On Driving

As our cabbie swerved in and out of traffic, we held on to the grab bars wondering where on earth he was taking us. He was pleasant and affable and driving for a reputable company. He chatted with us as he veered around bright red double-decker busses, parked vehicles and oncoming traffic, interested as to why we would want to move to London from Canada. He seemed like a decent chap, yet... I grabbed my iPhone and opened Google Maps to follow along with the journey, just to make sure he was actually taking us toward our intended destination and not giving us a "free" tour of London. He wasn't. He was driving "straight" there. There is no straight in London. There is no shortcut from here to there. The roads in London were set down by the ancient Romans and despite the changes in technology over the centuries, it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone to update the roadway system to match modern vehicles.  

Driving in London, in the parlance of the locals, is mental. The roads are narrow, there are way too many vehicles on them, and everyone is angry and frustrated and they drive way too fast for the conditions. 

The City of London recently lowered the speed limit to 20 mph. This went over as well you expect it would. Traffic congestion and air pollution in London are awful. The City is doing its best to encourage less car use and so they are making it very painful to own a car in a place where owning a car was already pretty painful, between the small narrow roads, the sheer volume of traffic on those tiny roads and the price of petrol (currently at about £1.519/l approximately $2.62/l in CAD). 

They have speed cameras everywhere with the flashing boards that tell you the speed you are travelling and admonish you if you are over the speed limit. They are hilarious. They flash your speed at you and then an emoji face appears and flashes at you too -- a happy smiling face if you are at or under the speed limit, and a sad face if you are over the speed limit. They are so comical, it makes one laugh out loud when you see them. I slowed down the video below because they flash so fast that the camera on my smartphone had trouble picking it up properly. 

A number of years ago, they instituted a toll fee for driving within central London to try and encourage more use of public transport. In 2019, in response to a growing problem with air pollution, they introduced the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone). All vehicles driving within the zone must comply with very strict emissions standards, or be charged a daily fee to drive there. They are slowly expanding the zone outward and in September this year, it will include the outer boroughs where we live. People are furious with this and there are regular protests about it. 

It is forcing people to upgrade their cars to those with much better emissions standards, but, as with so many of these kinds of taxes, the brunt of the cost is borne on the shoulders of the people with the least amount of money to spend on a new vehicle. So they must pay the daily tax which is currently £12.50 ($21.53 CAD). Yes, daily. So if you drive your car every day, that is an extra £375 a month (~$645 CAD) -- a lot of money. And if you live and drive in central London, that is on top of the congestion charge (£15/day) that you must also pay. 

We knew how expensive driving is here long before our move, so we never planned on getting a car. Public transport in our little corner of London is quite good, albeit expensive. The busses are much cheaper than the trains and we can bus or walk everywhere we need to go. But even riding the bus is a bit terrifying as they careen along these tiny streets narrowly avoiding collisions with brick walls, parked cars, and oncoming traffic. 

They allow parking on both sides of many roads effectively making them a single lane. Vehicles kind of play chicken with one another. I'm not sure how badly I really want to drive here if I am being honest. The change in traffic was a huge culture shock when we moved from Edmonton to Calgary. Calgary had so much more traffic, they drive much faster and they are all angry all the time. I thought drivers in Edmonton were nuts until I moved to Calgary. I thought drivers in Calgary were nuts until I moved to London. Drivers here ARE nuts. 

Wayfinding is not awesome here. Signs, when you can find them, generally make no sense. They don't have lane indicator lines painted on the road in most places and where they do, they are all white. There is no way to distinguish which lane is which. Some roads are two-way with no line showing that there are two lanes of traffic. Some are two-way with a white line separating the two lanes. Some roads are one-way with two lanes of traffic. You can't even tell if it is a two-way or a one-way road by the parked cars, because they park on both sides of the street facing either direction. In Canada, you get a parking ticket if you are parked facing the wrong way. It's madness!

If I do eventually decide to drive here, I plan to take a driving course. I anticipate my brain having a very difficult time adjusting to driving from the opposite side of the car and on the opposite side of the road. Add to that, the nutso wayfinding, unclear lanes, and angry lunatic drivers -- I can wait. I am happy to bus, walk and bike for now.