Planning a trip to the Forest of Dean (General)

by jhopkins , Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 01:08 (4170 days ago) @ stockampreddy

Donna, just another minor hint on driving in England. Will you be driving yourself? If so, you will encounter a mystery to American drivers - the dreaded roundabout... We met an American couple in Edinburgh who had taken their rental car back because of sheer terror induced by roundabouts...

First, KEEP CALM.

Second, try to work out which lane to be in well ahead of entering the roundabout. If there is a lot of traffic it can be difficult to see from the road markings which lane relates to which exit, so work it out early. If you have a satellite navigation system, you should be OK, cos most of them will tell you which lane to be in.

Third, if you find yourself in the wrong lane, try signalling your desire to shift lanes. In our experience, English drivers always recognised a colonial klutz and opened a gap to let us in (that would NEVER happen in NZ).

Fourth, if that doesn't work, KEEP CALM and simply keep going around the roundabout until you find the right exit! The English have no laws on how many times you can circulate around a roundabout...

Finally, (and this may not be relevant to an American driver), in our first trip to the UK, we tried to navigate using maps and road signs, concentrating on place names. Bad move. On our second trip, we concentrated solely on route numbers (like Jefff said - the A40). Once we made that mind shift, we never got lost or panicked...

Sorry if this sounds patronising or teaching a grandmother to suck eggses, but we have heard of lots of Americans who find driving in England somewhat of a challenge!