Baffling driving in London

[Mr Gear]

rxtx said:

You should see the current mess at the Queen Victoria St/Queen St junction while the roadworks are going on. It's like a free-for-all with pedestrians, cars and cyclists locked in battle, with the majority of wker cyclists thinking they have right of way over everyone else.

Probably fed up with the wker car drivers causing a traffic-jam. Just a suggestion.

[OMNIO]

sharpfocus said:

Rickshaws? In London? I haven't been for a while thankfully, but fk me... are they even legal here?

They've been around for ages. They are unregistered, unisured, untaxed, unregulated etc etc and generally dont care who or what they hold up. They are basically the new minicabs.

Driving in London isnt so bad though.

[groomi]

vixen1700 said:

Freaks me out going back to London these days, although the scramble to get on a bus without the slightest thought of queuing is quite funny to watch.

You've clearly never caught the bus from London Bridge station. What looks like a maul waiting for a bus is actually a very long winding queue zig-zagging along a painted white line. Very strange to watch!

[WeirdNeville]

I refuse to drive in London unless the car I'm in has flashing blue lights and a siren. Only way to do it.
I have found myself in some parts of the Big Smoke wondering how the hell I got there: Open markets with animals heads all over the pavement, everybody in nackered nissans driving like they never had a lesson, or the sheer organised chaos of Hyde Park Corner or Swiss Cottage.
All part of the charm IMO.

[essexplumber]

I spend most of my day driving around it from job to job, its changed massively since I moved out in 2002. I grew up round Shoreditch and even at rush hour it was knowhere near as crowded as it is now, not even close.

I spend most of my day being really stressed, knowhere to park near to any of my jobs, ever.

Assholes jumping out in front of my van, cyclists shaking their heads because the nose of my Berlingo is slightly over the line at lights, bus drivers jumping out of the bus lanes for no fathomable reason, cant turn here, cant wait there.

I cant wait for the Olympics!

[angusc43]

martin84 said:

I think we should saw a circle around London, pick it up, and send it out to sea.

We'd happily go back to being an independent city state. Apart from everything else that would stop billions of ££s of tax revenue being taken off us and send to the shires.

Win win :-)

[irf]

being a chauffeur i drive in and around london all the time. it can be pretty bad sometimes i agree but i think some perspective is needed. drive in a third world country and then drive in london.

people do cut you up but if you look at the "body language" of the cars around you you can normally see it happen before it actually does and just a slight lift of the throttle creates no extra drama.

its idiots who see someone in front changing lanes and then deliberately accelerate causing themselves to brake sharply that confuse me. you're in traffic, get used to it, a car here and there getting in front of you is not a threat to your manliness. actually, women can be pretty bad in that respect as well.

[Chris71]

Big E 118 said:

Out of interest, do the "London haters" on here dislike cities in general or just London in particular? Why is it that much worse than other cities of a similar size?

Personally I have a love hate relationship with London.

I permanently dislike being in the suburbs, because you have the crime and overcrowding of an urban environment without immediate access to the plus points (well, certainly where I am, devoid of a tube station). I do love the vibrance of the city centre in small doses, but I still can't abide all the stress. I know this is a city thing rather than a London thing per se, but coming from the arse end of nowhere where people genuinely are friendly I find the way city dwellers treat each other pretty hard to cope with. It's non stop stress and aggression when there's nothing really preventing them from talking to each other and chilling out.

The same mentality seems to pervade in driving. I can appreciate that a certain amount of get up and go is required to keep things moving in a city - it's not a place for dawdlers - but it sometimes feels more like a warzone. Fail to move for a second and the hoons start blasting. Leave the tiniest of gaps and someone will try and drive round you and slot their car in there...

As for the original question... It's the only major city I've lived in. I don't doubt most are the same, but I don't have to deal with those regularly!

[chilistrucker]

i drive it a fair bit in the works vehicle, which is a 44 tonne artic
can be interesting, but you just have to try and position yourself in a certain way
but being london, or any big city in my experience, there will always be one!!!!!

[croyde]

Just don't drive in London on Sundays as that will really boil your p155.