# Visiting England—driving advice needed **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 6, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420 "2018-07-06T20:35:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/101 "2018-08-30T13:05:55Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Are you back from your trip yet? Yes, returned Saturday. England is wonderful. I wish we could have stayed a month. And I’m soooo glad I took the advice given here, to not attempt driving in London. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/102 "2018-08-30T13:56:53Z")
Glad you enjoyed your visit. Driving in London is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Much better to leave it to the professionals. Outside London, even in the other big cities like Birmingham or Manchester, it isn’t nearly such a rat race. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/103 "2018-08-30T15:28:47Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > Yes, returned Saturday. England is wonderful. I wish we could have stayed a month. > > And I’m soooo glad I took the advice given here, to not attempt driving in London. Nice! Now repeat after me: left is left, and right is right. 🙂 Driving in England was an interesting experience, and not too bad for me. Welcome back. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/104 "2018-08-30T23:53:44Z")
Yeah, I found it interesting, and fun, once I got used to it. I’m impressed with English drivers. On the numerous narrow, twisty 2-laners we used, everyone was doing 50mph with ease, even the truck drivers. Polite, too; I made some real dumb moves on the first day, but no one honked at me. In the US, I’d have earned some rude gestures. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/105 "2018-08-31T01:50:09Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > These two points are very important. > > Question re shifting: Is the shift lever on the left in both standard and automatic transmission cars? > > If you get a standard transmission, you are expected to shift gears with your \*left \*hand? :eek: On top of everything else you have to remember. > > I would never attempt to drive a car in England. I have enough trouble with left and right here. They have excellent public transportation, don’t they? I went to London and Bath in March and would never attempt to drive there. I am easily distracted and just know I would muck up somewhere with possibly catastrophic results. But everyone is different. I had no trouble getting around by taxi, the Tube, buses and Uber. Uber was fantastic in London. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/106 "2018-08-31T16:10:54Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Also don’t middle lane hog - if you do, you’ll find cars coming up fast behind you and flashing you furiously in disgust I’m not sure what you mean by “middle lane”, if you mean the innermost lane on a 2-lane-each-way highway, I’m totally with you on that and it is a problem in America too. On the other hand, if you mean the middle lane out of 3 in one direction, the traffic can’t be _that_ bad if there is enough room for the car to move over without moving into someone’s safety cushion and there is only that one car blocking the lane. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/107 "2018-08-31T16:43:15Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I’m not sure what you mean by “middle lane”, if you mean the innermost lane on a 2-lane-each-way highway, I’m totally with you on that and it is a problem in America too. On the other hand, if you mean the middle lane out of 3 in one direction, the traffic can’t be _that_ bad if there is enough room for the car to move over without moving into someone’s safety cushion and there is only that one car blocking the lane. No- three lanes in each direction. Bear in mind that you do **not** overtake on the left in the UK, so if a car is in the middle lane, when they could perfectly well be in the left lane, cars coming up behind need to move into the right hand one to get past them. It effectively narrows the road by one lane, for no reason. Also, on roads like that, some larger vehicles are actually restricted to using the left and middle lanes only, so as they’re not allowed to overtake on the left and they can’t use the right, they’re effectively stuck behind the guy cruising in the middle. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/108 "2018-08-31T16:47:23Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > On the other hand, if you mean the middle lane out of 3 in one direction, She does. > [@](#): > > the traffic can’t be _that_ bad if there is enough room for the car to move over without moving into someone’s safety cushion and there is only that one car blocking the lane. The Rule of the Road - the very first question in the UK driving test - is Keep Left. In a multi-lane carriageway, all but the left lane are overtaking lanes. Absent filter lanes & the like, of course. Here in the UK we are not ordinarily allowed to overtake on the inside so letting your car sit in the middle lane means that a car that wants to overtake you has to go from lane 1 to lane 3 and back. And a car in the middle lane acts as block, slowing traffic down as to pass it, traffic has to overtake as previously mentioned. And you’ll get done by the police for driving without due care & attention. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/109 "2018-08-31T17:17:05Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > These two points are very important. > > Question re shifting: Is the shift lever on the left in both standard and automatic transmission cars? > > If you get a standard transmission, you are expected to shift gears with your \*left \*hand? :eek: On top of everything else you have to remember. > > I would never attempt to drive a car in England. I have enough trouble with left and right here. They have excellent public transportation, don’t they? Learning to shift with the left hand was the hardest thing my dad faced when we rented a car in Scotland. Some years later, when I was driving in Ireland, I made sure we got an automatic. The small Irish roads, which I assume are similar to British roads, were a bit frightening at first, especially since I was on the “wrong” side of both the roads and the car, but after a day or so, I’d gotten used to both. By the end of the week, neither my co-driving friend nor I had any trouble with the roads, and I had come to see the very great superiority of roundabouts to four-way stops. I’m glad to see them catching on here on this side of the pond. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420/110 "2018-08-31T17:27:34Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > I wanted to go there, and the Imperial War Museum, and HMS Victory, too. There’s only so much naval history that I can drag Wife to. We will return, and I will see those. And Greenwich (in London). Tons of maritime history but it’s got enough to keep your wife interested too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visiting-england-driving-advice-needed/817420.md?page=5)