Driving in the UK

Let's be clear, driving in the UKwas a challenge for us.  Especially when we first arrived off the plane with very little sleep! But within a few days we were feeling pretty comfortable, and then had a couple near catastrophic accidents to make us realize that we really can't relax at all when driving!

Our experience driving in the insane "Circle-town" that Malta has become, really prepared us well for driving in the UK.  Circles are everywhere in the UK, they just go the other direction...hee, hee.   We found that making right turns was the hardest thing to do, and of course the easiest was making left turns.  The circles weren't too bad, but the arrangement of intersections that were not circles could be confusing sometimes.  One of the things that I struggled with is that there are no double yellow lines.  All lines are white and very few are solid lines.  Pretty much all roads have a dashed white line in the middle, whether both lanes are going the same direction or opposing.  This can be a little confusing when you are turning onto a road...is it a one way?  Which way do I go? 

The roads are a lot narrower in the UK, especially in cities.  Therefore since parking is allowed on most streets, cars will usually park with one side of the cars tires up on the curb. It's a little funny.  But one thing that bothered Sean was that cars will actually cross over to the other side of the road to park, that means that the parked car is facing oncoming traffic.  So if you turn onto a road, you may find a parked car facing you head on, and for a split second you may think that you're about to have a head on collision!

We found that in general the drivers in Derby were less agressive than in the states.  Yes, they do zip along quickly and stop quickly in their tiny little cars.  But there seems to be less tailgating and less road-rage, more patience than we've experienced in the US.  People seem to be more forgiving...so far.

We took some video of us driving, just for fun.  You might find it entertaining!  This first one is a short clip of city driving which includes a right hand turn and a roundabout.

Here's me driving in the country.

Here's an example of how you have to pass parked cars on the road.