Driving in the UK

[Boxlicker101]

I have a couple of questions about driving and drivers in the UK. Is driver training usually offered in secondary schools and is private ownership of motor cars as common as in the US? What would be an inexpensive car that a woman might use for driving to and from work, assuming public transportation is iffy at that time of night?

 

[tony090909]

No driver training isn't done in secondary (high) schools. It's normally done privately. Car ownership is indeed as common in the UK as in the US.

Inexpensive car - Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris, Peugoet 307.

 

[Weird Harold]

No driver training isn't done in secondary (high) schools. It's normally done privately. Car ownership is indeed as common in the UK as in the US.

Inexpensive car - Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris, Peugoet 307.

Car ownership has changed a LOT in the last 40 years, then. When I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters in the early '70s, car ownership in East Anglia was about 25-30% of what American car ownership for a similar population would be.

The most common inexpensive English cars at that time were Ford Escorts and a low-end Vauxhall. Minis were also relatively popular -- Austin Mini at that time, later bought and sold several times so that only the Mini name stayed constant.

The time frame involved will have a lot of bearing on what cars would be available and cheap enough for a young woman working her first job on the night shift.

 

[oggbashan]

I have a couple of questions about driving and drivers in the UK. Is driver training usually offered in secondary schools and is private ownership of motor cars as common as in the US? What would be an inexpensive car that a woman might use for driving to and from work, assuming public transportation is iffy at that time of night?

Some schools do have driving training but it is usually very basic and not enough to pass the driving test. The UK's driving test has become more difficult in the last decade and professional tuition is the norm.

Ownership of cars? Almost as common but almost all cars are much smaller and more fuel-efficient than models sold in the US. They have to be. The cost of fuel is far higher.

Cars? Ford Ka, small Peugeot, Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa - all those are cheap secondhand.

Buying a car wouldn't be a problem. Obtaining the mandatory insurance could be. It is cheaper for a young woman than for a young man, but the annual insurance cost could be double or treble the cost of buying a cheap older car. A new driver wouldn't have a no-claim bonus and there are loadings for being under 30, under 25 and under 21.

As an example: I could buy a cheap old Ford Fiesta locally for about 500 pounds. A larger car could be cheaper still, say 300 pounds. If I wanted to insure the Ford Fiesta for a daughter aged 19, it would cost about 1,500 pounds with a 250 pound excess for any accident. If I wanted to insure a larger car, say 1500 to 1800 cc, then the insurance for the 19 year old could rise to 2 or 3 thousand pounds a year. For a 19 year old son, add 25% to 30% to those figures!

At my advanced age, and with the maximum possible no-claims bonus, I pay 180 pounds annual insurance for a 2300cc car. It wouldn't make much difference to my insurance cost if I drove an even larger engined car.

Og

 

[jeanvaljean23]

thats a real tough one.. i think ford will be just fine with u....

 

[fifty5]

Depending on other factors, a taxi might be an alternative. Firms (like restaurants) who have staff working late could well have a contract (significantly lower cost than 1-off hires) with a taxi firm to deliver all staff, every night.

 

[patrick1]

Ford ka or a little peugeot would be my choice

Nowadays you have to pass a theory as well as a practical test, there are online videos of sample tests. The English English term is 'drving instruction', the teacher is a driving instructor.

You would use a gear stick here in the uk for a cheap or a middle-range car.

Roundabouts and lane discipline are surprise hazards for American visitors.

 

[oggbashan]

My house is on a favourite route for driving tests, and therefore for learners and their driving instructors.

My current car and its predecessors, parked outside in the road, is often used as an obstacle for parallel parking with the learner pulling alongside and reversing to park behind.

In five years of parking there and being a training aid, none of my cars have ever been even nudged by a learner driver.

But when I park it at a superstore? That's different. Small dents and bashes are frequent.

Og

 

[trysail]

Ford ka or a little peugeot would be my choice

Nowadays you have to pass a theory as well as a practical test, there are online videos of sample tests. The English English term is 'drving instruction', the teacher is a driving instructor.

You would use a gear stick here in the uk for a cheap or a middle-range car.

Roundabouts and lane discipline are surprise hazards for American visitors.

LOL. Roundabouts can be mastered; they're really not all that confounding. What is confounding is driving on the wrong goddamn side of the frickin' road— keeping that in the forefront of one's brain at all times is critically important. Hell, even simple walking is dangerous for 'mericans. How many Yankee touristas bump themselves off every year by stepping into the street whilst looking in the wrong direction?

