We’re quick to notice that you hardly ever hear a car horn, everyone waits their turn and no one runs the yellow light. Considering the horrendous amount of traffic in very tight quarters, the cars all run like clockwork and it’s hard to imagine there really is "road rage" over here. How the buses (double decker for the most part) manage the tight corners is anyone’s guess. Sitting on the top deck and looking out, I have many visions of disaster. None happen. The drivers work magic as they weave their way impossibly through streets that are so narrow that only one vehicle can pass at a time. Indeed, on the residential street where cars are parked on either side, that’s the style of driving. If you see a car approaching, you slow down and stop behind a parked car until the oncoming car has passed and you can move on. This dance continues along your route and no one’s feathers are ruffled. Another curiosity: the cars that are parked are facing in either direction. There seems to be no rule to it.
The photo is in Leicester Square, the Theatre District of London and also home to Chinatown. It's always crowded here.
I also feel Britons drive very fast or maybe it's the narrower roads that make this seem so. One evening Krish's cousin arrives to take me to his family's home in Horley. To get there, we need to travel on two highways. For the most part they are unlit and to the sides of us the countryside is in darkness. The only light comes from our headlights and the cats-eyes in the road. We're travelling at 180kmh and I'm hanging onto the back of the seat as if this might save me should we make a mistake. I guess I'm not a speed freak!
TIP: Don’t drive in London unless you have to. It wasn’t built for cars. The system of one way streets on top of the fact that you’re driving "on the wrong side of the road," not counting the volume of the traffic, the cost of "petrol" and the convoluted street system all adds up to a bit more than most people can chew.