“Don’t you find driving on the left-hand side of the road is terribly hard?” a friend of mine asked, just before I was leaving for my holidays in Wiltshire last summer.
“Actually, it isn’t,” I told him, and of course I was right, for driving on the left is not nearly as difficult as you would think. This is mainly the result of the fact that on most roads (apart from the narrowest country roads) you either have right of way or you haven’t, and when there is a complicated junction they build a roundabout.
Everyone on the roundabout has right of way, so that’s easy enough to remember and at the bigger ones they usually put traffic lights as well so that makes it even easier. It takes a bit of getting used to the very small roundabouts that consist of nothing more than a big white dot in the middle of the crossing, but after two or three narrow escapes because you did something wrong, you quickly feel confident enough to brave anything in the British road system. That is, until one eventful day you have to pass through Swindon and discover the by all Brits dreaded Magic Roundabout.
The adjective Magic has not been added lightly as you will soon discover that you need all the magic powers of Gandalf and Dumbledore combined to be able to cross it. I’m sure the dangerous Mines of Moria or the slopes of Caradhras are not nearly as scary as having to cross here. The whole thing was probably conceived after a night’s hard drinking while still under the influence of the mother of all hangovers. I’m sure that if they had built something like that at Dover or Harwich, no foreigner would ever have dared venture entering England again.
The roundabout consists of a combination of no less than six roundabouts at a junction of five roads. When you have to go straight on you have to find a kind of zigzag route past at least three of the white dots.
The first time I had to accomplish this feat I think I must have just pressed the accelerator and closed my eyes, only opening them again when I miraculously arrived safely on the other side, the sound of blaring car horns still ringing in my ears. I took a detour on the way home and am not planning to go there ever again.
Funny enough not many accidents happen on the Magic Roundabout, because I think not even the locals have been able to figure out how to negotiate it, so everyone probably drives extremely carefully (except the odd foreigner who is completely out of his depth).
No, driving on the left is not hard at all, that is as long as you can manage to avoid Swindon, or the M25, or the circular road around Cambridge (where I once spent an exciting two hours trying to get off, never managing to find Cambridge proper). I’m already looking forward to the fateful day when I will not be able to avoid passing something called Spaghetti Junction, something to be experienced near Birmingham, I believe.
No, I don’t mind driving on the left, but there are some places I avoid at all costs.
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