Driving for an American really is a bit fatiguing because of the intense concentration that is required to stay off the wrong/right side of the road.


The lanes are— what shall I say— "interesting." Two 8' wide vehicles approaching from opposite directions on a 12' county lane makes for creative technic. It is more than a bit terrifying and intimidating when one has no particular interest in an outcome requiring that one purchase the smashed remains of a hire car.

 

[Handley_Page]

If you have an "International" Driving licence, all you need is a few hours with a registered Driving Instructor to put you right about UK driving and you'll be fine.

If worried about manual gear change as well as which side of the road to drive on, the UK does have a few Automatics.

 

[fifty5]

If you have an "International" Driving licence, all you need is a few hours with a registered Driving Instructor to put you right about UK driving and you'll be fine.

If worried about manual gear change as well as which side of the road to drive on, the UK does have a few Automatics.

The UK now has a separate class of driving license for automatics-only.

I've no idea what impact (if you'll pardon the expression) that has on incoming international licenses...

As HP implies, manual gearboxes are far the most usual, but automatics are common, not exotic rarities. They tend to be on bigger cars - both factors leading to higher fuel consumption, so, back to your Q: "What would be an inexpensive car that a woman might use for driving to and from work?" (which sounds more like research for a story than something you plan to do) your woman would be driving with a manual gear change.

 

[oggbashan]

Driving on the "wrong" side of the road isn't that difficult.

I take my car to France several times a year and I find that I adjust to driving on the right hand side of the road requires concentration for the first ten minutes or so, then I'm OK with it.

The problems for US drivers in the UK are narrow roads, medieval street patterns in towns and cities, and comparative lack of freeways/motorways.

In most UK cities, if you turn left, turn left again, left again and a final left - you WON'T be back where you started from.

Og

 

[Weird Harold]

Driving on the "wrong" side of the road isn't that difficult.

I found that driving on the "wrong" side of the road was no problem when there was other traffic on the road, but I had to watch for a tendency to drift to the "right" side when there was nobody else on the road. It was especially a problem turning onto an empty road.

Oddly enough, when I returned to the US after just under three years in England, I had the same tendency to drift to the wrong lane when on an empty highway or after turning onto an empty road for about the first year back

 

[fifty5]

...

In most UK cities, if you turn left, turn left again, left again and a final left - you WON'T be back where you started from.

Og

There was a not-to-be-forgotten delivery I tried to make in North London...

I found the shop easily enough - on the A1 - but I was in the south-bound lane and the shop was at the north-bound side of the raod and there were railings down the central reservation!

After driving round in small circles and still ending up on the wrong side of the road, I spotted a Red Box (VERY short term parking for commercials) so stopped. That didn't please the guy in the car behind, who'd pulled right up behind me, expecting me to drive on when the lights changed. I jumped from the cab and dashed into the shop to ask how to get into the lane I needed.

"Turn left before the shops opposite, then turn right behind them, then two more rights!"

So off I dashed.

If I'd been in a transit, rather than a 17-tonner, I could have done it. In the wagon, I had problems even getting into that road; there were footway extensions with bollards on that gave me a couple of inches to spare at each side, then cars and vans parked on both sides...

I followed it down, but found that the road didn't go straight through, there was a right angle left.

After shunting back and forth about 17 times, I got the wagon round and drove up to the right angle right to point in the direction I wanted.

Those constriction bollards again. With so little clearance I had to drive straight ahead until the back of the wagon was clear, but the road (with parked cars) was narrow, remember? Just before the back was clear, I'd have been driving through a car on the other side of the road.

So I had to back out again.

Another 17 shunts to get round the first corner - and there wasn't room to use it to turn round, so I was still backing up.

Luckily, one of the stores had a delivery yard, so I managed to turn round in their gateway.

Back out of that alley and the one way system forced me to turn right again, directly away from the drop.

To my surprise and annoyance, less than 100 yards on, there was a set of lights that let me turn around the apex of what had turned out to be a triangular block, straight back to where I needed to be. Within minutes I was in the drop zone.

Unfortunately, I'd first got there with about an hour to spare and all the faffing around had taken an hour and a half...

Yeah, the shop was closed up and everyone had gone - and I ended up bringing the stuff back up to base.


