To Drive To London Or Not

[jonnyp100]

Hello

I'm planning a trip to visit some friends in London next weekend (one night). However, with only 5 months driving experience under my belt, I'm in two minds whether it's a good idea.

The train is incredibly expensive so I'd like to drive if at all possible. I've driven through many cities in my 6 months such as Birmingham, Derby and Leicester but I've heard terrible things about driving through London.

As far as specific locations go, my friends live in the SW4 area and I am coming from Leicester.

On top of that there's no parking available so I was planning on using a website such as parkopedia to find a place to park.

en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/london_sw4/

I really like my car and don't want to put it at risk as I saved for a very long time to purchase it.

Is this a disaster waiting to happen?

Thanks in advance for any tips or advice

JonnyP100

Edited by jonnyp100 on Saturday 30th August 23:39

[jonnyp100]

Thanks for al the replies guys!

And thanks for the welcome 0A!

I have a satnav ready and will leave with plenty of time to spare.

I will definitely have a second look at alternative means of travel though. However, two or three of my friends will be travelling with me and they offered to pay for the fuel and parking, if I drove. So I think public transport will struggle to better that offer.

I take your point Simon and I'd like to think I'm a very good driver, I'd just heard a few too many horror stories from friends about London.

In regards to the parking, I was specifically looking at the private parking on parkopedia as it would be an overnight stay. Does anyone have any experience with parking on someones drive who's advertised it on the internet? Once I've input my stay time into the website (friday afternoon until saturday late afternoon) the private prices are around £12.00.

Perhaps I'm worrying over nothing but I'd hate to find my car's been vandalised or worse just so I could avoid the pains of public transport.

[jonnyp100]

Gaspode said:

If you're going down to London for a piss-up with your mates, then think carefully about driving. The last thing you want is to get picked up on your way home and breathalysed. Figure on sobering up at the rate of 1 unit of alcohol per hour from when you stop drinking. So if you are out until say 01:00 and have drunk the equivalent of 6 pints of decent beer at 2.5 units per pint, you won't be clear to drive until at least 15:00 the next afternoon.

Taking the train might be much the wiser option for you.

Yeah that makes sense and although I won't personally be drinking it is still worth considering the affect of alcohol. Mainly because one of the friends travelling down is a notorious light-weight and is often sick on trains and buses after a night out.

I've managed to find my railcard from a few years back and when using that the price of the train comes to £31. Which I wouldn't mind paying. However there's obviously the passengers (and none of them have railcards) too meaning each would pay £40.

So it would appear to come down to whether I prefer my friends or my car haha.

Edited by jonnyp100 on Sunday 31st August 11:26

[jonnyp100]

Uncl3s said:

You'd be very unlucky to have your car vandalized given you'd be there for 1 night however if that is a worry don't drive into London as it will (if you are like me anyway) play on your mind as to whether the car is safe.

Yeah that's exactly it. I know something probably won't happen but I'm just a worrier when it comes to my car.

Uncl3s said:

A "friend" of mine also suggests if its sunny taking a walk around Clapham Common as there are often a fair amount of young women out jogging around the park in sturdy sports bras . Obviously I couldn't possibly comment on the validity of these claims... honest

If there's time I may have to investigate your "friends" claims.

Edited by jonnyp100 on Sunday 31st August 12:33

[jonnyp100]

paranoid airbag said:

I'd prefer the train (is it that much more expensive all up? sometimes it is, sometimes not, depending on timing), but as long as you're prepared with stuff like parking and navigation you'll be fine.

It's only £31 for me but my travelling companions are without a railcard so it'll be £40+ each.

[jonnyp100]

nervouspassenger said:

One more recommendation, try the Google maps turn by turn navigation if you have a smart phone. I think it monitors the current traffic situation and reroutes you away from the jams. I know London pretty well but it has found me some nice clear routes recently.

Yeah I have the app and I've used it before so I'll use that, thanks.

[jonnyp100]

dacouch said:

Where abouts in Clapham / Streatham are you heading as there's plenty of free weekend parking, there's also free parking from 1pm on Friday in central Clapham

I think my friend said it was just north east of Clapham Commons but i'll try and get an exact postcode off him today.

[jonnyp100]

ferrariF50lover said:

I don't think you're giving this enough credence. A licence is a licence to drive everywhere. It says that the holder is fully competent to drive on all manner of roads, in the worst of conditions, among you, me, and those we respectively care about. This, presumably perfectly average new(ish) driver doesn't feel comfortable driving in a perfectly ordinary city, despite holding the aforementioned licence.

That you seem to think being able to drive in London as a full licence holder with some solo driving experience somehow represents overconfidence. I think that every licence holder should be fully confident of their ability to drive in London (as any other absolutely ordinary set of roads) by virtue of having a licence so to do.

Imagine a pilot refusing to fly into Stanstead airport or a Dr refusing to deal with btoken bones. These people are similarly licenced to carry out certain activities. Their being granted those licences despite not being at a level of ability where they are confident enough to deal with routine tasks would be unacceptable. I feel that the same attitude should be adopted with driving. We have, for my money, far too many drivers on the roads as it is. Perhaps one way to reduce the numbers would be for the test to represent a meaningful challenge, instead of the gimmie it seems to be at present?

Simon.

Hang on there's no refusal going on. In your imaginary scenario lets say the pilot is flying somewhere completely unknown to him and he is a relatively inexperienced pilot. He may ask more experienced pilots for advice and guidance.

I think you're way off on this one.

Edited by jonnyp100 on Monday 1st September 01:01