Scottish Dopers: a question

I’m very likely going to be visiting Edinburgh next year with a friend. He wants to stay outside the city and rent a car to drive in.

What I was wondering was: what’s the traffic like? I’d never rent a car in London. The public transportation is too good and the traffic too nuts.

Also, have any Euro Dopers driven over here? How hard is it to adjust to driving on the “wrong” side of the street?

Thanks!

Fenris

Aussie Doper who used to live in Edinburgh, here.

The traffic in Edinburgh is nothing like the madness of London traffic. It’s fairly standard small-city traffic. You’ll be fine.

But why not stay in the city anyway? Edinburgh is a stunningly beautiful city, and it’s easy to walk around. It’s quite compact, and the bus system is fairly good.

An American friend who came to visit the UK didn’t have much trouble adjusting to driving on the left. He said it was really “weird”, but it certainly didn’t appear to be a problem.

[OT]

Um, are you referring to transport in London here? If so, how do I join this parallel universe? :smiley: [/OT]

Anyway, I lived in Scotland for a year and had to drive all over the country in my work and, as Monkey Chews says, Edinburgh is fairly ok as far as traffic congestion goes (watch out for rush hours). It is possible to get accomodation in the city at a fairly reasonable rate, you might find http://www.usefulinfo.co.uk/edinburgh/ this link of some use.

As for driving the wrong way round ( :wink: ) it’s a doddle. I have driven many times in the USA and the only screw up I managed was pulling out onto a road on the left. I very swiftly realised the error though. It takes about 5 minutes to acclimatise.

The biggest difference you will find is the roads are much narrower with more blind spots and the driving (even in Scotland) is faster generally, so take it steady. Do yourself the biggest favour and get out and about whilst you are there. It’s a very beautiful country. Have fun. :slight_smile:

The ability to adjust to driving on the wrong side is quite variable - I and some of my friends do quite well at it, but others friends nearly killed me. It is my unsupported, unresearched opinion that people who are good at 3D transformation/rotation skills in other contexts (calculus, some graphic design, packing a billion objects into a small suitcase) are those who can adapt readily to mirror-reflection driving.

An American woman I once knew had several degrees, and a brain the size of a bus, yet she said it took her seven years of living in Australia before she’d get behind the wheel of a car, and even then she was petrified.

From my experience overseas, there’s no way you’ll catch me driving on the right-hand side of the road. When I’ve been in right-hand traffic countries as a passenger, I’ve tried to imagine myself driving. It’s ok just tooling along, but come to an intersection and I’d screw up badly. I might be able to do it with effort, but in an emergency I’d be sunk. I was in a van in heavy traffic in Ho Chi Minh City when an ambulance came up behind us in a great hurry. I freaked when the driver of the van pulled right to let the amblance past. After a second, I realised it was correct, but had I been driving I’d probably have caused an accident in that second.

Fenris, if you’re up to driving on the left, then great. But please be careful…

i live in Edinburgh. traffic in morning rush hour is a right bitch, much worse than afew years ago. not as bad as London but still annoying, even at 7.40am which it never used to be.
the prossies are on Salamander Street btw ;j

with a brain the size of a bus it’s a wonder she could fit inside a car let alone drive one.

Traffic in Edinburgh doesn’t begin to compare to traffic in London, so a car will be fine, depending on what you want to do in Edinburgh and where you end up staying (concerning which more later). For the record I grew up in/near Edinburgh, but moved down to London 8 months ago. Which made sense at the time. It’s worth noting that the centre of Edinburgh is becoming increasingly pedestrianized which can mean that you have to drive a circuitous route to get to certain points in the New Town. The real issue (I’ve found) is parking, which can be pretty limited. There are two big car parks at either end of Princes St, on on Castle Terrace (west end) and the other opposite the large John Lewis store. If you’re travelling in from outside Edinburgh, my advice is to drop the car there and walk around - it’s a pretty compact city.

Shameless piece of money-grubbing tourist-grabbing home-town promotion
If you’re looking for somewhere outside Edinburgh, can I suggest the charming and historic town of Linlithgow? It lies between junctions 3 and 4 of the M9 and boasts the palace where Mary Queen of Scots was born, a stretch of the Union Canal (you can go for a cruise there), a country park (with e.g. deer reserve, archery, long healthy walks) and, er, um, people! Yeah, that’s it. Nice people. Knew it had more than 3 things to offer. However it’s also quite well placed for travelling around central and east coast Scotland both by car and train (see map), which I’m guessing might underly your friend’s decision to stay outside. Or not. I’m not claiming to be psychic here.

Anyhow, I feel I’ve done my bit for the old country. A car will be fine. And driving on the left is easy. Done it all my life.

Just a brief sidenote - if you ever need to take the bus, you have to have the correct change. Edinburgh’s a beautiful place and the galleries and museums are brilliant. Have fun.

Thanks for all the responses!

Couple o’ comments:

Monkey Chews
My friend has the idea that staying in “the countryside” (about 15 minutes SW of the airport) will be filled with magic and wonder. A new sense of peace and solitude will sweep over him, and possibly small anthropomorphic animals will begin singing catchy tunes as they invite him to go on a magical adventure. Plus the places he’s looking at are promising big breakfasts built into the cost. (Since he lurks on the board, he’s gonna read this and beat the crap out of me :wink: ) Actually he’s got some good points, but I’m still not convinced…My argument is that “just 30 minutes outside of town” means an hour a day wasted commuting that could be spent going to a museum or something.

We’re certainly going to rent a car to go see Loch Ness, (I hate tours) but from what I’ve read and seen, I don’t know that it’s worth renting a car for the entire stay unless we stay “just 25 minutes out of town”

MarkF: When I went to London, the subway/tube was relatively clean, very well laid out (across the city) at least for the tourist-y stuff, very well documented (maps everywhere), etc. The buses and trains ran more-or-less on time. And everyone was great the couple of times I got lost (once badly).

You want bad public transportation? Try Denver: no subway, limited buses. One or two trolley lines that were boondoggled by the previous mayor’s umm…brother-in-law? after being resoundingly voted down repeatedly. Which makes sense as Denver is so spread out that there’s not enough population density to make public transportation worthwhile. I think London’s was great.

Niobium: Prossies?

amrussell: the parking lot idea sounds like a great one. If we do decide to rent a car, I’ll certainly drop it at the lot.

Thanks for the responses everyone and any other advice is welcome!

Fenris

Prossies = prostitutes.

‘nother Edinburgh native checkin’ in.

I don’t know where you’re talking about but it is possible to find some nice places in the not-quite-countryside near a train station if you wanted to.

If I where you I’d stay in town somewhere but make plans to travel out of town (to Loch Ness for instance) and stay in the countryside for a bit.

It depends what sort of holiday you’re looking for, and whether you want to experience Edinburgh nightlife … or do something more relaxing.

I second what everyone else has said apart from that, the traffics not too bad. Like amrussell said your problem will be parking.

Depending how far out you are there are regular bus services, the public transport is pretty good until you get too far out.

Ummm, that’ll do for now.

SpaceDog

When I was in Ireland, the hardest part was not so much driving on the left, but using my left hand to work the manual transmission. It was never a heart-stopper, though. You just need to pay more attention.

It just might if you make a stop in Amsterdam first.