In short, I can personally testify to what Og wrote, and add that four lefts (or rights) in succession may not even be an option!

 

[WRJames]

I have driven in the UK, a couple of times. I would fly into Gatwick on the red-eye and then drive down to Portsmouth.

The most dangerous spot in the whole journey was the rental car parking lot at Gatwick, since everyone had been drinking the entire flight over.

Beyond that, the famous English roundabout needs to be mentioned. Of course, you are going clockwise, which is confusing enough, but beyond that the incoming traffic has the right of way. It often took me a couple of orbits to get back out.

One problem with England, at least when I was there a few years ago, is that the shops all keep regular business hours, which means that by the time you get out of work, they are all closed. In a desperate attempt to get some bribe presents for my family, I once braved a supermarket. That parking lot, with everything set up backwards, was also a very scary experience. Two or three near misses. And then I got back to the car and out of habit opened up the left hand door and sat down -- in the passenger seat.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Thanks for the input. Yes, the information is for a story that I will submit later this year, not for my personal use.

Therer are some residential areas, including the one where I live, where you can make a series of four lefts or four rights and end up far from where you started, because of the way the streets curve and wind. In business or commercial areas, the streets tend to be straight and meet at right angles.

 

[Handley_Page]

Thanks for the input. Yes, the information is for a story that I will submit later this year, not for my personal use.

Therer are some residential areas, including the one where I live, where you can make a series of four lefts or four rights and end up far from where you started, because of the way the streets curve and wind. In business or commercial areas, the streets tend to be straight and meet at right angles.

Some longish UK roads go from here to there and do NOT have any turnings.

 

[oggbashan]

Some longish UK roads go from here to there and do NOT have any turnings.

The Romans built most of those.

English drunkards built some of our circuituous country roads, meandering from pub to pub.

There is one ancient town, Winchelsea in East Sussex, that was designed and built on a regular grid pattern on a plateau after Old Winchelsea was overwhelmed by the sea. Unfortunately the French burned most of it before it was completed. We should have finished the town walls before the houses!

Og

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The Romans built most of those.

English drunkards built some of our circuituous country roads, meandering from pub to pub.

There is one ancient town, Winchelsea in East Sussex, that was designed and built on a regular grid pattern on a plateau after Old Winchelsea was overwhelmed by the sea. Unfortunately the French burned most of it before it was completed. We should have finished the town walls before the houses!

Og

You guys burnt down most of Washington, DC (prescient of you, BTW) and we rebuilt on the original grid. Did the Winchelstrians do the same?

 

[fifty5]

Thanks for the input. Yes, the information is for a story that I will submit later this year, not for my personal use.

I thought so, but the discussion seems to have grown beyond your needs...

There are some residential areas, including the one where I live, where you can make a series of four lefts or four rights and end up far from where you started, because of the way the streets curve and wind. In business or commercial areas, the streets tend to be straight and meet at right angles.

"Tend" is the operative word - and even that overstates the case. Take Bradford - my nearest city - for instance (see image). That has a basically circular plan, so most sectors are truncated triangles - with bent sides.

Large, new industrial estates follow the perpendicular rule better, but they tend to be exceptional.

 

[oggbashan]

You guys burnt down most of Washington, DC (prescient of you, BTW) and we rebuilt on the original grid. Did the Winchelstrians do the same?

No. They didn't complete more than a tenth of the grid. Many of the intended inhabitants gave up and moved to Rye, which already had excellent town walls. The street plan hasn't been completed even though the French burned Winchelsea in the 14th Century. Most of what should have been Winchelsea Town is still agricultural land now. It is odd to drive about three-quarters of a mile from the buildings before reaching the next fortified gate.

Winchelsea's church was intended to be a very large building. All that was built was the sanctuary and choir. The rest of the building isn't there.

Og

 

[fifty5]

Some longish UK roads go from here to there and do NOT have any turnings.

Many more meander alongside the river...

 

[oggbashan]

Many more meander alongside the river...

Locally we have a road that connects two towns. It was the main route until the new road was built in the 1930s.

It has almost right-angled bends around every field edge because it ran between different farmer's holdings and each farmer would only agree to provide half the width of the road - so the road had to follow the edges of the interlocking plots which had been established long before William the Conqueror in 1066.

A few miles away we have a dead straight road that leads nowhere because it ran from a demolished Roman fort to a Roman crossroads by a Roman Villa that isn't there either.

Og