3. Driving made difficult

Please, mind the gap between the train and the platform!

The things we’ve learned and turned into what we call ‘habit’, like the three quarters of the world driving on the right side of the road, can be dramatically shattered in the UK, where driving is on the left. Everything about driving in the UK is flipped over horizontally: the steering wheel is on the right, gears are changed with the left hand, rear view mirrors are repositioned, the dead angle is not on the right side of your car but on the left now… And then the driving itself… for a while it feels like you’re in the wrong lane, only this time everyone else is as well, unlike in this old joke:

An Essex girl is driving down the A13 when her mobile phone rings. It’s her father warning her, “Alice – I just heard on the news that there’s a car going the wrong way on the A13 – Please be careful!”. “It’s not just one car!”, replies the Essex girl, “There’s hundreds of them!”.

Every problem must have at least one solution, so what are the options in this situation? Well, the way I see it, it is always a matter of personal choice, as we can i) learn the new routine and adapt to the new conditions, ii) give driving up for as long as we live in the UK or iii) bring our left-side-steering-wheel car to the UK.

While options i) and ii) are pretty blunt but crystal clear, in sort of ‘take it or leave it’ way, option iii) sounds like a compromise: you will keep driving the car the way you used to and you will only adapt to driving in the other lane. Oh, and don’t forget to adapt the rear view mirrors as well… And the direction of the headlights… And watch out for the huge number of people on bicycles and motorbikes… And the traffic lights… What with the roundabouts… Left! Left! OMG…

Or… here’s another possibility:

Two elderly women were out driving in a large car, both could barely see over the dashboard. As they cruised along they came up to a crossroads.The light was red but they just carried on. The woman in the passenger seat thought to herself, “I swear we just went through a red light”. 

 

Soon they came to another crossroads and the light was red again,and again they carried on. This time the woman in the passenger seat was almost sure that the traffic light had been red. She was now nervous and decided to pay close attention to the road and the next set of lights.

 

At the next crossroads,sure enough,the light was definitely red and they went right on through. She finally reacted, “Abigail! We just ran three red lights in a row! You could have killed us!”

 

Abigail turned to her and said, “Oh, am I driving?”

But why worry anyway? There’s always option ii)… and public transport. But that’s going to be described in another post.

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