Big car wins?  What if it's a tie?
Is it "might makes right?" Does a tie go to the most fearless driver, the one who just takes it?
Is it based on the results of the American Revolution?  I'm hoping this is the case.

So the first time I see a car coming right at us... I just freeze.  I don't have a clue what to do.  Will I look like an idiot if I just go ahead and go first?  Or will I look like an idiot if I just do nothing?

Then I notice that there are little pull-outs or turnouts all along the road.  They're called "passing places" nicely enough.  They seem to appear about every quarter-of-a-mile, more or less.  So, it appears that one of the cars is supposed to pull over into the passing place, to let the other use the road.

Great.  But which car has to use the turnout? Is it the one that gets there first?

No, it turns out that it's based on which side of the road the passing place is on.  If two cars meet, the one that has the nearest passing place on his/her side of the road is supposed to pull off to let the other car use the road.

It felt strangely similar to a long game of chicken. I would be driving down the road -- pretty tense, mind you, because you never know when another car or maybe a Royal Mail truck or something -- would come around the corner in the one-and-only lane and, suddenly, one of us has to do something.  If I have a turnout on my side of the road, then I have to get to it and then pull over into it.  So, this road trip -- which in reality is only 37 miles -- is incredibly stressful due to the constant searching for oncoming cars on this curving and mountainous road AND for turnouts AND for the constant mental preparedness to make a decision based on these factors.  This is why the 37-mile trip across the Isle of Mull from Craignure to Fionnphort takes an hour-and-a-half.  And then, after visiting Iona, you have hop in the car and do the return trip all over again.

Well, we survived without mishap.  Although I did almost get us stuck in some mud on the side of the road when I met up with another oncoming car and neither of us had a turnout.  It seems that you have to make the best of it in that situation.

By the way.... the very next day my wife hands me a pamphlet she picked up entitled "How to Drive in the U.K." that includes a section on driving on one-way roads (rather than a two-lane road, called a "dual carriageway").  Thanks honey!

Traffic Lights


Ok, last one.  In the U.K., traffic lights have a Yellow light to signal the transition from Green to Red, just like the U.S. But, the same Yellow light also signals the transition from Red to Green too.  Wild.  I don't know if I think this is particularly necessary.  But, when cars are sitting at a red light and it turns off and the yellow light comes on, they go ahead and begin to get off the brake and move their foot to the gas pedal and start to roll forward even before it turns green.  Nifty.  I never quite got used to it, though.  Decades of driving in the U.S. where you don't move until you see green make this a hard one to adapt to.  I think I got honked at once or twice because I wasn't rolling forward on the yellow-about-to-be-green light.

Oh, and that reminds me... since they drive on the left here, do they also walk on the left when on a sidewalk?  Hard to tell.  I can find no rhyme or reason to that so far, so it's probably like the U.S.

In Summary

Driving in the U.K. takes practice.  And I had quite a bit of it.  A bit over 500 miles, I'd say.  And that's not too shabby for a small country like Scotland.  I drove from Edinburgh to Stirling to Oban to the Island of Mull.  Then back to Oban, up to Inverness, then back to Edinburgh.  I'm glad I did it, though. A real eye-opener.  I'll be driving a bit more when we move out to the Cotswolds for a few weeks in mid-April.  I think I'm ready.